Rumor mill: John Mayer plugin coming soon?

[Jkist7]

Would be rad if it was NeuralDSP. I don't trust them with much, but I do trust they could make a decent Mayer plugin. Dude definitely has good taste in tone.

However, Neural just did a whole ad campaign with all their major artists, feels like a missed opportunity to not include John if he really is going official with NDSP.

 

[DrewJD82]

Man, I had no clue the Mayer Gear world was as big as it is until recently. A video popped up on my youtube feed about a new pedal or a pedal swap or something rather mundane and it was ‘news’ to make a video about. After watching for a couple minutes the video creator was talking about how he was given some info from another Mayer gear freak and then discussed their IG pages and all that, it was all news to me.

I completely forget regularly that he IS a guitar hero to a lot of people and just like us EJ/Gilmour nuts devour every bit of gear info we can, so do they. It’s just odd because I’m used to all the regular guitar heroes being spoken of together quite consistently, like if someone is talking about the classic rock greats you’ll get Page, Hendrix and Gilmour in the quote, or in the 80’s with EVH, Lukather, DeMartini, Sykes or the 90’s virtuosos always had Satch, EJ and Vai lumped together. In the modern guitar hero talk you’ll hear about Abasi, Plini, Govan, Masato (?) but Mayer seems to exist on his own little island.

 

[2112]

@DrewJD82 it is interesting seeing those pages devoted to certain players. Gilmourish.com is the first one I recall seeing going super deep into one players gear. Mayer would be up there with EVH, Gilmour, Cobain & Frusciante where there's multiple YT channels focused on their gear and tones.

 

[DrewJD82]

@DrewJD82 it is interesting seeing those pages devoted to certain players. Gilmourish.com is the first one I recall seeing going super deep into one players gear. Mayer would be up there with EVH, Gilmour, Cobain & Frusciante where there's multiple YT channels focused on their gear and tones.

I just wonder where all those Mayer fans are! I know there’s a good amount at TGP, but even then, you don’t really see Mayer threads there. It’s like there’s this whole other world of gear nerds and we’re on the other side of the galaxy.

 

[holoholo]

Man, I had no clue the Mayer Gear world was as big as it is until recently. A video popped up on my youtube feed about a new pedal or a pedal swap or something rather mundane and it was ‘news’ to make a video about. After watching for a couple minutes the video creator was talking about how he was given some info from another Mayer gear freak and then discussed their IG pages and all that, it was all news to me.

I completely forget regularly that he IS a guitar hero to a lot of people and just like us EJ/Gilmour nuts devour every bit of gear info we can, so do they. It’s just odd because I’m used to all the regular guitar heroes being spoken of together quite consistently, like if someone is talking about the classic rock greats you’ll get Page, Hendrix and Gilmour in the quote, or in the 80’s with EVH, Lukather, DeMartini, Sykes or the 90’s virtuosos always had Satch, EJ and Vai lumped together. In the modern guitar hero talk you’ll hear about Abasi, Plini, Govan, Masato (?) but Mayer seems to exist on his own little island.

It’s kind of crazy because he’s solely responsible for the price rise in certain pedals like the TS10 and I think the solo Dallas storm. Anything he uses gets a pop in value. It’s like the JHS YouTube effect but with someone who has eyebrows.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Broken record crew. Difference between Mayer and the rest of that list of players is they have songs that are timeless. Mayer's timeless endeavors revolve around appearances on The Chappelle Show.

 

[saarangnarayan]

I just wonder where all those Mayer fans are!

They're all on the hipster side of Instagram.

 

[synthpenguin]

It’s just odd because I’m used to all the regular guitar heroes being spoken of together quite consistently, like if someone is talking about the classic rock greats you’ll get Page, Hendrix and Gilmour in the quote, or in the 80’s with EVH, Lukather, DeMartini, Sykes or the 90’s virtuosos always had Satch, EJ and Vai lumped together. In the modern guitar hero talk you’ll hear about Abasi, Plini, Govan, Masato (?) but Mayer seems to exist on his own little island.

I think a big difference is that all those people in the earlier generations made music that more people wanted to hear. People like Abasi and Plini are popular with a certain niche of musicians, but aren’t widely popular or known. Like “everyone knows Animals as Leaders” but their monthly listen counts on streaming services are lower than a lot of random indie artists, and a lot of their work that did get more popular is 10 years old now.

Absolutely no hate, but the music of a lot of these guitarists beside Govan always just felt like 2010s YouTube music to me. They’re extremely talented and skilled, and I respect them a lot (especially Plini!), but the sort of music most people would hear when a specific video goes viral, enjoy it, and then not think of again.

Like or hate John Mayer, his popularity and name recognition is waaaaay closer to those older guitar greats than most other guitarists of his gen are. I think it makes sense that more interest in his gear would follow, and also that it wouldn’t necessarily be reflected in niche guitar gear circles on forums (which most guitarists, especially younger ones, don’t use at all) that tend to focus on heavier sounds or older artists. You see a lot of talk about him on other types of platforms.

[ETA: you could say the same about a lot of country guitarists too, who are extremely influential for a lot of people, and whose tones are chased, and get the signature pedals and gear too, but are basically never mentioned in places like this]

The other factor imo is that Mayer’s style and tones apply very well in a lot of contexts, so you get, say, the worship music side of things—which has been super influential in the industry for a while now—being able to appreciate him and take from his sound and spread that.

