How to Sound Like John Mayer — Gear, Settings, and Technique

John Mayer is the most influential guitarist of his generation. His tone — clean, warm, and clear on the ballads; thick, singing, and sustaining on the blues tracks — has been copied more than any other guitarist of the 21st century. He has thought carefully about gear, talks about it openly in interviews, and uses equipment that is largely available for purchase.

The obstacle is not knowing what he uses. The obstacle is that his tone is inseparable from how he plays. This guide covers both.

The Guitar

Mayer plays Fender Stratocasters almost exclusively. Specifically, vintage and vintage-reissue Strats with single-coil pickups. He has also played extensively with PRS Silver Sky guitars (a model designed with Mayer and officially endorsed), and used a wide variety of vintage Strats across different sessions.

The most important thing: Mayer's default position is the neck pickup, full volume, tone control rolled back slightly. Not the bridge. Not the middle. The neck pickup on a Stratocaster is the warmest, most vocal single-coil position — it is the sound of "Gravity" and "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room."

What to buy:

• Budget (£300–£600): Squier Classic Vibe 60s Stratocaster — genuine vintage-voiced alnico pickups, surprisingly good. The tone control matters: roll it back to around 7 on the neck pickup
• Mid (£800–£1,500): Fender Player Series Stratocaster or Fender Vintera 60s Stratocaster — proper US brand quality, alnico 5 pickups in the Vintera that are genuinely vintage-voiced
• Pro (£1,500–£3,000): Fender American Professional II Stratocaster or PRS Silver Sky — the Silver Sky is a Mayer-designed instrument with specific pickup specs (635JM single coils), smaller headstock, and slightly different neck profile. It is the closest to what Mayer actually plays in current live settings
• Vintage: Mayer owns and uses numerous vintage Strats from the 1950s and 1960s, worth £10,000+. These are collector items, not practical suggestions

String gauge: Mayer uses .0105–.047 (Ernie Ball Regular Slinky, slightly heavier than standard). He plays with a relatively heavy pick (Dunlop 1mm) and significant right-hand attack. The heavier strings and pick produce more low-mid mass.

The Amplifiers

This is where most people get it wrong. Mayer's amp — especially on studio recordings and large venues — is the Two-Rock Custom Reverb, a boutique American-voiced amplifier that costs approximately £3,500–£5,000 new. It is not a Marshall. It is not a Fender Twin. It has its own character.

Two-Rock Custom Reverb

The Two-Rock is a clean, full-frequency American amplifier with a very wide, balanced frequency response. It does not colour the tone the way a Marshall does. It presents the guitar very honestly — which means the guitar and your hands have to do the work.

Settings used by Mayer (approximately):

• Volume: 5–6 (loud, on the edge of clean)
• Bass: 4
• Treble: 5
• Mid: 5
• Reverb: 2–3 (just enough room ambience)

Budget Two-Rock alternatives:

• Fender Blues Junior IV (£400–£500): A workable substitute, especially with the neck pickup into an OD pedal. Not the same frequency response but captures the "clean American amp" territory
• Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue (£800–£900): Much closer. Point-to-point wired, genuine 6V6 power section, reverb tank included. This is the most commonly recommended budget alternative for Mayer tone
• Carr Impala or Carr Super Bee (£1,800–£2,200): Boutique but significantly more affordable than Two-Rock. American voicing, excellent clean platform

Second amp: Dumble-style

On many recordings, Mayer also uses a Dumble-style amplifier as a second channel. The Dumble ODS (Overdrive Special) is one of the most expensive amplifiers in existence — originals sell for £100,000+. Mayer owns several.

For practical purposes: the Two-Rock Custom Reverb was designed by people who worked on Dumbles. It is the accessible Dumble alternative.

The Pedalboard

Mayer's pedalboard is well-documented from his Dunlop, Boss, and boutique partnerships. The core signal chain is:

Guitar → Wah → Klon → Tube Screamer → Two-Rock

The Klon Centaur (or KTR)

The Klon is the most important pedal in Mayer's sound. He uses it as a boost, not as a distortion source:

• Gain: 8–9 o'clock (very low — just adding sustain and harmonic complexity)
• Treble: noon
• Output: 2–3 o'clock (well above unity — the Klon is boosting the amp)

This is the "Klon boost trick" — the pedal is adding output, not dirt. The amp's own compression and saturation do the colouring.

What to buy: The original Klon Centaur is £1,500+. The Klon KTR (official reissue by Bill Finnegan) is around £300. Budget alternatives:

• Wampler Tumnus (£80) — widely considered the best budget Klon clone
• Electro-Harmonix Soul Food (£45) — more transparent but less character
• J. Rockett Archer Ikon (£120) — very close to the original

Tube Screamer TS10

Mayer has used various Tube Screamer variants over the years — the TS10, the TS808 Reissue, and the original TS9. All three have a similar character: midrange emphasis, bass roll-off, smooth-to-moderate gain. His setting:

• Drive: 3–5 (moderate — this is pushing the amp harder)
• Tone: 10 (noon)
• Level: 5 (unity or slightly below)

Stacking the Klon (as boost) into the Tube Screamer (as light gain) produces the blues-rock overdrive tone.

