

Thanks to Chris (somedayillfly) for organizing the questions and for all of the musicians who took part in asking them here . Hope you enjoy!



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I.

First of all, congratulations on the new Super Eagle. None of us have played it yet, but only judging by the looks/specs I can say we love it! Second, how has your new ‘relationship’ with PRS and the new signature affected your overall guitar tone and sounds on songs of your new album?





John Mayer: Yah, the Super Eagle is a very special guitar. I love when an instrument has a certain confluence of design that gives it this really strong spirit. The Stagecoach model Martin acoustic is like that. When the specs go together right to create something that stands on its own, it's an incredible experience, not just to play it but to own it as well. It's one of those guitars that I feel a real closeness to, for a couple of reasons. First, it's a guitar that Paul and I were building with a real mission attached to it, and second, it's the main guitar on the Dead & Company tour, so I can look at it and know it's my companion through this run.





As for the record, the tones are all very much still me. In fact, we brought out a lot of the old gear we used on Continuum, sometimes matching a rig we had going back then just to call those sounds back. In terms of aligning with PRS, Paul and his team are only working to come closer to those tones I'm sort of known for at this point.





II.

You have mentioned before that you really love the vintage ’64 Stratocaster you own. How did you acquire it and why do you love it so much?





JM: I bought that guitar in 2005 or so. Maybe 2006. It's my favorite spec combination, sunburst with tortoise pick guard and rosewood fretboard. You see a lot of basses with that look, I think Dela (David LaBruyere) had one the whole time we were playing together. But the guitars are more rare. It needed a refret and so I sent it to Chris Fleming at the Fender Custom Shop to do the job, and I believe I asked Rene' to put a 5-way switch in place of the 3-way. In fact, I remember having the conversation with a couple of guys in the room as to whether it would ''devalue' the guitar and I think I got yelled at! And from there, it just kind of kept showing up. I didn't decide on it being a top 5 guitar, it just sort of kept getting used until one day I looked back and realized it was my favorite vintage Strat. It really is perfect. It's like a Stratavarius.





III.

How have your fellow bandmates influenced your guitar playing/guitar tone/overall gear throughout the years?





JM: That's a cool question. I've always lived in my own little tone world on stage, and I think the guys who've played guitar around me always worked to complement that by going for different tones. Guys like David Ryan Harris and Robbie McIntosh always chose more midrangey tones, stiffer output, that kind of thing. But I'm inspired now by Zane Carney who just "doesn't know what he doesn't know," as they say. He's a really limitless player right now.





IV.

What are your most common pedals that are on for non-solo and solo sections and how do they shape your tone?





JM: Well, here comes the rabbit hole. I'm still on the same course of discovery I've been on since I started. I still play with sounds I forget I don't want to have. What I mean by that is that I keep overestimating how much distortion I want to use. I think it's a function of trying to mix myself for the stage, in a way. For this next Dead tour I'm going very clean - or at least I'm going to try to. When I do step on a pedal it's usually the TS10 or the Klon. I'm going to try the Klon this tour, as when I listened back to some show tapes, the Tube Screamer was just too small and distorted. I really just wish I had a foot pedal that controlled how much of my guitar the house got. That's all I want. That's a lot of the reason guitar players step on pedals to solo. It's like "listen to THIS!"





V.

You have owned a number of Dumble amps over the years. Can you tell us how they are compared to each other and how they are compared to modern Two Rocks - or even the PRS V9?





JM: All Dumbles are different in some way or another. He used to build them to each player's demands, so they're all a bit different, which makes the thrill of the hunt a little more fun. I've definitely heard Dumbles that didn't do the trick for me. But the ones that do have two things in common: they all have this harmonic overtone stack that is very complex, and they all compress and release at the EXACT right time. Amp compression. Like how hard the transformer gets hit...I'm telling you, when you get one that snaps back just before you hit the next note, it's heaven. That's the SRV thing, really. He was playing right up against that amp compression. Working it like its own instrument. Could just be my imagination but I think that's why he liked the Dumbles. Too stiff and they're like Marshalls, too soft and they're like Twins. I can understand why Stevie didn't really play through Twins and I can totally understand why Jerry Garcia did. It's all the timing of the amp compression. Two-Rocks do a Dumble "thing" but that's not why I used to play them. They have the Fender tone but with that tighter modern power section.





VI.

You used a Dumble ODS on the Continuum tour. What made you replace it with the SSS? Finally, did you ever use the overdrive channel of the ODS live or in the studio?





JM: I picked up the Steel String Singer around the same time as the '64 Strat. And it went right to work. So the first half of Continuum was recorded with the ODS and then the SSS came in and replaced it - handily. In fact, the '64 through the SSS gave Rene' and I goosebumps when we first plugged it in. As for the V9, I think that's just the name that was on the chassis that Paul built these new amps for me into. I've got an updated version I'm taking out with me this summer that's voiced even better. These are really sophisticated instruments that Paul is building. We talk almost every day. We're a good team. I think we both have a very deep long term goal for the future, and it's very exciting. I've seen and played some things that I think is the future, and as always that's coming from the heart and not a contract.

