Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone

[e021708]

How do you go get that Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone / Sound?

 

Can you do it at reduced volume?

 

Any recommendations on amp settings?

 

Difference equipment other than high buck vintage stuff?

 

I'm using a:

*Fender deville 4X10 -(volume box to overdrive the amp a lower volume)

*Ibanez tube Screamer

*1962 Reissue Stat (also have a road house with Texas special pick-ups). Both guitars a .010 stings.

 

 

 

Thanks

[fendergibson]

Line 6 Flextone III

[comfortablynumb]

Sounds like you have the right equipment. Remember to tune down 1/2 a step and maybe switch to .11s. If you want, anyway.

 

As far as volume, I'd maybe get a THD Hot Plate Attenuator.. then crank that amp loud. Control the volume with the Hot Plate. May give you more of a cranked up sound.

 

I believe Stevie played mostly on the neck pickup, so hover around that. Other than that and a good solid overdrive on the TS9 should get you somewhat close.

 

Don't forget to make this face, as well.

 

 

 

Good luck.

 

 

Edit: I see you already have a volume box, so forget the Hotplate.

[PaulSter]

Originally posted by comfortablynumb I believe Stevie played mostly on the neck pickup, so hover around that. Good luck. Edit: I see you already have a volume box, so forget the Hotplate.

SRV fingers were all over his 5-way. He was constantly switching between pickups. He used all positions.

 

You've got all you need to get you as close as you really need. The main thing is to manhandle your guitar. Heavy handed is what gets you into SRV territory.

 

PaulS

[e021708]

Thanks comfortablynumb, I was looking at the attenators only went with the volume box for price. The attenator would probably work better. I do tune sown 1/2 step to play along with backing tracks. I'm thinking of jumping to .011 strings, if my fingers survive the .010s. I also find a very heavy pick to help. The pick is a little awkward but I'm getting use to it.

 

I still can't make the SRV face. That probably really does have more to do with the tone than anything. I truly believe that the tone comes mostly from the guitarist rather than the equipment. You can often tell the tone of the greats on almost any equipment they use.

[bigbob3]

pick really really hard. I do that and crank the clean channel of my HRD with a medium gain NOS V1 tube but I understand that you cant crank it. another big thing is I run two or more amps at different levels of clean to dirty to get that very 3 dimensional harmonically filled tone. and fat 50's pups I think are great in all positions for a good stevie tone.

[e021708]

Paul S, You are so correct. You need to man handle, flog and use your body and soul and the whole guitar to get into SRV turf. What I find interesting after trying to play his stuff for years. Is that at my level, when I get into manhandling the guitar I often get lost and loose the feel. I start playing too fast and make mistakes. However, every once in a while I do suprise my self and actually do, OK.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally posted by PaulSter SRV fingers were all over his 5-way. He was constantly switching between pickups. He used all positions. You've got all you need to get you as close as you really need. The main thing is to manhandle your guitar. Heavy handed is what gets you into SRV territory. PaulS

 

 

You're right.. Now that I think about it, he did switch a lot. I have an instructional video that says otherwise. A 3 way switch and mostly the neck pickup.

 

Anyway, e021708, I heard that Stevie also played with the broad edge of pick as well, for a smoother attack.

 

Also, if you're aware of his picking hand motion.. he sawed at every string on that Strat. Muting the notes he didn't want sounded with his left hand, while still playing notes and chords. He did that a lot. It's a hard skill to master. I wish I could do it, but I never really tried.

 

 

Once again, good luck. Stevie's the reason I play guitar, and my #1 fav.

[doubleR]

Originally posted by comfortablynumb

 

 

That's a rare pic--SRV playing a Les Paul!?!?

[bigbob3]

what a mug.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally posted by doubleR That's a rare pic--SRV playing a Les Paul!?!?

 

 

[e021708]

That is a rare pick of him playing a LP. I've read that he also used a Tokai stat copy in the beginning. I just bought one on a resent trip to Asia. It is very much as good as a vintage strat. I think I also read that the neck on his 59' strat (named Lenny) was a Tokai. If he did use a Tokai, you could hardly tell from the photos anyway, The logo si very close

[e021708]

That is a rare pick of him playing a LP. I've read that he also used a Tokai stat copy in the beginning. I just bought one on a resent trip to Asia. It is very much as good as a vintage strat. I think I also read that the neck on his 59' strat (named Lenny) was a Tokai. If he did use a Tokai, you could hardly tell from the photos anyway, The logo si very close

[comfortablynumb]

Here's a few pictures of Stevie and his Tokai.

