I recently had the opportunity to play the John Mayer Stratocaster. I didn’t play the guitar for a long period of time, but during the short period of time I did play the guitar, I really liked it. It played and sounded great.
The neck of the John Mayer Strat is a thick “C” shape, which felt great in my hands. And, the African Rosewood fretboard played very smoothly. The action was set a little high on the guitar I played, but that just made it more fun to really dig in and attack the strings. I’ve never been a fan of super-low action anyway. I’m used to playing my Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat, which has Jumbo Frets, so the Dunlop 6105 Narrow Jumbo Frets on the John Mayer Strat felt good under my fingers. As I mentioned above, the guitar sounded great. As you would expect, it had that unique Strat sound that no other guitar is able to replicate.
Some unique features of the John Mayer Stratocaster include Big Dipper pickups with a special “scooped” mid-range voicing per John Mayer’s specs. Additionally, the string tree is placed farther from the nut than a standard Stratocaster.
Although I only played the guitar for a short period of time, I was very impressed with the John Mayer Stratocaster. It felt natural in my hands and played and sounded great. If you’re looking for an American-made Stratocaster, I’d highly recommend checking out the John Mayer Strat. I’ll definitely be considering it the next time I’m in the market for a high-end Strat.
Jon says
I’ve wanted to get my hands on one of these for a while, haven’t seen any around the Sydney stores yet but I’ll keep looking, sounds like it is worth a play!
Josh says
It’s definitely worth a play! I highly recommend it, but I love all Strats 🙂