Did SRV actually use...

[Skarekrough]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Therefore my question is what did he use did he use stock fenders pups or custom wound fender pups or others. for example on Texas FLood, how did he produce that awesome brightly slightly overdriven bluesy sound?

I think alot of Texas Flood had Jackson Brownes Dumble in the mix there. He dug that amp alot from what i remember reading.

The thing about SRV is is that the tone was so much in his hands. Find some pics of the guy and he's got mitts like a Grizzly Bear on him. They're huge and muscular and he had no reservations about using them to their full potential on the frteboard.

Alot of Cats get a good SRV feel out of their playing with the right gear elements and the right notes. But the hands are the part of the whole equation that folks are always remiss to really get a handle on. So much of the tone is in the hands.....

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

I think alot of Texas Flood had Jackson Brownes Dumble in the mix there. So much of the tone is in the hands.....

Jackson Browne had a dumble?

As far as inate tonal characteristics in the hands, I think that's something that we aqcuire through years of playing. I don't know, maybe it's just my ears but there is no signature ME sound when I play, I don't think I've played long enough...of course maybe other people hear something different, when I play I mean.

Luke

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Jackson Browne had a dumble?

Still does I believe. SRV had to have one too after playing Jackson's.

Jeff Pevar, guitarist with David Crosby's trio that includes Crosby's son, uses a Dumble too.

He got his from Graham Nash. I think Graham just gave it to him! :laugh2: Graham bought it and wasn't using it. :smack:

Nice gift!

 

[Falstaff]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Still does I believe. SRV had to have one too after playing Jackson's.

Jeff Pevar, guitarist with David Crosby's trio that includes Crosby's son, uses a Dumble too.

He got his from Graham Nash. I think Graham just gave it to him! :laugh2: Graham bought it and wasn't using it. :smack:

Nice gift!

Graham gave Jerry Garcia the Strat he used on the Europe '72 tour, too. I wonder if Graham needs any more friends!

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

I may be way off base here, but I thought that Stevie Ray Vaughn started out using a Japanese made Tokai (strat knock-off) . . . then he signed a deal with Fender and they erased the tokai off of the headstock in earlier photos, and replaced it with a Fender logo . . .

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

I may be way off base here, but I thought that Stevie Ray Vaughn started out using a Japanese made Tokai (strat knock-off) . . . then he signed a deal with Fender and they erased the tokai off of the headstock in earlier photos, and replaced it with a Fender logo . . .

Not true. SRV was playing his '63 Strat that he claimed was a '59 for years before getting a record deal.

He did have a nice Tokai though. Lew

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

I may be way off base here, but I thought that Stevie Ray Vaughn started out using a Japanese made Tokai (strat knock-off) . . . then he signed a deal with Fender and they erased the tokai off of the headstock in earlier photos, and replaced it with a Fender logo . . .

SRV was a Tokai endorser around the time that Fender was going through its transitional phase from being owned by CBS.

He did have a number of Tokai Strats he appeard in advertisements with and may very well have played on stage. But almost exclusively his #1 was indeed his #1, which was the 63' he told everyone was a 59'.

I think the punchline to the whole Fender endorsement debacle was that it took Fender to 1990 or 1991 to get SRV on their roster and put a Siganture model out there.

Thaks for getting my back on Jackson Brownes Dumble. I was pretty sure about it being true but I couldn't cite a source and it had been awhile since I thought about it.

Dumbles are weird beasts.....alot of folks have them that you wouldn't think do. I think John Mayer's ona tear to collect as many as he can; last I heard he is in posession of 4 of them.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Why do you guys even care what stevie used?

Even if you sound exactly like him, you'll never "sound" like him. And take as much offence by that as you want.

Worry about playing, not about gear......Ed

That is one of the most stupid, immature posts I've read here. Many of us enjoy playing covers and we would like to get as closely as possible to the sound of the original tune. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Offense intended!

 

[bluey@sunni]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

I should have added the quote from Howard Dumble that is the secondary headline " When the air becomes electric that's the right sound."

Does it for me!

 

[Imp]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

That is one of the most stupid, immature posts I've read here. Many of us enjoy playing covers and we would like to get as closely as possible to the sound of the original tune. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Offense intended!

+1 :laugh2: this is a gear forum!

