B
BigDaddy
Guest
For all you SRV fans that forgot how to get his sound there are ways to do it within monetary constraints. I see people still asking about his equipment and how to get his sound. This is how I would do it, I actually, for experimental purposes did do it since I had most of the equipment already and it works.
The guitar, of course a strat, you can use a good quality Fender like the reissues or older American standard as long as it doesn't have the bath tub rout. But I built my own from Warmoth wood parts.
Alder body with as little finish as possible. I would use a medium weight Alder body from one of the many very good companies like warmoth or USACG.
Maple neck, rosewood board. Big frets if possible and a bone nut or similar, no roller or graphite nuts and no sperzel tuners, they do change the tone. Gotoh klusons are the way to go. Again I would go with one of the custom companies. I think Warmoth makes very good necks, I would get a big fat profile if you can and a flatter board for easier bending.
I would go with a Callaham tremolo bridge because IMO they are the best.
Detune 1/2 step, it's important.
If you can't use heavy strings than you must use a little more powerful pickups. But nothing more than around 7K neck and middle, 10K bridge.
If you use 10's or less I would got with antiquity Texas hots, heavier strings surfers. SSL1/2 or 52's will do if you have money issues. I use a custom shop tapped Texas hot bridge 6.5K/10K and use the tap for the 4 position to get all the quack I can. Lindy Fralin also makes excellent strat pups and I would recommend them highly.
As for pedals........use one or two of the many types of tube screamers out there. It's a taste and money thing too. Some people prefer one and some another. As long as it gets what you want and it's a tube screamer. Once you start adding other pedals you kind of loose that SRV vibe, like no flangers or delay pedals or compressors.
Now lets go with amps.....boy did he use a lot of different amps over the years, so lets keep it simple. None of use can afford a Dumble(can we?) and I really don't think that's his definitive sound. To me it's hot rodded Fender amps hooked together and setup a certain way.
The best way is to use 2 or more amps. Lets stay with 2, use a simple Y jack with one ground lifted. To keep it within normal volume I would use 2 smaller Fender tube amps. I would also use two different types with different speakers. Again it's about money and how much you have. Remember if you use 2 amps they have to be in phase so count the preamp stages.
One amp should be for a more overdriven distorted sound with more compression. The other for a slightly cleaner sound with a bigger speaker to handle those low notes cleanly.
You can use any tweed, brown/white, BF, SF, or reissue even some older marshalls since they are basicially fender designs.. The more difference between the two the better as long as they are close in terms of output. For instance for a smaller gig maybe a Princeton reverb or clone and a tweed 5E3 clone. Crank the PR to 10 volume and treble with almost no bass. Use a more efficient speaker like a C12N reissue or similar in the 5E3 and turn it a little lower like 5-6, let that handle the lows as long as it doesn't fart out.
If you want to go louder how about a BFDR reissue and a hotrod 2-12 or 4-10deville. The BFDR cranked and the deville set for cleaner bass sound.
Or a BF/SF super reverb and a BF/SF or white bassman head on a 1-15 cab with a JBL D-130. That's really loud. I tried a BFTR and a 100 watt JCM 800 50 watt stack, that was really, really loud......
If you do the work yourself you can do it for under $2000 and it will sound as good as what he used. It needs time to be dialed in and tweaked.
Oh I forgot something. Spend about 10+ years listening to all forms of music recorded between 1950 and about 1972. Especially blues, R&B, soul, country, rock-a-billy, Classic rock, British invasion, Jazz with special attention to Jimi Hendrix and Albert King. Some old Freddie and Buddy too.....maybe even a little B.B., Clapton and Johnny Winter. Learn as much as you can and practice about 8 hours a day.
Maybe do a little trick I did to learn not to look at the neck when I played. I would lay in bed in the dark and play my guitar so I could not look at the neck, eventually I instinctively knew were everything was. it helps with the chicks, you can look them straight in the eyes and never miss a note.
