John Mayer's Guitars, Amps & Gear List

This is perhaps the guitar that John is most often associated with, at least during the Continuum era. It was built by Fender Custom Shop master-builder John Cruz in Corona, California in late 2004 – with direct input from John, who also participated in some of the handwork. The guitar was delivered to Mayer in November 2004.

I had just gotten of a tour, and was just starting the get crazies from the second or third world tour. So, as soon as I had any time off, I called you and said – can I come down and build a guitar. I wanted to build my main guitar. […] Since I was a kid, I would draw my own item details for the Fender Frontline Catalog. I would draw free-hand the Strat, the headstock, the tuning keys, and I would write “Fender John Mayer Signature Stratocaster”. Then I would start writing all the details out – what kind of pickups would it have, what kind of this-and-that…

John Mayer – The Story of The Black One

The guitar ended up featuring an alder body and a thick C-shaped maple neck with African rosewood and all the specs taken directly from the Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster, which John was of course very familiar with from before (9.5” radius, 6105 jumbo frets,  25.5” scale length, 1.650” width at nut). The Strat was equipped with a set of Gold Schaller Die-Cast tuners with white Pearloid buttons, which coincidentally were also installed on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s original guitar by his (now John’s) guitar tech, Rene Martinez.

John acquired this guitar sometime prior to the Continuum album and used it on at least one song during the studio sessions (see quote below), but at the time of writing this, it is unknown which one in particular (if you happen to have any information regarding this, please be sure to get in contact).

This somehow became kind of like go-to stage guitar for last two or three years. I had this guitar for almost exactly ten years, and the first time this guitar was on record was on Continuum record.

John Mayer on Periscope August 20th, 2015 – Gear Talk

From then on, the guitar remained behind the scenes for the most part until just prior to the Born and Raised tour in 2012, when it became John’s main stage instrument.

John acquired this Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster in 1996, trading it for a Takamine 12-string acoustic and a Mesa Boogie distortion pedal, and paying the difference from the money he made working at a gas station. He used the guitar for bedroom practice in the early years, and during the two semesters spent at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

This one I bought from the money I made working at a gas station, and I traded in a Takamine twelve-string and a Mesa-Boogie distortion pedal. I think I paid around $900 as the difference. I bought it in 1996, and this thing has so many little stories on it. […] This has been in my bedroom when I was nineteen, practicing guitar playing, and Madison Square Garden, and Tokyo, and television shows… This is the representation of of the places I’ve been.

John Mayer – Studio Session No. 4

In the video linked in the quote above, John also talked about a few different changes that he did to the guitar in the early years. He mentioned engraving his name on the backplate at a local mall (1997), changing the bridge after breaking the whammy bar (1998), engraving his initials on the back of the body at Berklee (1998), and sanding down all the lacquer from the back of the neck and from the fretboard edges (199?). Sometime after leaving Berklee and moving to Atlanta in 1998, he also added a small photo to the back of the headstock of him and his former college roommate, Matt Mangano.

John started using this guitar sometime in late 2003. One of the earlier appearances of the guitar was on December 30, 2003, on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, when John played a set with Buddy Guy and Double Trouble. The guitar was subsequently used on the 46th Annual Grammy Awards show on February 6th, various dates throughout the 2004 tour in support of the Heavier Things album, as well as on many different dates throughout the John Mayer Trio era.

It seems that on almost all occasions he used the guitar to play Waiting for the World to Change, which might indicate that he used the guitar in the studio too, for that particular song.

The guitar most likely is one of the Fender Custom Shop’s limited replica runs of Jimi Hendrix’s Stratocaster that he played and burned at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. A total number of 210 of these guitars were produced, all painted and hand-signed by Pamelina H. If you wanna learn more about the original guitar, please refer to Jimi Hendrix’s 1963/64 Fender Stratocaster – Monterey Pop Strat.

According to a post that John made on his Instagram profile, he received this guitar sometime in mid-2014 – however, it mostly remained behind the scenes until around a year later when John appeared with it during his 2015 Grammy performance with Ed Sheeran. He also appeared with it on The Ellen Show in 2017, where he played Still Feel Like Your Man.

John’s Jackson seems to be a Custom Shop 30th Anniversary model, based on the pickups and the control knobs layout. It features a bright pink color (which unsurprisingly caused some negative comments among the more conservative fans), two EMG SA1 single-coils (neck and middle), an EMG 81 humbucker active pickup in the neck position, and an 80s-style Floyd Rose tremolo bridge.

One confusing thing about this particular guitar is that on the original photo posted on John’s Instagram the pickups in the Jackson seem to be active type featuring plastic covers, while on every other photo or video featuring the guitar, they seem to be just a normal pair of single coils and a humbucker with no covers whatsoever. This opens up the possibility that John actually owns two pink Jacksons, or that he simply just didn’t like active pickups and got somebody to replace them with passive ones.

This guitar was featured on the cover of John’s 2001 album Room for Squares. In the DVD commentary of Any Given Thursday, he states that the guitar was used live for Neon, and in the studio on the song Room for Squares.

