Super/Bassman JMayer/SRV mods?!!?

[JohnMayer]

Greetings. I am looking to see if there is a way to possibly mod my amps, or do minor "upgrades" in the circuit to get tones more reminiscent of SRV and the Two Rock amps played by John Mayer.

I play a 66 Super Reverb and a 65 Bassman Head. I'm going to bring it in to a local tech to do some soldering and "tidy" work. I was gonna see if anyone had suggestions he could do to these amps to get that John Mayer sound. Think the tonal qualities of the video with more headroom, clarity than the traditional super/bassman.

Looking to get info along the lines of circuitry mods, cap/resistor mods, et cetera.

Below is a link to a youtube video of Mayer:


John Mayer -- Two Rock Tone!!! CLICK ME

[Gee]

Yesterday evening I watched a TV program on UK TV called Abbey Road. This is a weekly program that showcases 3 artists playing in the famous Abbey Road studio in London. I have watched it a few times and it is always interesting to see the amps that are available for use in the studio.

Yesterday one of the artists was John Mayer. His playing, as always was inspiring and intoxicating. He can really play. His tone was the classic distinctive John Mayer tone heard on "Gravity" or "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room". I was watching to see if his Two Rock amp would come into view but never saw it. However, and this is what I getting to, after the second song, he calls out to one of the sound people "Turn up the Bluesbreaker a bit". So he was playing through a Bluesbreaker and he sounded just like he does through his Two Rock. It's all in the guys fingers.

[Richard]

Well I'd start with whatever speakers he uses or something similar. The speaker/cab combination is a huge part of the sound. I see his signature amp (only $8500... I'll take two!) is one hundred watts. In my experience the higher watt amps seem to have a much more massive sound, even at lower levels. An efficient speaker in a good cab seems to help the bass and that can be the first place you run out of headroom. Some mods to the tone stack may help as well.

[JohnMayer]

Hmm...

I think the "its all in the fingers" common phrase misses the question and point totally. As far as speakers that can be a hit or miss as well as expensive project. My bassman is played on an old fender 2x15 cab with a new baffle board sporting 4x10 weber speakers. The super has ceramic speakers. Mayer is using two 2x12 cabs for his 100 watt heads...

I'd rather start tinkering with the tone stack is it is the cheapest way to go. If there are any specific recommendations please let me know thanks!

[stevlech]

I'd start with the "normal channel mods" from Blueguitar.org. Mr. Mayer has a liking for amps with a "Dumbell" type of voicing.

BTW- he has an affinity for the Marshall Bluesbreaker PEDAL as well. He mentioned it on his blog a few months back.

[Leffje]

It´s all in his fingers

I wonder at the same time what type of strings/gauge etc?
I have on BFDR-65 sometimes i´m close to the Mayer sound.
But (big but) I have just bought an old ugly Traynor YGM-3 -It sounds like nothing else** It´s a cheap amp and sound a million I promise. Mayer sound sweet***

My guitar - EJ Stratocaster

[SyncTronX]

Greetings. I am looking to see if there is a way to possibly mod my amps, or do minor "upgrades" in the circuit to get tones more reminiscent of SRV and the Two Rock amps played by John Mayer.

I play a 66 Super Reverb and a 65 Bassman Head. I'm going to bring it in to a local tech to do some soldering and "tidy" work. I was gonna see if anyone had suggestions he could do to these amps to get that John Mayer sound. Think the tonal qualities of the video with more headroom, clarity than the traditional super/bassman.

I'd have your 66 Super Reverb, completely rebuilt and retubed.
Yeah, a lot of folks here will say oh you will lose its collector value, etc.

Just get it done, complete with new trem circuit, reverb upgrade,
power section, sockets, PI drive, Feedback, and preamp section
along with some upgrades too.

Figure about $500 - $700 plus tubes, transformers extra.

Find a tech with ears...

There will be plenty of folks who claim this and that are over priced,
etc, you WANT to find the tech with ears, who may play also.

Tubes are a whole 'nutha' country.

Sync

[Jelle]

John Mayer plays Dumble amps like the Steel String Singer and the Overdrive Special. He also plays amps from Two Rock that have used Dumble amps as a basis for their designs.

There are more ampbuilders that can create these sounds.

Where are you located? Maybe I can help.

Jelle
New York
Welagen Musical Sound

[Chuck H]

SRV's Super Reverb/s were fitted with a replacement baffle board of 3/4" marine plywood and JBL speakers (sorry I don't know the specifics on the speakers).

His tech would disconnect the trem circuit on some of his amps at the pot. This actually raises gain. Which to some uninformed players may seem like a decrease in headroom. But it's not. I don't know if the trem circuits were disconnected on the SR's or not.

SRV did prefere a clean sounding preamp and so used 5751 tubes in the first position. The 5751 has many of the characteristics of a 12ax7 but with an amplification factor of 70 instead of 100. The 5751 is not like a 12at7 in any way other than it's amplification factor so don't try to get good results with a 12at7.

SRV used 12's on his guitar slacked down a full step. This was a big part of his tone.