Man it's one o'clock in the morning and I'm writing this stuff......I need to get a life.
The guitar, of course a strat, you can use a good quality Fender like the reissues or older American standard as long as it doesn't have the bath tub rout. But I built my own from Warmoth wood parts.
Alder body with as little finish as possible. I would use a medium weight Alder body from one of the many very good companies like warmoth or USACG.
Maple neck, rosewood board. Big frets if possible and a bone nut or similar, no roller or graphite nuts and no sperzel tuners, they do change the tone. Gotoh klusons are the way to go. Again I would go with one of the custom companies. I think Warmoth makes very good necks, I would get a big fat profile if you can and a flatter board for easier bending.
I would go with a Callaham tremolo bridge because IMO they are the best.
Detune 1/2 step, it's important.
If you can't use heavy strings than you must use a little more powerful pickups. But nothing more than around 7K neck and middle, 10K bridge.
If you use 10's or less I would got with antiquity Texas hots, heavier strings surfers. SSL1/2 or 52's will do if you have money issues. I use a custom shop tapped Texas hot bridge 6.5K/10K and use the tap for the 4 position to get all the quack I can. Lindy Fralin also makes excellent strat pups and I would recommend them highly.
As for pedals........use one or two of the many types of tube screamers out there. It's a taste and money thing too. Some people prefer one and some another. As long as it gets what you want and it's a tube screamer. Once you start adding other pedals you kind of loose that SRV vibe, like no flangers or delay pedals or compressors.
Now lets go with amps.....boy did he use a lot of different amps over the years, so lets keep it simple. None of use can afford a Dumble(can we?) and I really don't think that's his definitive sound. To me it's hot rodded Fender amps hooked together and setup a certain way.
The best way is to use 2 or more amps. Lets stay with 2, use a simple Y jack with one ground lifted. To keep it within normal volume I would use 2 smaller Fender tube amps. I would also use two different types with different speakers. Again it's about money and how much you have. Remember if you use 2 amps they have to be in phase so count the preamp stages.
One amp should be for a more overdriven distorted sound with more compression. The other for a slightly cleaner sound with a bigger speaker to handle those low notes cleanly.
You can use any tweed, brown/white, BF, SF, or reissue even some older marshalls since they are basicially fender designs.. The more difference between the two the better as long as they are close in terms of output. For instance for a smaller gig maybe a Princeton reverb or clone and a tweed 5E3 clone. Crank the PR to 10 volume and treble with almost no bass. Use a more efficient speaker like a C12N reissue or similar in the 5E3 and turn it a little lower like 5-6, let that handle the lows as long as it doesn't fart out.
If you want to go louder how about a BFDR reissue and a hotrod 2-12 or 4-10deville. The BFDR cranked and the deville set for cleaner bass sound.
Or a BF/SF super reverb and a BF/SF or white bassman head on a 1-15 cab with a JBL D-130. That's really loud. I tried a BFTR and a 100 watt JCM 800 50 watt stack, that was really, really loud......
If you do the work yourself you can do it for under $2000 and it will sound as good as what he used. It needs time to be dialed in and tweaked.
Oh I forgot something. Spend about 10+ years listening to all forms of music recorded between 1950 and about 1972. Especially blues, R&B, soul, country, rock-a-billy, Classic rock, British invasion, Jazz with special attention to Jimi Hendrix and Albert King. Some old Freddie and Buddy too.....maybe even a little B.B., Clapton and Johnny Winter. Learn as much as you can and practice about 8 hours a day.
Maybe do a little trick I did to learn not to look at the neck when I played. I would lay in bed in the dark and play my guitar so I could not look at the neck, eventually I instinctively knew were everything was. it helps with the chicks, you can look them straight in the eyes and never miss a note.
Man it's one o'clock in the morning and I'm writing this stuff......I need to get a life.
He did have an unreal ability to know which of the many amps he was hooked up to was not working right.
