You can get SRV sound from a Line-6 and a Epiphone Les Paul. Just play the right %*^&ing notes the with proper dynamics, timing, etc... Sure it may not sound exactly like the recording, but that doesn't matter unless you have recording contract o_O Whether a Mozart Concerto is played on a $100 Keyboard or a Steinway , it's still f***ing Mozart. Basically, as long as the music is there, that's all that matters. Music first, gear a distant second.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Right after two posts ago, the thought came, if we had DaVinci's paintbox, could we do Mona Lisa?

If we had Michaelangelo's hammer and chisels, could we sculpt David?

If we had Hemingway's typewriter, could we write The Old Man And The Sea?

Fred Astaire's hat and umbrella, Singing In The Rain?

Bogart's coveralls, The African Queen?

Maybe gear is a lot less than the previously estimated 25% and more like 5%...? Less?

Just like a post ago, it's the music.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

JSJH.....Fred Astaire's hat and umbrella, Singing In The Rain?... No ......Have another search on that Winnie thing..

According to Fender ---"Innovate Don't Emulate".

I am the consummate tone chaser and love to recreate the "tones" of players I admire. That is I try to get the tone they got from their gear not to play like them but to get the same tone out of my gear.The first time I heard Jimi Hendrix I knew that I had to at least to get a Strat to get the same "tone" that he did and of course the Marshall came later. Of course I did come to play a lot of Hendrix covers later and his influence is very apparent in my style of playing but that also could be down by being influenced largely by the same heros that he was.Albert King was a huge influence on my playing as he was on Jimi's.
I think that some people get "tone" mixed up with "playing style" you can have the same tone as Jimi or Pete or Eric and still keep your own individual playing style just as you may have the same playing style as someone else and that style would remain the same no matter what gear you used.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

My friends kids solved this question. His sons would listen to us jam in the basement every week. Each time I'd take another bass. This was about 5 or six weeks and the kids were starting to think it was stupid to have so many basses because thay all sounded the same. They wanted to know what was so good about that bass???-- it sounds exactly like the last one I brought over.

...my advice to all trying to emulate the great guitarists....remember, "when you come to a fork in the road, take it".

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I Can't Explain

I spoke to a guy who owns a store from a big franchise comparable to GC over there, He said on a fender conference about ten years ago the master builders that measured SRV's main guitar for production said it was not set up for 13"s more like 11's or 12's he also said that in the studio he used 10's and that what was on the guitar when they measured it to make the artist series. I find 10's hard to believe. I mean i cannot use 10's on anything anymore. After trying to live with 12's impossible for me now i live with 11's. If i put 10's on my guitars now they just sound thin and empty. I could never use 10's or less ever again!! I just don't get how you get good tone out of thin strings!!! So its not just loud thicker strings its Tone, it makes the guitar resonate more and just a heaps warmer and meatier and chimier!!

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+1

If it wasn't for someones tone appealing to you, You'd be on another forum talking about a different hobby because you wouldn't play guitar.

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I believe that the heavier strings on strats are better. They do resonate better. They are louder stiffer and make that puppy ring. It's all about preference though.

I used to agree with you whole-heartedly. I wrestled with 12's for several years (partially influenced by the esteemed Mr. Vaughan's use of big strings), and had all my guitars set up for that gauge.

...then I read an article/interview with Billy Gibbons; he uses gauges as small as 8's, both in concert and in studio. He said he had done the giant suspension-bridge-cable thing for several years, and BB King asked him why. "Big string, big tone," was BFG's reply. BB pointed out that he was using 8's, and if you want to change your tone, "there's a little knob on the front of the amplifier that says, 'tone'..." BFG said he never went back, and some of the things that were struggle became fluid and easy.

I think we can all agree that Billy Gibbons has a great (and gigantic) tone.

After reading that article, I put 9's on my Tele and Strat and 10's on my G&L F100 (that axe just screams for big strings); I turned the "BASS" knob up a notch and my "TREBLE" knob down a notch and voila! Great big tone and less "fighting" with my axe. My playing improved so much it was astounding.

I lost little, if any, of the girth of my tone, and true to what the Reverend Willy G said, my playing became much more fluid, and I was able to get the squanky overtones and harmonics that I was struggling to get earlier.

...also, at the end of his life, SRV was using lighter gauged strings due to pain in his hands (possibly carpal tunnel syndrome). That pain is one of the reasons his face was so much fuller in later photos and videos; he was taking steroid injections for pain his hands and neck. I didn't notice his tone dropping off greatly in the later recordings or his last "Austin City Limits" appearance...

Yes, big strings will make your tone different (and bigger) but using something a bit lighter might make playing easier and much more of a pleasure.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Wow, Thanks Sceamin Armidillo!! So good to read. Thank you. I strung the srv up with 10's after so much experienced advice, Me being a novice, I put 11-49 back on and the "ring" i like is still there...So maybe if i go 11-51???? Thx.

After thought.....Play better......

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Guys like Gibbons,Hendrix,Iommi and the like have proven time and time again that you can get monster tone from even the lightest gauge strings.It's amazing the difference a few tweaks on the amp's front panel can make.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.