I would have killed for this information and video in the late 80's and early 90's when all I wanted to do was play and sound like SRV. I tried 12's one time, and it was just too hard to bend. It still blows my mind how difficult to play Stevies set up was and how he just killed it every time. He probably had the strongest hands of any electric guitar player in history. To hear it from Stevies great friend and long time guitar tech is as real as we can get. I miss him so much. What he could have done......

I remember seeing Rene as the opening act for SRV & DT while they are on tour in Germany in 1986, it was the first time I ever remember seeing someone play flamenco style guitar. His performance left such an impression on me that I still listen to flamenco guitar today.

Would really like to see him setup the pickup height.

The string action is crazy

Saw SRV open for Jeff Beck in 1989. Stevie beat the brakes off of that strat. I've never seen anyone do the crazy stuff that he did that night. The fact that the guitar held up and stayed in tune is a testament to how talented Rene is.

Man, I watched all six. This was great. Thanks, Rene and Mojotone!

6:00 Great tip about pressing the strings down on the saddles and nut. My Strat had a warbling sound before I did this, sounds more focused. I can't fathom how he could properly intonate the low E. I have a 49 gauge string and had to remove the spring and widen the opening in the saddle so that it wouldn't get crimped.

Rene I have been waiting about 7 years to watch this. Thank you so much! Oh man I hope you are doing well🙏😊

Thanks for the great tutorial Rene!

Thank you for the details Rene.

These are great….. thanks for these, and thanks Rene…

I have this guitar and it needs setup! Thanks for the instruction!

Stevie: “Hey Rene? Any chance you can make this dinosaur Strat harder to play?” Rene: “I could raise the action 2 feet and throw some piano wire on it.” Stevie: “That’ll do nicely. Sill feels like a banjo but I’ll make it work…”

Rene is such a badass. Would love to just sit and have a convo with him.

I used his advice on winding Strat with new strings The Strats stay in tune now . Thanks 🙏🏽

Thanks for the tips, but I have a question about the straight neck sighting procedure: how can you do that without the strings tuned to pitch? It seems to me that the string pressure will bend the neck, so having a straight neck without strings tuned to pitch seems meaningless. I've never seen guitar techs check the neck straightness without strings tuned to pitch, and guitar players check our necks by pressing the string at the first and last fret, using the string for a straight edge. Maybe I'm missing something....?

hey amigo ....from the old days at charleys guitars in the 70's !!

You can use a fender xheavy pick as a feeler gauge at fret 14 or 15 .then graduate towards the the 11th towards the bass ,,fretting at fret 1 or two ,this gives similar height.

This is such a hidden gem!

This should have millions of views, he worked with the legend🙌🏾✨💯

excellent information I learned a couple things

I just set my action to 3/32 before watching this video. Feels and sounds great now.

Luv you Rene

Incredible

why not just use a notched straight edge to check for a straight neck?

His masters voice!

Great Rene video series! Tip: during your shoot, capture extra close-up shots of the guitar--when you make an audio edit, insert the close-up shot instead of using a video dissolve.

GOLD 👏👏👏

Can we get the unedited uncut version because I would like to hear the full story

I've been playing 62+ years, Rene, and I use that same guitar-on-foot technique! You got that one right, for sure! And I think I prefer your nut lubrication to just about everything out there! I load all my strings first, as well. You set up for one of the best guitarists who ever played; but I have been setting up my Stratocasters by only feel, for over 60 years. You certainly need those measuring tools, though, to set up someone else's guitar! And i readlly like your technique of "thumbing-down" the strings at both ends of the neck to get that hump out of them where they cross the bridge and the nut. I use Raw Vintage springs which are quite unique, and I leave my bridge floating just a little, as I like the action of the tremolo with wiggle in both directions. Just as an aside ... my very first guitar was a 1954 Stratocaster my dad gave me in 1963, serial number 0517.

excellent, what happened to the rest of the footage of the setup explanation and The SRV strat

I would love to see Rene's view on setting up a Les Pual...

So awesome to hear these stories from René. The stringing portion of this video was interesting - I was surprised to see Ernie Balls and not GHS nickel rollers. I would love to hear René go all in depth about strings, and maybe confirm or dispell some of the myths surrounding this topic.. From what I can tell from real evidence was Stevie alternated between .11-.13 depending on the state of his fingers. There is even a page with GHS customer relations person claiming to have worked on a custom set of 11's for when stevies fingers were injured but they are heavy top, and he mentions SRV specifically liking pure nickel. Lastly I would love to hear about SRV and his 'other' guitars - specifically his Gibsons.. Of course he played strats mainly live, there are a few examples even here on youtube of him playing some Gibsons. One example of him playing a flying V on TV, and another supposed home recording of him playing an es-335 or something similar. Would love to hear some of the nerdy guitar conversations him and SRV had over their years together

Anyone has any idea of Tommy Shannon's Bass strings guauge ?

