SRV guitars

This is a list and description of the guitars played by musician Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Number One

Number One (also known as First Wife) was a 1962 Fender Stratocaster used by Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan for most of his career. After purchasing the instrument from Ray Henning's Heart of Texas music shop in Austin, Texas, in 1973, Vaughan made heavy use of the guitar on all five of the studio albums released in his lifetime and in Family Style an album recorded with his brother Jimmie shortly before his death in 1990.

Stevie Ray said that he knew straightaway that there was something special about First Wife. He liked the sunburst finish and the thick, oddly shaped D-neck. Stevie Ray had large hands and the unusually thick neck felt comfortable.

"I didn't even have to play it - I just knew by the way it looked that it would sound great. I was carrying my '63 Strat and asked if [Ray] would like to trade. Thank God he did, and it's been my main axe ever since." Fact|date=January 2008

Soon after he got the guitar, Vaughan found some "SRV" clear plastic letters at a truck stop that were painted white, but soon, all the letters broke off around 1989. He also searched the ground at truck stops to find his famous "SRV" prismatic letters.

"Number One" had a neck relief of .012" at the 7th and 9th frets, and leveled out through the remainder of the fingerboard. The fingerboard radius was 10" and used Dunlop 6100 fretwire. String height was measured to be 5/64" on the high E string and 7/64" on the low E string. Each string had 3 full winds for the best angle at the bone nut.

Stevie wasn't picky on string brand, but was well known for using GHS Nickel Rockers of heavy gauge. He changed around gauges often, depending on the condition of his fingers, but always favored the following gauges.

*1st string: .013"
*2nd string: .015"
*3rd string: .019"
*4th string: .028"
*5th string: .038"
*6th string: .058"

Vibrato bars were made of stainless steel with a small wad of cotton at the bottom of the block hole to prevent stripping and ease removal of broken bars. The bridge was set flush with the body and used 4 springs on the vibrato system tightened almost all the way.

Number One is currently in possession of Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray's brother (After Stevie's death, Rene Martinez put the original neck back on Number One and presented it to the Vaughan family), although there were rumors that Number One had been buried with Stevie in Dallas.

Stevie collaborated with Fender for an "Artist Signature" model before his untimely death in 1990. His favorite old battered 1962 Strat served as a basis for the Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature model Stratocaster, first introduced in 1992.

The Fender Custom Shop produced a faithful representation of Number One as a part of the Tribute series in 2004. This limited-edition Tribute Stratocaster guitar was made in a global run of 100 instruments only. Much discussion and debate between the Fender Company and Jim Cara of Original Cara Hot Rod Guitars have questioned the legal issues of Cara buying Fender guitars and relicing the instruments to very closely resemble the age and incidentals of the original SRV #1. [WVLT Radio Interview - GuitarTalk January 12 2007]

Yellow (Butter)

Yellow was a yellow 1959 Stratocaster that was given to Stevie by Vanilla Fudge's lead guitarist. It was in poor shape, but was restored by Charley Wirz. When Yellow was given to Charley , the body was hollowed out to accept four humbuckers, Charley then removed the humbuckers and fashioned a new pickguard in which he placed a single Fender Strat pickup in the neck position. Stevie placed his signature "SRV" sticker directly under the strings, where normally the other two pickups are installed.

The hollow body gave Yellow a unique, "ringing" sort of tone. This was supposedly the guitar played on the album versions of "Honey Bee" and "Tell Me". Yellow was stolen in 1985, but was later recovered and is now on display in the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe.

Red

Red is a 1962 Fender Stratocaster used by Vaughan.

Stevie acquired this guitar in late 1983 from Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas, Texas.

The guitar originally had a sunburst finish, but repainted fiesta red as a custom color option from Fender. Other than that, the guitar is all stock except for a left-handed neck installed in 1986 and some "SRV" prismatic stickers on the pickguard.

Vaughan usually played this guitar on "Love Struck Baby" or "Rude Mood".

