Number One (also known as Vaughan's 'First Wife') was a '62/'63 Fender Stratocaster used by Vaughan for most of his career; it was "rebuilt more times than a custom Chevy." Vaughan always claimed it was a 1959 model, since that date was written on the back of the pick-ups; Rene Martinez, who maintained the guitar since 1980, saw the year 1963 stamped in the body and 1962 on the neck. The guitar was given to him by the owner of Ray Henning's Heart of Texas music shop in Austin, Texas in 1973, it was his main performing instrument and companion. Vaughan used the guitar on all four of his studio albums and on Family Style.
"Number One" had a neck relief of .012" at the 7th and 9th frets, and leveled out through the remainder of the fingerboard. The fingerboard radius when new would have been 7.25 inches as were all pre CBS curved fingerboard Fenders but SRV's guitar ended up after many refrets and sanding of the fingerboard as 10" and used Dunlop 6100 fretwire. String height was measured to be 5/64" on the high E string and 7/64" on the low E string. Each string had 3 full winds for the best angle at the bone nut.
Read more about this topic: Stevie Ray Vaughan's Musical Instruments
Famous quotes related to number one:
“In the end we beat them with Levi 501 jeans. Seventy-two years of Communist indoctrination and propaganda was drowned out by a three-ounce Sony Walkman. A huge totalitarian system ... has been brought to its knees because nobody wants to wear Bulgarian shoes.... Now they’re lunch, and we’re number one on the planet.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)