The unique thing about this guitar is that it features angled or fanned frets, which allows for better intonation when compared to a standard guitar. The principle on which this works is based on making the higher pitch strings shorter by making the bridge and the nut angled, and on the opposite side making the lower pitch strings longer.

This guitar was most famously used on Where The Light Is DVD, mostly just on the footage recorded of John playing outside on Mulholland Drive.

From then on, the L-5 was seen occasionally on John’s social media profiles but was rarely used during concerts. One instance where the guitar was seen live was at the David Letterman show in 2008, where John played a cover of Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours, and more recently, in 2019 at the MSG in New York, when John used it for Moving On and Getting Over.

John’s L-5 is a 1970 model (see comments for source, thanks Jordan), and it features a rounded cutaway – a design change from the pointed cutaway that was introduced in the late 60s. It is a hollow body guitar with a solid spruce top with maple back and sides, a five-piece maple neck, and two humbucking pickups.

Mayer started using this guitar during the Trio era to play the song Gravity live. As far as studio usage, there are photos of Mayer playing this exact guitar in the studio during the recording of Continuum (one of those photos was posted on John’s Instagram account – of him smoking a cigarette and sporting a fake mustache), but he claims that he actually used the BLK1 to record Gravity, so it is unknown as to why he picked up the Sonic Blue Strat to play the song live.

The guitar was built by John Cruz of the Fender Custom Shop as a part of a limited run of 100 guitars. It was modeled after a 1962 Stratocaster and was finished in a color officially called faded sonic blue, which is basically supposed to replicate a look of the naturally faded vintage sonic blue finish. The neck has a laminated rosewood fretboard with a 9.5″ radius and 21 Medium Jumbo frets, and the guitar is equipped with the John Cruz master design pickups (this model is possibly one of the first to feature these pickups).

If you’re curious about the price, and you wanna see some more photos of the guitar, a John Cruz Masterbuilt Sonic Blue Stratocaster recently sold on Reverb.com for $6,100. [Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt John Cruz 1962 Relic Stratocaster Limited Edition Builder Select]

This guitar first appeared sometime during the John Mayer Trio era circa 2005, which corresponds with the time when the guitar became available for purchase from the Gibson Custom Shop. From then on it was used on numerous occasions, most famously during the 2010 Crossroads festival, when John played a cover of Bill Withers’s Ain’t No Sunshine (see video below)

As you might have guessed from the title, the guitar is a replica of the ES-335 model that Eric Clapton used during his years with the Yardbirds and Cream. After the original was sold at auction in 2004 for a staggering $847,500 [Gibson 1964, ES-335 TDC | Christie’s], it was examined by Gibson Custom Shop and eventually replicated in a limited run of 250 guitars.

The Clapton/Cream 335 – the reissue of the 335 that he played in Cream. You might have seen this on the Trio tour, and I think I played ‘Out of My Mind’ on this. I think I did because I would have played that style of a guitar on it.

John Mayer on Periscope – Gear Talk

This was John’s first-ever electric guitar, acquired and used most likely sometime between 1991 and 1993. Prior to this, John was using an acoustic guitar that was rented from a local guitar shop, although there might have been a couple of more acoustic guitars going through his hands before he eventually acquired this Squier. [John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly]

My first electric guitar was a Squier, so I’ve kind of grown-up native to the shape and the sound and the feel of a Stratocaster. I kind of learned my way around the guitar on it.

John Mayer 2007 summer tour – Fender

As far as one can tell, there’s only one photo of John with this guitar, and it is shown briefly in the music documentary by Eastwood Allen titled ‘John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly’ [John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly – 02:31]. Based on the photo, the guitar was finished in black and featured a rosewood fretboard. The same photo was shared on John’s Instagram profile a while ago.

John was seen playing this guitar at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Bridgeview, Illinois, as well as on PBS’s Austin City Limits recorded that same year.

Although initially suspected by many, the guitar is not from the limited line built by Charley’s Guitar Shop, but Fender’s own replica, made by their Custom Shop team of Master Builders. These guitars seem to be extremely rare, and only a few have ever popped up online. One such can be seen here – The Super Rare Fender “Charley” Lipstick Stratocaster in the Style of SRV.

The guitar is, of course, a replica of the original “Lipstick” Stratocaster played by Stevie Ray Vaughan in the 1980s. That guitar was made by Charley Wirz, who at that time ran Charley’s Guitar Shop.

John was first spotted playing this guitar at the Beacon Theatre on November 17, 2009, in New York City. Although used rarely at first, the guitar became John’s favorite by the time he recorded Battle Studies, and he ended up using it to record the song Edge of Desire from that album.

It took me 10 years to… no, more than 10 years, 15 years, to really be able to put a Strat down and play something else. My favorite guitar right now is this Les Paul SG.

John Mayer interview by MusicRadar]

Although most of us will refer to the guitar as a Gibson SG, in fact, the model’s proper name is Les Paul. This is because at the time it was produced, this was its official name since this is the design that directly replaced the old Les Paul model. Apparently, Les Paul himself wasn’t involved in designing this new version, and he wasn’t too fond of it – so he requested the removal of his name from the official branding. This however didn’t happen until around late 1963, and up to that point, SG continued to feature Les Paul nameplates and truss rod covers.

