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Stevie Ray Vaughan Tone


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In THIS clip ...

 

[video=youtube;sh3FN9mw9EU]

 

... I wasn't specifically going for 'SRV tone' as such ... but this is what an ordinary mortal sounds like with a rosewood-'board Strat strung with a 10-52 set going into an old Super Reverb with the volume at around 5, treble at 7, mid on 5 and bass on 4, plus extra crank provided by a Blackstar HT-Boost and a pinch of the amp's tube-driven spring reverb. No wah, 'screamer, fuzz or any other kind of tone-shaping involved.

 

If a magically reincarnated SRV had walked onto that stage, held out his hand for my guitar and said, 'Sit yo' ass down, hoss, and check out how it OUGHTTA be done' ... THEN you'd've heard my rig deliver EXACTLY the tone you want.

 

EDIT: a couple more thoughts ... duplicating someone's set-up is only part of getting their tone. SRV himself got INCREDIBLY close to Albert King's signature sound with entirely different gear ... Albert used Flying Vs and solidstate Acoustic amps. On the other hand, when Jeff Beck was cutting Crazy Legs, his tribute to Gene Vincent's great guitarist Cliff Gallup, he went to extraordinary lengths to reproduce Cliff G's set-up ... even down to flatwound strings and the right kind of thumbpick. None of which would have made any difference if JB hadn't gotten all the right licks down the right way.

 

The right gear can get you into the ballpark, but YOU have to bring the game.

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... I wasn't specifically going for 'SRV tone' as such ... but this is what an ordinary mortal sounds like with a rosewood-'board Strat strung with a 10-52 set going into an old Super Reverb with the volume at around 5, treble at 7, mid on 5 and bass on 4, plus extra crank provided by a Blackstar HT-Boost and a pinch of the amp's tube-driven spring reverb. No wah, 'screamer, fuzz or any other kind of tone-shaping involved.


If a magically reincarnated SRV had walked onto that stage, held out his hand for my guitar and said, 'Sit yo' ass down, hoss, and check out how it OUGHTTA be done' ... THEN you'd've heard my rig deliver EXACTLY the tone you want.


EDIT: a couple more thoughts ... duplicating someone's set-up is only part of getting their tone. SRV himself got INCREDIBLY close to Albert King's signature sound with entirely different gear ... Albert used Flying Vs and solidstate Acoustic amps. On the other hand, when Jeff Beck was cutting Crazy Legs, his tribute to Gene Vincent's great guitarist Cliff Gallup, he went to extraordinary lengths to reproduce Cliff G's set-up ... even down to flatwound strings and the right kind of thumbpick. None of which would have made any difference if JB hadn't gotten all the right licks down the right way.


The right gear can get you into the ballpark, but YOU have to bring the game.

 

Great stuff, Charles! :thu:

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EDIT: a couple more thoughts ... duplicating someone's set-up is only part of getting their tone. SRV himself got INCREDIBLY close to Albert King's signature sound with entirely different gear ... Albert used Flying Vs and solidstate Acoustic amps. On the other hand, when Jeff Beck was cutting Crazy Legs, his tribute to Gene Vincent's great guitarist Cliff Gallup, he went to extraordinary lengths to reproduce Cliff G's set-up ... even down to flatwound strings and the right kind of thumbpick. None of which would have made any difference if JB hadn't gotten all the right licks down the right way.


The right gear can get you into the ballpark, but YOU have to bring the game.

 

This.

 

Sorry CSM i cant see your vid (im at work its restricted):(

 

But i totally agree, i watched this interview with guthrie govan, where he talked about and displayed the different approaches he has to playing to emulate different guitarists 'sound/tone' all with one guitar. Really awesome stuff, i wish i could find it/post it.

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I would try adding a clean boost. I know SRV is known for his use of the tube screamer, but I've found the a clean boost (not a distortion or overdrive with the volume up and gain down, a real clean boost) goosing the front end of a Fender amp helps provide some extra "balls" to the sound.

 

Using a Deville is close, but if you're really going after this kind of sound I would look for a blackface-inspired amp.

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Any rosewood board strat into a fenderish amp with a TS in front of it will get you in the ballpark. Had a bandmate that nailed the sound with a Lace Sensor equipped strat into a hotrod deluxe. It's mainly in the hands - you need to dig into that attack, and use less gain than you think you need.

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If you have any interest in amp sims, this one almost convinced me to get the Fender amp pack for Amplitube. Someday when my skills have improved several orders of magnitude, I may pick it up.:)

 

I find the tone from this Vibroverb pretty convincing, but to my ears, it was just a little shrill. You can see in his video he didn't use any rack eq, but I think that might have helped smooth out the high end a little. His playing was excelent IMHO.

 

Must keep practicing.

 

[video=youtube;DDx7TTNPSOM]

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Where is the behind the back and behind the head stuff? Nice playing mang.


oh and yeah
you lucked out snag'in that drummer
.

 

 

Damn right we did! The Great Pete Miles is one of the finest blues drummers the UK ever produced and we're VERY LUCKY INDEED to have him.

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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.

 

I'm in the same situation.

When I'm jamming with other players at speed, I have to back out of it & play a simpler approach to the song.

This frustrates me, in that I'm not dexterious enough yet to articulate my statement the way I would like.

When i'm practicing, I slow it down so I can play it the way I feel it without error & increase my speed over time.

My teacher tells me that the process of learning to play well, is like moving a mountain with a tablespoon & that most people are intimidated by the mountain.

I have to deal with the intimidation thing myself & stay focused in the moment on what I'm learning with my current set of abilities. :)

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Blackface Fender like a Twin or Super Reverb. TS-9 pedal. Strat strung with heavy guage strings.

You really don't need to get more esoteric than that because a LOT of it was in his hands not equipment.

I have a Matchless Spitfire head I converted from an old Hammond organ tube amp and it really sounds a lot like his sound with a telecaster.

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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

 

 

here:

 

Several well known guitarists have played these Tokai replica Strats, the most famous being the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie appears on the cover of Tokai's 1985-1986 Edition of their Electric Guitars catalog. Also, an interesting piece of trivia concerns Stevie's Texas Flood (Epic 1983) album cover photo. It was taken while Stevie was playing a Tokai replica Strat. On the cover, the Tokai logo was removed, however, many music shops sell a poster of that album cover and "Tokai Springy Sound" is clearly visible on the headstock.

 

tsrv.JPG

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Yep ...


And he's using a Marshall rather than a Fender and/or Dumble.


Still sounds like SRV, tho' ...

 

 

 

I haven't read this whole thread, but this is the core of it. He was very specific about his gear but at the core it was his physical approach to the instrument.

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Yep ...


And he's using a Marshall rather than a Fender and/or Dumble.


Still sounds like SRV, tho' ...

 

 

That's because he's still using the same fingers. Tone comes from the fire burning inside one's soul, not the plug in the wall. Everything after the point where fingers make contact with the strings is just decoration on the cake.

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