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Some of the stuff you regularly see done on a modern electric guitar would have been impossible on the ones constructed in the early '60's. The strings are lighter, the amps are more powerful and so on.

Gotta politely disagree with you on this one. The two most popular guitars, the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul have remained virtually unchanged for the last 1/2 century. If anything, the off-the-shelf instruments produced during the 1950s were made with greater emphasis on quality than ones produced today. And Marshall tube amplifiers (the first 100 watt stack commissioned specifically for Townsend) also retain their signature sound albeit the addition of a master volume (and the master volume was added in the 1970s). Furthermore, effects pedals (many of which were invented by Mr. Les Paul himself) were available.

Guitars have been made with surprisingly few changes over the last 50 years that would facilitate better playability.

Why do you think all of these guys were so ga-ga over Jimi Hendrix when he arrived on the scene? Hendrix could do things then that are still hard to do now.

I am unpopular with this view but I'll state it anyways. Hendrix was not a great guitar player. He was an innovative guitar player. Was his contribution important to the evolution of rock guitar? Unquestionably. He was able to coax sounds from his Stratocaster that were never heard before by using overdrive, feedback and a tremelo arm.

It was a parlor trick.

Hendrix played the exact same guitar as Buddy Holly but in an entirely different fashion. His technical skills, however, were not that impressive. Once the tricks to Hendrix's signature sound are duplicated (Stratocaster w/.tremelo, loud tube amp overdriven past the point of feedback and wah pedal) Hendrix's songs can be played by most beginning-intermediate guitar players. I was playing a Hendrix-esque version of the Star Spangled Banner shortly after I learned Smoke on the Water. My friends thought I was awesome. It was quite easy to impress people.