This is our second tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan"s legendary "Number One". The guitar changed continuously over the years (it was already well-used when SRV first acquired it in 1974 from Ray Hennig's Heart of Texas Music). It was thoroughly beaten over thousands of gigs until Stevie's untimely death in 1990.
Not long before the end, Stevie's guitar tech Reme Martinez swapped out all the remaining hardware for gold, including the tuners, for a modern set with pearl buttons and a thick one-ply black pickguard with (I assume) a laser-etched "SRV" logo, and this is how the guitar has remained.
I built a tribute to the 1989 era a while ago (when it retained much of the original hardware, the three-ply black/white/black pickguard with holographic lettering and vintage Klusons, captured beautifully on his 1989 Austin City Limits performance), so I decided that this one would reflect how it looked at the end of Stevie's life with all the extra bling that I'm sure he absolutely loved.
Stevie often referred to 'Number One' as a '59 as this date was written on the base of the pickups, but we can be reasonably sure that the body was made in 1962 with the veneer fingerboard dating the neck to late the same year or more probably 1963.
As much as Stevie loved Number One, he rarely held back when performing, so she must have required almost constant maintenance to keep her playing and gig-ready. The body had taken the full force of Stevie's heavy and aggressive playing style. Once the finish abandoned ship, the naked wood had begun to take the brunt with deep wear above the pickguard, chunks removed, scrapes, and impact damage all over the body, particularly on the back lower bout.
The original neck was eventually retired in the late '80s after a lifetime of re-frets (veneer fingerboards only have so much life in them compared to slab 'boards, which typically can handle more re-frets assuming the work is done sympathetically) and replaced for some later shows with the neck from another of Stevie's vintage Strats until this neck was destroyed in a freak stage accident. After Stevie passed away, his brother Jimmie had the original neck restored and is now back together.
I began this build with the body I made and painted before putting it aside as regular work took over. This allowed the nitro sunburst finish to dry thoroughly over almost a year, becoming brittle enough to age authentically. Like the original, the body is alder, visibly modified for a lefty vibrato bridge, including the false start on the base of the rear trem routing, with a 7.25" radius veneer board, worn clay dots and 6000 fret wire.
Stevie's colossal sound came from a combination of a great-sounding and resonant instrument, heavy strings tuned down a semi-tone, his powerful percussive attack, and, of course, his amps and pedals.
When capturing the right plugged-in tone, I avoided the "Texas Special" take on Stevie's pickups, which never sounded genuinely authentic. In all fairness, they were designed to offer some extra beef to an otherwise standard guitar. But clearly, Stevie never used "hot" or overwound single coils. It's likely that over the years, one or more pickups on "Number One" could have been repaired or rewound, but if we assume that for at least long periods of his career, they were original, then we're talking pure, vintage single-coil tone.
In 1959, Strat pickups were most typically wound with Heavy Formvar coil wind, wound to a relatively sedate 5.9 - 6k DC output using staggered poles, lacquer insulation and black wax potting. The pickup frame or bobbin was assembled and hand-sanded before being sealed with lacquer to insulate the poles. Once the lacquer was cured and re-sanded to remove any rough edges that could catch the coil wire, it was wound before being potted in black wax.
The wax rarely penetrated the coil properly on these originals. Apart from leading to some failures, it allows the innermost windings to vibrate or move at high volume, creating the transparent and slightly microphonic edge for which these old pickups are known. They were all wound in the same direction, so there was no reverse wound middle pickup. My versions, now named "Timeless '59 for Strat" (and available to purchase separately), are made the same way.
The electronics are as close to full vintage spec as is feasible with high-quality CTS 250k pots and a "Red Dime" capacitor. I connected the bridge pickup to the second-tone pot as this was just sensible, and I used a five-way selector switch with aged cloth wiring throughout. Hardware is all Kluson; we also have perfect repro "script" SRV letters and holographic "Custom" sticker.
- Model: Eternal "SRV Number One 1990" Tribute S-Type
- Body: Lightweight two-piece alder
- Neck: Maple with veneer rosewood fingerboard
- Neck profile: C-shape
- Neck dimensions: 21.8mm deep at 1st fret to 24mm deep at 12th
- Radius: 7.25"
- Fret size: 6000
- Number of frets: 21
- Nut width: 41.9mm
- Finish: All nitrocellulose, aged three-tone sunburst on body with worn tinted maple on neck
- Plastics: One-ply, eight-screw black pickguard with aged parchment pickup covers and knobs
- Bridge: Gotoh gold finish vintage lefty repro with steel block and bent steel saddles
- Tuners: Schaller/Fender gold finish with pearl buttons - the exact models that are on the original, and are now virtually impossible to source.
- Pickups: Eternal hand wound '59 Heavy Formvar single coils with aged, staggered magnets, lacquer insulation and black wax potting
- Electronics: CTS vintage repro 250k volume and tone pots with a "Red Dime" capacitor, a CRL five-way selector switch, cloth-covered hook-up wire and a Switchcraft output jack socket.
- Nut: Handcut bone
- Strings: Ernie Ball Slinky 11-48 (tuned down a semi-tone)
- Weight: 7.9Ibs
- Case: Vintage style hardcase included