John Mayer unveils his new PRS

[stevejamsecono]

I would much rather listen to and go to a John Mayer concert than another J Mascis/Dinosaur Jr show.

The main problem with seeing Dino Jr. is having your ears blown out. They're so loud it cancels out earplugs.
I can't say I'd rather Mayer though.. it's like choosing between strong coffee and a blue canoe.

The Masks Schtick got tiring reveal quick. The only show I've ever walked out on, and the three people I was with were in complete and utter agreement. Too loud, horrible and pointless soloing, zero interaction with the crowd... If they weren't "legendary" they'd be considered a bunch of washed up assholes clinging to scraps of their youth.



I used to be a fan, and still kind of am, but seeing them changed my perspective on them substantially.

Mayer all the way!

Yeah. I had a friend who got to open for Dino and the 'Mats in Boston (and his band was basically those two things combined, so it was a match made in heaven, really) and he had nothing good to say about interacting with any of them, and in fact got roughed up by security when he tried to go over and say hi to Lou Barlow. Sucked because he's a huge fan, but what can you do?

[andy_tchp]

The only show I've ever walked out on, and the three people I was with were in complete and utter agreement. Too loud, horrible and pointless soloing, zero interaction with the crowd... If they weren't "legendary" they'd be considered a bunch of washed up assholes clinging to scraps of their youth.

I used to be a fan, and still kind of am, but seeing them changed my perspective on them substantially.

Totally agreed, I had the same experience. They were playing a shallow/wide 200-250 capacity bar where I grew up and still persisted with the stupid, pointless dual full stacks blasting out deafening noise. I ended up leaning against the back wall and even then it was only just bearable.

Ditto My Bloody Valentine. One of the worst gigs I've ever seen, and the tickets were a hundred bucks.

Mayer all the way!

Don't know much about him, but I found him entertaining on Dave Shappelle's show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC2iRY2o2nk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoDu0fFE7eo

[somanytoys]

Sorry, a little late on this, but I always thought the 3 were Page, Clapton & Beck, is that not correct? I don't know about everyone else, but I always personally thought that Hendrix was in a class all by himself, ever since I first saw him in the Woodstock video when I was 12 (about 12 years after Woodstock). I've seen some great players in my day, but I've never seen anyone with such an effortless manipulation of the entire fretboard and able to treat the guitar as a part of their body, while coaxing some of the (arguably) coolest sounds out it, and pretty much at the forefront of that kind of music. *This is not based solely on that Woodstock film with crappy camerawork.

I'm not a big John Mayer fan (don't hate him, just not that familiar with his stuff), but I have to say that I was impressed after watching the Crossroads special with him & Keith Urban. I wasn't familiar with most of the songs, but they did a good job, and did a good job on Faith (or gotta have faith or whatever) by George Michael. I'm not much of a country fan, but I do think that Keith Urban is good, he's one of the few I'll listen to. John was kind of a lookatme guy, but I thought he was pretty good, and Keith played it off really well, although I think he does respect him as a musician.

I'm not really sure what to think about the PRS guitar. I've played some, and they're nice, but it's rare that there's really anything new under the sun that's not some kind of a knockoff of something or other. And him coming out with a strat copy, even for Mayer, is interesting, but I think eventually, any successful company, once it gets big enough or goes corporate, is going to (for lack of a better term) become a whore. I mean, look at the companies that Leo started - Fender, which CBS bought, then Leo bailed, created Music Man, which Ernie Ball bought, then he bailed and created G&L. I don't think that corporate life is compatible for anyone with real creativity. Or a conscience, or a soul... I think a lot of the corporate talk relating to Clapton's "middle life crisis" is spot on, but the thing is that change in mindset didn't just affect music, it affected everything - the music industry, the equipment, business as a whole, really. There aren't as many people that understand that & how it affected things, people that don't just accept what radio forces on us because some "everyman" focus group in Whocaresville responded better to it being played in rotation every 3 hours than they did to waterboarding. I grew up in the '70's and the only thing worth a crap I heard by Clapton that decade was Cocaine, and I really thought he kind of sucked, until I realized that was him with Cream & Deric & the Dominoes - or Derrick or however it's spelled, but I thought that the name was a play on Dwayne & Eric. AnyWAY, the point being that I think that sooner or later, especially in a corporate situation, most companies will bend to either public will or certain other forces, sometimes against their will or better judgement. And if making a copy of a strat and having Mayer endorse it sells 10,000 widgets, and investors or a boardroom full of corporate hacks are involved, you can bet there will be a widget made with his name on it.