 

 

 

Here's Lenny:

 

[jdjonsson]

Stevie used a TS-808. That's all I know. My recommend: Build your own.

 

www.tonepad.com

[Kelly]

The tone on his first album was all Dumble. To nail that tone try out some Fuchs amps. The last album was mainly a '59 Bassman with a Diaz Fuzzface. The rest of the albums sound like blackface Fenders with a Tubescreamer.

BTW, that guitar with his name on the neck is not a Tokia. It's a Hamiltone.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally posted by Kelly BTW, that guitar with his name on the neck is not a Tokia. It's a Hamiltone.

 

 

You're right. I don't know I kept calling this thing the Tokai. I know I've seen it called a Tokai before.

 

 

 

I guess it is a Hamiltone.

[Marlin in Minn]

Originally posted by e021708 How do you go get that Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone / Sound? Can you do it at reduced volume? Any recommendations on amp settings? Difference equipment other than high buck vintage stuff? I'm using a: *Fender deville 4X10 -(volume box to overdrive the amp a lower volume) *Ibanez tube Screamer *1962 Reissue Stat (also have a road house with Texas special pick-ups). Both guitars a .010 stings. Thanks

 

You should be able to get that sound with the gear you have.

 

Roll off on the guitars volume and tone knobs a bit, and be aggressive with the pick.

[bphill]

Line 6 XTlive:thu:

[e021708]

I love to play the song Lenny. I even named my dog Lenny. She is 12 years old now. I've been playing the song for that long, too. Almost everyday.

 

The tone SRV uses is wonderful. He plays it on the Lenny Guitar. (highly moded-hollowed out with HB pick-ups, I think, etc.) Anyway, I still don't get that real bright tone. I try to use the clean / normal channel with extra reverb.

 

Any ideas how to do better?

[comfortablynumb]

I was noodling around at practice tonight playing Lenny. I was using my PRS SE Custom (humbuckers) into the Clean Dumble model on my Vox AD100VT with a Boss RV-5 for reverb.

 

Had a very convincing sound. Pretty close to the original. Just without the clear "strat sound". I just didn't quite have that snap on the low E due to the shorter scale. I think with a 25 1/2" scale and perhaps a singlecoil in the middle, and I would've nailed that tone.

[RoboCop00]

I myself have been trying to figure out which speaker I would need in my Classic 30 to beefen up my Strat tone to make it more SRV-like.

[Attila]

 

Originally posted by PaulSter SRV fingers were all over his 5-way. He was constantly switching between pickups. He used all positions. You've got all you need to get you as close as you really need. The main thing is to manhandle your guitar. Heavy handed is what gets you into SRV territory. PaulS

 

+1

 

-Attila

[e021708]

If you would like to "duplicate" Stevie's tone, first of all remember that much of the tone was in Stevie's hands and fingers. In other words, equipment is only part of the equation. His aggressive right hand attack and strong left hand fingers made much of the sound. This section can get you started in the right direction in setting up your rig.

 

EQUIPMENT SETUP

The first thing to do is to find a Strat or Strat copy that has single coil, Fender-style pickups, a rosewood fingerboard, vibrato, the biggest strings you can stand to use, and bigger frets to match the big strings. Like every guitar, every amp is different in its response. Even amps in the same model line may sound different. As a start, use a tube amp that you can dial-in to slightly distort at your desired volume, preferably one with at least a single 12" speaker, or two 10" speakers. Stevie's rig had a big bottom end response, and you won't get that using an 8" or single 10". Keep in mind that Stevie normally played at ear-splitting levels, even in a club setting, with several amps. This all adds up to a lot of square inches of speaker surface. Add a distortion pedal (or a Tube Screamer, to emulate Stevie), compressor (so you can sustain at reasonable volumes), chorus or Dunlop Rotovibe(to cheaply emulate a Vibratone), and wah. Add some reverb, and you're on your way.

 

AMP SETUP

You'll have to play around with the amp to get a volume setting that just breaks up a bit, but doesn't really fuzz-up. Stevie used multiple amps, chained together, to get his sound, and unless you can do the same, you'll have to dial-in your one amp to get close to the same sound. If your amp has a Master / Preamp setup, set your guitar volume knob to ten, your preamp knob to at least 5, and set a reasonable listening level on the Master knob. Stevie pushed the power tubes and the speakers, and you'll be pushing the preamp tubes only, so you won't get an identical breakup, but it will be close. Plus, you won't go deaf in the process. If you are to play on stage, these reasonable levels will be your stepping stone to the higher concert levels. The guitar volume knob can now be played at 10 for the "greasy breakup", or rolled-off a number or two to back-off on the distortion but keep relatively the same volume.

