SRV tone

[soloben347]

Hey does any think id be able to get a tone like this when he kicks in the extra gain for leads with a peavey classic 50 and a tube scremer? [ame=http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U]YouTube - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood (Long version!)[/ame]

 

[5F6-A]

I'd say you could get fairly close. Much of SRV's tone was due to his fingers and how he attacked the guitar.

 

[arcanis494]

I'd say you could get fairly close. Much of SRV's tone was due to his fingers and how he attacked the guitar.

+1

 

[soloben347]

yes i know that but just wonderin if a peavey c 50 and tubescreamer would do the sound work

thanks.

 

[5F6-A]

yes

 

[Jason]

Nice fresh thick strings would help tremendously as well.

 

[nc_guitarist_9]

as far as amp settings his tone was very loud, with a lot of mids and bass.

 

[soloben347]

yea I use 11's on my guitars for a fat SRV tone and always keep my bass and mids fairly high but im justin wondering basically before i purchase the amp if it would get this knd of sound i got my answer.

also if anyone knows what tubes stevie used thatd be helpful thanks

 

[TM1]

Stevie also tuned down a 1/2 step and used a combination of amps all on at the same time. If he had to play at low volumes it was usually a Fender Vibrosonic and a Dumble together. I saw him alot back in the early `80's before he made it big.

 

[Jason]

Yea Peavey Classics are great tube amps, one of those should do you fine. Are you SURE you want the 50 though? Do you have any idea how loud a 50 watt tube amp is? Plus.. with tube amps you really have to CRANK them to get proper sound. I have a Classic 30 and it is WAYY too loud to even think about playing here at home. Honestly even the 30 watter is too loud for playing gigs at bars.

Tube amps sound absolutely horrible if they're not cranked up loud enough, so keep that in mind. I might suggest you look into something in the 5-15 watt range for home playing. Epiphone makes a 5 watt halfstack that's been getting rave reviews. Another alternative is to buy an attenuator which will allow you to have all the tubes cranked up and still turn down the volume to the speaker.. Keep in mind though, putting a small amount of sound through a big speaker isn't going to sound quite "right" either... so my advice is to go with a smaller tube amp unless you actually have a need to play insanely loud... like if you're going to be playing some pretty BIG shows.

 

[soloben347]

the shows i play are just bars nothin to big i guess ill get the c30 but is it say louder then a 100 watt solid state?

and i hear the tubes in it rattle at high volumes

 

[coldsteal2]

I can get his tone with .09's
well at least his Marshall tone

 

[b-squared]

It's amazing how thick a Strat gets with thicker strings. I had an SRV Strat loaded with 12s...that was the thickest sounding Strat I've ever played. Sure made my fingers sore, though.

Half of SRVs tone came from cranked Fender (and later Dumble/Marshall) amps and his Strat; the other (and more elusive half) came from his hands and style. Huge, strong hands, and he really squeezed out every bit of tone.

Good luck in your tone-quest...you're on the right track.

BB

 

[SkyPilot]

I would look more at his left and right hand technique than the equipment. Case in point, have you looked at his videos over the years and seen him playing with different guitars and amps and venues (that affects tone to some degree). He always has that signature tone. He tends to really dig in at the strings with his right hand, has a very nice and pronounced vibrato, and plays a Strat. That's where his tone is.
I don't mean to be trite, but I really believe he could play most any Strat into a saturated clean amp and make that signature SRV tone.
Work on a pronounced vibrato, string bending on the right strings, and clean playing and you can get there close. Better yet, get your own tone that YOU are known for! Much betta!

 

[b-squared]

If you're new to blues SRV isn't a bad starting point, as his style integrates some of the great players from old.

Don't get stuck there, though...there are a lot of SRV "clones" out there, and you don't want to get stuck in that realm...learn his stuff, then make it your own.

I did that, and every now/then a player will come up and tell me he heard an SRV lick or two in there. I'll tell him "...yep, you sure did. He was awesome, huh?"

Have fun!

BB

 

[soloben347]

im not new to blues have been playin it for 4 years just makin my first tube amp purchase and i want to get one thatll get somewhere close to his tone equpitment wise...as far as style goes i can emulate his agression and style pretty much

 

[riles6789]

Id say texas special pickups, 13 gauge strings, high action, and two cranked blues jr. amps in stereo would do the trick.

 

[Splattle101]

O.K., I had this exact combination of components, and I found you could get close to his tone. The guitar was (is) a cheapo Squire with Texas Special pups. They’re very hot. So hot in fact that the bridge can be nearly unusable on some amps. The amp was a 2 x 12 Peavey Classic 50. All stock. It ran Sovtek valves, cuz’ I never got around to loading it with JJs, which are supposed to be the shiznit for new EL84s. The pedal was (is) an Ibanez TS808, stock.

I used the dirty channel. I set the gain so it wasn’t too high. It needed to be where it would just roll over into saturation if I turned the volume up at the guitar and strummed it hard. Back off on vol or attack and it would clean up. This was to imitate the sound of a Super Reverb or similar that’s being run just at the point of break up. The TS808 shoved down the front end of that would send it over the top very nicely. It easily got that ‘high-gain’ sound he used (acknowledging that nothing SRV did was really ‘high-gain’: it was just high-gain for him).

However, I found it was sometimes necessary to back off the volume control at the guitar just a touch, or else the high gain tone would sometimes ‘mush’ in an unpleasant way. Well, unpleasant to me anyway. I don’t like compression. This mushiness is a function of a high output pick up and a lot of voltage amplification right up to and including the first half of the first preamp valve. There’s a limit to how much that first triode can do, and I think the TS808 and the Texas Specials reached that limit.

A better first valve would have helped, no doubt. A Phillips JAN 5751 would be a good choice in that first position, and still affordable for a NOS valve. A good 12AX7 (like a Mullard, Tung Sol or GT ECC83) might have handled it better than the poor little Sovtek, too.

So, SRV on a Classic 50? It could be done. However, this story has an ambiguous ending. I dusted off my old Super Reverb (1973/74 silverface) and got it re-capped and running. Plugging my horrid little Strat into that thing was an instant revelation. Kicking in the TS808 was just like, ‘Oh, fu*k! It’s that sound!’ The Classic 50 never sounded the same again.

Hope that helps.

cheers,
Splat

 

[Gigan]

It'll get you in the ballpark but your gonna have to hit the ball! I think it'll be close.

 

[Kanga Blue]

Didn't Stevie use 13's and tune to Eb thereby slackening them? If so that's a big part of the meaty sound.

I agree with the guy above get the classic 30. In a huge venue just mic it. I used to gig with Boogie Mk IIB 60 watt and I used to get hassled all the time by bar managers to turn down. My response? "The master volume is on 1 man ... do you want to hear it on 10?"

Whilst the EQ curve on various amps will sound slightly different, id you use a quality strat,with meaty strings, ALL good tube amps will sound good and similar to Stevie if you played like him.