Pedals Week 2026: Looper pedals are undoubtedly one of the best writing tools a guitar player can have in their arsenal, but they’re also invaluable for anyone looking to sharpen their skills as a soloist, both technically and theoretically.

You could take the chord progression from one of your favorite songs, for example, and start testing out new ideas – which will help you find your voice and identity on your instrument.

As any Guitar World reader already knows, it can be highly rewarding to learn your favorite solos note for note, but studying the chord progression underneath them will help you put your own spin on things. And this is precisely where a looper will come in handy.

Some of the world’s greatest solos were written over movements that allowed the players to create something truly astounding and unique. The more attention you pay to chords and rhythms, the more impactful your solo might end up sounding.

Play the chords into your looper and start experimenting with different sounds and feels. You might notice how some tracks stay in one key and allow you to build your story a scene at a time without any radical harmonic departures.

In other situations, you might notice that some of the chords you’re playing over allow you to add in other tonalities and venture outside of the key, with options for more ear-catching notes from a different scale – from the introduction of Dorian, Aeolian or Mixolydian flavors to more dramatic-sounding harmonic and melodic minor scales.

So, even if you feel like music theory isn’t a strong point, just a little bit of due diligence can go a long way to impress listeners and help you learn how to deliver a solo that truly soars and sings. Your ear is the most important thing here.

Here are 10 tracks that are great for looping, with repetitive progressions that give you plenty of opportunities to conjure up something extra special.

1. Eagles – Hotel California

It’s one of those songs that’s always in the running for the greatest guitar solo(s) of all-time, with Don Felder and Joe Walsh going head to head before joining forces for some lavish harmonized arpeggios at the end.

The minor chord progression underneath is what gives ample opportunity to create something dramatic, with the V chord being changed to dominant (F#7 instead of F#min) and the IV chord alternating between major and minor instead of staying minor.

This is what allows soloists to switch between B pentatonic and Aeolian to harmonic minor, especially on the substituted chords Ultimately, the goal here is to not stick with one scale – make your solo more fluid and unpredictable to catch listeners off-guard.

2. John Mayer – Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

If you’re looking for the perfect song to master your C# minor pentatonic chops, as well as its E major relative, this could very well be it. Unlike Hotel California, the progression is completely diatonic and therefore feels like it’s all in one key, so it’s more about phrasing and delivery than note choices when targeting chords.

With a laid-back tempo and slinky feel, it’s the kind of musical scenario that calls for big pentatonic bends, and therefore works as a practice tool for pitch accuracy. It’s worth asking yourself what note are you trying to bend up to and how close are you getting.

3. Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb

Often cited as one of David Gilmour’s greatest moments, this final single from Pink Floyd’s 1979 rock opera The Wall is an absolute masterclass in how to speak B minor pentatonic.

Pay attention to your vibrato and note choice, because these are two areas where Gilmour is known to excel, and see if you can find your own lines that feel natural and avoid over-complication.

The bar where the chords drop from G to F#min and Emin calls for something extra special – think about what you can play to emphasize the movement underneath you and have some fun with it.

4. B.B. King – The Thrill Is Gone

Anyone trying to master the art of 12-bar blues will undoubtedly come across this Grammy-winning hit from 1969. This is another B minor progression that’s all about the bends – know exactly what you’re aiming for and see what happens when you undershoot or overshoot to unlock “the in-between notes” on the fretboard, like the original blues masters.

The minor pentatonic will be your friend here, but if you’re looking to spice things up, try introducing B melodic minor or A# half-whole diminished scales over the dominant chord (F#7) to create tension before the progression returns to root. This resolution from the V chord to the I is often referred to as a perfect cadence.

5. Metallica – Wherever I May Roam

Arguably one of the most famous heavy metal tracks written using the Phrygian scale, the fourth single from Metallica’s self-titled landmark album of 1991 is a great way of introducing yourself to more outside ideas.

For his solo, Kirk Hammett chose to use a mixture of E minor pentatonic and E Phrygian Dominant – which is the fifth mode of A harmonic minor – to great effect. The big jump from a minor second to a major third is a surefire way of capturing people’s attention.

Use it too much, however, and it loses its effect. So try switching between Phrygian, which has a minor third, and its dominant sibling to mix things up – essentially swapping a G for a G# wherever you think it feels right. Follow your ears and have fun.

6. Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven

Maybe don’t try this one while testing looper pedals in your local guitar shop, but if you’re hoping to explore the world of natural minor, this hit provides a perfect backdrop.