John was first seen using this guitar sometime in the summer of 1994. At that time, he was playing in a band called ‘Another Roadside Attraction’ [John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly – 3:35]. The guitar likely directly replaced the black Squier that John played prior to this.

What’s particularly interesting about this guitar is that, based on the photos, in 1994 it had a neck with a maple fretboard, while later on in 1995 the neck seemed to have been swapped for a rosewood one (see photo below). Of course, there are a few reasons that might have led to this – the old one broke, John preferred rosewood fretboards over maple, he came across a better neck than the one that was originally on the guitar and decided to swap them, or this is all completely wrong and they were actually two different guitars.

To at least entertain the theory that this could be one same guitar – it is possible that John somehow got his hands on a Fender branded neck, while the guitar itself was a Squier. For what it’s worth, no one but John would ever know that the guitar was not an actual Fender since it sported the company’s logo on the headstock, which is, of course, the only clue most people will ever refer to when trying to identify the guitar. Also, John refers to his SRV Signature Stratocaster (his next guitar) as his first ‘real’ guitar, with no mention of owning a white Fender prior to that one – which in case it was an actual Fender, would be certainly considered a decent guitar – at least in comparison to the old Squier.

Based on the photos, this guitar was first used sometime in early to mid-2011, as John was first seen using it during the Tiger Jam All-Star Benefit Concert in April that year. Apparently, at first John was after George Harrison/Hendrix’s original rosewood Strat, but eventually decided he’ll just order a new one from the Fender Custom Shop.

The story behind this guitar is that I got offered a guitar just like this for a bunch of money. The one that was offered to me was made as a companion piece of a George Harrison’s rosewood Telecaseter. People say that it was made for Hendrix, but Hendrix never got it. I has come and gone from the market as a fairly high-dollar thing.

I just sent a picture to Chris Fleming and said – you can make me a rosewood one? Then I started calling it “Rosie” and I thought it would be cool to put a rose on the pickguard. My friend Lydell did that.

JOHN MAYER Talking about a Rosewood Fender Stratocaster named “Rosie.”

The guitar was built by the Fender Custom Shop, and it features an all-rosewood body and neck. It is based on a late 1960s model, and it styles the larger headstock and the logo design that was typical in that period. As far as the rest of the specs, this depends on whether the guitar was built specifically for John, or he just happened to pick up one of the standard models.

This guitar was featured on the cover of John’s 2003 album Heavier Things. It is possible that the guitar was used to some extent during the studio sessions, although there doesn’t appear to be any official word on it from John. If you happen to come across an interview where there’s gear mentioned in relation to this album, please be sure to get in contact.

The guitar is most likely an early 60s Stratocaster. This is based on the fact that dot markers on the 12th fret were moved closer together on models made after mid-1963, and on John’s guitar, they are obviously further away. The pickguard screw placement also fits the description of pre-1964 models – which is when the screw between the neck and middle pickup was moved closer to the middle. The final giveaway is, of course, the logo, which changed in mid-1964 to feature thicker letters and patent numbers. [Vintage Guitars Info’s Vintage Fender Guitars]

This guitar was first seen live during the Born and Raised World Tour in 2013, although based on John’s Periscope stream recorded in 2016, he had owned the Tele for quite a while:

This is a bit of a different Tele in a sense that it’s not traditionally bright and sort of twangy. That’s why I had to have it – at a considerable cost to get it out of this person’s hand – about seven or eight years ago (note: that would be around 2009).

John Mayer on Periscope – 52 Tele Blues – 2/2/16

John was first seen using this guitar following the release of his fourth studio album Battle Studies in 2009. The guitar was used exclusively for the song Heartbreak Warfare, and it had a heartbreak logo printed on the front.

The main distinctive features of this guitar are the 22-fret neck with what looks like a Wilkinson split roller nut and three Fender Noiseless pickups. Based on this, the guitar appears to be a Jeff Beck Signature model – since all of those features are present on that model, although John’s guitar doesn’t seem to feature the usual Jeff Beck signature on the headstock. There are however JB Strats like this out there, although they are very rare (this is now confirmed to be the case by John in the update below).

Furthermore, it would definitely make sense that John would pick the Jeff Beck guitar to play Heartbreak Warfare live. Jeff Beck is known for his heavy tremolo usage, and his signature Stratocaster model is basically optimized for that. So, since Heartbreak Warfare features quite extensive use of the tremolo, the Jeff Beck Strat is a perfect tool for that – if you’re still going for that Stratocaster sound of course.

John first used this guitar in 2003 to play Bigger Than My Body live [John Mayer – Live, July 7, 2003] (whether he actually used the guitar during the studio sessions is uncertain, but likely). He continued using it on and off from that point on, and it was again picked up again in 2009, for a live rendition of the song Half of My Heart from the Battle Studies album.

