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Stevie's Number #1


cole

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In Mardi Gras 1987 he has those Fender Elite gold tuners, too. He must have replaced the original neck some time after 1987. I have read he considered replacing the neck 1989 because it became unsusable due to too many refrets.

(I have been investigating, too ;-)

You really know a lot cole, I am impressed.

Edited by Mandrake
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Actually in 89' he wasn't going to replace the neck because of the frets it was because a piece of lighting from one of the shows fell on the guitar and broke the neck.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/Cole_01/3.jpg

Actual neck, check it out.

This neck on the photo is not the original neck. No cigarette burn! In 1989 he replaced the original neck because of too many refrets with the neck of one of his other guitars "Scotch" (not "Red"). That was the neck that broke when a lighting fell on it. That was in '90. Then he got a Fender vintage replacement neck he used until his death, and then the original neck was reinstalled and #1 given to Jimmy.

I read this here http://www.geocities.com/jester241/srvax.html and it makes sense.

Btw. on the original neck with the cigarette burn he never had gold Kluson tuners. He always had nickel tuners until he got the gold Fender Elite tuners. On Scotch's neck that he put on #1 there were gold Kluson's, and after it broke he put them on the new replacement neck. So if you rebuild a SRV and you have a cigarette burn on the headstock you must either take nickel Kluson's or gold Elite tuners with white knobs...

I chose gold Schaller because they come close enough to the Fender elite tuners for me ;-)

Edited by Mandrake
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your right the neck in the photo isnt the original its Reds, this happened shortly before he died. I know that it was Red because you'll notice that around the time he changed the neck on his #1 Red got the reverse headstock neck. I've heard that he was thinking about buying a aftermarket neck, but I never heard that he ever did. Maybe he swaped the neck with scotch after the red neck?

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your right the neck in the photo isnt the original its Reds, this happened shortly before he died.  I know that it was Red because you'll notice that around the time he changed the neck on his #1 Red got the reverse headstock neck.  I've heard that he was thinking about buying a aftermarket neck, but I never heard that he ever did.  Maybe he swaped the neck with scotch after the red neck?

Red had a left handed neck long before '89. But shortly after No.1's neck was replaced "Scotch" had a left handed neck.

I think this guy knows a lot, maybe he has been interviewing Rene Martinez?

http://www.geocities.com/jester241/srvax.html

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sounds good to me

Well, although, I just checked "Austin, Texas (1989)" and there Stevie's No. 1 has a replaced neck and "Scotch" still? again? has a right handed neck.

I am getting confused!

I think you are right about the "Red"-neck after all. This page seems very reliable to me: http://www.stevieray.com/gear.htm and the sources for the information are mentioned (neck info comes from Rene Martinez).

Edited by Mandrake
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I remember that site I really like it too, seemed reliable. But thats why Stevie's guitars were such a mistery :D. Hey heres a question for you, whats your theory on all the sites saying stevie had a dummy coil? In the box set(cd-dvd) Rene said he put diffrent tone capacitors to keep the tone original and he added a Dummy Coil, but when fender disected number one they didnt mention it they said it was all stock?

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I remember that site I really like it too, seemed reliable.  But thats why Stevie's guitars were such a mistery :D.  Hey heres a question for you, whats your theory on all the sites saying stevie had a dummy coil?  In the box set(cd-dvd) Rene said he put diffrent tone capacitors to keep the tone original and he added a Dummy Coil, but when fender disected number one they didnt mention it they said it was all stock?

I haven't researched on that topic yet ;-) some also say the pickups were overwound and/or had gotten microphonic.. I don't know what to believe.

At the moment I have some fender pickups from my 85 Japan Strat and standard 250 K pots and an Orange drop 47nF. Maybe I will change the electrics for more "SRV sound" later (1st I need to finish the "Charley"). Maybe I will even buy some Texas Special, although I know they don't come very close to the originals... But they are in the signature strat and Stevie had given his OK to them...

By the way there isn't "the SRV sound" anyway. In 1989 he sounds much different than in 1985, even a bit "mid boost" like as Clapton on some songs... Amps did very much for the sound I think.

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well I dont belive they were overwond, people really under estimate stevies TUBE SCREAMER. I think why he sounded so diffrent is because he always changed his pedals but never got rid of the tube sceamer and in his later years he had two thats why I think he sounded diffrent. personaly I have the texas specials, they sound nothing like stevies guitar. but I hooked my strat(1982 62' reissue) up to a tube screamer and it was totaly stevies sound, I was amazed at how good it sounded.

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Steve changed the amps/techniques he was using. Check out live at El Mocambo. It's Fender all the way with the Tubescreamer acting as a booster. By the late 80's, he was using Marshall amps set clean with the Tubescreamer providing all the OD/Distortion. Way different sound. I prefer his earlier sound.

So many people also claim that Stevie used a TS808. Ha! He preferred the TS10!

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