Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Gear

Does Phil think placement of SRV's tremolo arm, upside down a la Hendrix, made a great deal of difference?

Gary Cooper

Stevie Ray Vaughan the Gear
GI's Vintage gear expert, Phil Harris talks to Gary Cooper about SRV's vintage Strat, Fender amps and Ibanez Tube Screamer

As Phil Harris and Michael Casswell have both stressed in our SRV sessions, there's a lot more to getting a great player's sound than just emulating his equipment. It's a truism of guitar playing that the real greats sound like themselves whatever you  put into their hands and whatever you plug it into. All the same, getting an SRV sound with a vintage Strat and a nicely worn Fender Vibroverb is going to be a lot easier than it would be with a big hair vintage BC Rich and a Roland Cube!

Phil Harris dug deep into his collection to bring us this selection of SRV vintage gear.  The Strat is actually his own 63 and the two amps - the 1x15 Fender Vibroverb and the 2x10 Vibrolux - are both '64 models. Just add Ibanez Tube Screamer and go? Well, of course, there's a lot more to it than that. All the same, let's play If I win the lottery'. How much would replicating this classic SRV set-up

cost in 2013?  You can never say exactly, but a Vibroverb about £1,750-2,000 and a Vibrolux £1,500-1,750 - so you're into four grand just for your amps at UK prices. Of course, it'd be different in America. You'd probably get those two amps for $5,000. A 63 Strat? If you were being a purist and insisted on an original sunburst, that could cost anywhere between £10,000 -12,000, less in the States again, of course.