How to Get John Mayer’s Guitar Tone Using Neural Amp Modeler
Check out the glassy, slinky tones that make John Mayer the King of Clean
When John Mayer released his debut album, “Room for Squares” in 2001, it wasn’t obvious he was about to become arguably the greatest guitar hero of his generation. At the time, the prevailing idea of a guitar hero was more oriented toward grunge musicians playing catchy, dirty riffs (think Kurt Cobain), or hard rockers ripping searing, heavy leads (like Slash). We weren’t expecting the next great guitar hero to be a singer/songwriter who played with the clean, glassy snap of a Strat; only letting his guitar take center stage when it served the song. As his career progressed, what makes him so special as a guitarist became clear: he plays with equal parts taste and skill. He took a totally different approach to the instrument than what was popular at the time, and he did it perfectly. John Mayer wasn’t the guitar hero we asked for, but he was the one that we needed.
In addition to his tremendous skill as a player, Mayer is also a connoisseur of guitar tone. A famously meticulous collector, the staples of his rig are some of the most rare and expensive pieces of guitar gear ever made. But thanks to Neural Amp Models (NAM) and the expansive free NAM capture library on TONE3000, guitarists can now recreate John Mayer’s most essential (and previously unattainable) amplifier and pedal tones with remarkable realism.
Dumble Steel String Stinger
One of John Mayer’s most mythologized amps is his Dumble Steel String Singer, an ultra-rare, ultra-expensive boutique amplifier that costs more to purchase than a starter house. But you don’t need a second mortgage to get John Mayer’s Dumble tone. On TONE3000, the NAM captures of this Dumble Steel Stinger amp on its clean settings deliver a shockingly accurate recreation of his signature glassy tone.
Download Neural Amp Model ➝ Dumble Steel String Stinger
Check out Mayer’s epic guitar solo on “Gravity,” featuring his Dumble Steel String Stinger
PRS J-MOD 100 MAYER
Designed by John Mayer himself in collaboration with Paul Reed Smith, this signature model PRS J-MOD 100 is Mayer’s modern touring amp. It has smoother mids than the Dumble and a tighter low end, making it ideal for rhythm work and percussive chord playing.
Download Neural Amp Model ➝ PRS J-MOD 100 MAYER
Check out John Mayer giving a demo of his signature PRS J-MOD 100. Download the NAM capture and see how close it sounds for yourself.
John Mayer’s Custom Two-Rock / Marshall Blues Breaker NAM Rig
One of the coolest things about working with NAM captures is that guitarist/creators often capture complete rigs that combine the same amps and pedals used by their own guitar heroes. In this case, we’ve got a complete rig that recreates the gear John Mayer uses to get his blues tones: a Two-Rock amplifier pre-amp already paired directly with a Marshall Blues Breaker pedal.
Download Neural Amp Model ➝ John Mayer’s Custom Two-Rock / Marshall Blues Breaker NAM Rig
John Mayer’s Pedal Tones
Mayer rarely uses heavy distortion (duh). While his approach to gain staging is more about subtlety than it is about brute force, he does keep a few overdrives in his arsenal to give him a little extra push. The key to using pedals the John Mayer way is to set them on low-to-medium gain, then stack them up into high-headroom amps.
Klon Centaur
This is probably the most essential pedal you need if you’re chasing John Mayer’s tone, but be warned: it can cost as much as $10k if you’re even able to source one for yourself. If having the actual sound of the pedal is more important to you than owning the steel box itself, try the free Klon Centaur NAM to authentically recreate John Mayer’s pedal tone.
Download Neural Amp Model ➝ Klon Centaur
Fulltone Fulldrive 2
Before he had more money than God (which really is the kind of budget you need for all the Klons and the Dumbles), Mayer used the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 to provide the warm, compressed drive found on his early records. While it didn’t cost nearly as much as the Klon, the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 is still a stone-cold classic. And since you’re using free NAM captures of John Mayer’s pedal tones, money is no object anyway, right?
Download Neural Amp Model ➝ Fulltone Fulldrive 2
The Foundation of John Mayer’s Guitar Tone
Some guitarists are happy to bash away at their guitars to create some beautiful noise, but John Mayer’s tone has always been defined by something very different. Sensitivity. Yes, he has the best amps and pedals money can buy, but the way he uses them to extract so much tone just through his hands is where the magic happens. Using clean amps with tons of uncompressed headroom gives his hands a much larger, more dynamic palette to work with. These NAM captures of his signature high-headroom boutique amplifiers and pedals give anyone access to that same sonic palette. All you need is a DAW, some NAM captures, and a willingness to get in touch with your sensitive side.
