This is a Very Nice Strat—and Good Luck Trying to Sound Like Stevie!
Written: Oct 17 '04 (Updated Sep 22 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great bluesy sound and looks really cool
Cons: Maybe not worth the extra $300 unless you're a major SRV fan
The Bottom Line: The SRV Strat is a great looking and playing Strat. The major sound difference is the Texas Coil pickups, though, which may not be worth $300 to you.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster Electric Gu... |
The Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster is a terrific, bluesy sounding tribute Strat to Stevie that is a nice addition for those players seeking to build out their Strat collections, or for those really intent on duplicating Stevie’s sound. It’s based on SRV’s favorite guitar, which he called “Number One”, and acquired in 1979 or so. The story is that he was in a Texas music shop, saw this very seriously beat up Strat, played it and fell in love with it. He traded a Strat in much better condition and the owner kind of shook his head and said “Are you sure you wanna do this?” because the guitar looked like a piece of junk. Stevie said, “Yeah”, and the rest is history.
Note that what you are getting here is a Strat that is in show room condition. Fender is now in the process of producing a true relic of “Number One”. Fender engineers were permitted to take apart this guitar (which hadn’t been played since his death in 1991) to fully understand its tone and construction. The soon-to-be released model will also feature the extensive wear and dings that are all over the original, including the extensive finish wear on the upper left (all the way down to the wood and beyond), much like Gibson did with the Jimmy Page tribute model Les Paul it released last year. (The wear and stripped off finish undoubtedly contributed to the resonance that SRV liked in the original; you won’t get that sound in this guitar.) The fully-beat up model should retail somewhere in the $25,000 range, which may be a great deal because an unautographed Page Les Paul, which went for around $20 K (the signed was another $10K or so) recently went for $55,000 on eBay.
You’re paying a premium price for this Strat. It’s going to cost you something over $1000, new, when you can get a great sounding American Standard for about $800-$900, and that’s with the great new pick-up selectors that feature five new tone options. So, what do you get? Basically, this:
1) A cool looking engraved “SRV” on the 3-Ply pickguard
2) The tonal difference that the three Texas Special Single Coils provide, giving you a sharper and bluesy sound, and
3) The inverted, left handed tremolo bar, which is where it was located when Stevie bought the guitar—some guitar tech goofed around with the box and for some reason the trem bar ended up backwards.
Here are the technical specs on the SRV Strat:
BODY: Alder
NECK: Maple, Thick “Oval” Shape, (Polyurethane Finish)
MACHINE HEADS: Gold Plated Fender/Gotoh® Vintage Style Tuning Machines
FINGERBOARD: Pau Ferro, 12” Radius (305 mm)
NO. OF FRETS: 21 Dunlop® 6105 Jumbo Frets (Narrow)
PICKUP: 3 Texas Special™ Single-Coil Strat Pickups
CONTROLS: Master Volume,
Tone 1. (Neck Pickup),
Tone 2. (Middle Pickup)
BRIDGE: Gold Plated Left Handed American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo
PICKUP SWITCHING: 5-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup
Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup
HARDWARE: Gold Plated
STRINGS: Fender Super 250R, Nickel Plated Steel,
Gauges: (.010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046),
CASE: Vintage Tweed Case
PICKGUARD: 3-Ply Black with Engraved SRV
SCALE LENGTH: 25.5” (648 mm)
UNIQUE FEATURES Deep, Thick Oval Shape Neck,
Gold Plated Vintage Hardware,
Engraved SRV Pickguard,
Left Handed American Vintage Tremolo
WIDTH AT NUT 1.650” (42 mm)
Except for the weird location of the trem bar, this plays like your garden variety Strat, which is to say, great: I much prefer a Strat to a Gibson SG or Les Paul, and only play those guitars when I am looking for a particular sound. The movement up and down the neck is easy, you can play comfortably all the way up the neck, and the action is nice and low. As before, the Texas single coils give you a sharper and bluesier sound, if that’s what you are looking for. The guitar is light and easy to gig with. It’s a Strat, what else can you say?
If you’re trying to duplicate Stevie’s sound, you’ll need a little more than this guitar. First, buy a vintage Fender amp, like a 㥉 Twin Reverb, that’s been suitable pushed around and beat up. Second, you’re obviously going to need an Ibanez Tube Screamer stomp box, preferably the vintage model. Third, you’re going to have to strip off the girlie-man .010 strings that come with this guitar, and replace them with he-man .013’s, because that’s what Stevie played. Good luck trying to bend those monsters.
I like this guitar a lot, but I’m not sure I’d pay the premium price for it. That’s a matter of taste. If you want to cough up the additional $300 or so, and brag to your pals about how you picked up this cool looking machine, you’d better be able to back it up with a hot sounding version “Lenny” or something similar, AND don’t convert to the .013’s unless you have hands of steel. Other than that, you’ll be OK.
Schechter Diamond C+1
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Recommended:
Yes
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