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Stevie Ray Vaughan - Scuttle Buttin' - Guitar Tab

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Key E minor
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Scuttle Buttin' guitar tab video
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Classic Rock

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Stevie Ray Vaughan Blues Rock E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About Scuttle Buttin'

Few guitar instrumentals throw you into the deep end quite like "Scuttle Buttin'." It opens the 1984 album "Couldn't Stand the Weather" as a full-throttle burst of Blues Rock, and from the very first bar it demands your total attention. The core challenge is sustaining that relentless, sixteenth-note shuffle drive in E minor at 120 BPM while keeping your bends in tune and your pick attack consistent. Stevie Ray Vaughan played with heavy strings and a low action that let him dig in hard, so on a lighter setup you will need to control your touch carefully to get the tone to sit right. The right-hand rhythm is arguably harder than any single lick: the groove has to feel effortless even when your forearm is burning. Isolate the opening run with the Practice Toolbar, slow it down to around sixty percent, and lock in the pick direction before you bring the tempo back up.

  • The song is essentially a nonstop shuffle in E minor, so building right-hand stamina and a clean alternate-picking motion is the central technical goal.
  • Vaughan was known for using heavy-gauge strings, which contributed directly to his thick, biting tone on fast runs like this one.
  • Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the opening burst at a reduced speed until your fretting hand stops tensing up before you push toward full tempo.

How to Play Scuttle Buttin'

The song moves through: A, B, C (Solo), D (Solo Cont’d), E (Solo Cont’d), F.

Tuning: E Standard · Key: E minor · Tempo: 120 BPM · Difficulty: Medium

"Scuttle Buttin'" opens with a relentless, fast shuffle riff in E minor at 166 bpm, and the immediate challenge is locking in the swing feel while maintaining clean fretting hand articulation at that tempo. The extended solo sections (C through E) demand precise string bending, double-stop phrases, and quick position shifts across the neck, so isolate each solo segment individually rather than chasing the full run-through. A common pitfall is rushing the shuffle by treating it as straight sixteenth notes; the lopsided triplet feel must stay consistent from the very first bar or the whole piece loses its drive.

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 120 BPM to build it up to tempo.

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

SRV's heavily worn '63 'Number One' with thick .013-.058 strings and responsive single-coils defined his expressive, dynamic tone. The guitar's worn frets and responsive pickups let him control saturation purely through picking attack and volume knob, a cornerstone of his finger-driven style.

Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9
Pedal

Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9

SRV used the TS9 as a clean boost with minimal drive, maxing the level to push his cranked tube amps into heavier saturation while adding midrange focus. This approach preserved his dynamic control and kept the tone transparent, letting his fingers shape every nuance of sustain and breakup.

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