Stevie Ray Vaughan - Guitar tech and strings n things . . . . Alan Paul and Andy Aledort [Texas Flood: The Inside Story] Don's Tunes

 

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (L-R Tommy Shannon, Reese Wynans, Chris 'Whipper' Layton and Stevie Ray Vaughan - seated) pose for a portrait in February, 1987 in Boston, Massachusetts.(Photo by the legendary David Gahr)

Stevie Ray Vaughan: I started getting into using different fret wire because I noticed that I had an easier time playing when I had a little bit more fret. With normal guitar frets, I was wearing them out so fast, and I found out that I could put bigger frets on the guitar, raise the action, and use bigger strings. For me, all that made it feel easier to play. This works better for me because I can play hard with both hands.

The gauges vary because it’s based on the shape my fingers are in. I go from an .011 to an .013 on the high E, which is the only one I lighten up on. As a rule, the others are .015, .019, .028, .038, .054 to .056 or even .058. The good thing about such heavy strings is that you can hit ’em hard and they don’t move—when you pop ’em, they stay there.

SHANNON: He would literally glue his fingers back together after burning them up. His method was very scientific. He would make this concoction of glue, put it on the end of the finger he wanted to fix, and the finger he was taking the skin off of, push the two fingertips together, and then slowly pull away the finger that he was grafting the skin from.

LAYTON: He would also add some skin oil to help the skin peel away, like peeling back a sticker real slow, so that it won’t rip while you’re pulling it off.

SHANNON: You’d be sitting there talking to him, and he’d suddenly rub his finger on your face to get some skin oil. This would last most of the gig, but by the end, he’d worn through it.

DONNIE OPPERMAN, guitar tech: Stevie was a brutally physical player. I sometimes changed his strings two or three times the same night! When I first met him, he would push extra high E and B strings through the bridge and he’d tape them to the face of his guitar. If he broke one of those strings, he’d just grab one of the new strings, pull it straight, and wind it himself onto the peg. He had this technique where he could bend the very end of the string down and then snap it off in one move before sticking it in the tuning peg. Super strength in his hands. I can’t do that, and I’ve tried hundreds of times.

- From Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan By Alan Paul and Andy Aledort

 

Don's Tunes

Stevie breaks a string . . . . . .