[Maggieo]

So, does this PRS sleep with every starlet in Hollywood, or is it just a Strat?

[leokula]

I don't think that corporate life is compatible for anyone with real creativity.

I think this is spot on, my friend.

Having said that, I don't have a problem with a lot of what PRS might have already done to get more money, that's totally OK and I understand that, but Paul is a guy that is always very vocal about doing things his way, even now that PRS is huge, he's never tired to emphasize it in all of his workshops or lectures.

I just think that making a strat copy was such an odd move that even Paul wouldn't make, specially after doing this super eagle John Mayer sig with 3 pickups that had lots of strat sounds in it. I thought that was as far as he'd go, but I was wrong

[brucer]

Besides being a douchebag, is he really all that bad?

Now THAT made me laugh.

[frelonvert]

Are you guys sure that it is a new PRS model?
I mean that it may be a PRS custom guitar for Mayer and nothing more. May be not a mass product guitar.

[countertext]

Are you guys sure that it is a new PRS model?
I mean that it may be a PRS custom guitar for Mayer and nothing more. May be not a mass product guitar.

PRS called it a prototype, so probably intended for production.

[leokula]

Are you guys sure that it is a new PRS model?
I mean that it may be a PRS custom guitar for Mayer and nothing more. May be not a mass product guitar.

It looks bad either way for PRS, IMO.

[somanytoys]

It's kind of funny, I've only bought one guitar (but none of my basses) that were endorsed by anyone, but not necessarily because it was endorsed by them. It was an Ibanez Roadstar Steve Lukather guitar from the early '80's. And, ironically, Steve hated it because he had a whole new guitar designed, but they just slapped his name on a slightly new/different version of an already existing guitar line. I love it, even though it's a little hard to play with the ebony fretboard.

I would hope that people would endorse guitars because they actually really love them, and I'll give that a shot, but I'm not going to go buy a guitar just to emulate someone. The only exceptions would be trying out the Geddy Lee Jazz bass (I haven't), an Ace Frehley Les Paul (I'm an Ace freak, though no real love for Kiss itself, especially post-Ace, and I've never played one or even seen one in person) and the exact EVH Frankenstein replicas that were made about 10 - 15 years ago by somebody or other, right down to the correct year quarter in the bridge ('76 or something, I think) and the cigarette burns. It seemed like just another cool novelty when it came out and I had read about it, but I actually got a chance to play one a few years ago, and it was really, really cool - much easier to play his stuff on that thing than most other guitars. Of course, at that price, it would only be a collector's edition thing for me on a wall or in a case, but it was actually a damn fine playing guitar.

[zaza_3121]

Besides, David Bowie recorded the entirety of Station To Station while out of his fucking mind on heroin and that turned out great.

No, he didn't.

He was out of his mind on cocaine.

[Grey]

Besides, David Bowie recorded the entirety of Station To Station while out of his fucking mind on heroin and that turned out great.

No, he didn't.

He was out of his mind on cocaine.

My mistake, I was thinking about heroin because of Frusciante.

[rhythmjones]

it's crazy listening to Cream and thinking that the same guy that came up with those cool riffs ended up being a boring ass blues wanker. Ah well.

You mean Jack Bruce?

[higgsblossom]

I used to be a fan, and still kind of am, but seeing them changed my perspective on them substantially.

They are still a great band but I wouldn't have a beer with any of them. It would kill precious memories of my youth. The volume at concerts is something I think is very nostalgic... they could easily sound better with more definition. But it wouldn't be the same.

[spindizzy]

it's crazy listening to Cream and thinking that the same guy that came up with those cool riffs ended up being a boring ass blues wanker. Ah well.

You mean the guy who came to prominence with John Mayall & the bluesbreakers - you were surprised he played blues?

Possibly your expectations were off target then.

And Layla is hardly a crap song.

On to Mayer; with the PRS Super Eagle it had a ludicrous price of $14,295. Production was capped at 100.
It sold out before it was released.
I've got one of the John Mayer Black One USA strats (not the custom shop version.) It's a great guitar and even with me playing it frequently it's doubled in value since release. None of my other guitars have done that (not important but nice enough.)