Stevie Ray Vaughan pickups

[jason lollar]

well montreaux was before he recorded his first album.
I am just saying I bet there were some areas where he was more popular, he got alot of airplay in seattle- I remember hearing every track on the first album on the air- remember that was at the height of butt rock hair metal

[Possum]

....

the Montreux concert, complete with booing is on that DVD set if you want to see that. Basically they put him on I think in what was an acoustic night and the acoustic crowd didn't want to hear a bunch of loud music. But Bowie was in that crowd as well as Jackson Browne (I may have the wrong guy..) who owned the studio in Los Angeles and invited STevie to come out and record for free anytime, which he later did, so his performance didn't go unnoticed...

[8 Fingers of Doom]

And used 12's, and a nice Cesar Diaz mod'd Vibroverb, and a TS-808 and... yadda yadda, ad infinitum, ad nausium.

(no offense intended, David, it's this 'ol SRV thing that touches a nerve)

Funny thing about SRV (IMHO) when he was alive (and I was into him back then) he was considered "less than remarkable", the press was kinda like "doin that Jimmy thing in a Texas kinda way" very mucho off-hand in the kudo's very much so like the way they dealt with Frank and Robin (Marino/Trower) but then after his very unfortunate passing, the whole "SRV" thing blossomed into a huge mega-persona deal....what's up with that.
(it's rhetoric, no reply necessary)

It's a shame that we (figuratively) can't like someone for what they are.... when they're still alive eh?

(sports personalities treated 180° the opposite of course)

I spent a good portion of my life in Puyallup, WA and I have no idea what rock you may have lived in or under, but SRV was well respected long before his death bro.

[big_teee]

I spent a good portion of my life in Puyallup, WA and I have no idea what rock you may have lived in or under, but SRV was well respected long before his death bro.

Your first post on the MEF, and you drag up an 8 year old thread and jump a senior member?
I suppose because someone had an opinion on SRV?
I would say welcome to the forum, but the jury is still out!
T

[RedHouse]

I spent a good portion of my life in Puyallup, WA and I have no idea what rock you may have lived in or under, but SRV was well respected long before his death bro.

Welcome to the forum ..bro

[tbonuss]

I know this is a old dug up thread, but Fender 57 / 62's are the closest I've found. My understanding is that its because they are "underwound" not "overwound" like the Texas Specials and the like.

[Steve A.]

I would bet he had varying acceptance depending on the region. I remember hearing pride and joy on the radio- I had switched over to playing only blues in 1980 and I was working in a gas station as a pump jockey when that came on the radio. I remember being excited because it looked like there was a chance for blues to become somewhat popular again (granted he played a different variety of blues) and it did to some extent for a short time, I got away with playing blues in clubs all over the northwest from the early 80's to the early 90's and then alot of us moved to portland.
I saw every tour he did up to in step, that first texas flood tour he played the seattle paramount which is a 25 to 2800 seat theater and it was almost full. Of course there was alot of interest in tommy shannon the bass player because many of us had watched him through the 70's with johnny winter so that first trour Tommy pulled alot of people in IMO.
As a background Seattle downtown was mostly blues clubs from around 1980 to 1993 or 5 but the suburbs were butt rock clubs and top 40. In the 70's it was a stop on all the major rock tours, so maybe Stevie was a little bigger deal here. It wasnt untill around 1990 that I remember clones showing up in clubs.

Really at the time I was more into going to see albert collins, gatemouth, john lee, willie dixon etc. in bars but stevie pulled in alot of interest in this area

I'm quoting Jason's post in full because it expresses the views of someone playing blues back them, not just listening to them.

I myself was very impressed with SRV because he was the only guitarist I had ever heard who could capture the sound of Albert King as he did on the song "Texas Flood."

Steve Ahola

[bajaman]

That's true. That's the first time many people heard him, including me.

He wouldn't go on tour with Bowie though, so he's not in any of the videos.

I seem to remember reading in one of the music mags at the time that he was all set to tour with Bowie, but Muddy Waters died and Stevie went into mourning mode. Bowie could not understand why he would mourn some old blues player - he had a huge commercially successful record to tour and needed a guitarist to apply himself wholeheartedly to the task. Bowie contacted Earl Slick who was happy to oblige and Stevie was left behind to mourn.

