Nail the ToneStevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Texas Flood

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble · Texas Flood · 1983

The record was cut nearly live in three days at Jackson Browne's Down Town Studio in November 1982, with Vaughan's "Number One" Strat tuned a half step down running into two 1964 Fender Vibroverbs and Browne's Dumbleland, blended by Richard Mullen through close SM57s. The only pedal on the album was an Ibanez TS-808, used as a boost rather than for distortion. Aim for a loud clean tube amp just breaking up, bass pulled back a little, treble near noon, and let your right hand supply the dirt.

Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record

Tuning

Eb standard (down a half step)

Vaughan used very heavy strings (about .013–.058); the part is fingered in G shapes but sounds in Gb, so play along with the record only after tuning down.

Part: Solo

Guitar

  • Fender Stratocaster "Number One" · stock Fender single-coils (backs stamped 1959) · neck pickup, switching to bridge through the solo

Amp

Fender Vibroverb (1964, 1x15)

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.0
TREBLE
5.5
REVERB
2.5

Two blackface Vibroverbs were in the room, miked close with an SM57; tech Cesar Diaz said Vaughan always set volume 6, treble 5 1/2, bass 4, and the amp has no mid or presence control, so gain here is the volume knob. Reverb is an estimate.

Amp

Dumbleland Special (Jackson Browne's, into Dumble 4x12 with EVs)

GAIN
5.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.0

Richard Mullen blended this amp with the Vibroverbs on the album, so the record is a two-amp sound rather than one; accounts differ on the amp itself, Vintage Guitar calling it a 150-watt Dumbleland Special and Guitar World a 300-watt Dumbleland bass amp. Knob values are inferred, not reported.

Pedals

  • Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer · overdrive · Drive low (2–3), Tone 5, Level 7–8 — used as a mid-pushing boost into an already loud amp; knob positions are inferred

Tone character

fat single-coil warmth · forward mids · loud clean amp on the edge · hard-picked tube breakup · spring reverb glow · stinging high bends

hard

Slow tempo but the solo lives on wide whole-step and beyond bends that have to land in tune on .013s, hard fast vibrato, and sudden sextuplet flurries between long held notes.

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Sources