The Model 1 guitar was popularized by Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac), who actually played the first prototype that was built specifically for him by Rick Turner, on which the actual production model was based. The guitar features a solid body design with mahogany used exclusively as the building block. It is equipped with Rick Turner-designed hum-canceling pickups with optional coil-split, a piezo system, onboard pre-amp, and onboard quasi-parametric EQ. [Model 1 Solid Body – RickTurnerGuitar.com]

John used this guitar occasionally during the Born and Raised world tour, most notably at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2013.

From the looks of it, the guitar appears to be the late 80s/early 90s Strat Plus. The most obvious giveaway is the three Gold Lace Sensor pickups (famously used by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Buddy Guy) and the Fender/Wilkinson needle-bearing roller nut – which was used on this specific model until around 1993. The exact color used on the guitar is probably what Fender calls Razzberry red – which is extremely rare on the Strat Plus models and highly sought after.

This guitar appeared sometime in mid-2004, although it is possible that John already had it a few months prior. As far as one can tell, it was only used for live performances of the song Something’s Missing, although this is not definitive and still needs further research.

When I used to play Something’s Missing [from Heavier Things, 2004], I had this Strat-Tele that Chris Fleming built. It became the allocated guitar, with the tuning for that song [E B E F# B E]; it comes out of the coffin and I’d play it for Something’s Missing, then it went back in and stayed in that tuning. Then when I stopped playing Something’s Missing, it was like – this is a great guitar for other things; tune it back into standard.

John Mayer interview – Music Radar

As noted in the title, the guitar is a hybrid between a Stratocaster and a Telecaster model, built by master-luthier Chris Fleming. The Stratocaster seemed to have been used as a base, since if you ignore the upper half of the body all the features are taken directly from that model. The model features three single-coil hand-wound 60s style pickups, a 5-way pickup selector switch, and a Fender S-1 switch that turns the bridge pickup on and off in any position.

John Mayer used this Telecaster since 2009 on live performances of Perfectly Lonely, and since he often chooses to use the same exact guitar he originally used during the studio sessions (gold-lead Strat on Vultures for example), the guitar was most likely used to record the song as well.

The guitar was built by the Fender Custom Shop and it features a blonde finish, a maple neck with a 9.5-inch radius rosewood fretboard, Dunlop 6105 frets, two TV Jones Filter’Tron pickups, a fixed Strat-style bridge, and Sperzel tuners. This model only has a single volume knob, and a switch to toggle between the two pickups, however, the volume knob also serves as a push/pull switch which changes the sound of the guitar significantly. [Mike Eldred On The Fender Custom Shop La Cabronita Especial]

According to Mike Eldred, John was actually the first person to receive this guitar, and as far as one can tell, one of the few (if not the only person) who owns a rosewood fretboard version of the guitar.

John acquired this guitar sometime in early to mid-2004, presumably right after it first became available. The guitar was introduced in January 2004 at the Winter NAMM, and since only 100 guitars were made, it was sold at the authorized Fender dealers who were chosen on a lottery basis.

The guitar was designed and built by John Cruz (who later worked on John’s BLK1), and was the exact replica of the Stratocaster that Stevie Ray Vaughan used throughout his career, nicknamed the “Number One”.

All of the guitars from the series were marked with serial numbers ranging from 1 to 100 with the prefix “JC” (John Cruz), and they were built with close input from Rene Martinez who prior to working for Mayer worked as a guitar tech for Stevie Ray Vaughan.

This guitar was a limited edition of the John Mayer Signature Stratocaster released in 2007, featuring most of the specs present on the regular models with some minor differences. John himself used the guitar occasionally from early 2007.

The guitar is just a regular JM Stratocaster featuring a different finish and a few minor design features. The color is officially listed as ‘Cypress Mica’, which falls between gun-metal gray and olive green with sparkles that give more of a yellow/golden tint under a particular light. Aside from the finish, which is obviously the most unique feature of the guitar, the standard tone and volume knobs have been replaced with vintage white amp control knobs.

The model was produced from mid-2007 to late 2008 as a limited run of 500 pieces and was available for purchase for $2,149.99.

John started using this guitar in 2017. It has been developed as a close collaboration between Mayer and Paul Reed Smith. The main goal was to design an instrument that would be a future of the classic design, taking inspiration mainly from early 60s Strat models that John is known to favor.

It’s been a dream of mine for years to design a guitar that includes some of my favorite vintage specifications but with a modern spirit and aesthetic. After two years of study and refinement, the Silver Sky is my vision of what a reboot of the electric guitar should look and feel like.

John Mayer, Silver Sky Signature Model

The PRS Silver Sky features a 22 fret maple neck (22.5″ scale) with rosewood fretboard radiused at 7.25″ – identical to vintage Strat models, as opposed to 9.5″ or even 12″, which are way flatter and usually more common on modern guitars. The body is made of alder wood, and houses three single-coil pickups, again – custom-design as a collaboration between Mayer and Smith dubbed the 635JMs. The pickups are only available in this model, and it is doubtful that they would become available for purchase separately.