The A minor pentatonic scale will do the trick for most of the chords, but highlighting the F chord with an F note will add a sense of sophistication to what you play, showing everyone how you understand the song’s inner workings by targeting the sound of a minor 6th at exactly the right time.

If you listen to the last note of Jimmy Page’s opening line, you’ll hear how it creates an atmosphere of tension after the familiarity of more bluesy sounds.

7. Free – All Right Now

Some of the world’s greatest guitar solos aren’t strictly major or minor, with the player blending ideas from both worlds into one seamless package. This 1970 hit is one of those, thanks to Paul Kossoff’s iconic fretwork halfway into the song.

Maybe start off in A major pentatonic and work your way into A minor pentatonic as your solo builds towards its grand crescendo, or try using both in a ‘call and answer’ fashion. Kossoff’s vibrato also played a huge part in his solo’s overall feel, so experiment with how you shake the notes you’re choosing to let ring – there’s plenty of space to get creative and express yourself here.

8. Joe Bonamassa – Sloe Gin

The New York blues maverick is one of the undisputed titans of the long-form solo, and the title track from his 2007 album is the perfect example of why that is. Once you’ve recorded the chords into your looping pedal, begin with some simple phrases in D minor and slowly build your ideas in terms of intensity and dynamics.

The original solo is almost three minutes long and never outstays its welcome. Holding back is an art form in itself – and playing along to a progression like this is a great way of learning how to flow naturally through control and discipline, keeping the listener on the edge of their seats every step of the way.

The chords to Purple Rain by Prince would also work very well for this – look at it as telling a story with a beginning, middle and end, rather than going in all guns blazing.

9. Joe Satriani – Flying In A Blue Dream

If you’re mainly used to pentatonic scales, Lydian – which is the fourth mode of the major scale – can present some serious challenges when it comes to phrasing.

Jamming along to the chords from this title track on Joe Satriani’s third full-length, released in 1989, is a great way of familiarizing yourself with these shapes and sounds. You can look at C Lydian from a G major perspective, which is its parent scale, or think of it as C major with a sharpened fourth, or even C major pentatonic with the inclusion of a B and an F.

Ultimately, different ways of visualizing a scale can help you explore new sonic horizons. Experiment with every possibility, even the ones that feel more confusing and less natural, because they might push you in a completely new direction.

10. Gary Moore – Parisienne Walkways

Much like Moore’s most famous track Still Got The Blues, this late ’70s hit is a great way of getting used to cycle-of-fifth progressions, also typified by songs like Autumn Leaves and I Will Survive.

Parisienne Walkways is in the key of A natural minor but at the end of the main progression, the perfect cadence of a V chord (E7) into the I chord (Amin) provides an opportunity to use the A harmonic minor scale for extra tension, which is then released by resolving back to the root.

Like Stairway To Heaven, it’s a great way of learning how to change just one note over the right chord and provide more depth for the listener to appreciate, taking them on a journey that travels further and therefore exceeds expectation.

Many guitarists spend hours navigating different string gauges in the quest for the perfect tone. In John Mayer's eyes, however, there are only a few factors you should really pay attention to.

The 'thicker strings equals thicker tone' debate is a popular topic among players, with some believing that a heavier string gauge can give way to meatier, beefier tones. The trade off, of course, is that thicker strings are harder to play.

But, speaking to Guitar World in 2010, Mayer dismissed such talk, saying that “the argument about string gauges is about the silliest thing a guitarist can engage in.”

“Maybe you get a better tone from bigger strings,” he conceded, “but if you can’t bend up to the note, what’s tone anyway? Hendrix probably had .010s, so it’s whatever you can bend.”

In other words, what's the point of picking heavier strings if you can't cope with them? Prioritize playability and the tone will follow.

His observation came during a discussion of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who famously opted for heavier strings. SRV played with a custom 0.13–0.58 set, tuned to Eb, which led many players to think that alone was the secret sauce.

That’s one of the reasons why Mayer feels Stevie Ray Vaughan has “the most misunderstood tone around.”

“Everybody thinks you get a Tube Screamer, you turn the distortion all the way up, and you turn the level as loud as it goes before you get yelled at,” he said. “But his sound wasn’t about gain – the gain was in his hands. It was in the muscular, atom-bomb left hand, which made it sound loud.

“It was loud, but it wasn’t distorted. When people try to play Texas Flood through distortion, it sounds awful. Stevie primarily used the amp’s volume [he played through edge-of-breakup Dumbles] and a distortion pedal as a boost. Then he just whipped the hell out of the strings to get that sound.”

