Of course, he also used tube-driven amps. Such strings also helped him shape his tone. Stevie was famous for using thick string gauges. Sure, it’s one of the fundamental elements, but it needs to work in combination with other gear as well. A pickup on its own will not be able to fully imitate the magic of SRV’s sound. What you need to bear in mind is that the pickups are just one part of the equation. If you don’t feel like making expensive investments, you’ll be fine with them as well. Generally speaking, any of Fender’s stock pickups could serve you well for this purpose. But there are different opinions on this. Of course, Fender’s Pure Vintage ’59 pickup would probably be even better.
Fender’s SRV signature model comes with Texas Specials. And the safest choice is Fender’s Texas Special. If you’re looking for Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tone, you’ll first need to think of pickups. Eventually, even his custom-made Main Strat got passive Fender pickups. Aside from his Number One Fender, he had them on several other guitars. But what is certain is that he had a lot of Fender pickups. You can hear them on Stevie’s “Life Without You.” Here’s how these pickups sounded live.Īs I mentioned already, we don’t know much about the exact pickups that Stevie used. And, of course, this was the only guitar that had these pickups. These were Danelectro pickups, the so-called lipstick single-coils.
The instrument had a pretty interesting pickup set on it. This was a 1960s-style Strat and was made by Charley Wirz. In his guitar collection, Stevie had another great custom-made instrument. But we know for certain that these were EMGs. Unfortunately, there’s not much info on what exact pickups these were. He then eventually replaced them with Fender single-coil pickups. During the recording of the “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” video, they got soaked. These were the pickups on his Hamiltone Lurktamer Stratocaster or so-called main guitar. It’s not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when talking about EMG. EMG Active Pickupsīelieve it or not, Stevie Ray Vaughan also had active EMG pickups. Meanwhile, the mids aren’t that pronounced. And they get really close to Stevie’s tone.Īnd, dare I say that the overall output kind of reminds me of P90s? It’s not completely there, but they sure have that bottom-end punch. For instance, Fender’s Pure Vintage ’59 Strat set is pretty good. You have some pickups these days that convincingly replicate old-school Fender stuff. However, there was a more significant boost to the bottom-ends. Sure, there was still that zing or jangle that Strats are known for. As you can notice in Stevie’s songs, they were slightly scooped. These pickups can be described as classic Fender but with a bit of a twist. They obviously came from another Stratocaster. However, it turned out that these pickups were just added to it. This made him think that the instrument’s body was also from that year. After taking the pickups out, he saw that they were made back in 1959. Stevie didn’t originally know all the details about his Number One Strat. There are a few specifics that we can explore here to clear things up. And these instruments usually came with stock Fender single-coil pickups. There are, however, some things that we’re certain of.įor instance, we know that, in most cases, he played Fender guitars. And we likely won’t ever know the details that we’d like. People mostly focused on his guitars and rarely paid much attention to the pickups on them. Now, the issue of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s pickups isn’t an easy one to discuss. Which Pickups Did Stevie Ray Vaughan Use? Of course, there have been plenty of other guitars in his arsenal.
You can see it in the video for “Couldn’t Stand the Weather.” Its most recognizable feature was the fretboard inlay art. Hamiltone Lurktamer Stratocaster, or The Main, was an advanced Strat model with set-neck construction. This guitar ended up giving its neck to the legendary Number One. And Guitar Center ultimately acquired it in the 2000s.Īlso, his famous Red Stratocaster was a 1962 model. Eventually, he replaced a neck with the one from a 1950s Strat. These days, Fender makes copies of the Number One Strat.Īnother important one was the 1963 Fender Strat nicknamed Lenny. This instrument saw action in most of his works. After Stevie’s death, the guitar got its old neck back. The instrument saw some changes over the years, including a neck replacement. This one is a hybrid, featuring a 1963 Strat body and 1962 Strat neck. His primary instrument was his Number One Stratocaster. Aside from the magic in his fingers and his heart, his guitars helped him in this endeavor. It’s an understatement to say that Stevie Ray Vaughan changed the world of guitar. If you’re interested in learning more about Stevie Ray Vaughan’s pickups, you’ve come to the right post! Let’s Start With Guitars…
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