John Mayer’s Fender Rosewood Stratocaster “Rosie”

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.”

Specs

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.

In case the guitar was standard, it featured a 25.5″ scale neck with a 9.5″ fretboard radius and medium-jumbo frets. The pickups were hand-wound in the factory to match the specs pickups made during the late 60s, and the headstock was fitted with the Vintage Style tuners,

As noted by John in the interview quoted above, sometime in 2012, the pickguard on this guitar was painted by John’s friend Lydell to feature a rose flower, making it one of a kind. Please note that the part where John talks about this is not really intelligible, so it’s hard to distinguish whether he’s saying “Lydell” or something else. In any case, if you happen to know the person’s name for sure, be sure to leave a comment below.