Mayer’s argument is that the relationship between the fatness of the strings and the tone is not necessarily symbiotic, especially if it comes at the expense of how much movement you can get out of your bends.

That’s why his signature Ernie Ball string set is considerably thinner than SRV’s go-to, albeit coming in a little fatter than standard gauge strings at 10.5-47. They are, he reckons, the perfect Strat strings.

“The tension is exactly where I’ve always wanted it,” Mayer said of his signature Silver Slinky strings in 2024. “[They’re] big enough to get great tone, but nimble enough to finesse those vocal bends we as guitar players are always going for.”

So, yes, while he does seem to nod to the fact that thicker strings can contribute to a thicker tone, both his words and his gear reflect a belief that the quest for a beefy tone is far more multifaceted than most give credit for.

This is his sweet spot, but it must co-exist with everything else in his rig, and his personal playing style, too.

Other players prioritise playability alone. B.B. King famously used light string gauges to make bending easier, and Billy Gibbons ended up following suit after meeting the blues legend.

JHS Pedals is poised to correct its biggest error after announcing the long-awaited second edition of its DIY Notadümblë pedal will be released tomorrow, Tuesday 30 June.

The second stompbox in the firm’s build-it-yourself category, the Notadümblë V1 made the headlines after JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott realized he’d dropped the ball pretty dramatically.

In short, a schematic mix-up meant the clean boost circuit inserted into the Dumble clone was actually modeled on an even rarer Dumble pedal than advertised. As such, it was discontinued after just two weeks.

With V2, JHS Pedals is not only releasing the pedal as it always meant to, but it’s also introducing some pleasing quality-of-life improvements.

It is now a true two-in-one pedal, with independent footswitches for both the Dumble-style overdrive and boost side. The Presence control has also been promoted to the top control panel.

But most importantly, the boost side now correctly draws from John Mayer’s one-of-one A Box Later pedal.

Other quirks that weren’t in the earlier version include a slider toggle to choose which side of the pedal comes first in the signal path, and an effects loop for its preamp boost circuit.

Controls on the pedal’s face include Volume, Drive, EQ, and Presence for the overdrive, and Input and Outputs for the clean boost, staying true to the streamlined controls on the A Box Later.

The first batch is limited to 6,000 units, but fear not, because this is not a limited edition release. The Notadümblë V2 will be available indefinitely; there might just be a small wait for those not quick enough to snag one from the first drop.

The first batch launched on Tuesday, June 30th at 10 am CST.

See JHS Pedals for more.

JHS Pedals has been busy of late, having dropped the ultimate pedal demo guitar in collaboration with Bilt; a curious, against-the-grain octaver; and the Fumble, which separates the wrongly copied Dumble from V1 into its own unit.

There’s no greater indicator of the rise of digital amp modeling than the most die-hard tube amp lovers being drawn to the dark side, and now John Mayer’s digital tone journey has taken the next step: he’s using his plugins in the studio.

His signature plugin from Neural DSP dropped in December, with a Dumble amp and a faithful recreation of his Klon Centaur, an indispensable mainstay of his rig, standout features as it went on to bag a 4.5* review from us.

Mayer’s backing it so much that he’s using it in the studio alongside his more tangible go-to gear.

“If I were in a pinch, I would always use this plugin, and I have already on records,” he says in a new video for Neural DSP. “I’m just not going to tell you which ones they are, and I don’t think you’ll know.”

For a guitarist who has always championed air pushing, and who went to extreme lengths to blast his tube amps at the Las Vegas Sphere, which has famously strict noise restrictions, it’s a shrewd move. As he says, the plugin isn’t replacing anything, but it’s proven worthy enough for a spot in his arsenal.

“That is not meant to replace an amp,” he confirms. “I’m always going to play tube amps. It’s meant to give you more options. It’s meant to bring the experience of owning a tube amplifier and owning this gear into your home, no matter who you are.”

Indeed, owning a Vibroverb alone is going to cost a few grand, and that’s without factoring in the Dumble, Klon, and everything else within the €169 (around $190, plus tax) plugin. Digitalized gear has been bringing high-end tones to the masses for decades, and this continues the tradition.

“It’s meant to democratize the gear,” Mayer believes.

And he’s become a sucker for its reliability too. No more “dying delay pedals” because you forgot to unplug them during a break, and the 9V had the life sucked out of it; no more temperamental amps.

“I’ve looked forward to the year I would be able to simply have one cable, a laptop, and two speakers, and have that be the rig,” he notes. “It’s an authentic emulation of amps, but it’s already chained in [to your DAW] and has all the flexibility. It’s what I use at home.”

