Sunday, February 24, 2008

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Genius in Pedalboard Simplicity

Truth be told, Stevie was more of an amp nut than a pedal nut. For the In Step recording session, Stevie Ray apparently trucked in no less than thirty-two amplifiers, including a 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer, a 100-watt JCM 800 Lead Series head, and two consecutively numbered Fender Vibroverbs. Nevertheless, guitar pedals factor heavily in Stevie Ray's recordings of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and Cold Shot on Couldn't Stand the Weather and Say What and Come On (Part III) on Soul to Soul. Here are the essential guitar pedals to power your "number one" Fender Stratocaster:
  • Ibanez Tube Screamer - used to overdrive is amplifiers during solos
  • Vox wah-wah - vital to Stevie's recorded and live performances of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), Say What, Come On (Part III) and Goin' Down (with Jeff Beck).
  • Tycobrahe Sound Company's Octavia- try using Voodoo Lab's Proctavia, which replicates the circuitry of the original Tycobrahe Octavi
  • Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face - the original Fuzz Face pedals are hard to come by, and often don't work very well, so look at picking up a '69 Pedal from Fulltone instead; and
  • Fender Vibratone - while not a guitar pedal per se, it does come with an on/off foot switch. Fender Vibratones are available on ebay.com and vintage guitar shops, but save your back the pain of lugging it around from gig to gig. Grab Fulltone's Deja Vibe to comp Stevie's soulful tone on Cold Shot, preferably the gold/bronze colored versions from 2000-2001.

No comments: