Jimmie Vaughan Tex Mex Stratocaster

Specifications

The Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster is one of the Fender Artists Series guitars. It was designed by Vaughan himself and made at the Ensenada plant in Mexico using American-made electronics.

Vaughan required a Stratocaster that was simple yet had more powerful pickups and a ‘V’-shaped maple neck. The wiring on this guitar is a little different than others as well.

The body of the guitar is made of Alder and comes in 2-Color sunburst, Olympic White, Black, and Candy Apple Red colors with a Polyester finish. It has a single-ply white pickguard with 8 screw-holes. The bridge is an American Vintage synchronized tremolo.

The 25.5 inch scale length neck is made of a single piece of maple and has a soft ‘V’ shape profile with a satin polyurethane finish. The radius of the neck is 9.5 inches with 21 medium jumbo frets. The nut width is standard at 1.650 inches (42 mm) while the headstock has Jimmie’s signature on its backside. The machine heads are Fender/Gotoh vintage tuners.

The pickups used for the neck and middle pickups are Tex-Mex overwound vintage types which use Alnico 5 magnets that produce a stronger output than those in other pickups. Polysol wire is used for the windings. The middle pickup is reverse-wound causing hum cancellation when engaged in pickup selector positions 2 and 4. The bridge pickup is a Tex-Mex hot bridge pickup which is a part of the Tex-Mex pickup set. Another unique feature is the lack of a tone control on the middle pickup. Instead, the first tone knob is used for the neck pickup and the second for the bridge. The 5-way pickup selector is wired normally, except for the above-mentioned hum-cancelling effect.

Earlier model had a poplar body. Colors were vintage white, candy apple red, sonic blue, and sunburst. These Tex Mex models came with a jalepeno pepper decal on the pick guard. One way to differentiate the initial Tex Mex from the later Jimmie Vaughan is the inclusion of an 11-hole two ply black and white pick guard.