[big_teee]

He was good, but everyone seems to get better when they die!
When Jimi was alive, he had his issues and critics too.
The last album SRV did with his brother, I thought a lot of it IMO was pop trash.
I never did care much for his bro, and he rode Stevie's coat tails, after his death.
IMO SRV would have been better without all the alcohol, and Cocaine!

[Leo_Gnardo]

I seem to remember reading in one of the music mags at the time . . .

Nice story, and who knows SRV may upset over the demise of Muddy Waters. But magazines hire writers to make up stories. The following is not made up to sell magazines: I got it right from David that SRV's manager pulled a last minute "mask & gun" demand for higher pay than had been negotiated. Of course that demand was not well received, to put it mildly. On the eve of the tour Earl Slick was called in and did his usual excellent job for Bowie.

No problem for SRV either, he commenced a tour to support his new record and increased his fame as a top flight guitarist.

[Richard]

I heard that Bowie added dates but wanted to pay the same for the whole tour.

[Steve A.]

The last album SRV did with his brother, I thought a lot of it IMO was pop trash. I never did care much for his bro, and he rode Stevie's coat tails, after his death.

Well, for many years Stevie was known as Jimmy's little brother. Jimmy played more traditional blues, not as flamboyant or blues/rockish as SRV. You've expressed a dislike of traditional blues in your Electric Blues thread but I've never been much into Jimmy's solo career either (he was the guitarist for the Fabulous Thunderbirds from their inception in 1974 until 1990 when he left to form a duo with his brother.)

IMO SRV would have been better without all the alcohol, and Cocaine!

SRV stopped using drugs and alcohol after his stint in rehab in October 1986 shortly after finishing the tour which produced his live album.

http://www.guitarworld.com/focused-s...orld-interview

There are hundreds of live audio recordings from his shows and IMO there was a big improvement after he gave up booze and drugs. (The Vaughan Brothers album was released after his death. Had he not died in the helicopter crash the released album might have been different.)

Steve Ahola

P.S. As for why he dropped out of the Bowie tour I've heard two very different stories from people who insisted that they knew what really happened. I'm partial to the story that both Bowie and Stevie wanted to do a tour with both of their bands, with SRV sitting in on the numbers he recorded with David but Bowie's manager vehemently said "No!"

The pro-SRV story I heard was that he left to promote his recently released solo debut album- that it wouldn't be fair to have the members of his band postpone a tour while he was touring with Bowie. I really doubt it had anything to do with Muddy Waters' death.

[Lyrebird Steve]

The entire Bowie thing is covered in some depth in the excellent "Day by Day, Night after Night" book by Craig Hopkins

If you are a fan of Stevie's and haven't read this it's a treasure trove of SRV. Well researched with help from Stevie's mom.

... with regards to his pickups Tommy Katona demos some of Sliders SRV models and gets pretty close to the SRV tone IMHO

[Lyrebird Steve]

The entire Bowie thing is covered in some depth in the excellent "Day by Day, Night after Night" book by Craig Hopkins

If you are a fan of Stevie's and haven't read this it's a treasure trove of SRV. Well researched with help from Stevie's mom.

... with regards to his pickups Tommy Katona demos some of Sliders SRV models and gets pretty close to the SRV tone IMHO

[Jim Shine]

He was good, but everyone seems to get better when they die!

Very true! It seems to almost be a rule of thumb.

In regards to the clones, they kind of crept up on me. I was never a SRV fan, so I wasn't tuned in to him or his story at all. Somewhere in the very early 90's I started realizing I was working on more Strats. And the typical conversation with these players was pretty much the same. They would tell me tales of gluing their bloody fingertips to get through gigs, alcohol stories..it was like the same story being told by dozens of different people. Then I learned it was all the SRV biography. I had a hard time keeping a straight face after knowing that.

It was impossible to ignore how big he was in this field. I would spend most weekends at guitar shows across the country and in every city, every town you heard a cacophony of the same shit. SRV guy, Metallica One guy, and Guns and Roses Sweet Child O' Mine guy at once at any given time, often multiples of each!