John Mayer

In case you miss it in the other forum, JM posted this at MSM:

(01.27.05)

Hey (gear) guys and gals -

I thought it might be fun to post a little something regarding gear, specifically that endless hunt for our guitar tone. ItÕs as much of an obsession for me as it is for some of you, and I want to share a little of what IÕve learned over the past few years. I read through some of the posts in this part of the forum, and I canÕt get over how much of a positive spin youÕve put on the guitar community. ItÕs has a tendency to be jaded, and I love to see that youÕre getting happiness and fulfillment out of it and not frustration.

There are some misconceptions that seem to constantly perpetuate, and I want to try and bust one of them up right now. Oh, and it should be noted throughout that this all applies to my take on tone. If you like heavy metal, youÕll probably disagree with everything I have to say.

Distortion pedals Ð One thing to keep in mind with distortion Ð I should say overdrive pedals, so as to distinguish them from fuzz pedals, which is more of an effect unto itself - is that theyÕre really made to simulate overdriving an amp naturally. Vintage tube amps have a threshold where they break up past a certain volume. A distortion pedal is used to make that Ôbreak up soundÕ happen at lower volumes, which is a reasonable expectation. You canÕt turn a Ô65 Deluxe Reverb to Ô8Õ in your bedroom without making a lot of people miserable. Stevie Ray Vaughan used an Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS-808 ), which in the 1980s was regarded as kind of a cheap pedal. HereÕs the misconception; he didnÕt really use that much distortion at all. He did when he was going for that Jimi sound, but listen to most any early SRV tune and you wonÕt hear as much break-up as you might think. I hear people all the time (I even remember hearing myself) who just dime the Ôdrive knobÕ and think the ÔvolumeÕ is a master knob for it. ItÕs a concept known as Ògain stagingÓ - it has to do with the way that the volume of each part of your signal chain interacts with the next. The ÔvolumeÕ knob of an 808 is the most important. ThatÕs by definition, the overdrive part of it. The ÒoverdriveÓ should be thought of as the ÒcheatÓ knob. Remember this Ð kicking on distortion should make your guitar louder, not quieter. Quiet sounding loud is just strange. Setting gain staging will make sure that when you kick the pedal on, your guitar signal will get appropriately louder. Again Ð Stevie Ray used so much less distortion than you can possibly imagine. He was loud, and the way it hit the tape (and your ear) made that sound. I use a vintage 808, which has some properties that I like, but it is by no means the holy grail of tone. It has itÕs place, though. Everything does. Just remember that turning that ÒcheatÓ knob too high also cheats you of the natural tonal characteristics of your guitar. Do work that volume knob, though.

So what if you donÕt have the 600 bucks for an 808? DonÕt even worry about it. There are so many pedals designed to emulate it, itÕs not even funny. Purists want the original 808 because of some fairly esoteric microchip differences. The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive is somewhat close, (and dirt cheap!) but it can also have a really harsh high end. (WhatÕs in a name, right?) I think the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 is a FANTASTIC update on the 808. The Keeley-modded TS-808 reissue is very close to an 808. These pedals are what I call Òpaint chipÓ close. If you didnÕt have an original 808 to A/B with, you wouldnÕt know what you were missing. If youÕre looking for a good ÒedgeyÓ tone, check out the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal from the early Ô90s. Not the BB-2 (bad), but the original. ItÕs a great beefy sound that colors strat pickups in a really interesting way. The tone knob is like a ÒB.B.Ó dial. If you feel like your guitar just wonÕt cut it in the mix with your band, but you donÕt necessarily want more overdrive, check out the Fulltone Fat-Boost, or the Keeley Katana. Kick it on for a solo, and itÕs like having your own personal mixing engineer ride your fader. I use a Keeley-modded Boss BD-2 pedal as well. ItÕs got itÕs own thing going on, and I like it. So many pedals are cool, and most every one has a place for something. ItÕs fun to listen to a pedal and then play to itÕs strengths.

