Hi guys

how would you go about getting a tone close to Stevie Ray Vaughn's?
I have a Mexican strat with Texas Specials.
Doesn't get anywhere near SRV's sound though.

Before you do anything else...
Make sure you have a heavier set of strings on, 11-52 minimum, SRVs were heavier than that.
Then tune to E flat (D#). You will be surprised at how much difference that makes.
You will then need to use a tube screamer based overdrive pedal.
Use clean (or just near break-up) tone on your amp. I don't think the on-board OD on the OTS will get you what you want.
SRV really built his sound over a large clean tone from what ever amp he was using.
From there it is  matter of experimenting with OD box settings, amp setting and guitar pickup settings. The texas specials should work just fine.
As always, any player's tone is a function of their picking and fingering techniques. SRV had a lot of unique , but not so obvious, right & left hand techniques. Those techniques coupled with the down tuning of the Strat are really what created his tone. Only the most obsessive player will master those nuances.

Keep in mind that he played Fender Vibroverbs, a Dumble Steel String Singer and  Marshall Major and his tone did not change from one amp to the other.

13-60odd I think. Plus a very high action, this does affect the tone. You'll need a guitar specifically set up to get that tone unless you're looking for 'Lenny' type tones. Pao Ferro fretboard might have an influence. My experience of Texas Specials was they were nice but not as good as Fralin VH's. I also hear Lollar Blackface pups are very good.

thanks guys

I have a Keeley Tube Screamer so I guess that helps. Clean on the OTS is pretty loud. But maybe a bit to punchy.

@pickmaster Disd you use the neck pickup on the last bit of the distorted mp3?

On distorted mp3 it's only neck pickup, standard noiseless strat.

Which he played (pride & joy) on the 4 and 5 (for some of the solo)  p.u. positions rather than on the neck p.u. which is what most people think of when discussing SRV tone

Probably it is wrong to mention on this forum but if one really wants all SRV tones in one amp have to try 300 watt Crate Blue Voodoo! Unfortunately it weights 45 kg (only head), but really sounds amazing with full 8X12 Celestion Century stuck.  

The Rock switch is always on.  Deep switch off.  Sometimes I do use the bright switch even with single coils.
My internal trimmer is set around 900 to 930.
Treble around 4-5.  Mids all the way up.  Bass about 1 1/2.  These settings are not carved in stone.  It's surprising to me that sometimes it's beefing up the bass just the right amount that puts me into the SRV ballpark.
Volume between 8 and full up.  The input volume has a definite affect on the drive channel as well as the clean volume so I keep this in mind.
I've been experimenting with keeping the Ratio full up and using the volume and level to even out the volume between the drive and clean channels.
The Level ends up low around 1 1/2 and the Volume often ends up backed down to around 8 or a little less to accomplish this.
There's not a lot of difference between my clean and drive sounds really.  I only need enough drive so the chords in the stop sections of Hideaway soften up and compress.  Maybe a little more for something like Lookin' out the Window.  Once I get there, I can adjust my tone by how I play.