Nail the ToneStevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

Pride and Joy

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble · Texas Flood · 1983

The Texas Flood sessions were cut live in three days at Jackson Browne's Down Town Studio with Number One through two '64 Vibroverbs and Browne's Dumbleland Special, and the only effect in the chain was a Tube Screamer set as a near-clean boost. For the main riff, keep the amp loud enough to break up on hard picking and let your right hand do the rest — the grit is volume and attack, not pedal gain. Vaughan's pickup choice on this track isn't documented; the snappy riff sits best on the bridge pickup, though players who know the record also hear neck and neck/middle blends in the verses and solo, so trust your ear.

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

Tuning

Eb standard (down a half step)

Vaughan used very heavy strings (about .013-.058); the riff is fingered in E shapes but sounds in Eb, so match the record by tuning down rather than transposing.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Fender Stratocaster "Number One" · Vintage single-coils (1959 pickups, 1962 rosewood neck, '63 body) · bridge pickup

Amp

Fender Vibroverb (1964, 1x15)

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.0
TREBLE
5.5
REVERB
2.0

Tech Cesar Diaz said Vaughan's standing Vibroverb settings were volume 6, treble 5.5, bass 4; engineer Richard Mullen said he set the amps himself at the session and ran them wide open, so session values may have been hotter. Blackface Vibroverb has no mid or presence control.

Amp

Dumbleland Special (150W head, 4x12 with EVs)

GAIN
4.0
BASS
5.0
MID
5.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.0

Jackson Browne's amp, borrowed at his Down Town Studio; Mullen mic'd a Vibroverb speaker and the Dumble cab with SM57s, and the record's guitar sound is the blend of Fender and Dumble rather than either alone.

Pedals

  • Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer · Overdrive (used as clean boost) · Drive 1-2, Tone 5 (noon), Level 8

Tone character

thick single-coil snap · cranked Fender breakup · forward mids · fat lows, bright top · touch-sensitive dirt

hard

The riff is a continuous Texas shuffle that puts a walking low-string bass figure against clipped upper-string chord stabs, so the hard part is palm-muting cleanly and keeping the swing dead steady at tempo.

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