Shortly before his tragic death in 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan collaborated with Fender guitars to produce an Artist Series Stratocaster. Few guitarists have had as much impact on popular music as Stevie, except maybe Clapton, Beck, and Hendrix. He seemingly brought blues into the mainstream singlehandedly, just when people began to forget the genre even existed, and this signature Strat is a fitting monument to the man's brilliance. It features an deep, early '60s oval neck shape, a pau ferro fingerboard with 21 jumbo frets, three Texas Special single-coil pickups, a reversed (left-handed) tremolo, and a black 3-ply pickguard engraved with SRV! This is an instrument that's truly as unique as the man who helped design it, and now it can be yours!
Stevie Ray Vaughan Artist Series Stratocaster at a Glance:
- The guitar SRV helped design
- A blistering Strat sound
- Fast-playing maple neck with deep, thick oval shape
The guitar SRV helped design
Much like fellow Strat slinger Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray literally burst upon the music scene and blew everyone away with his fierce, passionate playing style - though he actually paid his dues for years in hundreds of gigs in dark, smoky clubs in and around Austin, Texas. Like Hendrix, his career was tragically cut short. Sadly, he was not able to see the Artist Series Strat he helped Fender design, which was officially introduced in 1992. The special SRV features are immediately recognizable by any fan of Stevie's music and include an alder body with a rich 3-color sunburst polyurethane finish, along with a distinctive black pickguard (with SRV engraved boldly for everyone to see). Just like Stevie's own guitar, this Artist Series Strat has a reversed (left-handed) tremolo and comes with three blistering Texas Special single-coil pickups that deliver all the raw tone and power you'd expect!
A blistering Strat sound
The original Strat had three single-coil pickups, so it was able to produce sounds that no other guitar could deliver - particularly once players discovered they could lodge the 3-position blade switch in those in between positions to access neck, middle and bridge, and middle pickup combinations. These were often erroneously referred to as the out-of-phase settings. The Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat comes standard with a modern 5-way blade switch, making it easy to access all the pickup combinations. To deliver that signature SRV tone, this guitar comes with a matched set of Texas Special single-coil pickups, so you can go from the classic Strat spank to a screaming, red-hot lead sound with ease.
Fast-playing maple neck with deep, thick oval shape
Leo Fender wasn't afraid to think outside the box when it came to guitar designs - after all, he was an engineer, not a guitar player. In the 1950s and well into the 1970s, the blonde natural maple neck became almost synonymous with Fender guitars. The Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster comes with a 1-piece maple neck that sports a special early '60s deep, thick oval shape, and it's the only Strat in the Fender line to come standard with a pau ferro fingerboard. Pau ferro is an exotic type of rosewood that's most often used in bass guitar fretboards. Next, add 21 jumbo Dunlop frets and a special gloss polyurethane finish, which our resident guitar gurus swear makes this one of the fastest-playing Strats in existence (at least in a production guitar), and you have an instrument worthy of the initials SRV!
Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat Features:
- 3-color sunburst design with polyurethane finish
- Maple neck with deep, thick oval shape
- Solid alder body
- Fender/Gotoh vintage-style tuners
- Pao ferro rosewood fingerboard
- 21 frets
- Dot inlays
- 3 Texas Special single-coil pickups
- Reversed (left-handed) American vintage synchronized tremolo bridge
- 5-position blade for pickup switching
- Gold hardware
- Vintage Tweed case
- 25.5" scale length