 

[synthpenguin]

Broken record crew. Difference between Mayer and the rest of that list of players is they have songs that are timeless. Mayer's timeless endeavors revolve around appearances on The Chappelle Show.

tbh I think more people can hum 2 or 3 songs from that Continuum album that came out 2 decades ago now than even know what you’re referencing lol

 

[dk_ace]

I just wonder where all those Mayer fans are! I know there’s a good amount at TGP, but even then, you don’t really see Mayer threads there. It’s like there’s this whole other world of gear nerds and we’re on the other side of the galaxy.

I don’t see much of them online, maybe that one guy on YouTube who the algo is convinced I really want to watch his videos…

But IRL I talk to a lot of players who are big Mayer fans. I don’t know any that are obsessed with his gear, but he comes up all the time when I talk to other players.

I’ve never been into it, but I’m not a hater. Modern players that are guitar guys and wildly successful are good for all of us, whether we like their material or not.

D

 

[Jarick]

@DrewJD82 it is interesting seeing those pages devoted to certain players. Gilmourish.com is the first one I recall seeing going super deep into one players gear. Mayer would be up there with EVH, Gilmour, Cobain & Frusciante where there's multiple YT channels focused on their gear and tones.

I'm such a massive Dean DeLeo fan and would read through the Below Empty site over and over again. It's awesome to geek out over all those tiny details.

Mayer is probably one of the few non-metal guys in the 21st century people get obsessed over with tone. I don't know why but I totally get it. Continuum was such a fantastic album with just the perfect guitar hooks, and when you have great guitar songs people are going to want the tone.

Sometimes you stumble upon people obsessed with specific guitarists that are unexpected. A while back I found someone who did a bunch of deep dive videos on Mike Einziger for instance.

 

[Jarick]

Broken record crew. Difference between Mayer and the rest of that list of players is they have songs that are timeless. Mayer's timeless endeavors revolve around appearances on The Chappelle Show.

Whole heartedly disagree. John Mayer played guitar-centric blues based pop music that topped the charts, which is exactly what Clapton and Hendrix and Gilmour were doing. The biggest difference is how much more jaded and cynical people were from the 90's onward compared to the 60's and 70's which made it far more common for people to put down successful crossover artists (see Nickelback and Creed for instance).

 

[JiveTurkey]

Whole heartedly disagree. John Mayer played guitar-centric blues based pop music that topped the charts, which is exactly what Clapton and Hendrix and Gilmour were doing. The biggest difference is how much more jaded and cynical people were from the 90's onward compared to the 60's and 70's which made it far more common for people to put down successful crossover artists (see Nickelback and Creed for instance).

What songs of his do you like, though? I am actually a defender of JM generally speaking. He just doesn't make any music that moves me. Zero. He's funny on the Chapelle show and a few rando appearances in comedy movies.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Yeah, whoever pays him the most.

In Ego Coin

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

What songs of his do you like, though? I am actually a defender of JM generally speaking. He just doesn't make any music that moves me. Zero. He's funny on the Chapelle show and a few rando appearances in comedy movies.

Gravity is one that I'll put up there. In general I agree that his music is less timeless, less guitar-centric, and more derivative in general. Hard not to be 35 years later though.

 

[dk_ace]

What songs of his do you like, though? I am actually a defender of JM generally speaking. He just doesn't make any music that moves me. Zero. He's funny on the Chapelle show and a few rando appearances in comedy movies.

None of his stuff ever grabbed me initially. It was more of a hindsight thing where years later I realized some of it was good stuff. Slow dancing in a burning room and gravity come to mind like that.

D

 

[JiveTurkey]

FTR; I like the guy. I just don't want to listen to him. But I will if I have to, and not remember a single thing I heard after it's all said and done

 

[JiveTurkey]

YOUR BODY IS A WONDERLAND OR GTFO

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

YOUR BODY IS A WONDERLAND OR GTFO

To be fair, if I'd been getting down with her at that time period I probably would've been so whapooshed by the experience to have written a REALLY dumb song about it, too

 

[Jarick]

What songs of his do you like, though? I am actually a defender of JM generally speaking. He just doesn't make any music that moves me. Zero. He's funny on the Chapelle show and a few rando appearances in comedy movies.

Lots of his stuff...it's about as poppy as I'll ever listen to but sometimes a good pop song is good for the soul.

First album was a fun 2k era pop album with surprisingly cool guitar stuff. I really like Neon and Back To You, even his singles like No Such Thing and Why Georgia are pretty good. I never could stand Your Body Is a Wonderland though.

Second album I wasn't into as much, Daughters is annoying, but there's some cool stuff here. Something's Missing is really cool although the chorus is a bit cliched.

John Mayer Trio might show up as a separate search from John Mayer but coming off two pop albums he took two brilliant studio jazzers on tour and pivoted hard, that was awesome. Whole album is pretty cool.

Continuum is peak Mayer to me, combining the Trio with some of his blues pop. The whole back half of the album starting from Slow Dancing is amazing. I honestly prefer his Bold As Love to Hendrix. Songs were on point, playing was on point, tone was on point. Just a great album. Now is there sentimentality at play for these songs? Absolutely...I got this album around the time I met my ex and got pregnant right away. But that's life.

I didn't listen to much stuff after that, but I do really like Walt Grace's Submarine Test, mostly because of the brilliant fan made music video which is like instant onion cutting (again, life...I was just getting married to my current wife at the time).

And then you have Sob Rock which is a fun tongue in cheek album that we kind of needed in 2021. Some of it is cool nostalgia and head nods to 80's glossy pop rock but the songs are pretty good too.