stevie ray vaughan

[sexybeast14]

who knows the best way to get srv's tone? im in love with him ......er... his music i mean. anyway i cant get it right, help me out

[DAS44]

Don't try.

[djroge1]

strat prefered - or other single coil pick up guitar

Fender amp - tube prefered

guitar pup selector on the 4th or 5th position

 

These 3 things will get you in the ball park. But like a lot of guitarist he used a variety of settings on both amps and guitar so it depends on which song you are trying to emulate and also which year.

 

In the early years he could only afford one amp, but later he had a "wall of sound" which included fenders, soldano, and Dumble amps.

[Shnate McDuanus]

George Gershwin, influenced by the work of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, once decided to actually ask Schoenberg for composition lessons. Upon hearing his request, Schoenberg responded:

 

"I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you're such a good Gershwin already."

 

The point of this anecdote? We all get tempted at times to try and emulate our heroes. At some point a few months ago, for instance, I started a thread about my disappointment in myself over being inferior to Rory Gallagher--think about that for a moment. A seventeen year old guitarist beating himself up about how he's not as good as one of his idols, Rory Gallagher.

 

I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor can I ever be Rory Gallagher. It simply won't happen.

 

My story sounds completely absurd now, but at the time I was consumed by this idea of being Rory Gallagher. It would've been the same had I wanted to emulate Jerry Garcia, or Mike Bloomfield, or Alvin Lee, or Jimmy Page, or--you get the idea.

 

I'm prefacing my advice so that you know that I've been there. I think that a lot of us have been there. But what you have to remember is that, even if you manage to approximate SRV's tone (and I use "approximate", because it's more appropriate than "replicate" or "imitate,") you still won't be SRV. You may sound a little bit like him tonally, but you'd only be less than SRV. My advice to you, then, is to work on sounding like yourself and to work on being satisfied with having your own tone, your own playing style, your own senses of melody, phrasing and songwriting, etc. Of course, being in love with SRV as you are, there'll probably be a little bit of that in there anyway.

 

That said, there are ways that you can get started on heading in that direction. First of all, of course, is the Strat. Stevie only ever played Strat-style guitars. That doesn't mean you can't come close with whatever you have--I've taken my SG Special straight through a Marshall SS practice amp and gotten a tone that was "vaguely similar" (and I use that term because it was really just vaguely similar) to an SRV tone. I'm assuming that with the proper settings, you could probably use something other than a Strat. SRV usually used a string set with gauges of .013, .015, .019, .028, .038, and .058, and tuned down a half-step. It looks to me that he usually used very clean tube amplifiers--Fender Super Reverbs, Fender Vibroverbs, a Dumble Steel String Singer, and a Marshall Major 200W. He also used an Ibanez Tube-Screamer, and I'm not sure what else, as far as pedals. Fender Medium picks, though.

 

I hope this helped. Sorry for the long read, and good luck with whatever it is you end up doing.

[tazzboy]

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[sexybeast14]

George Gershwin' date=' influenced by the work of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, once decided to actually ask Schoenberg for composition lessons. Upon hearing his request, Schoenberg responded:

 

"I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you're such a good Gershwin already."

 

The point of this anecdote? We all get tempted at times to try and emulate our heroes. At some point a few months ago, for instance, I started a thread about my disappointment in myself over being inferior to Rory Gallagher--think about that for a moment. A seventeen year old guitarist beating himself up about how he's not as good as one of his idols, [i']Rory Gallagher[/i].

 

I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor can I ever be Rory Gallagher. It simply won't happen.

 

My story sounds completely absurd now, but at the time I was consumed by this idea of being Rory Gallagher. It would've been the same had I wanted to emulate Jerry Garcia, or Mike Bloomfield, or Alvin Lee, or Jimmy Page, or--you get the idea.

 

I'm prefacing my advice so that you know that I've been there. I think that a lot of us have been there. But what you have to remember is that, even if you manage to approximate SRV's tone (and I use "approximate", because it's more appropriate than "replicate" or "imitate,") you still won't be SRV. You may sound a little bit like him tonally, but you'd only be less than SRV. My advice to you, then, is to work on sounding like yourself and to work on being satisfied with having your own tone, your own playing style, your own senses of melody, phrasing and songwriting, etc. Of course, being in love with SRV as you are, there'll probably be a little bit of that in there anyway.

 

That said, there are ways that you can get started on heading in that direction. First of all, of course, is the Strat. Stevie only ever played Strat-style guitars. That doesn't mean you can't come close with whatever you have--I've taken my SG Special straight through a Marshall SS practice amp and gotten a tone that was "vaguely similar" (and I use that term because it was really just vaguely similar) to an SRV tone. I'm assuming that with the proper settings, you could probably use something other than a Strat. SRV usually used a string set with gauges of .013, .015, .019, .028, .038, and .058, and tuned down a half-step. It looks to me that he usually used very clean tube amplifiers--Fender Super Reverbs, Fender Vibroverbs, a Dumble Steel String Singer, and a Marshall Major 200W. He also used an Ibanez Tube-Screamer, and I'm not sure what else, as far as pedals. Fender Medium picks, though.

 

I hope this helped. Sorry for the long read, and good luck with whatever it is you end up doing.

so very young.... so very wise haha even though im younger than you

[sexybeast14]

oh and i didnt want to play his songs or anything or"be him" i just wanted a good bluesy rock tone and i like his

[deepblue]

Use the clean channel of an all tube amp w/ a tube screamer on the front end....oh yes, and have VERY

powerful hands.

[Shnate McDuanus]

oh and i didnt want to play his songs or anything or"be him" i just wanted a good bluesy rock tone and i like his

 

It ain't as hard to do as it sounds. Pick a good place to start, and keep fiddling with things until you reach it.

 

Talking about some slightly different but relevant experience, I like using the neck pickup on my SG, with the tone knob rolled back to about three or four, and a very clean sound, for a solid, fool-proof jazz lead tone. I play a lot of standards from the first half of the 20th century ("Pennies From Heaven," "All Of Me," "La Mer," "Ain't Misbehavin'," etc.) because they're very pure and flexible compositions, and they're good to my ears.

 

For a good bluesy rock tone, however, I think it's pretty much about low-to-medium gain and a fairly high (but not necessarily overpowering) degree of treble response. That's how I do it at least. I use the bridge pickup with the treble rolled all the way up for the bluesy rock stuff ("Cradle Rock," "All Right Now," things like that, if you're interested in specific examples.) Overdrive may or may not be a concern--some guys like tons, some guys don't like any at all. SRV used varying amounts, but I think he's more known for playing with a pretty clean sound, and maybe just a bit of dirt. I, personally, like a solid touch of grit and "zing," as I call it, although sometimes I'll go for either much more or much less.

 

Good luck on your tonal explorations, man. I'm sure you'll find a lot of things that you like.