Ya'll know what I'm talkin about.

I want to go there without having to tune to Standard Eb.

Is it a question of strings? String style, brand? Guage? Bridge action?
What would you do?

Hi Kevin, welcome to the forum. I am currently reading a SRV biography and from what I read I can tell you this, SRV's tone changed regularly in his life. As soon as he could grab gig money and later more serious cash flow, he experienced with his gear in search of that elusive tone. I guess that he was looking out for the SRV tone himself. The only things that he couldn't change were his hands and his emotion when he played and that my friend is gone for ever. When Stevie did a cover of Hendrix or Albert King, he was paying a tribute to them, he wasn't trying to become them.
So if you don't tune to E flat,
you don't use a heavily modified mix of 50's and 60's Strat (number one),
and later many other modified various Strats,
with telephone wires as strings,
with fitted bass frets on rare exotic fretboard,
with overwounded pickups,
with all kinds of amps and later in his life, a wall of amps to choose from,
and whatever else he could have modified that we don't know about,
lets not talk about the various products he ingurgitated and for which he got the nickname of Stevie Rave On,
yes you can do a cover of SRV and I wish you a lot of fun doing that. Do your best to play a cover as a tribute to a True Master and I'm sure that everybody will see your intention and appreciate you for that. Good luck.
Claude.

Thanks for the welcome and the wisdom.

I just dig his tone and the bbang the lower strings. Like, if you have a strat, which I'm assuming you do in this particular wing of the board, you have your 5-way switch second from the bottom position. That kinda bellsy sound. I like when he sounded like that, only his was a much punchier bellsy twang than I'm able to get out of my baby. My 50's strat is all stock. I thought there may have been some string change that needed to take place to fool around with that tone.

I guess that you'll have to do a serious research to come up with what you want to do. Starting by a post is a good start. I read somewhere that he added tuck tape in front of his speakers inside the amp screen, to roll off the high notes. As you can see you set yourself to a lot of work and research. I have a Strat tuned to E flat with 11's strings on it, so I can play anytime without the hassle of tuning to E, then to E flat and back to E again that's all I'm willing to pay. The other part of the gear is the amp, your hands and your emotion when you play. I gave up this crazy idea that I had someday to try baritone guitar 13-72 strings (needed to much modifications on the guitar), but you can take a look there and have an inspiration.
http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/elguitstrin.html
Again good luck in your search.
Claude.

Sweet. Thanks. You've been most helpful.

_________________
-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Some of SRV,s tone came from his equipment but alot of came from the way he attacked his strings. It was incredible to say the least. I feel this is the place to start to find the real tone. When I play the blues its a battle between me and the strings. The strngs usually win. The bends are brutal and the pick attack is heavy. The right combo and you will find what your looking for.

Hey Claude I'm also reading a SRV biography!
wich one are you reading?
I'm readin Caught In The Crossfire.......

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It's a mix between Jazz and Funk, it's called "Junk"

hey all, don't take this to the bank but i believe i read somewhere, maybe even on here that stevie used a bass e as his low e on his guitar, which if memory serves correct used to kill the tubes in his amps as well... to be honest if you play stevie ray, people are gonna be looking at your attitude and emotion rather than your tone....i'd rather see someone play stevie ray and have fun doing it than hearing someone play with his tone

+1
Claude

Samo samo and here is the winning number for those who want to order.
ISBN978-0-316-16068-1 (hc) / 978-0-316-16069-8 (pb)

Bluestube I'm halfway through and pacing ten to twenty pages a day. A very interesting read indeed. (The one on the left is my next read)
Claude.

I agree with you Claude it is a very interesting book too read!
I would reccomend it to every SRV fan!

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It's a mix between Jazz and Funk, it's called "Junk"

One thing you can try to get a bigger tone is to turn your pick around and play it upside down. I did that and I was surprised how much different it sounded and I was also surprised that I was able to play fast runs a little easier.

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Hi all - what about the TX special pups? It's actually the reason I bought the SRV strat as my first strat. Are the pups just one part of the tone?

Also - thank you much for the book info on SRV. Ordering now!

Change the Pick ups to Texas Special Pick ups those are the Pick Ups SRV had in his Strat.

Well, no, actually SRV had stock 59 pickups on his strat. He wanted more bass in his tone, which is why Fender developed the Texas Specials for his signature strat which came out in 1992. So SRV never played them. I think he probably would have had he lived a little longer, but whether or not he would have liked them or used no one can say. I have Texas Specials in my Squier, not because I wanted SRV tone, but because I liked them best out of all the pickups I heard. And I wanted something good for blues, but at the same time something I could use for different styles too. And I wanted something exactly opposite of the Vintage Noiseless pickups in my Fender. (Not because I don't like the Vintage Noiseless pickups, I just like having guitars that sound different.)
I like them a lot, they sound amazing. I think my best sounding guitar is now my Squier, ironically. They won't make you sound like SRV though, there's no magic pickup for that.

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