John Mayer Trio Live - tone

[lowell]

I'm quite fond of the fatness of J's tone on the live album. I was giving it a critical listen recently and decided that I feel strongly there is some serious harmonic content going on there. I feel as if I can here a pretty strong octave in the tone there, making it real fat and warm. I can't see how he gets this tone w/ an amp and a distortion pedal. Yeah he's using a delay pedal and possibly a compressor, but what might introduce such strong even order harmonics? Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this. Aside I just built RGs mu-doubler to see if that's the direction I need to go in... sounds cool but need to tweak the output volume a bit.

check out John's rhythm tone here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c_cEXlv8ZQ

[Enzo]

DOn't know what he is using, but to emulate the sound, don't forget in addition to record it live with sound spilling over into multiple mics, and all that taking place in the ambient sound environment of a large concert stage, plus all the massaging of the recording process and the mastering.

[martin manning]

One of my favorite discs and "I've Got A Woman" is a really great tune. Steve Jordan's drumming is just awesome, as is Pino Palladino's bass. JM is often seen with a Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature model (see the recent "Live in LA" video release), and in the video linked here you can see it and what looks like a 4x10 Bassman. I saw JM in concert last year (not the JMT, though, it was the Continuum tour) and that is what he was using, plus a half-dozen pedals. The Tweed 4x10 sound what I hear coming through in his playing, though. I just gave a listen to the cd's included with "The Soul of Tone- Celebrating 50 years of Fender Amps" to refresh my ears, and I'm sticking with that story. To Enzo's point, there are many factors involved, not the least of which is Mayer's playing style.

MPM

[Don Moose]

Mr Mayer uses a few Dumble ODS amps and clones thereof.

See ampgarage.com for details.

[martin manning]

From: http://www.uberproaudio.com/
(John Mayer's Guitar rig and equipment)

Amplifiers and Cabinets
- "John Mayer Signature Series Two Rock" amp heads
- Dumble Overdrive Special amp head
- Two Rock 2x12 guitar cabinets
- Leslie cabinet
- Victoria Bassman Clone (45-410 model)
- Victoria Reverberato Head
- Fender Super Reverb Blackface

Many scenarios possible, only as accurate as the sources used...

MPM

[lowell]

Hey all,
thanks for the replies and gear info. I did read about his rigs a bit online. The amps that he uses are definitely nice sounding amps. His pedal board is not a very "custom" setup so it doesn't seem as though he has some unknown "magic" box he uses. Aside from the amps/pedals and obviously his own fingers, don't you all hear something going on harmically speaking on the recording? I'm a big fan of Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, SRV, Clapton, Jeff Beck. All of which had great tones that defined their "sound." It is very true that one's rig will not sound the same in another's hands. However, the amount of even order harmonics on the track that I linked to in my initial post seems more accented than ANY amp by itself could generate... to me it seems that way anyway. Enzo I agree that the stage sound w/ the delay he is using helps alot w/ the hugeness of his guitar sound as well as the high probability that they finessed it in the mix/mastering process. Finally what you all do to maximize even order harmonics? I'm thinking of adding an octave pedal to my line and dialing in just a hair of it... we'll see.