Last updated: 3/14/2025
I can prove that time travel is not real.
If it were, I would have already traveled back to July 20, 1983. Why that date? So I could go to the El Mocambo club in Toronto, Ontario.
And then you would have seen me in the crowd at this show:
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s stop at the El Mocambo that night became the best rock/blues show ever caught on camera. (I will die on this hill.)
And much of the night, he played his main guitar, Number One.
His relationship with Number One was almost romantic in nature; he even called the guitar his “first wife.”
But where did Number One come from? What is its backstory? And where is it now, some three-and-a-half decades after Stevie’s untimely demise?
Let’s find out.
The Most Iconic Guitar in the Blues
SRV’s Number One is quite possibly the most iconic guitar in the blues, perhaps only rivaled by the likes of B.B. King’s Lucille and Buddy Guy’s polka-dot Stratocasters.
It wasn’t the only guitar Stevie owned, but it was the most special. Special enough that he played it at every show and on every album from the moment he acquired it until his death in 1990. His relationship with Number One was almost romantic in nature; he even called the guitar his “first wife.”
Deep in the Heart of Texas
He received the guitar in 1973—long before he was a household name—from Ray Henning, owner of the Heart of Texas music shop in Austin.
The story goes that Stevie saw the sunburst Fender in Ray’s shop and immediately knew it was special, without even playing it. He arranged a trade with the owner, swapping it for a 1963 Stratocaster. Henning happily traded guitars since the ’63 was in much better condition than the one hanging on his wall.
Stevie saw the sunburst Fender in Ray’s shop and immediately knew it was special, without even playing it.
In an interesting twist of fate, the previous owner of what would soon become Number One was a big name in music at the time, Christopher Cross. He supposedly traded in the guitar for a Les Paul because he was looking for the thicker sound of humbuckers. (Stevie, by contrast, would have no problem dialing in a thick sound!)
Stratocaster or partscaster?
The guitar itself was a mix-and-match affair. It comprised a 1962 body, a 1963 neck, and pickups from 1959.
The instrument was also well used by the time Stevie put his hands on it in ’73. Of course, he would go on to subject it to nightly abuse over the next 27 years.
“Rebuilt more times than a custom Chevy!”
Stevie and his guitar tech, Rene Martinez, modified the guitar quite a bit over the years. This was usually because of necessary repairs. SRV was once quoted as saying, “[Number One] was rebuilt more times than a custom Chevy.”
The neck took the brunt of the abuse. SRV was not a tall man, standing only 5’5”, but he had large, strong hands. The chunky, D-shaped neck was a perfect fit for him, but his heavy playing and finger strength, combined with the ridiculously heavy-gauge strings he used (generally 13s or even thicker!), were no match for the fretboard.
The neck was refretted so many times, in fact, that the fretboard itself had to be re-profiled just to continue using the guitar.
Eventually, the neck was damaged beyond repair. (Stevie once threw it against a wall, breaking the headstock, which did not help.) Martinez replaced the neck with one from another of Stevie’s Strats. However, that neck broke a month before Stevie’s death when a piece of stage rigging fell on it!
The neck was refretted so many times that the fretboard itself had to be re-profiled.
Another mass casualty of Stevie’s guitar playing were tremolo arms, which he would break constantly. From the heavy strings and extra springs in the tremolo, it took so much force to use the bars that they would just break.
Stevie also replaced the stock tremolo unit with a left-handed model at some point early on, with the result that the arm’s pivot point was above the strings and not below them. He did this to emulate Jimi Hendrix and Otis Rush, both of whom were lefties who played right-handed guitars upside down.
Other distinctive features of Number One
Perhaps the most distinctive feature on Number One, and many of his other guitars, were the “SRV” decals he stuck to the pickguard. These, too, had to be replaced often due to wear and tear, and they also changed in appearance over the years. Rene stated that he often had to scour truck stops to find just the right kind of stickers.
Where Number One Is Today
After Stevie’s death, Rene reinstalled the original 1963 neck. He then gave the guitar to SRV’s brother, Jimmie Vaughan, who still has the iconic instrument to this day.
“Every time I go back to that stuff, it kicks my ass, because I have to go through it all again.”
According to Jimmie, it’s locked away in a bank vault with Stevie Ray’s other equipment. “Every time I go back to that stuff, it kicks my ass, because I have to go through it all again.” I feel for you, Jimmie.
While SRV’s Number One is securely locked away for the foreseeable future, Fender did work with Jimmie to authorize 100 replicas. Built in the early 2000s, they originally sold for $10,000. Their selling price now reaches upward of $50,000.
SRV’s Number One and Its Place in Music History
Stevie used and abused Number One until his death in 1990. The guitar was responsible for many of the most memorable blues songs of all time. And for many of us, it still only takes hearing one note to recognize both the player and the instrument.
Number One truly is an iconic piece of music history, and thankfully, much of its life has been documented through albums, videos, and interviews.
Which I guess is almost as good as time travel.