Main

Main (also known as Hamiltone or the "Couldn't Stand the Weather" guitar) was a custom Fender Stratocaster-style guitar made for Vaughan by James Hamiltone in Buffalo, NY. It was presented to Vaughan by James as a gift from ZZ Top guitarist, Billy Gibbons on April 29, 1984.

The guitar was originally set to be made for Stevie in 1979, but the plan was dropped when Vaughan started using his middle name "Ray", as he was known as "Stevie Vaughan" at the time.

This guitar features a two-piece maple body and a "neck-through body" design. It also originally had EMG preamped pickups, but Vaughan didn't like the pickups in it. His next music video was about to be made, which was "Couldn't Stand the Weather", and didn't want to get Number One wet during filming, as this would've ruined the original 1959 pickups. So he used this guitar for filming.

Its fingerboard is ebony with a mother-of-pearl inlay that read "Stevie Ray Vaughan".

"Main" had a jangly, jazzy-type tone and was usually played on "Cold Shot" or "Couldn't Stand the Weather".

cotch

Scotch is a 1961 Fender Stratocaster used by Vaughan for the last 5 years of his life. He acquired this guitar in the fall of 1985, and it is said to have been bought in either Baltimore or "The Boathouse" in Norfolk, Virginia. It was to be a prize at one of Stevie's shows, but he bought the guitar instead and gave away another one of his guitars.

This guitar has a butterscotch colored finish with a non-original tiger-striped pickguard made by Rene Martinez, Vaughan's guitar tech. The tiger-striped pickguard resembled the same pickguard in which Buddy Guy had on his butter-colored guitar at the time.

"Scotch" was basically stock except for the pickguard, where he added his famous "SRV" prismatic stickers.

Stevie used this guitar in place of Number One towards the end of 1990, because of Number One's neck problems.

"Red", one of his other guitars, originally had a right-handed neck, but switched over to a left-handed neck in 1986. Around 1990, because "Number One" was having neck troubles, he took the original neck from "Scotch" and put it on "Number One" and took the original neck from "Red" and put it on "Scotch", leaving the left-handed neck on "Red".

Stevie usually used this guitar on "Leave My Girl Alone", and sometimes "Superstition".

Charley

Charley was a custom-made Stratocaster used by Vaughan.

It was built for Stevie by the late Charley Wirz, a friend and owner of Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas, Texas. It was made for Vaughan in late 1983, but had a neck plate with the engravement "More In '84". It had three Danelectro "lipstick" pickups and a hardtail bridge (no vibrato arm). The guitar was also rewired with 1 tone knob and 1 volume. This guitar was said by Vaughan to have a lot of "bite" in it's tone.

The body was alder with "trick" aka "flip-flop" automotive paint that showed up with an "iridescent" blue tint depending on the angle of light. The neck was maple with a rosewood fingerboard and sported Stevie's famous "SRV" initials on the pickguard around 1989.

This guitar often was used during "Life Without You", which was itself inspired as a tribute to Charley Wirz.

Lenny

Lenny was one of Vaughan's several Fender Stratocasters, dating from 1965. This guitar was purchased at a pawn shop in Texas for $350. Originally 3-tone sunburst with a rosewood neck, it was later stripped down to a dark natural finish and re-fitted with a mid-'50s-style maple neck before its purchase by Vaughan's wife Lenora in 1980. Behind the bridge, on the lower bout of the guitar body is a unique inlay, thought to be originally from an early 1900's mandolin. The Fender Custom Shop has produced a limited-edition run of Lenny Tribute replicas since December 12th, 2007 and they are sold by the Guitar Center for USD$17,000. The guitar is mainly used for "Lenny" the song of the same name dedicated to Stevie's wife Lenora.

References

External links

* [http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/the_history_of/stevie_ray_vaughan_part_2_his_guitars.html Ultimate Guitar - Stevie Ray Vaughan. Part 2: His Guitars]
* [http://www.stevieray.com/gear.htm Stevie Ray's King Tone]
* [http://www.caraguitars.com/relics.asp Original Cara Hot Rod Guitars - Relic]