This guitar was primarily used during the John Mayer Trio era, more precisely, around the period following the release of the band’s live album Try! on November 22, 2005. The Strat was most likely a custom order from John, built by the Fender Custom Shop.

Although there doesn’t seem to be any official word from Fender or John, it is likely that everything was taken over from the John Mayer Signature model. The only difference, apart from the custom paint-job, is the reversed neck. This is perhaps something that John requested himself as a homage to Jimi Hendrix.

Since this guitar is one of the more mysterious ones, if you happen to find any quotes from John mentioning it please be sure to leave a comment below, or get in touch by using the contact form.

John was first seen using this Strat in 2005 during the John Mayer Trio tour. According to one of our readers (see comments), the guitar was delivered to him on the same date as his BLK1 Stratocaster.

The guitar was built by the Fender Custom Shop and painted by John Crash Matos – a graffiti artist who became known in the guitar world after painting a few of Eric Clapton’s Strats in the early 2000s. In 2004 he was commissioned by Fender to paint a total of fifty guitars with completely unique designs. John’s Strat was likely not counted as one of those fifty since it was likely a custom order featuring the number “83” embedded into the design (obviously something requested by John himself).

In case John’s guitar was made in a private agreement between the two, that would mean that there’s a total of 54 Crashocaster circling around – the three he painted for Clapton, fifty for the Fender Custom Shop, and this one for Mayer. If you happen to know more details about this particular Chrashocaster, and the story of how it came to be, please be sure to send a message/leave a comment below.

This guitar was first seen sometime in July during the 2004 Summer Tour. Based on a few sources, it is highly likely that this guitar was a prototype of sorts for John’s upcoming Artist series from Fender, which became publicly available a year later, in July 2005.

According to the information over at Fender Reissue Shop website, John received two prototypes with serial numbers JM001 and JM002 in 2004. Both of these were custom built by Chris Fleming and were used by John during the 2004 and 2005 tour. Sometime in 2005, he gave the JM002 back to Chris Fleming as a present, and after changing a couple of hands the guitar ended up with guys over at the Fender Reissue Shop [Fender Masterbuilt John Mayer Prototype Stratocaster Stage Played JM002 Proto]

The guitar is heavily based on the Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute model on which John relied for most of his career up until that point. The main difference is the orientation of the bridge, which was rotated 180 degrees back to its original position, and the pickups which were replaced with a set of single-coils designed with John’s personal input. These pickups eventually became known as “Big Dippers”, and were available exclusively through John’s Signature guitars – meaning you couldn’t buy them separately.

Circa October 2001, John picked up a dark blue Stratocaster and used it during the Room for Squares tour.

This guitar was likely his primary guitar for Something’s Missing during that tour since that song requires a specific tuning. From the looks of it, it seems to have been finished in Lake Placid Blue, featuring a mint-green pickguard, and a flamed maple neck with rosewood board.

This guitar was used by John during the 2005 John Mayer Trio tour. It was also used on some later dates, including Mayer’s performance at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California on December 8, 2007, which was eventually released as a live DVD album Where the Light Is.

What’s interesting about this guitar is that John’s reverse Stratocaster is actually one of the original prototypes made in 1980, which were intended to be the first line of the Jimi Hendrix Artist Series.

For one reason or another, Fender never really got around to sorting everything out, and all that remained are a few prototype guitars – all of which are now, of course, highly-priced collectibles (for more info about these prototypes, check out Seven Fender Stratocaster Models That Pay Tribute to Jimi Hendrix by Tom Watson). One of these prototypes was also used by Stevie Ray Vaughan, which probably played a role in John being interested in this particular model.

This guitar was first seen sometime in late 2006, following the release of the album Continuum. It was specifically used during the studio sessions for the song Vultures, and on most of the occasions when the song was played live.

So for Vultures , I have to play the gold-leaf Strat. That’s what I wrote the song on, and that’s got that incredible second position – what do they call it, the quack? That’s the quackiest Strat of all time! Vultures does not work on another guitar. That weird, hollowed-out, out-of-phasey-type sound. […] I’ve never taken that gold Strat and played any other tune on it than Vultures.

John Mayer interview – Music Radar

The guitar was most likely built specifically for John by the Fender Custom Shop, since it’s drastically different from the Eric Clapton Goldleaf Stratocaster (which would be the obvious suspect), although John might’ve taken some inspiration from it. The exact specs are unfortunately unknown, but it is likely that John requested that the guitar featured the exact same specs as his signature model.

John first appeared with this guitar sometime after the release of the Heavier Things album, circa late 2003. The guitar was likely a Fender Custom Shop master-built and served the purpose of a backup guitar for the tour.

If you happen to come across an interview where John mentioned these early Strats with stripe design, please be sure to get in touch. While the specs on the post-2004 models are relatively known, since they were based on John’s Artist series, these early guitars are pretty much still a mystery.

This is one of the two maple-neck Stratocasters that John played on a couple of occasions in 2014. Prior to acquiring these two maple-neck Strats, John almost exclusively used rosewood Strats, aside from a couple of odd ones – like the Custom Shop Reverse Proto Stratocaster. 2014 seems to have been a sort of a transition year for John, which eventually culminated with a huge announcement in October that year when Mayer revealed that he has parted ways with Fender.

