Yuku free message boards

I would advise against the pau ferro. First of all, SRV didn't use pau ferro. He used rosewood, bazillian, I believe. The firse SRV signatures had rosewood but then switched to pau ferro but SRV did not use it on "Number One." Stevie's was a rosewood veneer.

There is a big difference in tone. Pau Ferro is much brighter. I have a Rosewood neck on a strat and loved the tone. I was getting some good SRV growl tones out of it. Then I decided I wanted to try a fat neck and since I had heard the SRV signature was using Pau Ferro, I ordered a fat neck from Warmoth with Pau Ferro. It's a great finish and beautiful, but I lost the SRV tones I had with the Rosewood. The Pau Ferro was much brighter but the Rosewood had much warmer and more pleasing tones and generally just seemed to produce better SRV tones.

Here is another consideration for you. You may read that Stevie used bass frets or 6100's. I played a friend's strat this week with 6100's and the neck was simply stunning with those frets in appearance. And, I was surpised how smoothe it was to play with them.

Good luck. I'm thinking about putting together an SRV myself. I have an Eric Johnson and I have been reading that Nitrocelulose finishes produce a big difference in tone because it allows the wood to resonate more efficiently and freely. Take that one step further, if you had no finish at all, which is what a large portion of the SRV is, you would have even less restricted resonation. So, where there is still paint on the surface, I would use very thin nitro and try to buff all but a microscopic film off of it. Good luck.

One last thing, as odd as it sounds, the Texas Specials, in my opinion, don't do the job. You may want to check out Rocketfire reviews. His pickups are said to nail the SRV tone. He also does a pretty decent relic job. He offers a satisfaction guarantee as well.

I don't think it is misleading at all. Certain pickups produce certain tones. Some pickups will produce SRV tones better than others.

As for wood selections and other variables, SRV selected certain woods, nuts, string gauges, fret sizes, etc., to achieve a desired tone. If you are trying to achieve his tone, why select materials that SRV himself didn't want to use?

With regard to PF and Rosewood. SRV used Rosewood veneer. I have tried both on the same guitar with the same player and technique (me) and the Rosewood was easily the winner with regard to the SRV tones. If I wanted a brighter tone, the PF was superior. Don't get me wrong, I am not getting rid of my PF neck. But if I decide to make an SRV, it will be Rosewood. Then I'll have the right tools to work with while I try to work on technique.