@johnmayergear

Solo Dallas Storm Giveaway! I'm more than excited to partner up with Solo Dallas to give away an incredible and unique pedal: the Schaffer Replica - Storm. This is a pedalboard-friendly stompbox with the same circuit from the Schaffer Replica EX Tower, which recreates the Schaffer-Vega Diversity System (SVDS) wireless unit that was an integral part back in the day of the tone of legends like Angus Young. The SVDS preamp had a unique mixture of optical limiter, compressor, expander, EQ enhancement, and line buffer, which ultimately results in your guitar tone enhanced as you've never heard it before. Not changed, but enhanced. And that's exactly what the Storm offers to you. John used the Storm (in a limited Swirl Green edition - don't worry, it's just a different paint job, the circuit is 100% the same) for the 2019 World Tour, and recently it was spotted on his board for the 2021 Grammys. The Storm is also used by David Ryan Harris, Isaiah Sharkey, Pino Paladino, and Zane Carney. Some others artist that uses Solo Dallas gear include Guns n' Roses, AC/DC, Keith Urban, Joe Bonamassa, Foo Fighters, and many more To win this fantastic pedal you have to: - Like this post - Follow both @SoloDallas (both FB and IG) and @JohnMayerGear (just IG) - Tag a friend in the comments Multiple comments allowed, so tag away! The winner will be announced next Monday, April 12. Good luck!!!

2021-04-05

Hank "The Hawk" Knutley I think it's time for us to revisit the setup and sound of a true legend of the blues on his television debut: the mythic Hank "The Hawk" Knutley. Hank appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, promoting his live album 'Knutley In Your Face', which features some of his greatest songs like 'Trapped In The Garage', 'Trapped In The Garage pt. 2', 'Watch Your Mouth' and his biggest hit 'Stabbed To Life'. Using a Gibson Les Paul, his pedalboard setup was a Boss TU-3, a Keeley Katana, a TS10, and a Way Huge Aqua Puss Mk2. What amp is he using are you asking? Doesn't matter. When you're that good as The Hawk Knutley, you could plug into a toaster and it'd sound the same. Also, it's worth mentioning that he always carries around his service dog Henry. Remember, tone is in the dog. John Mayer actually owns a Gibson Les Paul IDENTICAL to the one Hank uses, as a nod to the living legend himself. Also, he tends to use the same mini pedalboard loaded with the same pedals. Coincidence? I don't think so.

2021-04-01

'52 Telecaster The blonde 1952 Fender Telecaster John owns might very well be the most associated Tele to him He got the guitar in early '07 and was briefly featured during some dates on the Continuum tour, but the guitar came to prominence on his shows during the 'Born and Raised/Paradise Valley' era for songs like 'Shadow Days', 'If I Ever Get Around to Living' and an electric rendition of 'Who Says'. During the now-famous Periscope stream he did in 2016 with the guitar he mentioned the Tele is not as traditionally bright and 'twangy' compared to other Teles, and that's why he had to buy it, at a considerable cost, by the way. In fact, 1951 was the first year of production for the Fender Telecaster, which makes this guitar even more special, being so close to the origins of the model.  He had the guitar on tour for even for 2019, although it wasn't used at all. The guitar strap for this guitar (since 2013) is a Souldier strap. Thanks to @guitarfield for the info! @souldierstraps