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Informative thread here. Great source of info. My own experimentation with trying to cop an accurate SRV tone has lead me to the same conclusions. I have a strat equipped with overwound single coils and it can't do SRV worth a hoot. The strat with the duckbucker in the neck does a far better job IMHO and the duckbucker isn't all that high output. It's tone is bright and the strings are 11's. Bend them with the tube screamer dimed and the guitar positively wails. My amp is a classic 50, which is more or less a clone of a fender.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Good info in this thread. Check it out.

 

[Jeffrec]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

In the write up about taking apart #1 the fender team found out they were just ordinary vintage pups.

Luke

I remember reading that too. The pups were ordinary for that period. Same thing when the Custom SHop did the limited edition Rory Gallagher Strat. Just ordinary pups.

 

[Imp]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

i think the most important thing to do when looking at these kinda threads is to balance the two views, just let me put both sides of the coin in this case :

a)SRV never bothered with switching pickups to shape his tone, he just went with his ears. van halen is slightly different, reports do come out of the woodwork suggesting 3/4 wound pickups, some with dimarzios, some with straight out PAFs...

on the other hand...

b)These players all stuck with a specific type of instrument. SRV used low-output SC pickups, van halen went for mid-output humbuckers. If you are looking to sound like one of your favourite players, a good start is to get into the same tonal ballpark. it's no good trying to get something like AC/DC with an invader or an EMG 81 into a WARP 7 half-stack, because the EQs are voiced differently and the outputs are different.

also, at the end of the day, someone who has SRV's tone totally nailed isnt going to sit and play SRV's music all day - if they think the guitar tone inspires them, let them seek it!

as for my own view, im pretty neutral. of course, if you're in a cover band, of course you wanna nail the original! thats part of the fun!

tom

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Interesting thing i noticed. I saw SRV live a Montreux on T.V. a few weeks
ago. On a few tunes he put down #1 and played his Hamiltom ( W/t lipstick
PuPs) It's common knowledge the Lipsticks are low output Right? Well to
my ears he sounded like he was still playing #1 I couldn't hear any
difference in tone? He sounded like SRV regardless.

 

[Imp]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

but on the flipside, would SRV playing a pointy puke-yellow 1984 jackson with invader/invader combo into a 5150 still sound like him? (shivers at the thought) :laugh2:

fair point though, SRV has/had a whole lot of soul, and a very expressive touch - but lipstick tubes and vintage (im talking pre-CBS) strat pickups are similar, output-wise..

anyone know what magnets lipstick tubes use? i dunno if there's a 'norm' for those..

tom

 

[itbepopples]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

AFAIK, the fender texas specials were made to get a nice bluesy SRV tone with tiny strings. and yes...SRVs hamiltone had EMG pickups in it. if you listen to the song cold shot you can hear a difference although i could be making this up.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

but on the flipside, would SRV playing a pointy puke-yellow 1984 jackson with invader/invader combo into a 5150 still sound like him? (shivers at the thought) :laugh2:
anyone know what magnets lipstick tubes use? i dunno if there's a 'norm' for those..

tom

Food for thought... I bet SRV could have played thru EVH rig and still
sounded like SRV?? On the other side of the coin I would bet EVH could
play thru SRV's rig and still sound like EVH ? Those guy's got it in there
Hands IMHO. One night at a open jam I was listing to a guy play, And
I was telling my buddy THAT's The SOUND I WANT !! The Odd thing was
he was playing my Guitar into My Amp !! Go figure? :laugh2:

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

AFAIK, the fender texas specials were made to get a nice bluesy SRV tone with tiny strings. and yes...SRVs hamiltone had EMG pickups in it. if you listen to the song cold shot you can hear a difference although i could be making this up.

Your right ! It was Charley that had the lipsticks. :smack:

 

[joelap]

Re: Did SRV actually use...

Why do you guys even care what stevie used?

Even if you sound exactly like him, you'll never "sound" like him. And take as much offence by that as you want.

Worry about playing, not about gear......Ed

Why do we care? For the same reasons anyone would care about what anybody uses. Everyone likes to emulate their favorite players.

While it is true that you need to have the chops to play like SRV, using a Flying V with EMG81's into a JCM800, I dont care how good your chops are, will NOT sound like SRV. This is the reason people worry about gear as well as playing.

You seem to own a lot of gear from your signature... obviously you do care about gear more than you're making yourself sound like you do :burnout: Just an observation.