MAYER TONE w. PAUL SCHAFFER.

[nls21]

I WAS LISTENING TO SOME YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND COME ACROSS THIS VIDEO OF JOHN MAYER JAMMIN WITH PAUL SHAFFER AND THE CBS ORCHESTRA. AND WHEN I HEARD JOHNS TONE. I THOUGHT IT WAS PERFECT. ANYONE KNOW HOW I COULD GET CLOSE TO THIS/MAYBE WHAT HES USING EXACTLY. THIS WAS PRE- CONTINUUM(dunno if that helps). ANY ADVICE FOR THIS SORTOF BLUES, BIG BAND FEEL WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM2N-ad8T_A

(btw not to turn this into a mayer fan vs hater thread but if Mayer can keep up with the cbs orchestra then he must be doin something right)

[dalandan]

I WAS LISTENING TO SOME YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND COME ACROSS THIS VIDEO OF JOHN MAYER JAMMIN WITH PAUL SHAFFER AND THE CBS ORCHESTRA. AND WHEN I HEARD JOHNS TONE. I THOUGHT IT WAS PERFECT. ANYONE KNOW HOW I COULD GET CLOSE TO THIS/MAYBE WHAT HES USING EXACTLY. THIS WAS PRE- CONTINUUM(dunno if that helps). ANY ADVICE FOR THIS SORTOF BLUES, BIG BAND FEEL WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM2N-ad8T_A

(btw not to turn this into a mayer fan vs hater thread but if Mayer can keep up with the cbs orchestra then he must be doin something right)

i think we'd all prefer if you don't hit caps lock.

anyway, mayer's tone is simple. strat with big dippers, tube screamer variant (take your pick), and a blackface fender or dumble type amp. add some analog delay for solos if you want. oh yeah, chops. lots of 'em.

[nls21]

my bad, wrote it quickly, could i get this tone out of a silver face amp? i feel like his amp is his real tone source in this situation. i have a 62ri strat. with virtaul vintage pups. into a fender twin. with a ts9 od and cs3 comp.....what changes need to be made. i mean i got pretty good chops i can pull off the licks just need that sound.

[Gtowngearhead]

T think it's still the pick ups. It's why his strat + ts9 + Fender amp doesn't sound like SRV. They are underwound pickups that scoop the mids. Not sure you can coax that tone out of your DiMarzio's.

Then you gotta learn to stretch your hand across 7 frets to play a variation of E7.

[BluesHarp]

Big dippers... those stock fender pups for that guitar or are they duncans? neway, good idea for a rosewood neck.

[nls21]

the pups are dimarzio vitural vintage v2 i think.

[bandofthieves™]

who is the girl in the black dress showing leg at the end of the show??

[Desperado]

I think he was still using a Fender Vibro-King at that time for the amp.

[Craise]

You can nit pick all day...but IMHO that just Fender>tubescreamer>Fender amp.
A twin is going to be pretty loud to get good break up. Depending on your needs, might think of getting something more lower wattage, like a deluxe..again depending on your needs.
If you stick with the twin, I'd get it blackfaced...and put vintage Jensen's and vintage NOS RCA Blackplate tubes. Good old tubes and speaker are so much a part of that sound. IMHO Plus regular Strat type pickups.
Good luck!

[jay42]

Hard to be sure, but there's an Ampeg cabinet that might go with Will Lee's GK, and what looks like a couple Super Reverbs on the floor. I think it's a simple, easy to achieve tone.

[Matts Tone]

Think most folks know that apart from his beloved Dumble amp John Mayer is a big fan of Two Rock amps they are $$$$$ (obviously still not as expensive as the Dumble!) but amazing. Just bought myself a Two Rock Jet last week & you can definitely get those kinda tones on the clip out of that amp.
I believe John Mayer prefers out of the Two Rock range his own signature JM Two Rock amp & the Custom Reverb Two Rock.

Otherwise a nice clean sounding amp with either a tubescreamer or Zendrive through a good quality strat would probably do it too!

Thanks

Matt

[lonelylooper]

who is the girl in the black dress showing leg at the end of the show??
+1 ta that

[nls21]

You can nit pick all day...but IMHO that just Fender>tubescreamer>Fender amp.
A twin is going to be pretty loud to get good break up. Depending on your needs, might think of getting something more lower wattage, like a deluxe..again depending on your needs.
If you stick with the twin, I'd get it blackfaced...and put vintage Jensen's and vintage NOS RCA Blackplate tubes. Good old tubes and speaker are so much a part of that sound. IMHO Plus regular Strat type pickups.
Good luck!

i think the pickups sound pretty good but what would you recomend? also as far as my twin....ive been told to check out an attenuator. any thoughts on that?