Mayer has been teasing a new T-style guitar on the road recently and is on the star-studded guest list for Buddy Guy’s 90th birthday party in October. It’ll be quite the party.

At nearly 90 years old, Buddy Guy is still carrying the torch for the blues and remains a guiding force for current and future generations of blues players.

Fresh off his cameo in Ryan Coogler's highly lauded film Sinners, Guy’s legacy is continuing to be celebrated, as Blackbird Presents and Live Nation are teaming up to organize Buddy’s Got the Blues: A 90th Birthday Concert Celebration.

The event, taking place on October 1 at the iconic Radio City Music Hall in New York City, is set to be a one-night-only event with collaborations, performances, and heartfelt tributes from artists influenced by Guy’s work.

The all-star lineup includes a veritable list of legends and blues virtuosos: Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks, Jon Batiste, Aloe Blacc, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Billy F Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Bobby Rush, Isaiah Sharkey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jimmie Vaughan, Ally Venable, Willie Weeks, and Kim Wilson.

More artists and special guests are set to be announced soon, and the man himself, Buddy Guy, will (of course) also perform, proving that he's still got the blues.

Current Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan serves as the musical director.

Speaking about the event, Guy says, “Can't wait to celebrate 90 years of living, loving, and playing the blues with all my friends. We’ll make it a night not just for me, but for the folks who taught us, the friends we’ve played with, and the ones coming up behind us.”

In a recent interview with Guitar Player, the blues icon has explained why he’s not giving up touring just yet, as he prepares to hit the road on July 15, starting at Massey Hall in Toronto.

“I thought about retiring twice,” he says. “But, y’know, I thought about all those great blues players who are no longer with us – B.B. King. Lightnin’ Hopkins, all those guys – and they used to tell me, ‘You need to keep playing and keep representing the blues,’ ’cause they don’t play it on radio or anything anymore.

“So I said to myself, ‘Well, Buddy, you better hang on a little longer. My health ain’t doing too bad, so I’m still doing what I’ve always done. Every time I get onstage, just try to play the best I can.”

Tickets go on sale to the general public on June 26 at 10 AM ET. Head to Buddy 90 to find out more.

Guy is set for a very busy rest of the year, having also been announced for this year's edition of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival.

Sound the klaxon. John Mayer has a new electric guitar. And it is a doozy. Oh, and it's also not the kind of guitar we see the pop-rock superstar with all that often. Hands up – who had a T-style on your Mayer bingo card?

The guitar in question is from El Cabron Guitars, a boutique brand headed up by Mike Eldred. You might recognize Eldred’s name; he has been in the business for almost 50 years, and was notably Grover Jackson’s first hire.

In fact, Eldred was head of the Fender Custom Shop when Mayer was still a Fender artist. His departure was a key factor in Mayer jumping ship to PRS.

El Cabron has some of that hot-rodded Fender spirit in its designs, with each instrument a unique built-to-order type deal.

Mayer’s is a Custom Esquire, with a cut blackguard, a single single-coil housed in an ashtray-style plate and bridge piece. There are volume and tone controls nested on a metal plate as per the traditional style.

The finish will go down easy with anyone who has a weakness for distilled agave. It’s finished in Adobe Grey with a “Mezcal y Cobra” graphic. You can hear it on Mayer’s latest collab with Lainey Wilson, Phone, Keys, Wallet.

Stick it on. That’s definitely some Telecaster twang 'n' grit you’re hearing. As Jonas Arthur noted in the comments, a certain PRS might have been the more obvious candidate.

"So cool! I was certain John Mayer was using a T-style on this track!" wrote Arthur. "My guess was it was the PRS NF. So cool to know it was this guitar! Looks and sounds KILLER!"

It is nice to see Mayer expanding his collection with something off-menu like this. And it caught Eldred and the folks at El Cabron off-guard too.

“A nice surprise to hear our ‘Mezcal y Cobra’ guitar on the Lainey Wilson / John Mayer track ‘Phone, Keys, Wallet’ today!” reads El Cabron’s post on Instagram. “What a great song and great playing as always by John! So grateful! Thank you!”

If it is anything like the other Custom Esquires in the El Cabron lineup, Mayer’s new whip will be packing some serious specs – not least a hand-wound 20K humbucker wound by Eldred’s fellow Charvel alum Willy Houston of Rocket Pickups.

This is hooked up to a Greasebucket circuit, and there’s a push/push switch on the volume for a “Eldred Esquire” notch filter. All of the artwork is done by hand. You can check out more at El Cabron Guitars.