2021-03-29

The Dawner Prince Boonar is a wonderful delay pedal that recreates the sounds of the mythic Binson Echorec delay. The Binson Echorec used a magnetic drum to generated the delayed signal, creating a unique and distinct sound to the repeats. The uniqueness of this method to create a delayed signal created an instant classic used at the time by legends like David Gilmour and Jimmy Page. Also offering multi-tap capabilities, the Binson is highly sought-after for the fantastic tones it offered, compared to other types of delay units (tape delays, analog delays, etc).  John owns an actual Binson Echorec and for the whole 'The Search for Everything' World Tour he had a Boonar (in fact he owns two of them) on his Bradshaw rig, next to the Aqua Puss on what sometimes is referred to as a "wet board", although it wasn't designed strictly as it. The pedals for this tour were all in front of the amps, not in the effects loops of the amp setup (x2 PRS J-MOD 100 and a Fender Dual Professional). I can't recommend you enough this delay if you aim for those deep delay tones he had on solos from the tour,  like 'Changing'. You'll know it when you heard it, as it's totally different from other kind of delays he had on board, like the Aqua Puss (slapback) or tape-delays, like the Dunlop Echoplex delay. The Binson had a tube-based signal path, adding harmonics and depth to the dry signal path, and the Boonar creates this very same effect by using a high-voltage FET analog signal path, so your tone remains analog while adding the complex DSP-based magnetic drum code for the repeats. It's truly amazing how, even with the volume echo level high up, the repeats don't overcome the dry tone and the delay sits 'behind' the notes, which is something you certainly need for a long delay on a JM rig. If you happen to be a Pink Floyd/Gilmour fan as well, this is a must for you. And the small-profile of it is perfect for tight pedalboard setups!! @dawnerprince

2021-03-24

?The Howard Stern birthday bash - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY, USA (31/01/14) John played a version of Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone', in the style of Jimi Hendrix, as he did on the Monterey Pop Festival. Using his '64 strat, he aimed for a heavier tone, using his usual gear. The main tone was the Klon Centaur, kept always on during the performance. TS10 was stacked BEFORE the Klon, for solos. The Katana was always on, in order to put out a stronger signal out the Strat and driving pedals and amps even more. There's a Way Huge Aqua Puss too. No batteries this time but a power supply. Amp setup was his typical setup at the time: Dumble Steel String Singer 002 and a Two Rock John Mayer Signature, both with Alessandro cabinets. The Alessandro cab fed by the Dumble had Celestions G12-65 and the cab fed by the Two Rock had either Celestions Century or Gold. Thanks to @bombacaototal for his help on this! Interestly enough, we are only hearing the Two Rock, since it was the only mic'ed cab. Signal was splitted with a Radial JD-7. ?Gear list: - 1964 Fender Stratocaster - Dumble Steel String Singer 002 - Two Rock John Mayer Signature - Alessandro 2x12 cabinet (x2) - Boss tuner (probably a TU-3) - Keeley Katana - Ibanez TS10 - Klon Centaur - Way Huge Aqua Puss - Radial JD-7

2021-03-22

Grammys 2021 ❇️John performed last night at the 63rd annual Grammys, joining country star Maren Morris for her song 'The Bones'. ❇️He played a Moc Sand Silver Sky (not his satin nitro proto but a gloss finish one) ❇️The amp setup was really interesting, bringing back some old choices: he played the Dumble Steel String Singer 004 into an Alessandro 2x12 cab, mic'ed with a Shure KSM313 ribbon mic. He paired that with a Two-Rock Custom Reverb Signature v2 intro a 1x12 cabinet, mic'ed with a Shure SM57. I thought it was a Two-Rock as well, but it looks it might be the same cab he used the 50w ODS with Dead and Company. This CRS amp was from the Trio days, hasn't been used in nearly 15 years! and it's a really interesting choice from him to pair along with the SSS 004, given that it's not a JM Sig proto at all. ❇️The pedalboard was fairly simple, resembling the one he used for the 2019 Crossroads performances - Polytune - Keeley Katana - Solo Dallas Storm - Black Klon(e) - TS10 - Providence Chrono Delay DLY-4 - Boss CE-2 (blacked out) - Strymon Flint You can hear the Boss chorus on the solo, along with the TS10. He used that chorus for some shows during the 2019 World Tour.

2021-03-15

Live at the Masonic - Alice in Winterland John performed at The Masonic for Radio Alice 97.3 annual Alice in Winterland on January 11, 2018. He was scheduled to perform on December 12, 2017, but he had an appendectomy before that! For the show, he went as a one-man band, supported by the Akai MPC X, for loops and sequences. He played a Tugnsten Silver sky through a Deluxe Reverb and a Princeton Reverb amp. The acoustics were his main OM-28JM and a Martin D-45 John Mayer signature model Pedalboard list - Boss TU-3 - Keeley Katana - TS10 - Dumbloid Twin - EHX Pitchfork - Cornish G-2 - Neunaber Slate - Boss OC-3 - Way Huge Aqua Puss - Strymon Flint - MXR Carbon Copy The pedalboard is mostly the same he used at the iHeart Radio performance (October 24, 2018) On that show is where he mentioned the now-famous speech about "guitar pedals", talking about how guitar players are addicted to guitar pedals and how a pedal (Neunaber Slate) was the key for his song 'Love on the Weekend' Thanks to @thecolorofthought for his close-ups pics from that day!