[Craise]

i think the pickups sound pretty good but what would you recomend? also as far as my twin....ive been told to check out an attenuator. any thoughts on that?

I can't say much about strat pickups. Honestly I ditched my strats years ago because of all the hum. I play Gibsons with humbuckers mostly or with P-90s for cleaner sounds. But any of the good brands like Fralin's or the like would do fine. I'd bet your Dimarzios are prolly fine (as long as they aren't heavy metal pickups, vintage leads me to believe they are going for normal strat sounds)...remember to adjust the space between your pickups and strings for the tone you are looking for. You can get alot of tone changes from just adjusting the distance, more less bass/treb/more or less louder/ etc.

IMHO I hate attenuators...YMMV. I've never heard one that really retains the sound and feel of the amp without it. Good rule of thumb is to make sure you have the right wattage amp for your needs. I use a Princeton Reverb and a Deluxe Reverb. Princeton for small rehearsals and Deluxe for gigs. If I need anything else, I have friends I can borrow from. Twin has always been way too loud for my needs.
Also depends on how much clean you want or need.
The twin is big enough...do you really want to "add" more gear by getting a attenuator..just more crap to deal with IMHO.
I'd sell the twin if it's too much for you and get something smaller.
Maybe even try and trade the twin for a deluxe or super? Put a free ad up on craig's list/HC/TGP and see if someone in your area might need the power of the twin.

Hope this helps!
;)

[slopeshoulder]

I have pickups that sound like JM's in a strat, and IME it does seem that mid scoop in pickups, and then some mid presence or hump in either the amp (Two Rock, Dumble) or pedal (Klon, TS9, zendrive, eternity) is the key to the Mayer "better than SRV" tone. This is the reason that mid-strong, greasy, "62" style pickups no longer interest me. Big dipper is the way.

[Tomo]

I think he experienced great possible tone from vintage strats, BF Fender amps... vintage tubes... so he can imagine ideal great tone (for him) with any...

I think you can get similar tone...

JM strat with a good Fender Tube amp with vintage tubes... TS10!

And work on your blues!

Tomo

[platonicbomb]

big dippers are good for your children. i replaced texas specials in a strat i made. maple neck, so that wasn't a brilliant (or it was too brilliant, literally) combination, but the dippers made it into a really nice sounding guitar.

[shark_bite]

Yeah that's pretty old Mayer - back in the Vibro King days. But I echo what a lot of the others have said... low output Strat pickups, through a tube screamer of some sort if you want that exact tone from the video (sounds like just about everything there was run through the TS), through a good Fender amp. I'd suggest a Super Reverb for best results.

If pickups are your first place to look, check out Klein's scooped mids set. They're supposed to be very similar to the Dippers, and they cost quite a bit less.

[dansrv]

enjoy:

http://twitpic.com/2fyvp/full
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/4104277.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1254633237&Signature=%2B5AtzvRpFo%2FaBnvhnLiUlC0%2F%2Fh8%3D
http://twitpic.com/2fyvp/full

[5150user]

He sounded very good. It didn't make me want to go out and buy new gear, but I was impressed.

[lifeinsong]

Not sure which particular OD pedal he's using in those clips but he used to use a Fulldrive 2 and a Keeley Blues Driver...definitely some type of TS variant.

[ahardmark]

Heyyy, I didn't read this whole thread, so maybe someone already helped you. But I read a quote somewhere that he used a vintage Super during that performance.

There was a quote of him saying something along the lines of "the rental scene in NYC is really funny, some of the best blackface amps are floating around out there, and sometimes you get a great, and sometimes you get a crap one." He went on to say that he got a really great one the night he played with the Paul Shaffer band.

Hope that helps!

Yeah, I remember reading that too. Rented Blackface Super Reverb. I think that might have been in the Guitar Player cover story/interview from a few years ago.

[Hugo Da Rosa]

And work on your blues!


This is probably the most important thing. Yes, amp, guitar, pickups, pedals, and such are all fairly large factors in nailing that tone. But as I have noticed in my years of playing, much of mayer's tone comes from his fingers and pick attack. I was once trying to seek after that similar tone with whatever financial means I could get my hands on. But after spending more time working on my blues playing and watching how he uses both his pick and his fingers, I realized that I was able to achieve his tone (or at least real close to it) through the stuff I already had. Gear wise, bottom line is - strat with MAYBE RI stamped saddles (some say this is pivotal..I have them and say you can get by without em), underwound single coils, a BF style fender amp, and a TS of some sort dialed in lightly. But beyond that, getting anywhere near his real tone comes in your playing.

[In Tune]

:facepalm