In other John Mayer news, jazz-funk phenom Tom Misch has been speaking to Guitar World about the time he was headed out to play Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival when he got a message from Mayer.

Mayer texted him and asked if he needed some help on guitar, duly turned up 30 minutes before showtime and got involved. Misch also reveals what Mayer taught him about his own playing.

Tom Misch has reflected on the time he played at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, when he was joined on stage by one of his biggest heroes.

In 2019, Misch – the neo-soul, jazz-funk and hip-hop powerhouse – joined the Crossroads festival bill alongside the likes of Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Albert Lee, Jeff Beck, Marcus King, Gary Clark Jr., and more legendary guitar players.

Another name on the lineup was John Mayer, who offered to jam with Misch during his set at the very last minute.

“It was crazy. It was Eric Clapton’s Crossroads guitar festival, I think it was just before COVID,” Misch remembers in a new interview with Guitar World. “First of all, I was like, ‘Eric Clapton’s invited me to do this, this is incredible. He knows who I am!’

“Then, I was on the way there and I got a DM from John Mayer saying, ‘Do you want some assistance on your set?’ I just couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t spoken to him before and he was reaching out. I was so excited.”

Mayer reaching out was a huge deal to Misch, who has cited the Continuum guitarist as a key influence in his guitar playing. To this day, Misch still plays a John Mayer Fender Stratocaster signature.

He continues, “I just couldn’t believe it. I knew he was going to jump up for the set I was doing. It was a great lineup – I had Yussef Dayes on drums and Rocco Palladino on bass, and we were playing a couple of my songs.

“I think it was a quite short set – we had like 20 minutes. I remember John came into the room half an hour before we went on just to jam some of the ideas. He was really tall. And, obviously, had such big energy. He comes into the room and literally had his hands up in the air. He’s a really nice guy, he’s very complimentary.”

It was a whirlwind experience for Misch, but it didn’t end there. Not only did he get to play with Mayer, his hero also made a unique observation about his own playing that reframed his entire perspective.

“I remember him pointing out something interesting,” Misch recalls. “He was saying that I play very laterally, as opposed to horizontally. That’s something I’ve never noticed before, but I’ve thought about it a lot since. If I do a scale I’ll go up the fretboard, as opposed to across the strings.”

The pair would later team up for an NPR Tiny Desk performance in 2020, but have yet to collaborate again. If Misch has his way, more team-ups could eventually follow.

“I think it will happen,” he says. “I want to find the right project, you know, to ask him if he wants to get involved. I reckon he’d be up for it.”

Guitar World’s full interview with Tom Misch will be published soon.

Misch tours the EU next week, starting with a show in Amsterdam on June 8. Visit Tom Misch's website for a full list of dates.

JHS Pedals is commemorating what firm founder Josh Scott has called “the biggest mistake of my career” by releasing the Fumble – an $89 boost based on an ultra-rare Dumble circuit.

The affordable standalone unit comes amidst overwhelming fan demand, after the clean boost circuit was mistakenly put in the V1 Notadümblë pedal last year.

As Scott explained at the time, the Notadümblë was meant to include the clean-boosting magic of John Mayer’s one-of-one A Box Later pedal, which was custom-built by the late Howard Dumble and later cloned by Scott.

Then, Scott realized he had made a huge mistake and, in a schematics mix-up, had actually used Mayer’s even-rarer preamp buffer, the Dumble BBC-1, instead.

Consequently, the Notadümblë was discontinued after the first batch – all of which contained the incorrect circuit – sold like hot cakes.

Moving forward, this is the only place the BBC-1 circuit will live, and the small, affordable pedal is as simple as it gets. With dials for its Input and Output, and true-bypass switching, the faithful recreation promises “enhanced clean tones.”

But while the Output is for your Master Volume, the Input isn’t actually a gain knob; it attenuates bass and input gain simultaneously at the front of the circuit. Rolling it off gives a thinner, tighter response. Doing the opposite makes it fuller and louder.

It can be used as a clean boost at the front of pedalboards, or to slam the front of overdrive pedals and dirty amps. Yet this pedal’s story has one more surprise up its sleeve.

While “digging through” the original unit’s history, JHS realized, “The BBC-1 isn’t really a Dumble circuit at all. It’s a JFET preamp lifted almost part-for-part from a Barcus Berry acoustic preamp made in the 1970s – the kind of small utility box that bridged piezo pickups into electric guitar amps in an era when nobody had a modern acoustic preamp.”

