SRV wasn't exactly know for taking care of his gear, to be fair. its easily possible he just had saddle problems.

That, and he really dug into the strings like a man posessed.

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Listening to: Professor Elemental - [The Indifference Engine] Splendid [foobar2000 v1.0.3]

Very true. Had been known to replace the necks on his strats as well.

he was also known to put crazy glue on his fingertips then tear flesh out of his right forearm to fill out his callouses because he refused to play on anything but heavy gauge strings.

Didnt he insist on using insanely high action as well?

Yep. Stevie basically didn't give a **** for his forearm muscles, he just abused himself as much as his guitars.

But when the results sound that damn good, who can argue?

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Listening to: ???? - [TRICK #01] INTRODUCTION FOR TRICK [foobar2000 v1.0.3]

I have to wonder though, how much of his sound was the strings and action, and how much was the fact he was playing with an insane amount of high end gear.

Also I love the fact he used Marshies for cleans and Fenders for dirty sounds.

I'm actually a big fan of fender distortion, its got some weird magic to it. Marshalls for cleans, well there I have to say I'm not a big fan, but they can sound pretty good if you get em right.

if it's always at the same spot then that's your problem area. either you have a burr in the saddle or in the hole within the tuning peg. some fine grit sandpaper or metal file to smooth out the spot should do the trick.

Usually it's my A string on my bass. Doesn't help I play slap-bass and go through strings like they're going out of fashion.

style doesn't matter. you don't need to hit your strings THAT hard. i used to pop my low-E often enough when i was in my slapping phase back in the day, exact same issue as with an electric guitar. burr in the saddle. a little spot of sandpaper later and i haven't broken a string on that bass in the decade since.