get-fender

Featured review by: prsman
Grammy winner John Mayer has teamed up with Fender for this must-have signature guitar. Its alder body is a wonderland, and the satin urethane-finish maple neck has a slightly larger C-shape topped by a buffed headstock with a Vintage '50s decal. The African rosewood fingerboard has a 9.5" radius and Dunlop 6105 frets. Other features include three new "Big Dipper" single-coil pickups with a special "scooped" mid-range voicing wound to Mayer's exacting specs, an American Vintage synchronized tremolo with five tremolo springs (the uninstalled back plate is in the case), Fender/Gotoh vintage-style tuning keys and a three-ply brown shell pickguard. // 10
Sound: Amazing, there's not alot else that has to be said. Something special was made in the new Big Dipper pickups. They are the most amazing and unique sounding pickups Fender has ever developed. They allow for very powerful bass lines but keep plenty of room for the treble to truly Shine. Obviously you have to be a J. Mayer fan to buy this guitar and I am so I play a lot of his stuff, but I also play plenty of jazz, modern and classic rock, blues and even some country and this guitar take it all in stride with beautiful pure clean tones and full velvety smooth dirty tones.

// 10

Action, Fit & Finish: The is set perfectly for me. Its high to allow for super-bends but low enough to allow for complicated chording. The mix between the rosewood finderbored and jumbo frets feels great. This is easily the best factory set up guitar I have ever played. This finish is gorgeous too. The shoreline gold shines brilliantly and the custon red recing stripe accents it and ties everything together to make it a very apealing and uniquie guitar. // 10

Reliability & Durability: It's a Strat, we all know how durable they are, (i.e. SRV's Number 1) and this one is no exception. The hardware is all solid and ready for a beating. All the nuts and screws are tight and ready to go. I could easily make this guitar my solo guitar and this finish is flawless, and ready to last for many many years. // 10

Impression: The JM Strat truly allows me a lot of versatility and allows me to play vertually any style I want. From blues to country to even classical it'll do the job without any problem (I know classical might be a stretch, but you get my point). I've been playing since 2002, so yes I am relitivly new to guitar in comparison to some people, but in the last couple years I've gained a fair amount of experiance with music and I do know what I'm talking about. Some of my other guitars are an SRV Stratocaster, a PRS McCarty Custom 22, and an American Deluxe Telecaster. I primarily play through a Fender '59 bassman and I record through a Digi002 system. The John Mayer Stratocaster just competes with it all and does it with ease. If it were lost or stolen, heads would roll quite quickly until I got it back. Its a guitar that I would expect to grow with me for the rest of my life. The only thing it really can be compared to is the SRV Artist Series Strat, but the only similarities are the tuners, the frets and the fact that the Big Dipper pickups are variations of Texas Specials but it still truly has its own sound. The John Mayer Artist Series Strat is an all around must have for anyone who wants versatility and that pure and unique J. Mayer sound. // 10