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SRV will be much missed, and I'm massively jealous of your guitar story Elfy. btw, were his strings as heavy a gauge as legend would have us believe?
Well over the years, I've read basically every interview that Stevie ever did, plus just about everything else concerning him (and especially stuff about his technique, and gear), and I have to say, yes the strings he used were most definitely as heavy gauge as legend states. Here’s a quote from Stevie himself that I love,
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I use heavy strings, tune low, play hard and floor it. Floor it, that’s technical talk.
Here’s the break down on his string gauges starting from high E, .013, .015, .019, .028, .038, .058. This information comes straight from Rene Martinez (Stevie’s guitar tech) so I know it’s on the money. Occasionally Stevie would use a slightly lighter gauge high E like a .012, or a.011. He played so hard that he would often tear the calluses off of his fingers, and when that happened, that’s when he would run the lighter high E. I’ve heard him say that in interviews, plus Rene Martinez has confirmed that in interviews as well.
Also the guy that I’ve been studying under (Kenny Sultan) off and on for the past 31/2 years toured with SRV a few times in the mid 80’s. Kenny and his partner Tom Ball opened up for SRV, and did several legs with SRV on two different tours. Kenny would watch SRV every night from the side of the stage, and saw and played a few of his axes himself, and he has told me about the heavy gauge strings as well. Plus SRV’s axes were set up with incredibly high action, and the combination of the two made his guitars notoriously hard to play. I use Ernie Ball Power Slinky’s (.011, .014, .018, .028, .038, .048) on my Strat (although I don’t play it nearly enough, cause I’m primarily an acoustic player that can’t keep my hands off my Martin 000-1), and my action is set up about somewhere in the middle of high and low, so I can just imagine what SRV’s guitars must have felt like to play, it must have been literally like steel cables! Tuning down a half step, and running that .058 on the low E were two of the main ingredients into how he got that low growl.
Sadly, the guitar that I played that SRV played was not one of SRV’s, it was Kenny’s 1936 Martin 000-18 (I know, poor me huh!). One time (at band camp, ha ha) when Tom & Kenny were on tour with SRV, Kenny was sitting in his dressing room several hours before the show, and there was this knock on his door, and it was Stevie. Stevie and Kenny shot the breeze for a while, and then they jammed for like an hour, and Stevie played Kenny’s 1936 000-18, and Kenny used one of his other bi-zillion guitars (Kenny has soooo many vintage Martin’s it would make you puke, and I’ve had the privilege of playing quite a few of them). I didn’t care though, I got goose bumps just holding that 36 in my hands knowing that Stevie played, and held that guitar in his own two hands. I’ve gotten to play that guitar a few times, and every time I touch it, it’s just like a jolt of electricity. Heck every time I see it, I’m just in awe knowing that the man himself played it! If you want to check it out,
Acoustic Guitar did a feature on Tom’s 1936 Gibson, and Kenny’s 1936 Martin a while back, here’s the link to the article,
http://www.bassharp.com/ACOUSTIC.HTM
Anyway, today I’m listening to Dave Brubeck, cause I’m seeing him tonight! Can’t wait! Tomorrow I will be listening to Bird (Charlie Parker) all day, cause tomorrow would have been Bird’s 83rd birthday. In fact, for the next few days, probably all I will be listening to is Brubeck, Bird, SRV, and some albums I have that Lester Young played on. Phew, a lot of anniversary’s, b-days, and shows from my hero’s and influences the last few days! Right now though, I need to go practice for a couple hours myself! Bird Lives!!!!
My old "friend"... my dearest computer is in it's last breaths... It stopped playing sound. But... you know what... silence can be just as loud as all of music together. 
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