Fender John Mayer Signature Stratocaster

[aero_91]

alright softies, i finally have the time now to do a in-depth review of my first strat or even more, my first fender guitar.

Price
the price at sweelee is well over $4k, but you should be able to get it at orangeguitar.com or bgwguitars at about a good 1k lesser or even more, depending on the USD.

Specs 9/10
-eastern hard rock maple neck with 21 dunlop 6105 frets with satin finish, mine has abit of birdseye though, depends on your luck.
-african rosewood fretboard
-select alder body
-glossy headstock top surface, while satin at the back. it has a vintage amber tint thats pretty.
-Big Dipper Pickups (only available on the john mayer strat), with scooped midrange
-5spring trem with no back cover
-john mayer's signature on the back of the headstock

Tone 9/10
i've tried before the american standard strats at sweelee before i bought this, so i can compare the tone coming from this. when plugged in, at the neck pickup, volume max and tone at zero, i got a rather wam tone coming from the guitar. while keeping the volume on the blues jr low, the tone is fat, creamy and not exactly what i expect from a strat. the cleans are really good with the big dippers. the same goes for all 4 other postions with different combination of pickups, namely the middle and bridge. the middle and bridge had much more bite, but still remained clear and good, but not as thick and as warm as the neck(this should be the case).

turning up the tone, the cleans you'll get are simply fantastic. think the knida john mayer-ish tone from songs such as gravity or slow dancing in a burning room. the satin neck on the guitar makes it a breeze to play bluesy stuff as your hand moves up and down the fretboard. but its abit on the broader side, people with small hands gotta take note of this. people who are used to playing on les pauls and decide to give strats a shot like me must bear in mind of the 6105 frets, they are much narrower than those on les pauls, and may take a lil' while to get used to.

up the volume on the blues jr, i got a rather crunchy tone that is still smooth an a pleasure to listen to. its like what you'll hear on 'who did you think i was', the kinda sexy tubey crunch. its not because im playing through a tube amp, through the roland cube30x on correct settings you'll get the same good stuff.

pedals go well with this guitar too, i would suggest a overdrive and a mild distortion pedal to go with it. so it wont kill the tone on this sweet baby. play around with the tone on the guitar, it has a mega sweet spot that you'll get a nice and beautiful tone from.

generally the big dippers are a big big plus on this strat, for they sound really good and this guitar is good for blues/jazz. i didnt use the trem at any point since day one, i dont see the need to.

Gear used: Fender JM Sig Strat of course, Fender Blues Jr, Roland Cube30x, MI Audio Crunchbox, Jim Dunlop Crybaby Classic Wah, Boss BD-2, Boss CE-2.

Likes
-the incase gigbag that comes with the guitar, super sturdy and confirm will protect the guitar like a hardcase.
-beautiful sunburst finish, theres also one in white.
-the pickups
-weight, compared to my non-weightrelieved/chambered 96' gibson les paul

Dislikes
nothing much actually, maybe the narrow frets? they'll take time to get used to if you've not used them before.

 

[Lovehurts]

Your new baby looks beautiful, dude! Congrats on your acquisition of it!

 

[Whitestrat]

generally the big dippers are a big big plus on this strat, for they sound really good and this guitar is good for blues/jazz. i didnt use the trem at any point since day one, i dont see the need to.

I'd like to pre-warn you about these now before you go and discover something nasty abt them.

The Big Dippers are, by comparison, pretty dead sounding when you compare them against a set like the CS54s or Texas Specials. They sort of "clunk" when they should chime. That's the magic of the BDs. They don't have the conventional strat tones. It's almost as if they were designed to sound dead. What they also do very nicely is compress. They work great under distortion (which you've no doubt discovered), but are oddly fat enough that they almost sound like low output humbuckers. they sound fantastic on their own. but when paired with someone else who's got a chimey strat, you're lost.

Don't forget John Mayer plays thru mid-heavy setups (his Two Rock amps are mid heavy), since his pickups are scooped. if you go thru everything else scooping the mids, again, it'll sound great on its own, but once you go with a full band, they sort of drown you out, or you blend in too much.

Just remember that. If you end up jamming with someone else who's got a very bright strat, then your BDs would get lost in the mix unless you tweak your EQ quite a bit.

 

[aero_91]

yeah i know, i do find the pickups abit dead sounding at first, but as i played around with amp and guitar settings, i managed to find its sweet spot. the range at which it sounds good is pretty large.

for the humbucker tone, doubtless. indeed i can get the hb tones at certain settings, and the fat tone. probably thats the reason why i got this strat, as i've been using les pauls all the while.

hmm so you mean that if the other guitarist has a bright sounding strat, i'll need to up the mids to make my strat heard?