What to buy: The Ibanez TS9 (£80–£100) is the current production standard. The Maxon OD808 (£100) is considered slightly warmer and was the original circuit used in early TS pedals.

Wah Pedal

Mayer uses a Dunlop Cry Baby, often the Cry Baby Classic (with a fasel inductor for a warmer, less piercing sweep). He uses wah sparingly compared to Hendrix but it is present on live recordings.

Other effects

• Octave (Digitech Whammy or EHX POG) — used on some experimental material
• Tremolo — built into the Two-Rock reverb channel on some songs
• Compressor (Xotic SP Compressor) — used on clean passages for sustain and evenness
• Chorus — very occasionally, on the neck pickup for vintage warmth

Technique: The 80% You Cannot Buy

Mayer has absorbed and internalised decades of blues vocabulary — specifically Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, and Robert Johnson. His phrasing is melodic rather than scalar. He does not run scales; he sings lines.

Key technique elements:

Thumb over the neck: Mayer frequently wraps his thumb over the top of the neck to fret the low E and sometimes A strings. This is a blues technique that allows chord voicings and riffs that would be impossible with standard classical hand position. SRV and Hendrix also used this.

Hybrid picking: On clean chord work ("Your Body Is A Wonderland," "Daughters"), Mayer uses hybrid picking — a plectrum for lower strings and middle/ring fingers for higher strings. This creates a warm, rounded attack distinct from pure flatpicking.

Neck pickup vibrato: His vibrato on the neck pickup — smooth, medium-width, consistent — is a defining feature. It is neither as wide as Gary Moore's nor as restrained as Clapton's. It is in the middle: expressive but controlled.

Volume knob usage: Mayer rolls the guitar's volume knob back frequently to clean up the overdrive and adjust tone on the fly. At volume 7–8 through a Klon-boosted Two-Rock, the tone changes character significantly from volume 10.

Complete Budget Builds

Under £500 — Entry Level

• Guitar: Squier Classic Vibe 60s Stratocaster (£280)
• Amp: Fender Blues Junior IV (£380) or Boss Katana 50 (£180)
• Pedal: Wampler Tumnus (£80) or EHX Soul Food (£45)
• Focus: Neck pickup, volume knob rolled to 7, practice blues phrasing

£500–£1,500 — Getting Closer

• Guitar: Fender Player Stratocaster (£650) or Vintera 60s (£900)
• Amp: Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue (£850)
• Pedals: Ibanez TS9 (£95) + Wampler Tumnus (£80)
• Result: 80% of the tone with deliberate phrasing

£1,500–£4,000 — Serious Build

• Guitar: PRS Silver Sky (£1,800) or Fender American Professional II Strat (£1,400)
• Amp: Carr Impala (£1,800) or Two-Rock Studio Pro 35 (£2,800)
• Pedals: Klon KTR (£300) + TS808 Reissue (£150) + Dunlop Cry Baby Classic (£85)
• Result: The gear is now genuinely close to Mayer's setup

Settings Reference

Clean tone (neck pickup, Daughters/Gravity):

• Amp: Volume 5, Bass 4, Treble 5, Mid 5, Reverb 2
• Klon: Gain 9 o'clock, Output 2 o'clock (boost only)
• Guitar: Neck pickup, Volume 8, Tone 7

Blues overdrive (TS9 + Klon stacked):

• Amp: Volume 6
• TS9: Drive 4, Level 5, Tone noon
• Klon: Gain 9 o'clock, Output 3 o'clock
• Guitar: Neck pickup, full volume

Summary

The gear is well documented and largely available. The phrasing is what separates a Mayer imitation from a Mayer tone.

Frequently Asked Questions

What guitar does John Mayer play? Primarily Fender Stratocasters (vintage and modern) and the PRS Silver Sky, a guitar designed with him and endorsed since 2017. He uses the neck pickup most of the time.

What amplifier does John Mayer use? His main amplifier is the Two-Rock Custom Reverb, a boutique American-voiced clean amplifier. He also uses Dumble amps and has used Fender Twins.

What is the Klon Centaur and why does Mayer use it? The Klon Centaur is a transparent overdrive pedal used as a boost — low gain, high output — to push the amp harder. Mayer uses it to add sustain and harmonic richness to his clean tone without adding much dirt.

What are John Mayer's amp settings? On the Two-Rock: volume 5–6, bass and treble at 5, mids at 5, light reverb. The amp stays clean — the pedals do the work.

Does John Mayer use a Tube Screamer? Yes, regularly — the TS10 and TS808 variants. He stacks it with the Klon for his blues-rock overdrive tone.