 

Listen to something like "In The Beginning" while you dial-in a stage tone, or "Couldn't Stand the Weather" for a consistent album tone. Start by either setting all tone knobs to zero, and turn them up one at a time until you like what you hear, or turn them all to ten and back them off one by one. For you Bassman users, Stevie said in an interview that he liked the sound of his Bassman with all the tone knobs turned almost all the way down. This was around 1989, and not representative of his early years. For that early tone, you might try setting treble to 9 or 10, the midrange to 6, and the bass to 6 on the amp. The guitar tone knobs will then simply roll-off the treble. Stevie constantly fiddled with the guitar tone and volume knobs while he played, and this would allow you to do the same.

 

EFFECTS SETUP

After you have dialed-in the amp, you can get down to business on the effects pedals. Stevie kept things really simple, so don't get too carried away on the effects. The less you use them, the better off you'll be. The more effects you add will tend to destroy that vintage Fender tone. Use to your taste. We hope to give you a starting point here.

 

Start with the distortion pedal. Stevie used the Tube Screamer for more gain, not distortion. In other words, he used the TS as a sort of "pre"-preamp. Do the same with your pedal. We really don't have a specific setting for Stevie's rig, but it would probably be close if you set the Level to max, the distortion to maybe 2, and the tone to max. Now remember, Stevie is playing on the edge already, and using the Tube Screamer this way will simply provide a wall of volume with more power amp distortion. If you can't turn up like he did (and I don't know who can!), use the distortion control to give just a little more fuzz, and use the level to match the volume like you normally would. It won't sound the same, since you're introducing "imitation" distortion, but it will be at a more reasonable level, and it will help sustain.

 

Stevie did use a Fuzz Face on some songs, especially later in his career, and mostly in concert rather than on an album. Stevie used the Fuzz Face specifically for distortion, while he used the Tube Screamer mostly for added gain (make it louder). You can hear the Fuzz Face on "Leave My Girl Alone" on IN STEP. Stevie turns the Fuzz Face on as he begins his solo. You can hear how his tone becomes much more distorted at that time. You can set your distortion box to this type of fuzz, too. It may not be as "smooth" as a Fuzz Face, but it will produce the extra distortion.

 

Now, the compressor. Tube amps naturally introduce some compression, but mainly when you drive them hard. A small amount of pedal compression will help sustain, and smooth out the pops and thumps when you play hard, like Stevie's attack. This will help a lot when you play at lower volumes. His playing style had a lot of string pulls, finger plucks, and rakes, which means the "volume" of the sound when you use these playing techniques will greatly vary. The compressor will smooth these out. To the best of our knowledge, Stevie never used a chorus unit, or a Rotovibe. Unless you can afford a vintage Vibratone (the Leslie-style speaker cabinet), either of these effects can approximate the shimmering sound found on songs like "Cold Shot" and "Couldn't Stand the Weather". Set the depth to shallow, and the speed to medium-fast, about 6 or 7 beats per second. You want just a hint of an organ tone, not a full-out, phased and echoed goth-rock effect.

 

These tips are just a start. Your equipment, your fingers, and your style will give you a tone all your own, even if you played with Stevie's own gear. Even Stevie's tone changed through the years, so use this info as a jumping-off point, and change it to introduce your own personality.

[e021708]

He returned for an encore of "Lenny." Stevie was sutting alone with her center stage,

thinking of his woman back home, gently tugging her whammy bar, and making her quiver in his

hands. He sat relaxed, smoking a pipe that he soon ditched, coughing. The song was his

masterpiece for the night. This old girl was his companion when times were hardl he faded

paint job and smoke-yellowed crusty pickups had seen it all. He hunched over, touching her

neck softly. His head was buried deep in her body, close enough to kiss her fretboard. He

threw in some Wes Montgomery, lost in the cool jazz and memories. Dueling bass lines with

Tommy, his amp buzzed low as he turned the low E string down as far as it would go until it

just died out. After all the whang-barring and de-tuning he was horribly clangy, but

finished up with a beautiful precursor to "Riviera Paradise."