The action and setup on that strat reminds me of an old acoustic guitar. I wonder if thats why he liked this.

Thanks!

So cool. Is there a video where Mr. Martinez shows how the dummy-coil is set up on the inside of SRV's guitar?

Renee you're the best

Legend

GHS sells the actual strings Stevie used - the GHS Nickel Rocker "Lo-Tune" set, but another trick to get a "sort of" Stevie set is to get a 7 string set of Ernie Ball Power Slinky and leave out the .048, so you get .058, .038, .028, .018, .014, .011 - the only two strings that would be slightly lighter are the G and B strings. The Nickel Rockers are warmer, smoother sounding and have a touch more tension on the wound strings, but the Ernie Balls sounded great too.

Knowledge is such a beautiful thing...Stevie probably used such big strings because if you ever saw his fingers they were huge !!

Ive played with different sizes qnd tried to get the neck to respond as Stevey and the only one i was successfully happy with was the SE Stratocaster with a baseball neck

So what was the trust rot ajastment on srv guitar . what is the tentcion on the trudtrot ?????????????????????????

Do a video on Steve Ray Vaughans amp tone

Thank you Rene I thought my string heights were ringt on for Stevie but after seeing this, christ there bloody high 👏👍

You need to use a feeler gauge. Because other players might want a specific relief. I don’t understand guitar techs that don’t use feeler gauge. There are a lot of them.

Is there anything cushioning the bridge at the body? Mine makes a smack when I let off on the bar. I was actually considering floating it like Jeff Beck, but I gather that Stevie Rey would never do that.

What about setting intonation?

Yes what about the pickup height . Thats very important

I just want to know srvs pickup heights. I know they were low, but the only published settings for his pups were in dan erlewines book, and they are clearly wrong

Nice

Any neck relief? Or perfectly straight?

did I miss his proprietary tuner post winding technique??

Oh ,with 6 thou relief or adjust to compensate if more relief

WHAT about the pickups? height? angle? makes a HUGE difference to tone!

I see he doesn’t fret the strings at the 1st fret when setting string height. I know many recommend doing so.

👊🏻🌟🎸

Relief?

thanks man. why you dont clean the fretboard , polish the fret biz... your a pro

I read an article years ago about SRV in an interview with one of his techs, maybe Rene? He said the average player would not be able to play SRVs guitar.

This guitar is strung with 11’s. Just to close the loop… according to the bio Texas Flood, Stevie changed to 11’s after he got sober. After years of supergluing flesh from elsewhere on his body, he could actually ‘feel the pain’ for the first time. It reportedly was at the urging of his techs (inquire within), who had been telling him for years that there is little to be gained north of 11’s. Everyone who saw his last shows was unanimous that he never sounded better.

Cool guy

My fingers would get trapped under those strings. What an action! 😅

Thank you for teaching me the thumb trick Renee.

What serial number SRV signature is that? I assume you have one of the first?? Cheers-

What guitars and amps did SRV use on _Let's Dance_ ?

The strings were Ernie Ball Power Slinky’s. 11-49

I’m pretty sure Stevie & Albert King became so close that Albert would refer to Stevie as his son 🖤

Can I commission you to build me a exact replica of Stevie’s? Same pots, pickups ect. 🙏

Hey René!

I don’t understand 3 1/2 and 30 seconds and I don’t know how to read the ruler 😢

Crazy high action and crazy heavy strings. This would be unplayable to us mere mortals. SRV could thumb wrestle a grizzly bear and win

Rene is my sister’s brother in law .

Wrud?

9:40 I'm surprised that he liked semi-flats. 9:58 the actual gauges SRV used: 11 15 19 28 38 58

I don't understand, on your card it said 2 3/2" at the 12th fret but later you said 3 3/2" ? Is that just Stevie spec?

Two years ago I picked up a SRV STRAT sunburst on a hunch and we opened it up today and it has name G. Martinez . It does have fender custom shop pickups , Brazilian board and appears to be a pre production prototype. Scored !

Man those strings are thicc

Why not use 4/64ths or 1/16th? 🤣😂🤣

Super slinky, Eb tuning and high action would feel like rubber bands imho. Thanks

Burnished /Rollerwound …

action way too high...could have dealt with a good 1,25mm at 12th fret...with lower action on the nut (and very good levelling on frets, maybe even some fall-away from 15th onwards on classic strats). And please do not tell me that higher action equals better tone because that is not true (examples for low action: Satriani and Timmons - if we speak for classic radiused guitars, not to mention Vai, Petrucci, etc).

Try a Luthiers knot. It stays in tune well