Shortly before his tragic death in 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan collaborated with Fender guitars to produce an Artist Series Stratocaster. Few guitarists have had as much impact on popular music as Stevie, except maybe Clapton, Beck, and Hendrix. He seemingly brought blues into the mainstream singlehandedly, just when people began to forget the genre even existed, and this signature Strat is a fitting monument to the man's brilliance. It features a deep, early '60s oval neck shape, a pau ferro fingerboard with 21 jumbo frets, three Texas Special single-coil pickups, a reversed (left-handed) tremolo, and a black 3-ply pickguard engraved with SRV! This is an instrument that's truly as unique as the man who helped design it, and now it can be yours!

Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster at a Glance:

• Early-'60s oval neck profile
• Pau ferro fingerboard with 6105 frets
• Texas Special™ pickups
• Engraved SRV pickguard
• Gold-plated hardware
• Reverse vintage-style tremolo bridge

The guitar SRV helped design 

Much like fellow Strat slinger Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray literally burst upon the music scene and blew everyone away with his fierce, passionate playing style — though he actually paid his dues for years in hundreds of gigs in dark, smoky clubs in and around Austin, Texas. Like Hendrix, his career was tragically cut short. Sadly, he was not able to see the Artist Series Strat he helped Fender design, which was officially introduced in 1992. The special SRV features are immediately recognizable by any fan of Stevie's music and include an alder body with a rich 3-color sunburst polyurethane finish, along with a distinctive black pickguard (with SRV engraved boldly for everyone to see). Just like Stevie's own guitar, this Artist Series Strat has a reversed (left-handed) tremolo and comes with three blistering Texas Special single-coil pickups that deliver all the raw tone and power you'd expect!

A blistering Strat sound 

The original Strat had three single-coil pickups, so it was able to produce sounds that no other guitar could deliver — particularly once players discovered they could lodge the 3-position blade switch in those in-between positions to access neck, middle and bridge, and middle pickup combinations. These were often erroneously referred to as the out-of-phase settings. The Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat comes standard with a modern 5-way blade switch, making it easy to access all the pickup combinations. To deliver that signature SRV tone, this guitar comes with a matched set of Texas Special single-coil pickups, so you can go from the classic Strat spank to a screaming, red-hot lead sound with ease.

Fast-playing maple neck with deep, thick oval shape 

Leo Fender wasn't afraid to think outside the box when it came to guitar designs — after all, he was an engineer, not a guitar player. In the 1950s and well into the 1970s, the blonde natural maple neck became almost synonymous with Fender guitars. The Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster comes with a 1-piece maple neck that sports a special early '60s deep, thick oval shape. Next, add 21 jumbo Dunlop frets and a special gloss polyurethane finish, which our resident guitar gurus swear makes this one of the fastest-playing Strats in existence (at least in a production guitar), and you have an instrument worthy of the initials SRV!

What Fender Says...

If there were a Mount Rushmore of the Stratocaster, Stevie Ray Vaughan would be one of the greats enshrined there. Fender's Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster is a finely crafted like-new version of Vaughan's favorite guitar - the famous "Number One" Strat® with which he electrified listeners everywhere and seared scorching Texas blues into the top of the charts. For pure SRV tone and style that evokes one of the Stratocaster's most revered masters, this is the "one".

Narrow Tall Frets

Narrow tall frets provide more height, which lets you get a better grip on the strings, enabling more control over them and making bends and vibrato easier.

Thick Oval Neck 

As Vaughan himself preferred, his signature model features a thick oval neck profile (the shape of the neck in cross section) that imparts a distinctively comfortable fretting-hand feel, and more mass for improved tone and sustain.

Texas Special pickups

Single-coil Texas Special pickups are over-wound for big Texas-blues tone with dynamically scorching output. With alnico 5 magnets, enamel-coated magnet wire and staggered pole pieces for balanced output across each string, they sing, scream and everything in between with tight bass, focused midrange and crystalline highs.

“SRV" Pickguard

Surely the most distinctive visual element of this instrument is its black pickguard, engraved with the big, bold initials of the man himself.

Pau Ferro Fingerboard

A great wood for instrument fingerboards, pau ferro is a South American tone-wood with a feel and sonic characteristics similar to rosewood, but lighter in color and harder.

Left-Handed Stratocaster Tremolo

Vaughan is said to have preferred the left-handed (or upside-down) tremolo because its placement on a right-handed guitar was more like the arrangement used by Jimi Hendrix—with the trem arm above the strings rather than below them.