John Mayer

• Set the Tube Screamer with gain near zero, volume boosted — it pushes the amp, not adds distortion
• Use neck and middle pickup positions for cleans
• Let your pick attack do the work — Mayer controls dynamics with his hands
• Keep the amp clean and loud enough to have natural warmth
• Roll back guitar volume to 7–8 for ultra-clean tones
• Use light strings (.10s or .09s) — Mayer plays much lighter gauge than SRV, enabling smooth effortless bends without fighting the guitar
• Exploit the in-between pickup positions (2 and 4) — the quacky, out-of-phase sound defines Mayer's funkier clean passages
• Add a light compressor (low sustain setting) only on clean passages to even out pick dynamics — disengage it when the amp starts to push
• Think of the Klon or Soul Food as a "volume boost with tonal shaping" — transparent, not gritty; the drive control barely moves from zero
• Study the right-hand technique of the "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" intro — Mayer uses a hybrid fingerpicking approach (thumb on bass strings, fingers on treble strings) that is also present across his blues rhythm work and is as important as any effect in his chain
• Listen to John Mayer Trio's "Try!" live album for the clearest example of how he balances blues vocabulary with compositional structure — his solos are not random improvisation but are constructed to serve the song's arc, building tension methodically before resolving
• The Klon and Tube Screamer run together as a two-stage push into the amp — the TS adds warmth and low-end body, the Klon adds upper-mid clarity and a slight volume lift; together they create a more complex, layered overdrive response than either pedal alone

John Mayer blends pristine Strat cleans with expressive blues grit, inspired equally by SRV and Jimi Hendrix. His tone is warm, vocal and dynamic — massively responsive to pick attack.

Mayer's evolution accelerated from pop-friendly clean tones (Room for Squares) to obsessively curated boutique rigs (Two-Rock, vintage Dumble) to the simplified vintage-correct approach of the Grateful Dead-influenced Dead & Company years.