I remember exactly where I was when I learned of the passing of SRV. It was early in the morning of August 27,1990 and my Mother was on the line, with that concerned ‘something is wrong tone’ of voice. She had heard a news flash telling of a helicopter accident that had taken a number of lives, including a Texas blues guitar player named Stevie Ray Vaughan. The news jerked me into reality from my sleep, Mum thought I would want to know,like my dear friend had gone, and I reacted as if it were such. I sat in bed, watching a video of Stevie performing live in Japan, and my phone rang all day, every guitar player in town was touching base about the news. I had never met Stevie Ray Vaughan, but like so many guitarists the world over, Stevie’s playing and passion had reached me in a place so deep, I felt like he were a brother.

I discovered SRV around 1984, when he won a reader’s poll in the American Guitar Player magazine. So enthusiastic were reviews of his second album ‘Couldn’t Stand The Weather’, that I thought I should hear it. So I ordered a vinyl copy from a local import store. (Remember imported albums?)

Now just to put the era into perspective, 1984 was a time just post ‘New Wave’, Van Halens ‘Jump’ was being played by every cover band in town, and lycra clad, hair gelled pop/rock stars were rife. I had my first Les Paul at that time and they were cheap because everybody wanted a single pick-up Jackson style guitar, preferably hot pink with a Floyd Rose tremolo for highly distorted ‘dive bombing’.

So ‘Couldn’t Stand The Weather’ arrives, and I slap it on. Stevie and his band Double Trouble launch into the opening instrumental track ‘Scuttle Buttin’, the band sounds rootsy and Stevie’s Strat sounds clean and incredibly powerful. For me, it was one of those defining moments. I played the album through and immediately put it on once again. I loved the sound of it, and simply couldn’t believe the intensity and conviction of Stevie’s playing.

When SRV toured Australia shortly after I had ‘discovered’ him I naturally went to see him. The Melbourne Concert hall was a less than ideal venue for this kind of show, but I was unconcerned. I was in awe of Stevie, and remember thinking to myself as I watched him; "I’m doing this all wrong".

I spent the next few years playing a beat up white Stratocaster through a Fender Vibrasonic amp trying to bring Stevie’s tone to my band at the time. I remember hearing more senior guitarists than myself criticise SRV for being an imitator of Albert King, Lonnie Mack, and Hendrix, but Stevie himself openly wore his playing legacy on his sleeve, and said many times that he "Wasn’t taking the credit for Muddy and the cats that started it all, he wanted to give it back".

Albert King referred to Stevie as his Godson, and was supportive of Stevie during a time when Stevie struggled with alcohol abuse. The great men of the blues all seemed to know that SRV was injecting new energy into the blues, and bringing a whole new audience back to them.

To now watch the 1995 tribute concert staged in Austin Texas after Stevie’s tragic death, and hear the comments by brother Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy leaves no doubt about Stevie’s impact. And when BB King says he "loved Stevie like a son", any former critics of Stevie’s credibility should bite their lips.

When I cast my mind back to SRV and Double Trouble at the Concert Hall, I remember Stevie’s killer Strat tone, and the wall of mostly Fender style amps he used. I have read changing reports of the amp set up, but the most consistent ones include two Fender Vibraverbs , one often used to power a Fender Vibratone, two Fender Blackface Super Reverbs (4x10 EVs), and a US made 150 watt Dumble Steel String Singer (4x12 with four 100 watt EVs, and 6550 tubes).Occasionally he used a 200 watt Marshall Plexi-Major. The Vibraverbs and Supers had 3/4" plywood baffle boards to accommodate the weight of the speakers. Volume settings on stage usually started at 7 or 7.5 but would end up at 10 for "Voodoo Chile". SRV also used a Leslie (rotating speaker box) live and on record. Pedal wise he used an Ibanez Tube Screamer for overdrive, and Cry Baby wah, occasionally connecting two together. The usual set up in later years was Ibanez Tube Screamer TS10, Vox Wah, vintage Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, and Tycobrahe Octavia.

I did hear once that SRV in fact used Fender amps for his dirty sounds (with the Tube Screamer) and a Marshall amp for his clean sounds, a set up that is a little opposite to common use, but consistent with my ears.

Stevie was a Strat man and played a number of pre-CBS guitars, but is closely associated with a Walnut Strat named ‘Lenny’ (a gift from his wife whose name was Lenny) which featured brown stain on natural wood with butterfly tortoise-shell inlay. Then there was what he referred to as his number one, a way beat up Sunburst with a veneer Rosewood fingerboard (all other rosewood fingerboard Strats of his had slab-boards) which he purchased in Texas in 1974. Stevie called it a ’59, which was the year of the pickups, even though the neck and alder body are from ’62.

There were other guitars, I saw him play a vintage Epiphone, and he cradles a 335, and a 1928 National Steel (acquired as a gift from one of his roadies) on various album shots. Stevie’s guitars were strung with real heavy strings’ 13s. (GHS Nickel Rockers .013, .015, .019 (plain), .028, .038, and .058. He would use .011 Es when his fingers were sore), which is the kind of gauge you would put on a Jazz guitar, however he was mostly tuned down a half step to Eb (Remember that when jamming along with SRV’s recordings). Stevie’s guitars were fitted with size ‘D’ frets the largest frets Fender made for Strats, much like bass frets.

One very unusual feature on SRV’s #1 Strat was the left handed tremolo. ie: The tremolo arm is situated at the top of the bridge plate, I have seen many people copy this feature, only to revert back to ‘normal’ as it is simply too uncomfortable, seems SRV and Hendrix are part of a small group of players who can make this work. The lefty bar was non-original to the guitar. Approximately a dozen custom bars were made by his roadie’s father in an effort to reduce the number of broken tremolo arms. It did not have the desired effect!. The picks Stevie used were equivalent to Fender mediums, and he played with the ‘wide’ end.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was a guitar player who incorporated many styles into his musical world and opened the doors for many young guitarists to the originators of the genre. That fact alone makes him one of the most important contributors to the Blues world, and every time I hear a young player dipping into SRV’s bag of licks, I know they are unwittingly learning from Albert, BB, Lonnie and Buddy. And that to me will preserve the spirit of electric blues for years to come.

www.srvdoubletrouble.com