Legendary Tone: Stevie Ray Vaughn

Legendary Tone:

Stevie Ray Vaughn

Stevie Ray Vaughn is one of the greatest blues guitar players of all time. He definitely set the bar when it comes to tone and technique. His tone was very dry but and extremely clean. This was due to his unique way of using his equipment.

Vaughn was primarily a Fender Stratocaster player and his most favorite guitar, Lenny, was the one he used most often. Stratocasters work very well with blues oriented music.

While most players used Marshall Amps for overdrive and Fender for clean, Vaughn did just the opposite. He used his '64 Fender Vibroverb for his crunch tones and the Marshall for his clean. 

Vaughn used two Ibanez TS9 overdrive pedals, which he would incorporate for a solo or to stand out, that he had set for a clean boost tone. Because they were so important to his tone, the TS9's became very popular and sought after. 

The Octavia, also used by Hendrix, was another integral piece of Vaughn's tone. He used it much like the way Hendrix used it. This pedal produces a fuzz sound that is also an octave up so the sound is very unique. These pedals also became very popular because of both, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix.

Like many players of the time, Vaughn was using a Vox wah pedal. This was mainly used on solos or to add variety to a song. Vox is a very well known brand of pedals. They are most famous for the Wah pedal used by countless professional guitarists.

Finally, the Fender Vibratone rotating speaker was added to Vaughn's rig (another trend among guitar players of the era) to modulate the sound and give off a swirl type of tone heard on songs like 'Cold Shot'.

Stevie Ray Vaughn has a very distinctive tone which he acquired using very little effects. Overall his tone is fairly easy to achieve considering only a few effects are required.