Thought this deserved it's own thread.
John Mayer's impact on guitar playing over the past 20 years has been profound. He's successfully captured the hearts and ears of pop and blues fanatics alike. And he's stepped in to fill some big shoes in the Dead & Company touring band with great success.
This is my take on a John Mayer preset that builds around a big, clean tone that rings with that bell-like clarity he's known for using. It's been dialed in primarily with a Silver Sky but I've used it, live, with a Silver Sky, a PRS Standard 24 running BKP Abraxas PUs and a PRS McCarty 594 semi-hollow running 58/15 PUs. They all work wonderfully with the preset. The humbuckers overdrive the amp more, which itself is awesome, but if you want a cleaner tone with humbuckers dial the Input Trim on the amp block back to about 0.75.
At the heart of the preset is an ODS-100 Clean model:
I stayed entirely on the Authentic page while working to dial in the tones here. This amp can be driven pretty hot on the Drive parameter and it stays mostly clean while the bass content gets bigger.
The CAB block is running a two-IR mix of some Electro-Voice EVM12L speakers. I've always thought Redwirez produced fine IRs and wasn't surprised to find myself enjoying their capture here. I would have preferred to add some more bass using another 2x12 12L capture, but couldn't find another among the factory banks so I used a 4x12 capture from a Dumble cabinet, mixed in a little lower, to give it some body.
I put a reverb block between the AMP-CAB blocks for no other reason than I thought it sounded best there.
While tuning this, I was playing fairly loud through my Xitone open-back monitor. Loud is really key here if you want to get that sustain John pulls off with his clean tones. There's no substitute for physical, acoustic coupling sometimes.
For the low gain, Klon overdrive sounds I used my preferred "clean magic boost" trick and went with a FET drive block that has a healthy dose of direct signal mixed into it:
I had to shave a bunch of bass out of that model as well to keep it from making the overall sound flubby when I used the neck pickup on the Silver Sky. I really like how this drive works with the amp-cab. Like I really, really like it.
The second drive block is a TOTS: Trusty Old Tube Screamer. I liked the Mod version of the pedal. But try the non-Mod version and see what you like better?
There's a
I've run the preset with a live band twice now and the results have been excellent. It cuts well but isn't piercing. It can be run very loud relative to the rest of the band and it sits in that right spot where John seems to sit. On the 2 and 4 settings of the Silver Sky it clucks beautifully.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have in the past few weeks. It was fun to dial in and even more fun to take out live.
You can get it here: https://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=9132 (for the FM9 and AFIII)
And the FM3 version is here: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/as-is-a-tribute-to-john-mayer.176588/#post-2145048
I'll posts some clips later tonight.
John Mayer's impact on guitar playing over the past 20 years has been profound. He's successfully captured the hearts and ears of pop and blues fanatics alike. And he's stepped in to fill some big shoes in the Dead & Company touring band with great success.
This is my take on a John Mayer preset that builds around a big, clean tone that rings with that bell-like clarity he's known for using. It's been dialed in primarily with a Silver Sky but I've used it, live, with a Silver Sky, a PRS Standard 24 running BKP Abraxas PUs and a PRS McCarty 594 semi-hollow running 58/15 PUs. They all work wonderfully with the preset. The humbuckers overdrive the amp more, which itself is awesome, but if you want a cleaner tone with humbuckers dial the Input Trim on the amp block back to about 0.75.
At the heart of the preset is an ODS-100 Clean model:
I stayed entirely on the Authentic page while working to dial in the tones here. This amp can be driven pretty hot on the Drive parameter and it stays mostly clean while the bass content gets bigger.
The CAB block is running a two-IR mix of some Electro-Voice EVM12L speakers. I've always thought Redwirez produced fine IRs and wasn't surprised to find myself enjoying their capture here. I would have preferred to add some more bass using another 2x12 12L capture, but couldn't find another among the factory banks so I used a 4x12 capture from a Dumble cabinet, mixed in a little lower, to give it some body.
I put a reverb block between the AMP-CAB blocks for no other reason than I thought it sounded best there.
While tuning this, I was playing fairly loud through my Xitone open-back monitor. Loud is really key here if you want to get that sustain John pulls off with his clean tones. There's no substitute for physical, acoustic coupling sometimes.
For the low gain, Klon overdrive sounds I used my preferred "clean magic boost" trick and went with a FET drive block that has a healthy dose of direct signal mixed into it:
I had to shave a bunch of bass out of that model as well to keep it from making the overall sound flubby when I used the neck pickup on the Silver Sky. I really like how this drive works with the amp-cab. Like I really, really like it.
The second drive block is a TOTS: Trusty Old Tube Screamer. I liked the Mod version of the pedal. But try the non-Mod version and see what you like better?
There's a
Bender
scene that uses the spitty bender-type fuzz sounds modeled after what John was using in Crossroads video from an old Toronto show. You'll want to roll volume back on the guitar a bit and use the middle or neck pickup to really find the spot where it's musical but not too bombastic. Of course, it sounds pretty awesome when it's bombastic too.I've run the preset with a live band twice now and the results have been excellent. It cuts well but isn't piercing. It can be run very loud relative to the rest of the band and it sits in that right spot where John seems to sit. On the 2 and 4 settings of the Silver Sky it clucks beautifully.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have in the past few weeks. It was fun to dial in and even more fun to take out live.
You can get it here: https://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=9132 (for the FM9 and AFIII)
And the FM3 version is here: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/as-is-a-tribute-to-john-mayer.176588/#post-2145048
I'll posts some clips later tonight.
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