Rumor mill: John Mayer plugin coming soon?

[JiveTurkey]

At first I thought you were referring to Resse from SRV and Double Trouble who plays with Joe but not BCC. Didn't realize that Derek Sherinian was in Dream Theater until I googled who the current BCC keyboardist was!

For what it's worth, if you like electric blues, Joe puts on a great show, but I don't find any of his compositions to be overly memorable and if you are not into a blues solo, it will get old fast. I grew up not far from him and first saw him playing with the likes of BB King and Edgar Winter when he was 12-13! He is quite the gear geek and geek in general and probably on the spectrum. I do respect him for what he has achieved as a blues player lacking any special looks, charisma, song writing ability or other characteristics that tend to help with popularity.

As for Mayer, who has all that stuff, I definitely respect his ability to play a variety of styles very well, but I also find his song writing to be uninspiring. I would definitely go see the Trio in a heartbeat, but I have little interest in his pop material. I also find Dead and Company tough to listen to, but that's mostly the super slow tempos and I don't think John is responsible for that as much as the 80 year old geezers.

I'm not a huge fan because blues but SRV is the one "blues guy" whose playing I would definitely do a double take when hearing wherever. Oof. Bonamassa has his own version of this on the lead playing end of the spectrum where it's just super liquid sounding.

 

[Chocol8]

SRV was absolutely incredible, his rhythm and timing at times were just sick. Joe to me is extremely good, but not at the same level. Maybe one of the best blues guys today, but not an all time great sort of thing. I am also much less into the blues than I used to be. To some extent, I feel like I have heard it all at this point.

 

[Jynx]

Here's a random question - does anyone really like both John Mayer AND Dream Theater?

I listened to John Mayer after hearing lots of TGPers rave about him. I thought, is that it?

Petrucci always just sounds like he's running through a series of scale drills to me.

 

[DrewJD82]

Now I know.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I listened to John Mayer after hearing lots of TGPers rave about him. I thought, is that it?

Petrucci always just sounds like he's running through a series of scale drills to me.

Somewhere TSJ is going

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

Somewhere TSJ is going

 

[Whizzinby]

The only blues dude I can listen to is Philip Sayce.

Otherwise it’s just a genre that’s run out of steam for me personally.

 

[Jynx]

Somewhere TSJ is going

I don't even know who that is.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I don't even know who that is.

He is our resident Petrucci nut!

 

[Chocol8]

I don't even know who that is.

It's Dwight Schrute!

Oh, you meant TSJ?

 

[DrewJD82]

FWIW, when I started talking about Mayer here, I was only curious about the lack of Mayer nerds I’ve come across in the wild, despite knowing they do indeed exist, not so much why Mayer has big fans.

My issue with both Bonamassa and Mayer is I simply don’t get any feeling from their playing. While I’m not a fan of putting it in terms like this because I don’t believe it’s a A + B = C thing, but those guys sound like they’ve never experienced a hardship in their life and while they may love playing blues music, there’s something missing from it to me and that’s the only thing I can pin it on. That said, David Gilmour also grew up upper middle class and had a pretty damn good childhood and everything I get from his playing is what I miss from Mayer/Bonamassa. Gilmour sounds like he needs those notes to say something for him and it comes across more to me that John/Joe just dig the blues aesthetic/tonality.

I don’t doubt that THEY’RE feeling it, but there’s something about both of them that just doesn’t move the emotional needle for me a single bit. I do love Joe’s tones, though. Not quite EJ and not quite stereotypical blues. I’d LOVE to hit one A chord on his rig.

 

[Tito83]

Here's a random question - does anyone really like both John Mayer AND Dream Theater?

I do not get Dream Theater at all. Outside Pull Me Under nothing they have done is remotely interesting or appealing to me.

Maybe there's some weird dividing line between those two?

The Petrucci Ibanez days are some of my favorite guitar playing and also I'm very much into Mayer, even the more pop non blues stuff.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

FWIW, when I started talking about Mayer here, I was only curious about the lack of Mayer nerds I’ve come across in the wild, despite knowing they do indeed exist, not so much why Mayer has big fans.

My issue with both Bonamassa and Mayer is I simply don’t get any feeling from their playing. While I’m not a fan of putting it in terms like this because I don’t believe it’s a A + B = C thing, but those guys sound like they’ve never experienced a hardship in their life and while they may love playing blues music, there’s something missing from it to me and that’s the only thing I can pin it on. That said, David Gilmour also grew up upper middle class and had a pretty damn good childhood and everything I get from his playing is what I miss from Mayer/Bonamassa. Gilmour sounds like he needs those notes to say something for him and it comes across more to me that John/Joe just dig the blues aesthetic/tonality.

