What kind of amp did srv use

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Acoustic Studio Aids. Construction Products. View All Acoustic Treatment. Effects And Outboard. View All Studio Accessories. Studio Packages. DJ Equipment. MIDI Controllers. DJ Accessories. CD Decks. And these same strings — combined with his Eb tuning and high action — gave his tone depth and sustain.

Yet all of these elements of his set-up also made his guitar more difficult to play. Heavy guitar strings are more difficult to bend.

And it is more challenging to play at speed using thick guitar strings, especially with the action set so high. The guitar was hard to play, and he would literally be drawing blood from the tips of his fingers.

If you want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, you need to be able to bend your strings, apply vibrato and apply all of the techniques he used that gave his playing such an expressive feel. So if in doubt, err on the side of caution. But the way that Vaughan struck his strings had a profound impact on his tone. And so I think it is worth looking at this in a bit more detail.

But he turned them upside down, and so he struck the strings with the rounded end of his pick, rather than the tip. Given that Vaughan had a heavy pick attack and also played a lot of fast, single note lines, his choice of pick is perhaps a little surprising. This is because — as I outlined in much more detail here — if you want to play quickly and to alter your tone through your pick attack, a small, heavy gauge pick with a relatively sharp point would make the most sense.

Whichever route you choose to go down, take the same approach with your picks as you do with your guitar strings. In other words, always err on the side of comfort and playability. If you are playing at your best, then you will be much more likely to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan.

If you want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, it is worth investing in a great guitar amp. During his career, Vaughan used a whole range of different amps. These included Marshalls, a number of different Fenders, a Dumble and even a Soldano in the final months of his career.

Vaughan often combined these different amps with each other. And he did this either to blend the tonal characteristics of 2 different amps, or to set the same amps up, but with different settings. He and his amp tech Cesar Diaz also modified a lot of his amps. So they had different transformers and tubes than off the shelf models.

This is particularly so given that the 2 amps that Vaughan is best associated with are the Fender Vibroverb and the Dumble Steel String Singer. Vaughan used the Vibroverb as his main amp when playing live. It was a key part of his set-up throughout most of the s. And he combined this amp with pedals more on this below to create the beautiful bluesy overdriven tones for which he is famous. Conversely, he used the Dumble Steel String Singer for his clean tone. He was so impressed by the amp that he ordered his own.

When trying to choose a guitar amp that will help you to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, there are 2 main challenges to overcome. The first of these is price. The Fender Vibroverb was only produced for 2 years, between Only around models were originally made, and they have become extremely rare and expensive. Prices vary based on the model and condition of the amp, but they regularly sell easily for more than 6 figure sums. Yet even if these amps were affordable, there is a second challenge to consider.

And that is the challenge of volume and headroom. Both the Vibroverb and the Steel Sting Singer are big and powerful amps with lots of headroom. And as I have discussed in much more detail in this article , this is problematic for most guitarists. And to do this, you need to play your amp at a certain volume.

This is difficult for most guitarists — who have family and neighbours to consider — and so need to be mindful of their volume. Here I think there are 2 options — to look at Fender amps, or to look at boutique American voiced amps. Fender amps are renowned for their beautiful clean tones and distinctly American sound. They also provide a great platform for guitar pedals. So they make a great choice if you want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan and are also looking for a range of vintage blues tones.

As well as now being a rare and relatively expensive amp — the 40 watt Fender Vibroverb that Vaughan originally used is too big and powerful for home use. Fortunately though, Fender offer a number of brilliant alternatives. Some of my top recommendations are as follows:. As such it breaks up quickly and so would be a great option if you are playing at lower volumes. This makes them a good choice if you are playing with other musicians and need a bit more volume or if you want an amp that has a great clean tone, even at higher volumes.

The second option to consider, is to look at boutique American voiced amps. And the good news here is that there are a whole range of beautiful boutique amp brands out there. However, I think they are worth including here because they do have similar qualities to the amps that Vaughan originally used. For although Vaughan used a variety of different amps over his career, the characteristics of his main amps are actually quite similar.

They all have high quality clean tones and a lot of headroom. And they also all make a good platform for pedals. Although it is tricky to buy an amp with lots of headroom when you are playing at home or in small venues, there are some great vintage voiced boutique options. You will also be able to effectively drive the amp using the right pedals. This is particularly the case with the Tone King amps, which have built-in attenuators.

This allows you to dial in a great blues tone without disturbing the neighbours. So tonally, Dumble are similar to Fender amps. The biggest difference is the dynamic range. You have the frequencies there for your use. As a result of this legacy, and due to the fact that Dumble now only builds around amps per year — mostly for notable musicians — a number of companies have started to produce Dumble style amps.