2021-03-09

Wait Until Tomorrow - Try! *link in bio for the full video, with the best video and audio quality* 'Wait Until Tomorrow' is a wonderful Hendrix cover done by the Trio and it's a Hendrix song that's not usually covered by a lot of artists. The first official release of the cover done by the Trio was the version found at the 'Try!' live album, and now it's time to review the gear used for it! The version we found on the record was from the House of Blues - Chicago show the Trio did on September 22, 2005. As a fun fact, both video and album versions of the song are slightly edited: they took off some bars out of the intro jam, before the start of the verse, including the usual "Steal My Kisses" snippet.  The song was performed with the FCS Hendrix Reverse Proto he used a lot for that tour, and especially for the song! The Reverse Proto was a prototype of a Hendrix signature model that never went into production. John has both an original Reverse Proto from 1980 and one of the 2005 limited-run replicas made by Master Builder Dennis Galuszka. Some forum talks say he got the original 1980 Reverse Proto for $15k. For later dates of the Trio tour he usually relied on the Galuszka one for this song and it would be safe to assume that's the one he used for this performance. Pedalboard: - RMC wah - Boss TU-2 - Keeley Katana - TS-808 (vintage) - Fulltone '69 Mk1 - Way Huge Aqua Puss - T-Rex Replica - *amp switch: the switch allowed for Lead Channel and Tone Stack bypass. For the Continuum tour rehearsals and early dates he had the amp switch for the Dumble Overdrive Special next to the Bradshaw controller. Intro and verses were clean, with just probably the Katana engaged. He activated the TS for the chorus and the solo was TS into Fuzz. He had no Boss Blues Driver for the performance. Amp setup was a couple of different Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature (none were JM Sig protos yet) and a Fender Vibroverb on top of an extension cabinet. He had a Two Rock 2x12 cabinet for each CRS. A Victoria Reverberato was there too.

2021-03-01

The Gold Leaf Strat This Fender Custom Shop guitar, built by now-retired Senior Master Builder Chris W. Fleming, is famously known as the 'Vultures' guitar, being used exclusively for the song. There is probably no footage of John playing anything else than Vultures on this guitar! The guitar has a pretty distinct second pickup position (bridge/middle), referred to as the "quackiest Strat of all time" and that's the pickup position you want to play 'Vultures' on.  The guitar most likely draws all the inspiration from the Eric Clapton Gold Leaf Stratocaster, a limited run of 50 pieces made in 2004. Given John's close relationship with Fleming, he probably asked him to build a Gold Leaf Strat with a custom spec'd neck, rosewood fretboard and 21 frets, instead of the one featured on the Clapton Strat (maple fretboard, 22 frets, custom V shape). Clapton's had gold hardware, while John decided to use chrome for his. There's no certain info about what pickups are featured on the guitar. Some have said it's loaded with Big Dippers, some say it's a combination of pickups (FCS '69, Fat 50s and Texas Specials) John has the guitar since '05 using it since the start of the Trio tour up until the 2019 tour rehearsals. The guitar was probably still on tour for 2019, but he usually played ' Vultures' on a Silver Sky. Another guitar that has usually taken the 'Vultures' spot is the '64, Question: What song would you like for John to play on this guitar, other than 'Vultures'? I say 'Moving On and Getting Over' would sound killer on the Gold Leaf! JM: "So for Vultures, I have to play the gold-leaf Strat. That's what I wrote the song on, and that's got that incredible second position - what do they call it, the quack? That's the quackiest Strat of all time! 'Vultures' does not work on another guitar. That weird, hollowed-out, out-of-phasey-type sound. I've never taken that gold Strat and played any other tune on it than Vultures. Although I could."

2021-02-22