I luckily met SRV during the Couldn't Stand The Weather tour down here in the REAL south and he did indeed say that he'd have the drive at zero, tone at midday, but he'd ride the volume depending on the room and how his amps were "behaving", and he was aiming for the same tone except more of it, so you're on the right track. He did mention that he was thinking of maybe running two ts-9's together

At 55 years old and a lifelong SRV fan I think you came as close to nailing his tone as anyone I've ever heard. Well done!!!!

Sevigny is one of the very very few I listen to. A likeable, knowledgeable player.

Comment to help Nik spread this video😁👍🏻

SRV was unmatched. He was in a league by himself. He could take any guitar, cheap or high end, and make beautiful music with it. Electric or acoustic. That's not a result of any pedal or device. Those things were just tools he used. The magic came from his talent for sure, but mostly from his dedication to his craft and from his ear and his focus on paying very close attention to every nuance of every part of guitar playing to the point where he could very quickly and very instinctively find the sweet spot on an instrument and on an amp and he could sense and absorb the nuances of the room and exploit them all with the perfect touch to create the most moving tones possible at any given moment in the performance. Watch the many videos of his performances. Pay very close attention. He was constantly adjusting his tone and volume knobs and changing pickups via the 5 way switch. Constantly! He would masterfully command the dynamics of any song by changing pick location and pick attack and by unleashing an ever changing choice of left hand techniques to great effect. So much so that his music alone took the audience on a moving emotional journey in itself before even factoring in his soulful singing ability. I can't understand why so many musicians put so much time and effort into attempting to recreate his sound electronically while they completely miss the fact that the magic wasn't in the pedals, it was in his fingers, his ears, his mind, his heart, and his soul. NO ONE will ever be SRV. Work on finding YOUR sound and making YOUR music. Don't waste your time, effort, and talent trying to recreate something that is out of reach.

100% SRV Nik you nailed that tone! Most important here is you Amp, just a great tone!!👌

Yep yep yep I just watched this in Nov 2021. Years back I bought one for a SRV tone hunt. And I happily sold it because, it just for me , produced Lots of Noise! I think your video, I also just watched ,today, on the Fuzz in SRV tone, was the missing link,most people are looking for in the SRV sound. Especially for playing the Bedroom stage, that we all Hero in ! I don't have a fuzz ,on my board as I didn't understand ,the way to use it. Your fuzz video, cracked SRV tone for me so what's that ,22 year search ! I thank you ! Fuzz pedal hunt is on !

Just bought a TS 9. Love the tone and how Stevie used it. Thank you so much for this video.

This is very useful mate. I would imagine people have spent shit tones of money getting that Stevie ray tone. But it all comes from volume and speakers moving air. At low volume you don't get that gain sound Stevie gets were you can here all the notes ringing clear. Ok if you've got a 45watt amp at home look for a rehearsal space were you can turn up as loud as you want. It's like running a sports car and never getting about 2k revs. Once you get the power valves working hard it all just falls into place man

If I had that tone I'd never leave the house...

Love the videos man just found your channel

I noticed you pick over the pickup that you have selected. I think that’s an important tone tip that a lot of people overlook. Thanks for another informative video!

Very interesting info. And probably the best playing so far. It's getting better and better and better Nik!

Great tone, Nik! Aß always! Regards from Austria!

Best SRV sound on KZfaq 👍👍👍

Damnit man you’re playing and knowledge of Stevie and Hendrix is always mind blowing. One day I’ll be able to rip riffs like you brother.

Great video nik!! Your playing has been great from the start of the riff videos but lately your playing seems to have taken another step forward!! sounds fantastic!!! 👍

The video that every blues guitarists need to watch. Great info and demonstration, primo!

Very generous of you !!!..........Love your channel and playing !

I wasn’t planning on subscribing…but that’s what happened. Great playing man! And really nice explanation of how SRV used the TS.

Dude you killed it on that demo good job!!! I’m why over tube screamers these days but gotta say that was fun to watch.

