page_title: Stevie Ray Vaughan's musical instruments
section_title: Hamiltone Guitars
hierarchical_section_title: Stevie Ray Vaughan's musical instruments / Hamiltone Guitars
caption_attribution_description: English: Hamiltone SRV Guitars
context_page_description: This is a list and description of the guitars and other equipment played by musician Stevie Ray Vaughan. Vaughan played a number of Fender Stratocasters throughout his career, one of which, a 1963 body and a late 1962 rosewood neck, became "the most famous battered Strat in rock history." He was notoriously hard on his guitars, and many of them required extensive periodic maintenance, as well as other equipment. He used a limited number of effect pedals, and favored Fender and Marshall amplification.
  In spite of being rough on his gear, it was reported Vaughan could hear even the slightest malfunction, even when, for instance, he was running 32 amplifiers into the mixing console for the recording of In Step. His guitars were serviced by Charley Wirz of Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas, Texas, and especially Rene Martinez, who worked in Wirz's shop for a while. Martinez also built guitars for Carlos Santana. His amplifiers were tuned and serviced by Cesar Diaz, also the guitar technician for Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.
context_section_description: Hamiltone (also known as "Main" or the "Couldn't Stand the Weather" guitar) was a custom Stratocaster-style guitar made for Vaughan by James Hamilton in Buffalo, NY. It was presented to Vaughan by James as a gift from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons on April 29, 1984.
  This guitar features a 2-piece maple body and a 3-piece "neck-through body" design. It also originally had EMG preamped pickups, but Vaughan didn't like the pickups in it. He was about to make next the music video for "Couldn't Stand the Weather", and didn't want to get Number One wet during filming, as that would have ruined the 1959 pickups, so he used the Hamiltone for filming. The EMG pickups and Gibson style amber top hat knobs were changed in June 1984.
  The Hamiltone's fingerboard is ebony with a mother-of-pearl inlay that read "Stevie Ray Vaughan". The guitar was originally set to be made for Stevie in 1979, but the plan was dropped when Vaughan started using his middle name "Ray"; he was only known as "Stevie Vaughan" at the time.
caption: On the left: The 20th Anniversary Hamiltone made by Jim Hamilton
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