Stevie Ray Vaughan
There was the Yellow Strat, a 1959 Stratocaster that Stevie picked up from Charley Wirz, who bought it from Vince Martell, the lead guitarist of Vanilla Fudge.
Vince had this guitar bathtub-routed for four humbucker, which essentially turned it into a hollow-body Strat when Charley equipped it with just one single-coil pickup in the neck position before he gave it to Stevie in 1981. This allowed Stevie to move his signature ‘SRV’ decals below the strings to where the other pickups would have been located.
Yellow was stolen sometime between 1985 and 1987.
And then there was Red, a 1964 Stratocaster that came from Charley’s Guitar Shop in late 1983. Originally equipped with a right-handed rosewood-fingerboard neck, Stevie had Red fitted with a left-handed rosewood-fingerboard neck in late 1986.
A bit of wear in the red finish on the bottom of the body as well as the front-side contour shows that Red was actually black or sunburst to begin with (depending on who you ask), and was later refinished red.
And then there was Charley, a mongrel Strat-style guitar cobbled together by, you guessed it, Charley Wirz. It had an alder body, a hardtail bridge and a rosewood fingerboard.
Given to Stevie in 1984 by Billy Gibbons, Main is a Hamiltone Strat-style guitar made by James Hamilton of Buffalo, NY (who, incidentally, is that guy standing next to SRV in the picture below, in case you were wondering.)
Main is a little bit thicker than a Stratocaster, a little bit heavier, and does not have the “Comfort Contour Body.” It has an ebony fingerboard with “Stevie Ray Vaughan” inlaid in pearl across the fingerboard.
Hamilton originally outfitted this guitar with active EMG pickups and an onboard preamp, which Rene Martinez later replaced with the Vintage Fender pups we know and love.
Scotch, a 1963 Stratocaster had a cream-colored finish, maybe even ‘butterscotch’ if you’re looking for a connection between the name and the color. I personally will attribute it to Stevie’s taste for whiskey.
Scotch had a custom made tiger stripe pickguard, a rosewood fingerboard and a brass nut. In late 1989, when Number One was having neck problems, it got Scotch’s neck while Scotch got a new lefty neck.
Moving into more familiar territory, we come to Lenny. The most common story goes as follows: In 1976, Stevie’s first human wife, Lenora Bailey, and his roadie Byron Barr, bought Stevie a birthday present: A guitar he had played and fell in love with in a pawn shop, but could not afford. That night, Stevie stayed up all night and wrote the song Lenny, on the guitar he named Lenny, for the little lady Lenny who bought it for him.
The maple neck, 4-spring right handed floating tremolo and light strings of Lenny gave SRV some contrast from the pao ferro fingerboard, 5-spring flush-with-the-body left handed tremolo and heavy-as-hell strings on….
…Number One, Stevie’s First Wife; arguably the most recognizable guitar in history (both visually and tonally), Number One was Stevie’s pride & joy. It consists of a 1963 sunburst body, a 1962 oval shaped neck (later, Scotch’s neck), and contrary to popular opinion, stock 1959 Fender pickups. After a couple of refrets fitting Number One with Dunlop 6100 frets, the neck developed a kind of compound radius, from 7.25″ at the nut to 9″ in the upper register.
In 1985 or 1986, Number One got a makeover with gold hardware, including the addition of a left-handed tremolo.