Oh, hereÕs another misconception: True bypass is all-around better than buffered (regular) bypass. Not so. Think of your guitar cable as a hose, and your guitar only pushes a certain amount of water pressure out of it. After a certain length, youÕre going to need some more pressure to squeeze the water out. True-bypass takes the ÒinÓ and ÒoutÓ cables of a pedal and connects them as if they were one long hose. After a certain length, youÕll get some pretty hefty tone loss. I learned this when I unplugged my guitar from my pedal switcher and went straight into the amp. Guitar pedals without the TB serve as a buffer for the signal, and naturally keep that water flow going. Yes, sometimes the trade-off can be harsh; some pedals, while buffering your signal, can also adversely color it, even when in bypass mode. ThatÕs a good time to think TB. True bypass is a concept that only really took off as a selling point over the last 5 years or so. It wonÕt kill you to have it, but it certainly isnÕt the only reason to get a pedal over another one without it.

I Hope that helps you out a little bit. There are so many other things I want to share with you, where to put your money, where to save it... Maybe IÕll get to it all over time. I canÕt think of anything more exciting than tone hunting, and I hope you canÕt either.

PLAY ON

JM

Je sais pas si Inside Wants Out peut être considéré comme un album , c'est un EP donc ...

Sinon je dis pas qu'il a perdu en songwriting , c'est simplement que je préferais le John Mayer des débuts qui chantait pas super super , qui forçait bcp sur sa voix, qui avait des thèmes très adulescents , ça lui donnait un je ne sais quoi. Maintenant qu'il a appris à chanter, que ses albums sont electriques , ça m'interesse moins , c'est dire mes deux chansons préférés du dernier sont Heart Of Life et Stop This Train, deux chansons ou sa voix et son jeu de guitare ne sont pas rééllement mis en avant, mais plus une certaine ambiance intimiste ; en revanche je me repete , mais le plus interessant est de le voir jouer de la gratte en live , en dvd biensur ou en vrai si on a la chance d'être sur le continent américain. La ça tue.

A quand une réelle tournée en Europe ?

Disques. Rock
John Mayer
Par Nick KENT
QUOTIDIEN : samedi 10 février 2007
John Mayer Continuum : Music by John Mayer (Sony/BMG).
Le jeune guitariste-chanteur-compositeur prodige John Mayer, superstar platinée dans son Amérique native, est pratiquement inconnu en Europe, surtout en France où son label n'a même pas jugé utile de publier tous ses disques précédents. Souvent décrit comme un hybride de Sting et de Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mayer est un guitariste de blues surdoué dont les compositions mélancoliques dévoilent également d'autres influences comme la soul, le folk et le jazz. Continuum semble être le nom qu'il a choisi de donner au «supergroupe» de musiciens de studio qu'il a réunis pour ces séances (dont l'actuel bassiste des Who, Pino Palladino, et le prénommé batteur Steve Jordan) ; mais le CD lui-même s'apparente à un nouvel effort solo de Mayer, dans la droite ligne de ses enregistrements précédents. Certes, Palladino et Jordan cosignent avec lui le très Isley Brothers Vultures et les trois adoptent le mode power trio sur une version du Bold as Love de Jimi Hendrix, mais les meilleurs moments de l'album sont ceux où Mayer donne la pleine mesure de son talent sous-estimé sur des ballades introspectives et dépouillées comme Stop This Train et Slow Dancing in a Burning Room .

que pensez vous de ses 2 gratteux qui l'accompagnent sur scène? Je trouve le vieux très bon et polyvalent (bottleneck, ptits effets sympas)

salut à tous, je viens de tomber sur ce post !

je suis un grand fan de John Mayer depuis 3 ans déjà

c'est clair qu'il mériterait d'être connu en france, il tiens la route !!!
pour ses guitaristes, le "vieux" n'est autre que Robbie McIntosh guitariste anglais qui jouait entre autre dans les "pretenders" dans les année 80, avec McCartney (studio et scène) de 89 à 97 ?
bref c'est une sacrée pointure,
le deuxième n'est pas mauvais non plus !!!

et un artiste classé "POP" par ses détracteurs avec un groupe à 3 guitares ne peut qu'être sympa non ???