Howard Dumble had cloned the circuit and built a few pedals for LA-based players. JHS Pedals adds that “he then used the same JFET stage inside his amplifiers and called it the FET mode.

“Which means the legendary Dumble FET sound is a clone of a 1970s piezo preamp,” the company says.

So, the JHS Fumble is a clone of a clone of a clone, which once accidentally masqueraded as a different clone altogether. Anyone else's head hurting?

Scott has now revealed that the Notadümblë Mark II is on its way – presumably with the right Dumble inside it. But for those that want JHS’s Dumble BBC-1 recreation on its own, the Fumble is not to be, er, fumbled.

“I’m excited to commemorate my own failures,” says Scott.

Get one for just $89 from JHS.

Elsewhere, Scott has raised concerns that ChatGPT is erasing pedal history after an experiment with the AI platform.

John Mayer is one of the greatest Fender Stratocaster players of all time. Ironic really, considering he rarely actually play a Stratocaster. At least, not anymore.

Instead, he plays the Silver Sky, the signature guitar he developed with PRS, after he famously left Fender in 2014 and took his ideas for an elevated S-style to a company that he felt was willing to turn them into a reality.

It was a huge move. Mayer leaving Fender sent shockwaves through the industry that are still being felt today.

Not only did Fender lose one of its biggest endorsees, it also paved the way for the arrival of the Strat’s biggest rival – one that Fender appears to be seeking to remove from the picture after hitting PRS with a cease-and-desist, ordering the brand to halt production of the Silver Sky.

Mayer moving to PRS came as a shock to many, but for the man himself it was anything but. Before he left Fender, he began dreaming up an instrument that would put a new spin on the Strat – something he maintained that Fender wasn’t interested in executing.

“I tried to do something like this with Fender, but I couldn’t create enough enthusiasm within the company for my vision,” Mayer told Guitar World upon the Silver Sky’s release in 2018. “I’m not hurt by that. No- one is obligated to be enthused about an idea of mine.”

“I wanted to go somewhere where they would take my ideas,” he added in an interview with Jeff Ross. “It was like, ‘Hey, let’s freshen up the electric guitar,’ because the electric guitar is still always this vestige of 1950s and ’60s car and surf culture. 60 years later, you’re still putting out these tributes to the station wagon.”

Mayer’s frustrations with the static nature of Fender’s designs and his desires to take things in a new direction were compounded by the departure of Mike Eldred, the Custom Shop director with whom Mayer had established a strong working relationship.

His absence meant Mayer no longer had a direct contact to go to when he wanted to experiment with his guitars. That stifled Mayer’s ambitions.

“When Mike Eldred left Fender, that was the beginning of the end of that era where artists really had people to talk to at that company,” he told Ross. “One day you’ll call up and you’ll go, ‘Can I get one that’s got a rosewood neck?’

“They’ll go, ‘It says here you already got two this year, and our contract was for two.’ [Whereas] Mike would send me a thing and then we would do something together off of that.”

There were no hard feelings with Fender, but Mayer needed to find a new collaborator who could match his energy. Enter Paul Reed Smith.

At PRS, Mayer found the freedom to go beyond the usual ‘artist signature guitar’ model, working with Smith to develop something grander in its design.

“I wasn’t looking to create a signature model,” he explained to Guitar World. “I want to go a step deeper into the genetic code of things. I’m looking to create a series of instruments that represent my point of view – and have a little desk next to Paul where I can bring some of my ideas to life that, over the years, will tell a story.”

Having that little desk next to Paul’s was key to the whole project. Working closely with the man who started the company meant Mayer could dive headfirst into developing this instrument. It was a far cry from the situation he’d encountered at Fender.

“I'm not talking shit. It's just musical chairs,” Mayer expanded in an Instagram livestream explaining his move. “[At PRS] I get to call the guy whose name is on the guitar, and we get to build stuff together.”

Two years after starting the project, Mayer unveiled the Silver Sky, inspired partly by his 1963 and 1964 Strats. The internet was quick to ridicule the design, dismissing it as an expensive Stratocaster knock-off and slating it for a lack of originality.

But public opinion U-turned once guitarists got their hands on them. That changing tide was emphasized following the launch of the SE Silver Sky, which brought the once-controversial model to the masses at a more affordable price point.

“I knew the Silver Sky would take years to take its place in the world,” Mayer said to Guitar World in 2025, after we named the Silver Sky one of the most important pieces of gear of the 21st century. “And I say this cautiously, but it feels like it’s become pretty widely accepted.”