Great stuff, man! Just came across your channel while doing a bit of a deep dive into Stevie. I’m kind of an old shredder from the 80s, but always loved SRV. So I finally just got a couple Strats, and I’m trying to dial-in that classic tone. Sounds great. I watch so many videos, hard to see sometimes where exactly he has the toggle switch at. What I gather, he would usually have it one click down from the the neck pick up. For getting those big rhythm tones, pride and joy, etc… and he’s constantly switching, and adjusting his volume-things I/we never did in the 80s and 90s. Everything was just wide open-like old Van Halen. Anyway, you were getting that gnarly tone, but I saw you were all the way up to just the neck pick up. Is that simply because it’s too hard to get it to that fourth position in the middle of playing, so people just end up flicking it all the way forward? I think I would see Stevie do that, and little by little he would always click it down ones, or constantly making tiny adjustments. So that’s what I’ve been working on. Just wondering if you saw differently in his old videos, or is it just as easy, and really close enough, just flipping that switch all the way up? I still sometimes can’t quite hear when he’s on the higher strings, around the middle of the neck. But I’m getting familiar with that ‘quack’ now. One last thing, I guess he is going from the bridge pick up in the intro to Pride and Joy, then must be switching towards the neck when he gets into the rhythm? Just so smooth and seamless like you said, with his pedals as well. Thanks, I’ll check back. I’ll definitely check out more of your channel, and spread the word. Oh, and what gauge strings are you using there? That’s another thing, I’m going from eights to tens on these new strats. It’s a little different technique. And 10s are still considered light, ha ha. But I can hit those 10s pretty hard, and they don’t early clip out. Oh, and every time I try to back it off and get a cleaner tone, I still end up gravitating to the old heavy metal style Texas blues, which I want to get away from. But since I’ll never be able to play as clean as Stevie, especially at my age, I’m going to strip it down as much as I can-with a clean boost… or maybe my tube screamer-just to get a little more sustain and forgiveness. I also started actually measuring specs on my guitars, and was wondering if you have an idea of the distance from SRV‘s strings, fretted at the 21st, above the pole pieces? I can adjust by ear, but I like the science behind the art also. If you have time, and do see this comment. No worries!!! Thanks again, man! I will be back. 🤘🏻🇺🇸🎸

Hello from France, Thanks for all your tricks and news about gettin the right sound. Thanks to your stuff I've found mine. And after one year of looking and earing your videos I can definitely say : the best thing I recommend is....push your amp volume to crank it ;) I never try it before cause it was too loud, even on stage... but I just bought a good and cheap attenuator P&P (made in France) that works nice. thx Nik, at least that awesome big blues sound is mine now !

Great job , keep these videos coming 👍

Great great stuff as always! Beautiful tone & playing 👍 Especially today being 30 years since 🎶🎶🎶

This is all great info, and I love how you said to find your way and not to just do a thing becuase famous players did. I think a lot of players make that mistake. This is solid actionable knowledge, and thank you! I'm sorry it took so long to find your channel, but I rang the bell. This is great stuff!

Brilliant playing really learned a lot from your demo greetings from Bonnie Scotland

Killin it bro so fun to see you play

Great tone/advice as always. Your comment on getting the plugged straight in sound sorted first makes lots of since, defo going to try that this weekend while out playing rather than realigning completely on any one of the 4 gain stages on my board ...! Also mabey its time to brake out my tRex Alberta (808 clone) again too!

Incredible video/info Nik!!!

Great tutorial man!! Messed with both my klon clone and my ts9 to just push my 64 vibro. Seven on my amp is perfect.

Most socalled SRV tones make me wince. But you tone and playing I could listen to for hours.

Great job with this brother. You hammered home all of the main points. I see way too many people chasing Stevie's sound that put way too much drive in their signal. His sound is all about volume and power (his hands/technique). Hopefully more people will see this video and it will help them get on the right path. Happy Thanksgiving.

Hey Nik, I've been watching your channel for a long time now. I just wanted to say, your playing improves every video. Killer chops and tone bro! Keep up the content and I'll keep watching. Ps: I play a Strat through a '66 Pro-Reverb that my dad bought new. I've been at it for 26 yrs. your info really "resonates" with me. ✌🏻️

Amazing video Nik! I learned a lot here. Cheers brother!

Thank you, your video is great, I’m learning a lot. Thank you for your openness, humility and great playing ! Reguard from Montpellier (France).

I want to play like YOU when I grow up! I think it’s the Shoes! Great video Bro!

Great tone man!!!!!!! You nailed it

Here you will be well advised, with nothing but the truth, and the love of music 👏🏼 such a great video!

Thanks Nik, some serious tones there man!

Awesome video Nik, you got it all figured out.

Great playing man! Love it!!! Thank you for doing this video!

When Stevie played the first Montreux show they rented two Fender Twins that he used, they were so loud that they tilted them back and put brown blankets over the speakers. Yet stevie still sounded like stevie, it just goes to show that he never needed a dumble to sound amazing.

