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Stevie Ray Vaughan (born Stephen Ray Vaughan; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Eighteen albums of Vaughan's work have been released. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and Classic Rock Magazine ranked him #3 in their list of the 100 Wildest Guitar Heroes in 2007.

Family history

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on October 3, 1954 at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas to Jim and Martha Vaughan. His brother, Jimmie Vaughan, is three years older. At age 7, Vaughan acquired his first guitar, a Sears toy guitar with only three strings. Among the first songs that he learned to play were hits by The Nightcaps, a Texas garage rock band that had a national hit in 1962 with "Wine, Wine, Wine." In 1963, Vaughan got his first electric guitar , a hand-me-down from his brother.

Teenage years

Jimmie Vaughan's friend, Doyle Bramhall, heard Stevie Ray Vaughan playing a song called "Jeff's Boogie" by The Yardbirds, and was impressed. Bramhall would help Vaughan’s singing and songwriting development. In 1967, Vaughan’s first band, The Chantones, played an outdoor show at Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas and began to advance beyond school dances and private parties. During the summer of 1970, after falling into a barrel of grease while working for a fast food restaurant, Vaughan quit his job, formed his first relatively long-lasting band, Blackbird, and devoted his working life to music.

Influences and style

Vaughan's blues style was influenced by many blues guitarists. Foremost among them were Albert King, Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Jimi Hendrix. He was also strongly influenced by early blues-rock guitarist Lonnie Mack, who, according to Vaughan, "really taught me to play guitar from the heart", Vaughan, who had idolized Mack since childhood,[citation needed] produced and played on Mack's 1985 Alligator Records album Strike Like Lightning and covered "Wham!", which was written by Mack, among others. Vaughan's older brother Jimmie Vaughan has stated that Johnny "Guitar" Watson was the guitarist he and Vaughan studied the most. Vaughan also cited his brother as an influence.

Vaughan's sound and playing style, which often incorporated simultaneous lead and rhythm parts, drew comparisons to Hendrix. Vaughan covered several Hendrix tunes on his studio albums and in performance, such as "Little Wing," "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," and "Third Stone from the Sun." He was also heavily influenced by Freddie King,[citation needed] another Texas bluesman, mainly in the use of tone and attack; King's heavy vibrato can clearly be heard in Vaughan's playing.[citation needed] Another stylistic influence was Albert Collins.[citation needed] By utilizing his index finger as a pick a la Albert Collins, he was able to coax various tonal nuances from his amplifiers. Vaughan also took considerable influence from jazz guitarists such as Kenny Burrell.

Known for his warm blues-rock tone, Vaughan characteristically used very heavy guitar strings, ranging from 13- to 58-gauge sets to give a fuller sound which he tuned down a half-step to the key of E flat.

Guitar legacy

Vaughan was closely associated with his use of Fender Stratocasters. His first was a 1963 maple neck black Fender Stratocaster. Although he used this guitar frequently, in 1973 he traded it in at Ray Hennig's Heart of Texas Music store in Austin, Texas, for another 1963 Stratocaster. Hennig recalls that Vaughan would visit the store to borrow items and bring them back once he'd tried them out; the beat-up Stratocaster, however, would never be returned. Vaughan called it his "Number One", his "First Wife", and it is his most recognizable instrument. The guitar had an alder body with a 3-tone sunburst finish and a thick maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. He would put heavy gauge strings on this guitar, using .013-.058s, and would have the vibrato bridge flush the body with stainless steel vibrato arms. "Number One" originally had narrow frets, but Vaughan had the frets replaced with Dunlop 6100 fretwire. He also started tuning his guitars down a half-step from standard pitch, making it easier for him to accompany himself on guitar while singing. From then on, he used Stratocasters for the main part of his tone.

On his 26th birthday in 1980, his wife Lenny presented him with a 1965 Fender Stratocaster which he had spotted in a pawn shop months beforehand. The guitar featured a mahogany lacquer, covering up a 3-tone sunburst finish; a 1900's mandolin pickguard under the bridge, a thin maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, and microphonic pickups. Not liking the thin neck, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top gave Vaughan a thicker one-piece maple neck in 1982. He strung "Lenny" with lighter strings and a "floating" bridge.

In early 1984, Vaughan had a custom Stratocaster made at Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas, one with three lipstick pickups, a "flip-flop" trick automotive paint, a maple neck with a ebony fingerboard, single "Volume" and "Tone" controls, and a hardtail bridge. He added a hula girl decal to the back of the guitar as well.

On April 29, 1984, before playing a show in Buffalo, New York, Vaughan was presented a custom Hamiltone Stratocaster-style guitar, featuring his name inlaid with pearl in the ebony fingerboard.

Other Stratocasters which Vaughan had included a yellow Strat that belonged to Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge and originally had four humbuckers, then rewired with a single neck pickup; a stock 1962 fiesta red Strat acquired in 1983, and a 1961 butter-colored Strat bought by Vaughan in 1985 that later sported a black and red tiger-striped pickguard made by guitar tech, Rene Martinez.