From the looks of it, the guitar appears to be brand new. All the specs also seem to match the Eric Clapton Signature model – starting from the black finish, three Noiseless pickups, 8-hole pickguard, and the 22 fret maple neck.

Most notably, John used this guitar during the Made in America Festival at Los Angeles Grand Park on August 31, 2014, to cover Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower.

This guitar was most famously used in the music video for the song Bigger Than My Body from the 2003 album, Heavier Things. It was subsequently used on various tour dates in late 2003.

The guitar appears to be finished in Inca silver, featuring a red stripe spanning from the area below the bridge all the way to the bottom edge of the body.

It also closely resembles the Robert Cray Signature Stratocaster, since it has a stop-tail bridge and the exact same finish. The only thing that separates this guitar from the RC one is the red stripe and the fact that it doesn’t have the RC signature on the headstock.

John used this guitar on the Where The Light Is DVD/live album to play the song Come When I Call.

The guitar is finished in dark sunburst, and from the looks of it appears to be brand new. Given that this is true (and it’s not an older model), the guitar features a semi-hollow body with a solid spruce center block, a 22 fret neck with an Indian rosewood fretboard, a Tune-O-Matic bridge with stop bar tailpiece, and two Guild LB-1 pickups.

John was first seen using this Stevie Ray Signature Stratocaster in Australia in 2003 [John Mayer – Live at Music Max in Australia, September 23, 2003], but it is likely that he owned the guitar for at least a few months back, and used it during the 2003 US tour. If you happen to find photos and/or videos from anywhere between late 2002 and late 2003 with John using this guitar, or for that matter – a guitar that is not on this list, please be sure to leave a comment.

Since this guitar looks suspiciously similar to John’s first SRV Strat, it is important to point out that there are differences.

First, the wood grain on this guitar is different from the one John had since 1996, especially around the area behind the bridge leading towards the strap button. Second, this guitar features a black pickguard (compared to the tortoiseshell on the first one), and lastly, the second guitar does not have a sticker on the back of the headstock, which the old one of course has (more details on this in the 1996 Fender Stratocaster Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature page).

John was photographed using this guitar only once – at the PNC Arts Center on August 28, 2003, in New Jersey. However, according to Vince Cunetto himself (see comments) the guitar was used extensively live and was only one of the two that Vince made for him.

The guitar was built by Vince Cunetto, who in the mid-90s worked with Fender Custom Shop on relicing their bodies and necks from his own workshop. A couple of years after the deal between the two ended, Vince started his own line of guitars under the Vinetto brand. The model that he first came up with was called Legato, and it featured a design heavily influenced by Fender models such as the Stratocaster and the Telecaster.

John’s own guitar featured a sunburst finish on what looks like an alder body, a rosewood fretboard, a 6-saddle Telecaster-style bridge, and a white pickguard. Although Vince mostly used pickups by DiMarzio, more specifically the ‘Virtual Hot T’ in the bridge and the Minibuckers in the middle and neck, Mayer’s guitar seems to have been equipped with Seymour Duncan pickups. These were most likely SD Vintage Mini Humbuckers.

John acquired this guitar sometime in 2007, which is a presumption mostly based on the photos which seem to date back no further than mid-2007 and the 38th Annual New Orleans Jazz Festival.

According to a Periscope live stream that John did recently [John Mayer on Periscope – Gear Talk] the guitar is a 1961 hard-tail Stratocaster, meaning that it doesn’t have a regular tremolo bridge, making the guitar lighter and less prone to going out of tune.

In the same Periscope session linked above, John mentioned that he used this guitar on Something Like Olivia, as well as on some other stuff. Unfortunately, he does not go into details about what that other stuff may be.

John used this guitar at Eric Clapton’s 70th Birthday Concert in May 2015. According to one of his recent Periscope streams, this is the first PRS guitar that he ever got his hands on.

This is the first PRS guitar that I played, and I went holy moly! I played that at the Clapton birthday show at the Madison Square Garden.

John Mayer on Periscope – Gear Talk

Given that the guitar is stock and not something that Paul Reed Smith custom-built for John, it featured a Korina body, maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, controls for volume, tone, and a 5-way switch. The pickups in it are the Narrowfields, which are sort of a cross between single-coil and humbucker. It is interesting to note that John decided to use one of these pickups in his custom-made PRS  “Super Eagle” model, which became his main guitar by 2015.

This is a guitar that was made specifically for the Continuum tour, during which John used it to play Belief and I Don’t Need a Doctor.

The guitar is most likely just a regular John Mayer Signature Stratocaster put together by John Cruz, featuring a custom finish, and the word “Continuum” written in sequence on top of the body, excluding the pickguard.

For the specifics behind the electronics and woods used on the guitar, refer to the official Fender spec sheet – [John Mayer Signature Models Specs].

John used this guitar on the Battle Studies album to record the song Wildfire. Following John’s preference to always use the exact same guitar that he recorded the song with, the Duesenberg was also seen on most of the live performances of the song.

