Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Number One’
a.k.a “First Wife”…
Stevie’s Pride & Joy (and apparently favorite meal!); this is the guitar that the SRV Signature Strat is based on.Like all great Strats, Number One has an air of mystery surrounding her.
The body has been commonly estimated to be from 1962 or 1959.
The 1959 date comes from the fact that Stevie called her a ‘59 because of the pickups. Common belief is that the pups were overwound, but Fender found that they were standard stock 1959 pickups, except for the added shielding.
The neck is from December 1962. It’s a “D”-width maple, the largest neck Fender ever made for a Stratocaster. In 1990, the neck was replaced with the ‘62 neck from Red (or was it Scotch?)
Fingerboard is Rosewood veneer with a compound radius due to atleast two refrets. Radius measures the standard 7.25″ at the first fret planed out to about 9″ on the high end. The refrets in question fitted the guitar with Dunlop 6100 Bass frets, significantly larger than the standard Strat frets, adding some sustain to this baby.
3-way switch was the standard for ’63s, which Stevie replaced with the now-standard 5-way blade. I guess his admiration and emulation of Jimi stopped short of the match-stick fix for the pickup selector.
In late 1985 or early 1986, SRV’s First Wife was outfitted with the gold hardware it is famous for, included a left handed tremolo, 1/4″ jack and machine heads.
That classic SRV sound came largely from the strings: typically GHS Nickel Rockers measuring .013, .015, .019, .028, .038, and .058. Sometimes when his fingers were sore, or there wasn’t enough superglue to keep them in one piece, he’d use .011 for the high E for bending. For a period of time, however, he strung up Number One with 0.018 to 0.074! (I’m guessing those were way back in the cocaine days… I imagine you’d have to be pretty wired to move those strings… you could probably build a suspension bridge with the damn things!)
The famous “SRV” black pickguard’s history a little more classy than that “engraving” crap they’re doing with the Signature Strat: Stevie found his letters at truck stops.
The Signature series stats are as follows (note the standard .009 string gauge… those will need to be ripped off immediately if you really want the SRV tone.)
* Color: 3-tone Sunburst
* Body: Alder
* Neck: Maple
* Fingerboard: Pao ferro or Brazilian rosewood
* Frets: 21 Jumbo
* Hardware: Gold Plated Fender
* Pickups: 3 Texas Special Single-coil
* Pickup Switch: 5-way blade
* Controls: Master Volume, Tone (Neck), Tone (Middle)
* Pickguard: 3-Ply Black (B/W/B)
* Bridge: Gold-plated (Left-handed) Vintage Style
* Strings: Fender (.010 to .046)
One last note about the Signature Series; if you’re hoping to ‘relic’ your own Signature SRV Strat to look a little bit more like the original, you’re SOL: the reproductions have a polyurethane finish, ensuring a shiny coat for years to come…. unless you play like Stevie and bounce your guitar off of walls, but at $1400, I’d imagine you’ll want to show this one a little love.
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Comments
One would have to
A) make REAL good friends with Jimmie Vaughan and try to weasel it out of him
B) grave robbery, if you believe the rumors that Stevie is buried with his baby
or C) Click Here and plunk down a cool $1500, if you can settle for a replica.
This is one of the most famous guitar in the area or blues. A great sound that served a great guitar player.
how does one go about buying the SRV #1