what pickup for SRV tone

Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I play 11's. My take is that the thick strings are a definite part of it. As Lew and many others have said, the majority of it is in the players hands. You can get close, but if you aren't SRV, you aren't going to play exactly like him. Listen to the tracks closely. He usually beats those heavy strings like he's trying to kill them. He doesn't delicately brush them unless he wants a different and more delicate sound, which was also a great part of his playing as it projected so much range of feeling and emotion. He was the Janis Joplin of guitar. His playing was so versatile that he could soothe you with a lullaby and alternately cut you like a razor.

Few players (some would say no players) have this kind of skill. Neal Schon is one that I can think of that is comparable.
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

Try as hard as I might, I can never seem to sound like Stevie Ray. Life got easier and less frustrating when I learned to accept that I sound like me, and nobody else.

==========================

When I was a kid learning how to play in the mid-1960's--we didn't WANT our guitars to sound like Stevie's--LOL! We wanted CLEAN, not distorted. Boy, that changed in a hurry!

Because, Jimi came and blew everybody's mind....and our lives were forever
changed.

And manufacturers have been trying to figure out a way to give everybody THAT SOUND out of a little box for $49.99 ever since.

SRV was just doing what the Chicago Blues guys did back in the '50s. They didn't have .009-.042 gauged strings back then. Heavy strings are what people had, and you cranked up your amp--which was a small amp, cuz you couldn't afford to buy anything bigger. When the tubes wore out, you went down to the TV shop, or the five-and dime, and checked them out on the tube tester--matched tubes? Forget about it!

Stevie was "old school" in lot of his gear choices, but you can tell his playing has a lot of "old school" attitude, too.

Stevie Ray was a blues man, through and through.

Bill
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

My musical life had 4 enlightening moments.

The first was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I knew I wanted to play music when I saw them.

Second was when I heard Johnny Winter. I then knew I was living in the wrong part of the country and I wanted to be a Texas bluesman.

Third was when I heard Freddie King and I knew I "really" wanted to be a Texas bluesman.

The fourth was when I first heard SRV I knew where he was coming from both musically and spiritually. I was doing something very similar when I was 17 and that was 1974. The difference was I wanted to be a Texas bluesman and he was.

The only thing that gets to me about his playing is that the tone of his guitar can grate on you after a while. A bit too whining and midrange. I really never liked the tube screamer.

But all in all he was a master blues rock guitar player and died way too soon as did Freddie King who was only 42. As did Hendrix and a lot of other guitar players and musicians.

If it weren't for SRV I would have probably never picked up a guitar again. I quit playing when I found out how really bad the music industry really is and I joined the Army. It turned me off completely to ever playing music and I also realized there was no place for a blues guitarist anymore. I got back in 81 and heard him. I said to myself "Hey that's similar to what I wanted to do" and when I saw that his bass player was Tommy Shannon I really understood were the music was coming from.

So I started playing again and although there have been times since that I didn't even own a guitar I know now that it's what I am. I think I owe that to SRV, by seeing and hearing him it reinforced what I felt inside about my identity. I do not and never did want to be him or a clone. It's just the knowledge that you fall into the same category of music, Texas Blues Rock.

You can hear it in all of them from Gatemouth Brown, Freddie, Johnny Winter, SRV and even his brother Jimmy. It's an aggressive in your face type of playing. There is much more than just blues in the Texas guitar styles, notice I say styles. Even though they might do a I, IV, V you can hear much more than just a blues approach. It's gospel both black and white versions, banjo, country, rock-a-billy, Tex-Mex and a lot of other influences. Freddie even did surf music.
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

Yeah I think the last few posts kinda sum things up...the whole point gets lost when arguments come up about can you/can't you get the tone...the tone is just one small part of what music is...whether you can or can't get his tone, you then need to feel the music exactly the way he did, be thinking exactly what he was thinking...I mean BB King said one of the aspects that made SRV so great as the way he could just reel of blues improv seamlessly (BB King said himself that he can't do it, he has to stop and think..SRVs playing is relentless) so I think my take is that its relativly easy to duplicate the tone/sound if you work on it (for any artist that is, not just SRV), but the other 97% of the music is how you play..its almost spitiritual..

BTW for BigDaddy and other Texas Blues rockers, here's a few names for you (in exchange for some you might be able to point me towards too :fingersx: )

-Bernard Allison
-Carvin Jones (seen this guy live..absolutly incredible)
-Jimmy.D Lane with Double Trouble - pretty good, has his own style
-Kenny Wayne Shepherd -his first couple of albums (ledbetter heights is best)
-Eric Sardinas
-Bonnie Raitt (damn good texas slide)

then of course all the big players im sure you were listenin to before i was born :beerchug: Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, Albert King

Anymore you rekon I should give a listen to?
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I would say the best way to learn to play blues is to start somewhere. Listen to old black gospel music from the 40's, 50's and 60's.

Learn the feel and rhythm and how you put emotion to certain places. It will also teach you dynamics. They do more with one root chord and a bridge than you ever thought possible.

Listen to sax players for your single note lines and piano and organ players for some chord work. One thing about guys like SRV and Hendrix and to some extent Johnny Winter was their rhythmic and percussive chord playing. Clapton never had that in his playing.

Once you have an idea of the why, how and were than you can go back to guys like B.B., Albert and Freddie and get it. You won't if you don't have the basics they had. Also listen to guys like Elmore James and Robert Johnson. If you did that you will be able just get it.

Take the next step and branch out anyway you want (Jazz, Blues rock) but you will be able make music will feeling and conviction. And of course you will end up being very disappointed and frustrated in the fact that you will never find a drummer who can do it. It's hard enough to find a bassplayer who understands, drummers.....that's another story.
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I think SRV tone came from the way he walked...one foot in front of the other :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

Lewguitar said:
Wow... :smack:

What can I say except: NICE AFRO! :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:

I've got to add though that SRV's tone came from being SRV...and only partially from his string choice and pickup choice and amp choice. Personally, I think SRV could've picked up any good Strat and plugged it into any good tube amp and sounded exactly like SRV.

And I also have to say that I don't think anyone on this forum could pick up SRV's '63 Strat and plug into his amp and sound exactly like SRV...cause none of us are him. We'd still sound like whoever we are...

Lew
Click to expand...

:banana: :banana: AMEN!
:bowdown: LEW!
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

hi been looking through the search button
are these strings still on sale the ones
'CornBread' mentions ..anyone know
were you can buy them from?

GHS Nickel coated "SIMI FLATS" ?


cheers Cake55
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

Truant thanks a bunch for the info much Apreciated:-)

the SRV posts are interesting...i spoke with his old
guitar tech recently he told me to go for stock fender
pick ups so i took a plunge at fender 62 pick ups since
stevie used a few 63/64 stock guitars .his number one had
59 pick ups in it a 62 neck and 63 body info from
Fender Custom Shop employees :-)


the other strats were stock pick ups

strings were the GHS 13s and 11s


cake55
 
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Re: what pickup for SRV tone

Stratman said:
From Lew's site:

I really like the improvement in bass response and the deep Tele twang that the Fralin Bassplate adds to a Strat bridge pickup. Early 50's Tele pickups have a steel bassplate on the bottem of the pickup that directs the magnetic field upwards towards the strings.

I guess that we all make spelling mistakes.
Click to expand...

:laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: That was totally worth sifting through this thread.
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

That CornBread gentleman was a nice chap. We should invite him back some time.
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

fendrstratplyr51 said:
well he uses overwound texas specials and a heavy gauge string
Click to expand...

SRV's pickups in his #1 only put out like 6K. Thats not overwound. The tone is in his hands not the pickups, or the guitar or the amp. It was him and thats it!
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I have a friend who was stevies roadie and friend before he was ever famous outside of texas.
He's told me cool stories about Stevie in the old days...but one of the ones that really stuck was about Stevie volume.
Everyone ( like me ) sits in a basement and tries to get a SRV tone at a sort of comfortable level. We all live in houses or apartments..and volumn can be an issue. So we use pedals and effects to simulate tone.
( I'm not in a band )
Cutter told me , even when Stevie was young...he played at ear-splitting volume.
No matter what the amp or what the guitar...it was always cranked.
They used to play at small places they called "salad bar" places.
You knew when it was time to start when the salad bar got wheeled off to the side.
He said they actually got paid to quit a few times because it was so loud.

He said even when he was young...Stevie could plug into just about any amp with any guitar and sound just like Stevie.
I thought it was a cool story.

I actually tried it with my peavey classic 50 amp.
The amp isnt bad at all...but 99% of the time...I'm in my basement my myself at a pretty low volume, late at night. The tone is just OK
So this weekend...I cranked the crap out of it. Pushed the pre ond post volume all the way up and cranked the master.

The tone was killer with no pedals at all.

The volume was probobly way too loud for any local bar even...but man did that amp crank !
I tried the same thing with my 66 bassman head. Maxed it out and tone was cool.
The last one was this musicman 130 I have. 130 watts.
This amp is super-clean . I've never turned it up because it actually hurts at top volume.
Johny Winter used these amp heads for years...so did Clapton...but they were playing big rooms.
Anyway, this sucker is realy loud !. You cant believe the tone when you crank it all the way up Its like hendrix or something. Tone from God...
But my daughter said she could hear it down the block with all the windows closed. Stuff was actually falling off my studio walls.

Anyway...no real point to all this...just throwing out stuff.
Good forum by the way.
Mike
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I remember those old Music Man amps and how clean and loud they were. When I was just starting playing in the mid 70's, there was a local garage band and the one guy had a black LP Custom that I used drool over. He also had a Music Man stack, and it seemed like it was impossible to get it to break up. Just straight hard clean at chest-bruising volume...
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I'd go for Duncan Antiquity Surfers. SRV played an early 60's Strat....a '62 or '63. The Surfers are the best sounding '62 style Strat pickup I've ever used.

SRV was said by Cesar Diaz to prefer weaker than '62 style single coils wound to about 6K...don't know if that's true or not. But supposedly he used weak single coils because they sounded cleaner with his huge strings and aggressive touch.

Lew
 
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Re: what pickup for SRV tone

My HD 130 reverb ( Musicman) will break-up.
But not till ear-splitting volume.

I pretty sure the pre-amp is solid state.
Not positive.

The reverb and trem are better than fenders I think
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

MikeyST said:
My HD 130 reverb ( Musicman) will break-up.
But not till ear-splitting volume.

I pretty sure the pre-amp is solid state.
Not positive.

The reverb and trem are better than fenders I think
Click to expand...

EL 34 power tubes....solid state preamp. Not an especially good amp for playing with an overdriven tone, IMO....used to own one. OK for cleaner tones. Lew
 
Re: what pickup for SRV tone

I just saw this thread. I was too busy playing Little Wing and Mary had a Little Lamb, trying to nail the licks and tone. Then, I smoked a joint and ate some cornbread! LOL

The closest I've gotten....
Alder/Rosewood Fender Strat loaded with EL Gordo/2 63's or Surfers. Basically fat sounding A5 6.3K vintage 63 spec pickups. Strung with 11's.
Heavy picks.

Fulltone Custom Shop Fulldrive II into Matchless Chieftain and Bassman LTD running in stereo.
 
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