Mary Had a Little Lamb

[ibanart300]

Hey guys, just after some quick input. I know this is a flogged questions but this is a little different. I am having trouble deciphering how clean Stevie Ray Vaughan played Mary Had a Little Lamb. I am already well aware of strings, amps and pedals he used.

What I am interested in though is did he use a tube screamer on that song? I am really having trouble distinguishing on that particular song how hard he is driving his amp. To me it almost sounds clean with a slight boost in grit and volume in the solo. To me it doesn't seem like he is driving the amp very hard nor using a TS in that particular song until he reaches the solo.

Anyway just after some thoughts as to what he was doing on that particular song as I am still training my ears to pick up the slight subtleties in his music.

[ibanart300]

Is there anyone that covers this song. Sorry if this is the wrong thread. Just wondering if there is anyone that plays it, how clean do you play the song or do you drive the amp a little bit. I hear it as a cleaner one of his songs as opposed to Texas Flood where you can really hear the tube screamers working the amps.

[Bob Pollock]

My band covers it. I play it using a low gain clean(ish) boost and chorus.

[ibanart300]

Ok thanks heaps for that. Like it's a little hard to differentiate when it is very subtle. And just lastly did you use just a boost pedal or do you use a TS808 with the gain set very very low?

[GAD]

I use the TS808 with the volume up and the gain low in to a Fender amp. Works for me.

Wasn't he famous for using two REALLY expensive amps, one clean and one for dirt too? That mix of clean and dirt is magic to my ears.

[ibanart300]

Thanks for that GAD. I guess I was right, that song is virtually clean. Yeah I just wasn't sure how much dirt I should be adding, I have a cheap chinese tube amp at the moment so am living off of decent pedals and a Strat. I am hoping to get a Fender Blues Junior Tweed as an upgrade as I can't really afford a Twin/Deluxe/Vibra. That particular song always sounded cleaner then his others that's why I wasn't sure how dirty I should be setting my settings.

[Morgan24]

Thats a Fender blackface with volume between 4-6 and treble around 6, middle 5 and bass around 4. Strat with middle and neck pickup and neck only on the solo. Tuned to Eb using at least 11 strings.

[BluesHarp]

Thats a Fender blackface with volume between 4-6 and treble around 6, middle 5 and bass around 4. Strat with middle and neck pickup and neck only on the solo. Tuned to Eb using at least 11 strings.

This. Using a TS for a clean boost too.

[AllmanFan]

Diaz square face with the volume around 7 or 8

[ibanart300]

Okay cool thanks heaps guys. I will give it a go as I want to start playing this one out a bit but don't want it to sound completely rubbish. I know I don't have the right amp for it (Bugera V22) but a Blues Junior is on my to get list. I have a Fulldrive 2 Mosfet, does anyone have any suggested settings for Mary Had a Little Lamb on this one?

I was thinking vintage mode with the gain down and the tone somewhere in the middle and the volume up a bit and for the solo the boost set to at just a hint to make it more present in a band situation. That's just what I thought but if anyone else has any suggestions that would be appreciated.

[Bluedano1]

Don't forget alot of the sound of that song (and other SRV's) just comes from the attack of the right hand (the percussion) and clean phrasing with the left. IMO, You should work on getting the right "tone" with an unplugged Strat- then take care of the gear end...

[ibanart300]

Okay thanks for the tip Bluedano1. I have a good sound but I feel something is missing to me it feels like low end. The sound clean sounds awesome but as soon as I kick on the fulldrive 2 it feels a little too bright and trebley so I am wondering for Mary had a little lamb if I should be running it in a different mode.

[ibanart300]

Don't forget alot of the sound of that song (and other SRV's) just comes from the attack of the right hand (the percussion) and clean phrasing with the left. IMO, You should work on getting the right "tone" with an unplugged Strat- then take care of the gear end...

Thanks so much for that, I spent about 20 minutes getting the right sound out of my amp and then adjusted the FD2 Mos to add to the sound rather then change it completely.

I now have a very very close sound that is just really heavenly. What I found was that the FD2 was adding way too much mid range frequencies. So I dialled the mids back on my amp a bit and boosted the bass a little and then the FD2 did the rest and did it well.

If anyone is interested - for that song on the Fulldrive 2 I used the Vintage mode in Standard and set the overdrive dial almost to zero and cranked the volume and the tone at around 1 to 1:30 mark. That combined with the right amp settings gave me a really full, huge sound spanky kind of sound with a decent low end.

For the solo I set the boost level to a tiny bit higher then what I set the overdrive to so when it gets to the solo it has an even huger sound with a little bit of grit to bring out the double stops. Thanks again for the suggestions everyone I have really got the sound I want now! The Fulldrive 2 is really versatile but it does take some mucking around to get the sound you want as there are a lot of options on that sucker.