Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughan
June 24, 2008 by musicman
Filed under Blog, Guitar Riff Videos
Cold Shot -Stevie Ray Vaughan
The power and the passion of Stevie’s playing was unmistakable.
Stevie Ray hailed from Austin, Texas. Stevie was discovered by the Stones. With his band Double Trouble he came into his own with the Texas Flood album in 1983.
Vaughan continually paid tribute to his influences – Albert King, Lonnie Mack, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, and Hendrix. But nobody played with the power and passion of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
According to Wolf Marshall, Stevie’s personal axe, known as “Number One”, a Fender Stratocaster featured an early 1960s “Oval” neck shape, a Pao Ferro fingerboard with flatter 12″ radius and larger frets (Stevie used bass frets). Stevie used an inverted left-hand tremolo unit. Stevie strung these with heavy gauge strings and tuned down a half-step. Number One was disassembled by Fender Custom Shop employees in 2003, and they reported that the neck was from December ‘62 and the body was from 1963. So, Number One can be called a ‘63 Strat. Pickups are 1959, which is why Stevie referred to it as a ‘59.
Stevie other favorite guitar known as “Lenny” was found it in a pawn shop in the early ’80s. He didn’t have the money for it so his wife Lenny and other friends bought the guitar for him. Brown stain on natural wood; butterfly tortoise-shell inlay in body. It had a rosewood fretboard, which was later switched to maple neck that Jimmie gave Stevie. It is reported that Stevie did the switch himself and used non-stock screws, screwing one through the fretboard. The guitar was said to have been a ‘63 or ‘64 model. Stevie used the guitar to record “Lenny” and “Riviera Paradise.” “Lenny” sold at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar auction on June 24, 2004, for $623,500.
Stevie used an old Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer distortion box and a Crybaby wah-wah pedal. Two of Stevie’s favorite amps were a blackface 1967 Fender Super Reverb and a tweed 1959 Fender Bassman. Stevie used Fender Super Reverbs in addition to his Fender Vibroverbs throughout his career. The Bassman was his amp of choice in the sessions for “In Step”.
In 1990 he released Family Style, with his brother Jimmie. Sadly that summer it all ended, when Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin.
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