Besides Fender Stratocasters, Vaughan owned many other guitars throughout his career, many that were hand-me-downs early on from his brother Jimmie. He started out with a 1963 Gibson Messenger. Also from Jimmie, he got a 1951 Fender Broadcaster that he named "Jimbo", but later sold it. Vaughan used many Gibson models, including a 1952 Les Paul Goldtop, 1955 Les Paul TV, Gibson Barney Kessel, 1958 "dot-neck" ES-335, Gibson Johnny Smit, which was used on "Stang's Swang" from Couldn't Stand the Weather; and a Flying V.

In 1981, he acquired a National Steel from Charley's Guitar Shop that was made in 1928, and can be seen on the cover of In Step. He also had a Rickenbacker Stereo Prototype that he gave to blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin in late 1984, which was later stolen from Sumlin.

Timothy Duckworth, Vaughan's personal assistant, owned a Guild JF6512 12-string acoustic guitar and gave it to him in 1985. Timothy recalls that, sometime after the "MTV Unplugged" performance in 1990, Vaughan's hands were so strong that he accidentally cracked the neck on the guitar. It has been on display at the Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas since then.

On June 24, 2004, Vaughan's guitar "Lenny" was sold at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Auction, an effort to benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. The auction was held at Christie's and the guitar's bidding ended at $623,500.

Amplifiers and effects

Stevie Ray Vaughan proved that there was still life in early 1960s Stratocaster and old Fender tube amplifiers. The high volume at which he played required lots of wattage and power. In the '70s, he used two Fender Twin Reverbs: one "black face" and the other "silver face". In the early 1980s, however, Vaughan acquired his two 1963 blackface Fender Vibroverbs, which he got at two different times and in two different places. The Vibroverbs were numbers 5 and 6 off the production line. He also used two black face Fender Super Reverbs. With the Fender Stratocaster, the Vibroverbs and the Super Reverbs were an important part in shaping his clean/overdriven sound, making Fender amps more popular in years to come.

Vaughan is widely recognized for popularizing the Ibanez Tube Screamer, particularly the TS-9 model. He would also use the Tube Screamer with a Vox Wah-wah pedal, handed down from his brother Jimmie via Jimi Hendrix. A clear example of his use of the wah-wah pedal can be heard on "Say What!" from Soul to Soul. He also made use of Hendrix's effects in later years including the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, Octavia, Univox Univibe, and the Leslie speaker, more specifically the Fender Vibratone.

Legacy

The 1991 album The Sky Is Crying was the first of several posthumous Vaughan releases to achieve chart success. Jimmie Vaughan later co-wrote and recorded a song in tribute to his brother and other deceased blues guitarists, titled "Six Strings Down". Bonnie Raitt's 1991 album Luck of the Draw was dedicated to him. Many other artists recorded songs in remembrance of Vaughan, including Eric Johnson,[14] Tommy Emmanuel (the song Stevie's Blues), Buddy Guy and Steve Vai ("Jibboom" on the album The Ultra Zone, 1999) and guitarist Wayne Perkins ("Big Stratocaster", from the album Rambling Heart). Stevie Wonder included a song on his 1995 live album Natural Wonder titled "Stevie Ray Blues". On the album, Wonder refers to the song as "Stevie Ray Vaughan Blues".

Musicians such as John Mayer, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Colin James, Johnny Lang, Los Lonely Boys, Mike McCready, Eric Johnson, John Petrucci, and Doyle Bramhall II have cited Vaughan as an influence.

In 1991, Texas governor Ann Richards proclaimed October 3, Vaughan's birthday, to be "Stevie Ray Vaughan Day." An annual motorcycle ride and concert in Central Texas benefits the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Scholarship Fund.

In 1992, the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation released the Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster, which Vaughan had helped design. As of 2007, the model is still in production. In 2004, Fender also released a limited edition exact replica of "Number One". The last guitar that Vaughan played before his death is on display in the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. During that same year, Vaughan's name is mentioned in Stephen King's You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, a short story about a town populated by late music legends.

In 1994, the city of Austin erected the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Statue at Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake, the site of a number of Vaughan's concerts. It has become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.

In 2000, Stevie Ray Vaughan was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Stevie Ray Vaughan became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

In November 2007, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation released a second tribute to Vaughan, an exact replica of his second beloved guitar: Lenny. This guitar was given to him by his wife Lenora ("Lenny") on his 26th birthday and Vaughan was very fond of it. According to Fender, the original Lenny was a 1965 Strat that he saw in the window of a pawn shop that he was unable to afford. The guitar is sold with a strap, a case with Vaughan's name embroidered in the fabric lining, a number of brochures and memorabilia and a leather bound certificate of authenticity.

In 2008, residents voted to rename Dallas' Industrial Boulevard, with Vaughan's name being one of the finalists alongside Stanley Marcus, Eddie Bernice Johnson, and Cesar Chavez.