In the studio SRV was notorious for running many amps simultaneously to combine their attributes. These were mostly HIS Fenders (two 1x15 Vibroverbs and two Super Reverbs) and a 1959 Bassman that belonged to the studio. He also used an old Leslie cabinet for chorus effects. The In Step recordings were reportedly done straight into the Bassman. This was his driest and most bland tone IMO. Live, throughout his career in order, SRV used his Vibroverbs and SR's, then his SR's and a pair of Twin Reverbs (don't know of any mods), Then the TR's and a Marshall Town and Country (I think that's what it was called. It was a big 200 watt thing voiced for a big clean sound. not at all Marshall like), and then he added the Dumble Steel String Singer which appeared from then on with a melange of his other amps that seemed to change from show to show until his untimely demise.

I don't know about John Mayer's amps.

Chuck

[Jelle]

John Mayer owns SSS sn# 002.

[Gtr_tech]

In the studio SRV was notorious for running many amps simultaneously to combine their attributes. These were mostly HIS Fenders (two 1x15 Vibroverbs and two Super Reverbs) and a 1959 Bassman that belonged to the studio. He also used an old Leslie cabinet for chorus effects. The In Step recordings were reportedly done straight into the Bassman. This was his driest and most bland tone IMO. Live, throughout his career in order, SRV used his Vibroverbs and SR's, then his SR's and a pair of Twin Reverbs (don't know of any mods), Then the TR's and a Marshall Town and Country (I think that's what it was called. It was a big 200 watt thing voiced for a big clean sound. not at all Marshall like), and then he added the Dumble Steel String Singer which appeared from then on with a melange of his other amps that seemed to change from show to show until his untimely demise.


Chuck

The Mar$hall is a "Club and Country" combo.
http://bristol.gumtree.com/posting_i...04.__big__.jpg

Not one of the more desirable models.

[Stratabuser]

SRV's Super Reverb/s were fitted with a replacement baffle board of 3/4" marine plywood and JBL speakers (sorry I don't know the specifics on the speakers).

His tech would disconnect the trem circuit on some of his amps at the pot. This actually raises gain. Which to some uninformed players may seem like a decrease in headroom. But it's not. I don't know if the trem circuits were disconnected on the SR's or not.

SRV did prefere a clean sounding preamp and so used 5751 tubes in the first position. The 5751 has many of the characteristics of a 12ax7 but with an amplification factor of 70 instead of 100. The 5751 is not like a 12at7 in any way other than it's amplification factor so don't try to get good results with a 12at7.

SRV used 12's on his guitar slacked down a full step. This was a big part of his tone.

In the studio SRV was notorious for running many amps simultaneously to combine their attributes. These were mostly HIS Fenders (two 1x15 Vibroverbs and two Super Reverbs) and a 1959 Bassman that belonged to the studio. He also used an old Leslie cabinet for chorus effects. The In Step recordings were reportedly done straight into the Bassman. This was his driest and most bland tone IMO. Live, throughout his career in order, SRV used his Vibroverbs and SR's, then his SR's and a pair of Twin Reverbs (don't know of any mods), Then the TR's and a Marshall Town and Country (I think that's what it was called. It was a big 200 watt thing voiced for a big clean sound. not at all Marshall like), and then he added the Dumble Steel String Singer which appeared from then on with a melange of his other amps that seemed to change from show to show until his untimely demise.

I don't know about John Mayer's amps.

Chuck

Good information Chuck, I remember reading an interview in Guitar Player from the 1990s with his former amp tech - I'll try to find it - and he said he replaced the speakers in SRV's Super Reverbs with 4 EV speakers - probably EVM-10M - hence the need for the 3/4" plywood to carry the extra weight. The stock speakers were distorting too much and he knew the sound that SRV wanted so he spent a lot of time getting the Super Reverbs to sound right. He mentioned that SRV would insist on setting the tone controls at certain numbers (like treble @ 7) - so he would set the amp controls to the best settings, then loosen the knobs and turn them so that the best tone matched SRV's favorite numbers .
Ewan

[txstrat]

I agree, Chuck's done his homework on SRV stuff.

...so he would set the amp controls to the best settings, then loosen the knobs and turn them so that the best tone matched SRV's favorite numbers.
Ewan

I've read about the loosed knobs too but somehow I doubt it, since if it was true it would make one of the best guitar players ever look lilke he's got no idea of good tone. And I think SRV really DID proove he knew good tone.

[Chuck H]

I was going by memory when I wrote that post. So go easy if I stumbled on anything IIRC I got most of that info from the SRV biography and filled in some blanks at an SRV dedicated website which I can't remember. All this about 14 years ago. I've drank lot of beers since then.

Chuck

[Stratabuser]

I agree, Chuck's done his homework on SRV stuff.



I've read about the loosed knobs too but somehow I doubt it, since if it was true it would make one of the best guitar players ever look lilke he's got no idea of good tone. And I think SRV really DID proove he knew good tone.

No problem, SRV really understood what good tone was and what he wanted from his guitar/amp set up. But this was true.
In the March 1993 issue of Guitar Player, Cesar Diaz, his amp tech said:
"See Stevie had this superstition about numbers. He was used to his controls being set at a certain level, no matter what the amp was sounding like at that point. So, in order to avoid problems, I would back off the volume control by unscrewing the knob and turning it back a bit so it would appear to be at the same level as before"
Interviewer: He always used the same settings?
Diaz: "Yes the same Volume at 6, Treble at 5 1/2 bass at 4."