The sales figures would certainly back up Mayer’s observation. In its end-of-year round-ups, Reverb has continually identified the SE Silver Sky as one of the best-selling guitars of the past three or four years. Indeed, it topped the list in 2022 and 2023, and gave Fender Strats a run for their money in the following years.

Over time, it’s been updated with new finishes, offered in rosewood and maple fretboard configurations, and converted for southpaws. It’s no exaggeration to say it routinely rivals Fender for the best mainstream S-style on the market.

Indeed, there was no getting away from the Stratocaster comparisons – but Mayer wasn’t exactly running from them.

“If you ask someone to draw a guitar, nine out of 10 people are going to draw a Stratocaster,” he told Guitar World back in 2018 by way of explanation. “So, when it came time to work with Paul, it was like, I just thought it would be an easier path to get people to understand that this is a Strat-based body.

“This guitar is based off of the Strat,” he added in the Instagram livestream. “I'm admitting that. I have played a Strat for such a long time in my career that it didn’t make sense to me personally to look down and see a different shape.”

The S-style design, then, was a no-brainer, but it wasn’t all that simple. There are tweaks to the body shape. There’s a three-a-side headstock. Some of the finer details, such as the hardware, have been refined. There are bird inlays.

But overall, it is Mayer’s take on an idealized, elevated S-style – the very thing he was trying to achieve with Fender. Yet he wasn’t concerned with the Silver Sky out-Strat-ing the company.

“I want you to understand that I embrace the Fender thing,” Mayer said in that livestream. “I want to see people play the Silver Sky through a Fender amp. This guitar is made to coexist with Fender amplifiers, with Fender guitars.”

Of course, that co-existence has come under strain recently, and with Fender serving PRS a cease-and-desist letter in May 2026, it seems Mayer’s sentiments aren’t shared by the Big F’s legal team (though they may well be taking note of them).

The butterfly effect of Mayer’s move is significant. If Eldred had stayed at Fender, and the company had accepted Mayer’s brief to build an updated Strat, would the Silver Sky have ever been made?

By extension, if such a monumentally successful S-type hadn’t emerged in the wake of the fallout, would Fender feel the need to assert its ownership of the Strat design so zealously?

It’s impossible to say. But whatever the legal outcome, the Silver Sky will continue to reshape the guitar market – and the modern-day history of the electric guitar itself.

When we talk about phrasing on blues guitar, this can often translate to rhythm. It’s possible to play a great solo without many notes if the rhythm is interesting.

Obviously, the same goes for rhythm parts – so the example piece concentrates on this area but using a hybrid ‘rhythm/lead’ approach favoured by John Mayer, SRV, Nile Rodgers and Jimi Hendrix, among others. Blurring the boundaries between the traditional distinctions of rhythm and lead guitar also serves a trio format well, and, as you’ll hear, the backing track consists of only bass and drums.

While we can be minimal at times, there is a responsibility (some might say freedom!) to fill the harmonic and/or rhythmic gaps. Not all blues is ‘funky’ per se, but there is a lot to be gained from understanding displaced/off-kilter rhythms, and this is what the example piece is designed to help you with.

A good starting point is to think of each beat in the bar as divided into four semiquavers. Initially, mute all of the strings then play alternating ‘down-up-down-up’ strokes, four per beat of the bar/16 to the whole bar. You’ll sometimes hear this described as a ‘1-e-and-a’ pattern.

Accent the first downstroke on each beat of the bar, then try moving the emphasis around, maybe to the ‘e’ or ‘a’ on the upstrokes. This is the basis of the approach used in the example piece, though you’ll notice I’m not playing every single semiquaver beat, even though my picking hand often goes through the motions.

Another thing to bear in mind is to keep it relaxed and don’t hit the strings too hard. This is an easy trap to fall into when playing tight staccato rhythms. Finally, remember you can mute with both picking and/or fretting hands to control ringing strings. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1

Almost every bar is 'locked down' with a double hit on an A5 power chord and a more rhythmic answering phrase in the subsequent three beats.

This can often be a repeated phrase, but it’s more useful to show you a range of options in this context. Though the muted hits are notated as faithfully as possible, this is not an exact science, so allow yourself a little flexibility, rather than attempting to duplicate anything precisely.

Example 2

Moving to the IV chord (D), this second phrase plays around with the initial chord hits using a dotted rhythm. This is a bit of a liberty as the bass and drums stay with two straight quavers, but I think we'll get away with it...