There are a whole range of these different companies. Some — like Bludotone and Ceriatone — build Dumble clones that look and sound like Dumble amps. Others — like Two-Rock — build amps close to the Dumble sound, without cloning them directly.

Although these companies unquestionably build great amps, for the most part they make amps that are also big and powerful, and so are inappropriate if you are playing at home or in small venues. So instead of going down this route, personally I would recommend buying one of the boutique amps listed above.

This will help you to create a range of beautiful blues tones, but at a lower volume. As is true of many blues guitarists, Vaughan did not use many pedals, but those that he did use made a big impact on his tone. The most notable of these is the Ibanez Tube Screamer. The Tube Screamer is one of the most popular guitar pedals ever produced.

I covered the main reasons why this is the case in this article here. But in short, the Tube Screamer is versatile, pairs up very well with a range of classic guitars and amps, and has been used by a number of notable blues guitarists, including Gary Moore , Joe Bonamassa and John Mayer , amongst others.

Under the right circumstances more on this below this will cause your amp to start overdriving. And this will give you a beautiful vintage blues tone. What is siginficant about the Tube Screamer, is that it does not boost your signal evenly.

Instead it amplifies the middle portion of your signal disproportionately. And this is why it worked so well for Stevie Ray Vaughan. Their tones are tight and well defined at the bottom end and bright at sparkly at the top.

Yet their mids are not so well defined. The Tube Screamer puts those mids back into the mix. Combined with the right guitar and amp it creates a thick and warm sounding crunch. So if you have a similar set up to Vaughan and you want to replicate his tone, a Tube Screamer is a necessary addition to your rig. Over the years, Ibanez released a number of variations on the Tube Screamer, many of which Stevie Ray Vaughan used during his career. It is widely believed that Vaughan favoured the TS But stage photos and evidence show that in fact he used the TS9 through most of the s.

The differences between these pedals have long been debated. In reality though, and as I covered in more depth here , the TS9 is in fact very similar to the TS But again people tend to exaggerate the tonal differences between the pedals. As such, if you want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, then any of those pedals would work well.

Ibanez are still producing reissue versions of both the TS and the TS9. Once you have your Tube Screamer, you want to make sure that you set it up properly. There are 2 main ways you can use a Tube Screamer:.

The first is as a clean boost pedal. To do this, set the overdrive at zero, but crank the level right up. This is great if you want to increase your volume and cut through the mix in a live setting without fundamentally altering the sound of your guitar and amp. The second is as an overdrive pedal. In this instance, you need to turn both the overdrive and the levels up. Turning the pedal on in this case will increase the volume of your guitar, and push your amp into overdrive.

He set the drive around 3 or 4 and then cranked the volume up to 8 or 9. The key to creating that sound is to make sure that you are pushing your amp to the point where it is starting to break up.

When you put the Tube Screamer in front of an amp like that, it will cause your amp to start overdriving. And that will go a long way in helping you to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan. In addition to his Ibanez Tube Screamer, Vaughan also used a number of further pedals and effects. This included a wah pedal, a chorus effect, an Octavia pedal, and a fuzz pedal. Unlike the Ibanez Tube Screamer, Vaughan used these effects more sparingly.

Typically he used them to create a specific sound on a particular song. But having said that, these effects — and particularly fuzz and wah — have been put to use very effectively by a number of blues guitarists over the years.

As such, either of those pedals would make a great addition to your rig. Having said that, if you are looking for a vintage sounding wah pedal, then I would recommend opting for a Vox.

If you are interested in authenticity, the Vox V Wah would be my top choice. Not only was this the pedal that Vaughan used the most; it was also the wah that Hendrix used at Woodstock. In fact, so the story goes, the specific pedal that Vaughan used had previously belonged to Hendrix, who had given it to Jimmie Vaughan after they played a gig together in Fort Worth.

Finally, in a slightly lower price range, the Vox V Wah Pedal could also work well. This gave his tone added depth and thickness without adding too much modulaton. The original chorus rack that Vaughan used is no longer in production. That price tag, combined with the size of the Roland SDD, makes it a less than ideal choice for most. Instead, I would recommend adding a simple chorus pedal to your rig.

There are a huge range of these available, but some of my top choices are as follows:. The key with these pedals is to use them sparingly. This will help you to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan without overly modulating your sound. If you are interested in authenticity, then the good news is that Dunlop have produced a reissue of the pedal — Jim Dunlop Arbiter Dallas Fuzz Face.

Vaughan's on-stage amplification differed from his studio set-up. In the studio, Vaughan's amp use became even more intricate. During the recording for In Step , Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's final studio album, Vaughan became infatuated with a variety of amps, filling the band's rehearsal and studio spaces with 32 models. Much like his guitars, Stevie Ray's amplifiers were often modified. Noted "amp doctor" Cesar Diaz met Vaughan in and worked as his amp technician for most of the guitarist's career.