According to the info on Duesenberg’s website, the guitar features an alder body with sound chambers and a laminated maple top, an Indian rosewood fretboard with a 12″ radius, Duesenberg Multibender tremolo bridge, Duesenberg Domino P-90 pickup in the neck, and a Grand Vintage Humbucker in the bridge position.

This guitar is pretty much a mystery, although it is likely that it came out of the Fender Custom Shop on John’s order. It was used extensively during the Heavier Things tour in 2004 [03/12/2004 John Mayer- YouTube], and therefore likely served purely just as of a touring guitar.

By the looks of it, the guitar was based on an early 60s Stratocaster model. It features a rosewood fretboard on a maple neck, most likely an alder body finished in Burgundy Mist, an aged mint-green pickguard, and the standard configuration of three single-coil pickups.

John was first seen using this guitar in 2013 while playing a cover of the Grateful Dead song Friend of the Devil. This is, of course, no coincidence, since the guitar was modeled after one of Alembic’s earliest guitar models known as ‘Wolf’, played by Grateful Dead co-founder and lead guitarist – Jerry Garcia.

From 2013 and on, John seemed to have used this guitar occasionally for live gigs. He was seen playing it on Live on Letterman TV show in 2013.

Although just by looking at the guitar, one would assume that this is a solid-body guitar. But this is not the case, as it basically features a center block that spans from one to the other end of the guitar, made of two large pieces of maple, and smaller strips of purpleheart and cherry wood. The body itself is also made from several kinds of wood, with a quilted maple top and back and purpleheart sides.

This guitar is probably one of the lesser-known ones since you’d be unlikely to have known of it unless you regularly tune in John’s Periscope streams. It seems that he only used this guitar during a stream dating back to late 2015.

The guitar features a maple body and neck, Charvel Custom MF humbuckers in the neck and the bridge position, a Charvel Custom MF single-coil in the middle, Sperzel locking tuners, and a Charvel locking tremolo bridge.

John was seen using this guitar on a few occasions in 2007, including the ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” on July 20th, 2007. Unfortunately, the specifics and the origin of the guitar are currently unknown.

Based on the photos, the guitar appears to be vintage, most likely dating back to the late 50s. It features a double cutout body, cherry red finish, and a single P-90 pickup in the bridge position.

This guitar was seen during the 2010 Battle Studies World Tour on various dates, but primarily on gigs played in Australia and Japan. Allegedly, the guitar was used to record some of the stuff on the Battle Studies album but there’s no official word from John on this.

From the photos available the guitar appears to be black, but it seems that all of the 25th Anniversary models were produced in dark red. As pointed out in the comments, John apparently didn’t like the original finish and had the guitar repainted in black.

The Ernie Ball Music Man 25th Anniversary model is equipped with two DiMarzio custom humbuckers mounted on top of a chambered basswood body with a figured maple top with white binding. John’s particular model is fitted with a rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and a 12″ radius (flatter than John’s Strats).

This is one of the more unique guitars of John’s. He started using it around 2014, and it appears to be a model built to the vintage 50s specs. The finish on the guitar seems to be one-of-a-kind since it looks too shiny to be Inca Silver or really anything from the Fender catalog.

The guitar was used occasionally during 2014 as well as on some studio projects during that year. As far as the specs, it likely features all of the hardware from the JM Signature Strat, but this is obviously not one hundred percent true.

One of our readers managed to dig up an old tweet of John from 2014 in which he mentions the said guitar and clears up some of the mystery behind it. The guitar is actually nickel plated, and it was a Custom build for John.

John seems to have acquired this guitar during the Battle Studies tour in Japan in May 2010 and played it on at least one gig around that time. [John Mayer Perfectly Lonely Live in Japan, Tokyo JCB Hall 2010.5.13]

The guitar is part of a limited Disney-themed line made and released only in Japan, and it featured a basswood body and a maple neck rosewood with a 25.5″ scale length and 9.5″ radius (marked as 324mm and 250mm for the Japanese market). [Amazon｜Fender Japan TL-MINNIE Telecaster] The price of the guitar was around 100,980 Japanese Yen, or approximately $1,000.

This guitar seems to have been used occasionally on a couple of gigs with Keith Urban on the song Til Summer Comes Around.  It was subsequently seen in 2010 in the Palace of Auburn Hills, where John used the guitar to play the song ‘Say’ [John Mayer – Say (Live at the Palace Feb.12, 2010)]

According to the information on the Duesenberg website, the guitar features a maple neck with an Indian rosewood fingerboard featuring a 12″ radius (compared to 9.5” on JM Strat) with 22 jumbo frets. The body is semi-hollow with a laminated spruce top and laminated flamed maple back and sides. All the hardware is produced in-house by Duesenberg, including the P-90 style pickup which is fitted in the neck position, and the Grand Vintage humbucker in the bridge.

This guitar is the one that John eventually settled up with after trying out the first prototype from Paul Reed Smith. The guitar is identical to at least two other PRSs that John has, aside from the sticker on the back that simply reads “1”, and the pattern in the wood on the top (which is very hard to see sometimes).