People who review gear take notes that's a fucking review you go ham on that shit

Amazing playing and tone!!!

I've learned over the years that straight-no-chaser is the only way to find your tone before adding any pedal. I currently use a Fender rival of a two-channel Carvin X-60C w/a Celestion that makes a Strat, Tele or any humbucking guitar warm & bright either clean or dirty. I've been adding a Boss Blues Driver in the mix every now & then but the SRV-like settings make it jump a bit and now I can't wait to try my DOD Overdrive Plus and it adds a subtle bass boost w/the tone knob on 0.

awsome vid and playing! You have a great rythem feel.

Nice video, you play great dude! Love from Indonesia ❤

Really liked this! Huge SRV fan. Beginner student!

Video 1 was killer and pretty informative with the drive into wha. I’m getting close with Fender amp and just got the Vertex effects Steel String Singer Supreme. Experimenting with signal chain. Trying to decide on my drive choice. The EQD The Dunes using the “clean” non clipping mode and Horizon Devices Precison Drive. One thing is painfully obvious. It’s not the magic “unicorn” pedal, the PLAYER and just the amp is 90% of it..Thanks for part 2 !!

It's the info I've been looking for, God sent, Thanks Dude!!!

AWESOME TONES!!! AWESOME VIDEO!!! big thanks for the tips!

Great vide man sounds great!!!

I love this video. I watch it two or three times a day.

This is excellent- It really, really shows how little the Tube Screamer is doing to the overall tone. Since your weren't hitting the pedal itself and the light was always on- it got tough (really tough) to tell when you hit the looper if the pedal was being engaged or turned off- which is actually a cool way to demo this because we couldn't be biased and "hear" the pedal when the light turned on and off. There were some sections where it was more obvious- but I venture to say hitting the strings hard could have produced the same effect. I almost think the biggest change would be to how the guitar feels in response more than an overall tone change. Your amp is really cooking and the pedal really is just "putting it just over" the edge- often times just riding on the edge instead of over~ just picking lighter brings it back to "amp only" tone. I think there is a lot to be said for leaving it on all the time and just adjusting attack and guitar volume to clean up. I find when my amp is cranking and in the zone- (pedals on or not) I can get all the clean I like just by turning down the guitar volume. Thanks for this video Nik- very well done. As always your playing is off the charts excellent!

you have a good point about the volume level.... thanks

Thanks for your perspective and input no pun intended. Lol. Great vids !

Nice vidéo dude!

Perfect interpretation! Thanks for the video. greatings from Brazil

Great playing, you got it.

Great, thank you Nik!

I just added a tube screamer to my pedalboard recently.... I'm still a noob to this stuff. This video makes sense! Thanks!

Great video Nik. I love that Pro Reverb!

Great video, man. Thanks a lot for sharing this.

I've always gone for clean Boost. It's that Tone knob that might move 7-10. I love my ToneLok version. 808, with Hot switch.

Damn copied the amp settings on my 74 twin reverb.... Woooooow im in love with it new favorite setting been rocking it since the day the vid came out

great video!!! very helpful!!!!!!

man that tone was SAWEETT

So impressed w your video & breakdown I had to subscribe..

Excellent playing brother.

you are a crazy player dude !

Loved hearing the mention of Tommy Katona. My band Nightbird that me and my sister started 11 years ago has played with them and helped him and Texas Flood back in their earlier days. Good friends and always look forward to seeing them though it's much less frequent these days. He's amazing. We're playing a few days later than him at the same venue this next weekend.

Awesome video and playing! Appreciate your taste in tone. I loved/love SRV’s tone, Hendrix, Clapton, Allman’s, Zep, etc. There is a LOT of tone in that old gear. As for the tube screamer it compliments Fender guitars and amps so well. Fender BF amps with there slightly scooped tone sounds killer with a TS. And as you showed in some of your other videos. Big JBL/Altec Lansing or EV’s is essential. IMHO my Fender amps really came alive with real vintage JBL’s. Philips 6L6’s, blackplate RCA 12AX7’s help too! Enjoy your knowledge, research, playing, and guidance.

Thank you for the kudos my friend :) I appreciate that!

For me its similiar to SRV tone . Nice work men , i really enjoy

Great one Nik!

As always great vid

This made me subscribe. Great playing and info

Awesome playing as always Nik. I always get a buzz out of hearing you play and of course your knowledge is invaluable. I love seeing all the different approaches people have to creating the perfect tone

Hey Nik This was Awesome I recently pulled out my old ‘83 TS9 and I’ve been playing around with the settings. But this helped me so much. Awesome playing and your tone is killer. Keep woodshed Wednesday coming. I Love your work

I'm gonna turn it way up when I get home from work tonight.

