The John Mayer Effect

[Fingolfen]

PRS seems to have succeeded in watering down every classic guitar into a tame clone. They're the Switzerland of guitars: safe, clean, expensive and fishy as hell despite being landlocked.

I'd rather play a Teisco.

I understand where you're coming from with PRS guitars... if you pick up one of a specific model, they are all going to sound fairly close to exactly like the one you picked up... so they can come off as fairly "generic" in a lot of ways.

I have one PRS guitar... though I'm going to be honest - it took me a long time to find one that I really liked. Then of course, I found out it's the current version of the PRS Alex Lifeson used back in the day (oddly enough, he didn't use the ridiculously expensive ones), so I think I understand why I gravitated to that one...

 

[andare]

I understand where you're coming from with PRS guitars... if you pick up one of a specific model, they are all going to sound fairly close to exactly like the one you picked up... so they can come off as fairly "generic" in a lot of ways.

I have one PRS guitar... though I'm going to be honest - it took me a long time to find one that I really liked. Then of course, I found out it's the current version of the PRS Alex Lifeson used back in the day (oddly enough, he didn't use the ridiculously expensive ones), so I think I understand why I gravitated to that one...

I guess I should refrain from expressng my thoughts on Rush then

 

[szukalski]

PRS seems to have succeeded in watering down every classic guitar into a tame clone. They're the Switzerland of guitars: safe, clean, expensive and fishy as hell despite being landlocked.

I dunno, I have a couple of PRS and they just get things right and let you colour your own tone. They are the transparent drive of guitars..

Maybe "character" in guitar is about imperfections? But if I want a quality guitar which sounds good at a great price point, a PRS SE is hard to beat.

 

[xefned]

They are the transparent drive of guitars.

There’s something to be said for guitars that don’t sound like Fender or Gibson. As an egotistical teenager, I cringed whenever someone told me how to “get some good Eric Clapton tones” with my strat. I couldn't wait to sell it and get something that sounded like “me.” So I gravitated toward Ibanez and other brands without such baggage.

Now I'm old, and I have a Strat again.

But I still own the cherished Carvin I bought in 1993. And I still treasure its ultra-generic tone.

 

[giovanni]

Fun fact: in his biography Steve Jobs mentions how John Mayer is super talented but he hated his music and told him to his face to get his act together and do better
Not to say he was right but strong feelings there too…

 

[Fingolfen]

I guess I should refrain from expressng my thoughts on Rush then

I've always known nothing divides a room faster than politics, religion, and Rush...

 

[Laundryroom David]

I've always known nothing divides a room faster than politics, religion, and Rush...

So friggin true lol lol lol

 

[Joben Magooch]

I feel like the whole “John Mayer effect” is kind of interesting to me in general. Because it definitely does seem to be true both ways (although I do feel I see far more people gravitating for gear BECAUSE of Mayer-connotations rather than avoid it for those reasons…) but tbh I just don’t entirely get it. I like John Mayer, I think he’s a great player and seems like an interesting guy to me (who in my view-from-afar seems to have matured a lot from his previous interviews and conduct that brought a lot of ire on him…) and I think we’d probably get along just fine if we were to hang out for some bizarre reason.

But I digress. It’s just a little weird to me - while I think he really does have great tone, I don’t find it to be particularly “unique” nor that hard to attain. Sure he plays vintage strats or Dumbles or Two-Rocks or a 10k PRS Super Eagle or whatever…but I don’t think you really NEED any of that stuff to get pretty dang close to his core tones. Beyond those pieces of extremely expensive (and frankly unattainable for 99% of us) kit, that it’s not like his gear choices are particularly esoteric or odd or anything. I guess what I’m getting at is that like… I don’t really understand some of the lengths people will go to chasing John’s tone - a “Mayer-inspired” drive pedal will probably not get you any closer than just about any Tube Screamer, Bluesbreaker, or Klone (depending on which ‘flavor’ you’re going for).

So I don’t really know where I was going with that but I guess like I said I just find it a bit odd. I’d understand wanting to copy someone’s specific gear choices if they had a much more “unique” or “individual” sound but Mayer’s sound (while very good) is IMO not particularly unique or weird or anything that requires that particular of gear/effects. And that’s no hate at all, he sounds really good, but you know what I mean.