As I mentioned last week, this past Friday marked the 20th anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tragic and untimely death. To pay tribute to SRV, the members of Double Trouble (Reese Wynans, Chris Layton, and Tommy Shannon) got together at a small club here in Nashville with a number of guitarists and played much of Stevie’s recorded catalog of music. I was able to attend the show and witnessed nearly four hours of excellent music. It was an unbelievable experience to be able to see Double Trouble play the music that has affected me so much over the years. Anthony Stauffer, from StevieSnacks.com, also attended the show and was able to record some clips, which he has posted on YouTube:

Here’s a video of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, with a small bit of “Third Stone from the Sun” thrown in. I’ve said before that Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my favorite guitar players. There’s just something about his playing that reaches me on an emotional level, and “Little Wing” is one of those songs that when Stevie plays it, I feel it as much as hear it.

(via Chris Jankowski)

Stevie Ray Vaughan, in an October 1984 interview with Guitar Player Magazine, responding to the question “Do any of your guitars have maple necks?”:

Lenny does. It has a real clear tone, and the pickups are microphonic-you can hear it when you hit the pickguard. But when you play it soft, it sounds great. When I first got the guitar, it had a rosewood fretboard, but it was thinner, and that bothered me. So I put a copy of a Fender maple neck on there that Billy Gibbons gave me. I like the rosewood necks usually, because, for one thing, when you sweat, you don’t get blisters. It seems like the finish on a maple neck gets hotter, and there’s more friction. As hard as I play and as much as I sweat, I get sore enough as it is. There’s a fatter sound on the rosewood, as far as I can tell. It’s not as bright. The ebony fretboard seems a little clearer, but it’s fat, too.

I’ve previously expressed my preference for rosewood fretboards. It’s interesting to hear Stevie Ray’s opinion on the matter.