Great vid! Subbed!

Great info,thanks

My main amp is a "boogied" (aka butchered) 64 Pro also, there can't be too many of us out there! Love that single 15 working hard, it really fills a room

PURE GENIUS!!!

I really like your videos, thanks! Subscribed and started following you on facebook!

As always a great video, and i maybe wrong, but i think that will be a reason to add a Marshall plexi along side the fender have that balanced sound and you wont need the tube screamer in general with that mix....

Great video and killer tone with and without the TS on. I feel like this is what so many people I interact with do not understand about tone (be it theirs or someone else's). For me, my amp has to at the very least be compressing those power tubes a little bit and then a pedal will take me the rest of the way (modified Rangemaster type for me but same concept, slam the level as needed and set tone to taste). Volume does create an issue and I cannot take my 30 watters out and set them to their respective sweet spots without an attenuator or some other way of cutting the stage volume down...even so, still better tone and responsiveness (to my ears) than using OD pedals to get that grunt.

This is awesome thanks man

Great vid Nik!!! Killing it with those chops Bro!! I used to stack two tube screamers, since the 90’s until recently. My clean was a tad bit less dirty than your clean, but still dirty. 1st position ts9 was used just as you demonstrated here. Second was actually a ts9 turbo but I only ever used the regular position on that pedal, but I had the drive turned up to about 11 or noon for songs that I heard in my head needed more saturated overdriven tones. And I was playing through a The Twin Amp, set at 50watts, attenuated. And I got great tones. Nowadays I’m playing through a deluxe reverb. Pushing it to break up for my clean. And I’m using Jessie’s blues power and duelist as well as the germanium mini fuzz. Not all at once of course. But they’re in the mix for different songs. But what would you think about stacking two blues power pedals?!? I’m curious about it and may just buy another one to see how they sound stacked. What’s your opinion?

Been waiting this episode for awhile! Great stuff and keep em coming! Btw, did you do any treatment to your amp room? I found that when using my iphone to record the loud fender amps in my room with concrete walls, the highs doesn't come in as much as in the live situation. Any treatment or recording suggestions would be extremely helpful! I see you quite often put the amps in a seperate room, and the recorded tone from your other room always sounds much clearer and really well balanced, is that why you do that? Thank you for sharing Nik!

I would be curious about your take on the Nu-tube screamer that Ibanez released awhile ago. I picked one up because of the versatility and that you can blend the overdrive signal to how much you want. And when your talking about that "big open" sorta sound, you can get that extra headroom with this when your powering it with an 18v adapter. It's a really interesting pedal that seems to fly under the radar. People don't seem to want to try it because it's not an original TS9. Great video's, Cheers !

Hey Nik Great info on the Tube Screamer and Stevie's use of it. Personally I always felt that he never really needed it to get his sound. You are correct that the volume that he played at and his choice of amps/guitars etc was a huge part of it but I would say that most of that tone was in his hands. When he first jammed with Jeff Healey I was sitting in front of him while he was playing a borrowed telecaster and of course he sounded just like himself. Jeff was the same. He'd pick up someone else's guitar and play through their amp he always sounded like himself. For a nice clean boost with almost no alteration of tone I got a great sound out of my Hotcake. It was one of the early ones so I don't know what they might have sounded like years later. I ran it with next to no drive and just used it as a clean boost. It was the best that I have ever tried at retaining the amps actual sound uncoloured. I once got a Tube Screamer rewired completely with silver wire and a few things changed and it was such a night and day improvement. It was done by Mike at Analog Man many years ago.

Great playing!

Superb video! Love the talk and you have a lot of knowledge that this old SRV fan, didn’t know. I knew he ran it as a boost etc. Can you post the unedited vid? That is Awesome!! Big Fan, Champ! Zack Rosicka

Stevie Ray Vaughn on a Squier Strat would sound pretty damn good, I can guarantee you that! Your right great gear helps but it’s in the fingers and the heart! ❤️

I run a 5 watt tube amp through 2 12's volume pinned and a compressor pedal with the sensativity off and the volume dimed for a clean boost. I keep it all under control with my volume knob, I don't sound that much like Stevie but I do sound like me.

Awesome!!

Awesome video. Totally agree. Make your ears happy first

I sometimes use my fuzz in the same way great boost!