Nail the ToneStevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Little Wing

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble · The Sky Is Crying · 1991

This is Number One into Vaughan's Power Station rig from the January 1984 Couldn't Stand the Weather sessions — the 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer through a 4x12 alongside cranked blackface Fender combos, with a Tube Screamer used as a level boost rather than a distortion. Stay mostly on the neck pickup for the melody and chord fragments, and add the bridge pickup plus the Screamer where the solo climbs. A touch of slow rotary or light chorus and moderate spring reverb accounts for the movement, but the size of the tone is picking hand and heavy strings in Eb, not gain.

Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record

Tuning

Eb standard (down a half step)

Play the shapes as written in Em — the record sounds a half step lower; Vaughan used a heavy GHS set (roughly .013–.058), which is part of the thickness but not required.

Part: Solo

Guitar

  • Fender Stratocaster "Number One" (1963 body, 1962 neck) · stock 1959-stamped Strat single-coils · neck, with neck+middle for chord work and bridge for lift in the solo

Amp

Dumble Steel String Singer (150W) with Dumble 4x12

GAIN
6.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.0

Guitar World's making-of piece has Vaughan running Number One into his new 150-watt Steel String Singer with a Dumble 4x12 plus two Fender Vibroverbs, cranked, for the January 1984 Power Station sessions that produced this track; the head has no reverb, so the wash on the record comes from the Fender amps and the room.

Amp

Fender Vibroverb (1964 blackface, 1x15)

GAIN
6.5
BASS
5.0
TREBLE
6.0
REVERB
3.5

Blackface Vibroverb has no mid or presence control. Accounts differ on the exact studio complement — tech René Martinez describes two EV-loaded blackface Super Reverbs alongside an EV-loaded Vibroverb powering the Vibratone, while Guitar World's session account emphasizes the Dumble plus two Vibroverbs; either Fender voicing gets you there.

Pedals

  • Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS-808/TS9) · overdrive used as boost · Level near max, Drive low (about 2), Tone around noon — kick it in for the solo
  • Fender Vibratone · rotary speaker cabinet · Slow (chorale) speed, low in the blend; documented on the Couldn't Stand the Weather sessions, and a faint swirl is audible here
  • Roland SDD-320 Dimension D · studio chorus (console effect) · Button 1 or 2, ridden in and out on the solo; per Guitar World it was added to most Couldn't Stand the Weather solos at mixdown

Tone character

fat neck-pickup warmth · light tube breakup · singing sustain · spring reverb bloom · subtle rotary swirl · forward mids

hard

The solo asks for wide in-tune vibrato and full-step bends on very heavy strings, fast sextuplet pentatonic runs between positions, and chord-melody double stops that have to stay clean at low volume.

Want this on your own amp?

These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.

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Sources