The guitar features a curly maple sandwich body with mahogany sides, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard with 24 and 25.375″ – which is longer than usual for PRS guitars, but still short in comparison to John’s Strats (25.5″). The model is equipped with two specially-wound 58/15 JM treble and bass (bridge and neck) pickups, and a custom-wound Narrowfield JM pickup in the middle position (with three individual coil-tap mini-switches).

The guitar also has a built-in JCF Audio preamp with treble boost, PRS Gen III Tremolo bridge, and a hand-signed sticker in the f-hole of the guitar that was designed by Mayer’s friend David Smith (who also designed the cover art for Mayer’s 2012 Born and Raised album).

This guitar was used on one of John’s Instagram live streams, where he improvised 7 minutes of I Guess I Just Feel Like – a part of which ended up on the studio recording. It is unknown whether he used this guitar on any other occasion.

From the looks of it, this seems to be an E230TD model, finished in sunburst, with the Tremotone tremolo and two single-coil P90 pickups.

John used this guitar in 2014 on the John Mayer Trio mini-reunion on Late Night with Seth Meyers. This was the trio’s first TV performance in five years, and they played the song After Midnight, originally by J. J. Cale and later covered by Eric Clapton in 1970.

As far as the specs, the guitar features a chambered body with spruce top and mahogany back,  22 fret neck with rosewood fretboard, Guild floating Tune-O-Matic bridge, and a pair of Guild SB-1F single-coil pickups.

John was seen using this guitar occasionally in late 2006.

Although very little is known about the guitar, from the looks of it appears to be a Custom Shop Thinline Nocaster. According to one of our readers (see comments) it was built by Chris Fleming and features a Twisted Tele pickup in the neck and a Broadcaster pickup in the bridge position.

This guitar appeared on occasions towards late 2004, for example, during a couple of gigs that John played with Sheryl Crow.

The Stratocaster is probably something that John Crash Matos had laid his fingers on, but the exact details behind the guitar are unfortunately unknown. It is possible that this is one of the fifty guitars that Crash did for Fender, and John ended up buying one of them, but it’s equally possible that the guitar was a custom order by Mayer.

John received this guitar from the Fender Custom Shop sometime in 2008, as was shown in the bonus interview featured on the Where The Light Is DVD/live album. As far as one can tell from the photos and the video available, he never used this Stratocaster live.

The guitar is a replica of a Stratocaster that Stevie Ray Vaughan received as a gift on his 26th birthday from his wife Lenora (you can read more about the guitar at Stevie Ray Vaughan’s gear page). Fender made a total of 185 instruments, all of course master-built.

This is the first prototype of the PRS Super Eagle model, which Mayer designed working closely with Paul Reed Smith in mid-2015. The guitar seems to have mainly been based around the McCarty 594, which was introduced only a couple of months prior to the two of them meeting to discuss a possible signature model after John’s departure from Fender.

The guitar is very similar to the production version of the Super Eagle, except that it’s a completely solid guitar, and it doesn’t have an F-hole. Aside from this, there are also few minor differences – stop tail bridge instead of the Gen III Tremolo, no binding on the neck, no pickup cover on the bridge pickup (and likely different pickups altogether), and the most obvious – no sunburst finish.

This guitar was only seen briefly in one of John’s Periscope streams dating back to July 1, 2015 [John Mayer Guitar Lesson on Periscope 2015].

Based purely on the looks, the guitar appears to be a Custom 22 model, but there are a few things on it that don’t exactly fit the description. The first is the inlays, which are not the usual “bird in flight”, but Celtic knots-styled ones. Second is the fact that all of the hardware is gold-plated, including even the tiniest screws on the back and bridge saddles.

Taking a look at the PRS website, the only model that seems to fit the description is the one branded as the “Collection Series IX – Curly” – which seems to be a really top-of-the-line guitar with all the bells and whistles. If you’re interested in the full specs of this guitar please visit PRS’s official web presentation of the model.

This is the third prototype of the PRS Super Eagle that John designed together with Paul Reed Smith. Based on the fact that he published this guitar on his Instagram in 2015, a year before he started using Super Eagles extensively on stage, this is likely the final prototype guitar before John was presented with his #1 and #2 Super Eagles. Those two were finalized versions and the two that John used the most during performances.

This prototype was first mentioned on John’s Instagram profile in July 2015, and it shows the guitar waiting to be sprayed with the sunburst effect on the edges. We see one major difference compared to the final versions – the prototype has three control knobs, compared to only two on the finalized version.

A couple of months later in August John did a Periscope stream showing off the same guitar (see image below), but now obviously completely finished.

John used this guitar to record War of My Life and Assassin from the 2009 album Battle Studies.

This is sort of like a guitar synth in a way. It has constantly-sustaining pickups that just keep the strings ringing. I used this on War of My Life and I used it on the Assassin. Those sort of groovy, long, sort of ethnic-sounding guitar parts I played on that guitar.

John Mayer – Jones Beach Back Stage Tour