3 Responses to “Is the Squier fender Stratocaster a good guitar to play john Mayer’s songs?”

1. flybriz on November 29th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

   JM’s guitar of choice for most of his blues and electric songs is a Fender Stratocaster, so you’re in the ballpark. The major differences in an American-made Stratocaster and a Squier Stratocaster (Fender’s beginner model) is the quality of pickups, the quality of the tuning mechanisms (how well the guitar holds its tuning) and the wood and workmanship. That being said, a Squier Strat sounds very much like American Strats so you should be good to go. With John, it’s all about tone. He plays a lot on a Two Rock amplifier, a very expensive boutique amp but an amazing sound. Any tube amplifier that would give your Squier a nice warm, clean tone and some reverb will get you close. If you don’t have a tube amplifier and maybe just have a small practice amp, that’s okay too. Pick up an effects pedal or two if you can afford it – An Ibanez TS9 or a Boss Blues Driver would help you achieve that warm crunchy blues tone that he’s known for. I’ve attached a link that shows a list of JM’s equipment. Lots of subtle effects go into his sound as you can see, but it sounds like you’re just starting out and are not quite ready to spend a lot of money on pedals and amps.

   So the basics – Play your Squier Strat using the neck pickup, or switch it so that both the neck and middle pickup are both on, and play with your fingers instead of a pick (JM does this a lot), dial up some reverb on your amp and if you have EQ controls, roll the treble down a bit and the bass and mid up to get that warm punchy tone. He never seems to use much distortion – just pedals like the two I mention above to give the guitar more drive and sustain.

   Line6 makes some great equipment (amps and pedals) that "simulate" the sound of many boutique amps and effects. They are affordable too – compared to the real thing. Check out this guy playing on a Line6 amp – it’s all about technique:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t06Ya-qUxPE&feature=related

   Best of luck!
   References :
   http://www.uberproaudio.com/content/view/146/38/

2. Saul on November 29th, 2009 at 11:36 pm

   I think that in general, your tone is split pretty evenly between four parts: your fingers/technique, your pickups, your amp, and your speakers.

   For a Squier strat, I think that the best two things you can do is have your guitar properly set-up/intonated, and have new pickups put in. My personal preference would probably be a set of Seymour Duncan Hot Rails, or the Hot Rails/Cool Rails/Vintage Rails set. These are noiseless, ie they’re stacked humbuckers, so are going to have a little darker tone than your normal single-coils, a little higher output, but no hum.

   Beyond that, rolling both the tone and volume knobs back a little bit should help darken up the tone as well.

   John Mayer doesn’t use a lot of effects – like many blues players, he uses dual amps to get the bulk of his tone, so I would focus on amp selection as being the next most important thing.

   If its in your budget, I would try and get a tube amp. Crate makes the V-series (including the V33 which I totally would love to get my hands on), and Epiphone makes the Epiphone Valve Jr. The Fender Champ is another great amp to look at, too.

   In terms of amp settings, I believe that for most of his songs he has a pretty low gain setting, with plenty of mids and just enough treble and bass to sound warm but not too "cutting" or "boomy", respectively. The exact settings will depend on your amp.

   Saul
   References :

3. Left-T on November 30th, 2009 at 12:15 am

   Yes. That guitar is good enough and how it will sound depends on your skills. No matter what guitar you are playing, the guitar will sound as good as you can play it.

   Mayer uses a Strat and you will get his tone pretty closely to how his sound. He plays clean with a little digital delay if that cna help you
   References :
   Berklee Graduate / Luthier & Studio Guitarist

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