I don’t doubt that THEY’RE feeling it, but there’s something about both of them that just doesn’t move the emotional needle for me a single bit. I do love Joe’s tones, though. Not quite EJ and not quite stereotypical blues. I’d LOVE to hit one A chord on his rig.

Hmmm. I have a different take on Bonamassa.

I don't like his albums/tours. At all. My take is that a lot of that is driven as much by "this is a show I can put on that people will love and turn out for" as much as it is by artistry. I'd call that more craft than art in that regard, I guess. And I think that's a lot more of how he sees himself than any sort of deep artist.

But albums/tours aside, lord does he have a deep well of knowledge not just about instruments but about how they were played, which can be really cool to see/hear. I love this track and all of his playing on it, especially the solo at 1:52. And that he brought a vintage SG, but with the twist of it being a Vibrola model and then actually used the virbola...

 

[synthpenguin]

FWIW, when I started talking about Mayer here, I was only curious about the lack of Mayer nerds I’ve come across in the wild, despite knowing they do indeed exist, not so much why Mayer has big fans.

My issue with both Bonamassa and Mayer is I simply don’t get any feeling from their playing. While I’m not a fan of putting it in terms like this because I don’t believe it’s a A + B = C thing, but those guys sound like they’ve never experienced a hardship in their life and while they may love playing blues music, there’s something missing from it to me and that’s the only thing I can pin it on. That said, David Gilmour also grew up upper middle class and had a pretty damn good childhood and everything I get from his playing is what I miss from Mayer/Bonamassa. Gilmour sounds like he needs those notes to say something for him and it comes across more to me that John/Joe just dig the blues aesthetic/tonality.

I don’t doubt that THEY’RE feeling it, but there’s something about both of them that just doesn’t move the emotional needle for me a single bit. I do love Joe’s tones, though. Not quite EJ and not quite stereotypical blues. I’d LOVE to hit one A chord on his rig.

I'm not really a Mayer fan (I think he's good at what he does, but I don't listen to him at all), but for me the appeal of his playing is more just his melodicism. He's definitely blues-influenced, but yeah I don't think that is what is best about his playing. Not too dissimilar from what I'd look for from someone like Garcia (though without all the obvious bluegrass & country influences) or from a lot of r&b players. Like something like his lead parts in "Try", from his actual blues rock project, do a lot more for me looked at that way: tons of singable lines, but only "bluesy" in a superficial way, like how a lot of jam band and jazz is "bluesy" (and I don't mean that in a bad way). He's really good at playing memorable parts that serve the songs he is playing.

 

[Whizzinby]

Hmmm. I have a different take on Bonamassa.

I don't like his albums/tours. At all. My take is that a lot of that is driven as much by "this is a show I can put on that people will love and turn out for" as much as it is by artistry. I'd call that more craft than art in that regard, I guess. And I think that's a lot more of how he sees himself than any sort of deep artist.

But albums/tours aside, lord does he have a deep well of knowledge not just about instruments but about how they were played, which can be really cool to see/hear. I love this track and all of his playing on it, especially the solo at 1:52. And that he brought a vintage SG, but with the twist of it being a Vibrola model and then actually used the virbola...

I agree. I don’t really care about Joe’s playing, but I enjoy listening to him yap about vintage gear. He’s a true degenerate, in the very best possible way.

 

[AlbertA]

 

[AlbertA]

I've only really listened to a couple of Mayer's songs. I liked them. But I haven't had any desire to go through his catalog.

And yet, I own a PRS Silver Sky - the man knows how to spec a Strat that's for sure.

 

[Jynx]

Every time I hear people about why they think Mayer is great I'm thinking, 'That's Lage you're talking about.'

 

[synthpenguin]

Maybe I haven't listened to enough, but tbh Bonamassa's music, on the other hand, always just reminds me of all the 90s movies that had a character be a blues musician to make them seem cool.

this vibe:

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Here's a random question - does anyone really like both John Mayer AND Dream Theater?

I do not get Dream Theater at all. Outside Pull Me Under nothing they have done is remotely interesting or appealing to me.

Maybe there's some weird dividing line between those two?

Does me disliking both count?