Hamiltone Custom Stratocaster “Main”
This guitar was made for Stevie by James Hamilton, a guitar builder from Buffalo, NY, who gave it to Stevie on April 29, 1984. But, the guitar was actually commissioned by Billy Gibbons, as a gift to Stevie.
Specs
“The Main” aka “the Couldn’t Stand the Weather guitar” features a neck-through-body design (unlike any other guitars Stevie played), and a two-piece maple body. The ebony fretboard is inlayed with abalone reading “Stevie Ray Vaughan”, designed by the artist Bill Narum.
Embed from Getty ImagesOriginally, the guitar was equipped with three EMG pickups, but ironically, during the recording of the Couldn’t Stand the Weather music video, the guitar itself couldn’t stand all the rain and water that it was exposed to, and the pickups were damaged. They were replaced with stock Fender single-coils.
Usage
As already mentioned, most famously, Stevie used this guitar during the filming of the music video for the song Couldn’t Stand the Weather.
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Also played Voodoo Chile 1985 Montreux jazz festival. Probably many more but a good solid 12 minutes of it being played can be seen in that vid.