Thursday, March 19, 2026

26 thoughts on “THE SRV Guitar Setup (13 Gauge & High Action) #shorts

  • I play Ernie Ball .008's. Been using them for decades. I personally don't believe thickness matters on the unwound strings. At least to my ears.

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  • Play what its right to you. I play 12s and not for the sound, just because it feels super great to me. It feels like the guitar is a Tank that ressonate all over the world without an amp.

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  • I’m pretty sure it’s common knowledge that Stevie went back to using more common gauge strings after his hand had suffered enough. The entire ”heavier strings = heavier sound” is sort of a myth…

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  • I play with high action because I almost exclusively fingerpick but only really need 10's or maybe 9.5's I tried 13's and 11's and they were just ridiculous for no reason I even tried tuning the 11's to D Standard for metal and that was still difficult for me

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  • Word of advice to this dude and anyone else considering trying this setup: SRV basically didn't entirely know what he was doing in terms of guitar setup. There's an interview with his 1985-1990 guitar tech, Rene Martinez, where Rene said that when he showed Stevie how to get his thick gauge, high action tone with lighter strings and a slightly different setup, SRV was amazed that it was even possible. It sounds wild that Stevie Ray Vaughan of all people wouldn't know how to properly dress his guitar, but I think he just tinkered with it as an amateur, and the first setup he got that he liked he stuck with. However it was dreadfully suboptimal, and SRV never bothered to correct anything, even though he wore through frets, fingerboards and his own fingers playing like this.

    Moral of the story is, play SRV's post-1985 setup if you're going to emulate him. He gauged down to 12's, lowered his string action, switched to jumbo frets, and consequently his guitars (and hands) didn't go through nearly as much unnecessary wear and tear, and the tonal difference is entirely compensated for so you're not losing his early 80's tone either.

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  • I use 9s and stretch a lot because of reoccurring tendonitis in my left arm… I'd be scared to even try that guitar ????????

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  • He's an awesome player and I'm sure he'll go on and continue to grow and expand his horizons beyond the SRV stuff, look at JD Simo at 16 vs now for example.

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