Concentrate on the drums to aim your accents/pauses as precisely as possible, and note that not every 1-e-and-a’ space is filled, even if your picking hand does go through the motions to keep the timing.

Example 3

The C and D chords use a similar pattern in this final example. Note the tied/held chords going across the rhythm – slow the whole thing down if that helps make sense of what’s happening on the various subdivisions of the beat.

Like Example 1 (and 2), the muted hits should be played without over-thinking which strings you’re hitting – just make sure everything is muted and it won’t matter too much. For the last bar, it was fun to change to the bridge pickup and go for a rockier feel. This is optional!

Hear it here

John Mayer Trio – Try!

Recorded live, this album is a particularly great example of what a trio can sound like – and it was a major inspiration for the example piece, especially Who Did You Think I Was. Also on this album, check out I Got A Woman and Wait Until Tomorrow.

Bonus mention goes to Another Kind Of Green for combining Little Wing-type chordwork with a funky shuffle feel. There are a good many ideas waiting to be used here – it’s an ample source of inspiration!

Jimi Hendrix – Band of Gypsys

Though he loved to overdub complementary rhythmic parts in the studio, Jimi was adept at making it work live, too. Check out out Freedom from The Cry Of Love for an example of his studio savvy, then compare with Who Knows from Band Of Gypsys to hear it live in a trio format.

Also, listen to Message To Love from the same album, with funky and unison riffing. This really makes the distinction between rhythm and lead guitar seem obsolete.

Nile Rodgers – Various

We’re going unapologetically funk for the last suggestion here – and Nile Rodgers is still the definitive example of a funk rhythm player. Check out his work with Chic: Le Freak, Good Times and I Want Your Love.

Alternatively, try Sister Sledge with Thinking Of You, We Are Family or Lost In Music. Elsewhere, why not check out I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross, or Get Lucky by Daft Punk. All these parts are based on the ‘1-e-and-a’ rhythm described earlier.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

PRS has been confirmed as one of the firms that has received a cease-and-desist letter from Fender in its bid to enforce legal protection for the Stratocaster.

After it was revealed that Fender had launched a new legal campaign to protect the Strat design off the back of a default copyright ruling in Germany, speculation began to emerge over the identities of those affected.

Until now, LsL Instruments was the first and only company to go on record to confirm it had received such a letter, which called for the company to halt production of its S-style electric guitar, the Saticoy.

However, many commenters, including Phillip McKnight, hinted that multiple US builders had been issued a cease-and-desist letter, prompting widespread rumors concerning the specific models that might be in Fender’s crosshairs.

The PRS Silver Sky – John Mayer’s hugely popular, best-selling signature guitar, which was designed after the Continuum mastermind left Fender – was high up on the speculated list.

Now, it’s been confirmed via the Wall Street Journal that PRS has indeed received a letter from Fender.

In its own article, the WSJ wrote, “PRS Guitars, a company endorsed by the likes of John Mayer and Carlos Santana, confirmed that it is among the companies that received a letter. The company said it disagrees with Fender’s assessment and declined to comment further.”

In a statement issued to Guitar World before the news went public, PRS said of Fender’s legal campaign, “We are aware and investigating. No further comment at this time.”

The involvement of PRS and the targeting of the Silver Sky frames the entire conversation in a new light, and is a huge development in the S-style legal dispute.

In Fender’s response to the widespread backlash over its cease-and-desist strategy, the company strayed away from emphasizing the importance of the specific Strat body shape, stressing it wasn’t concerned with all double-cutaway/two-horned guitars and was instead going after close copies of the Stratocaster design.

However, both Fender and its attorney Bird & Bird failed to provide any characteristics of what they constitute to be a defining feature of the broader Stratocaster “design”, giving way to theories that aesthetic appointments – including the scratchplate shape and control layout – could be a greater consideration.

It now seems likely that this is the approach Fender is taking. The PRS Silver Sky has a different body shape to the Fender Stratocaster, with more refined contours and different proportions, including a scoop on the lower cutaway and longer upper horn.

Other differences included a slightly sloped-shouldered neck joint, and a sharper upper cutaway angle. Since Fender has stated it wouldn’t be going after all double-cutaway guitars, one would assume the proportions of the Silver Sky would render it safe.

As such, Fender is clearly banking on the similarities that can be drawn elsewhere, such as the pickguard – which mirrors the Strat’s a bit more closely – and other aesthetic considerations that gave way to the outpouring of Stratocaster comparisons when it was first released.

This has now become the highest profile case of the entire dispute, and could well be one of the most contested. Though many would no doubt concede the obvious similarities between the Silver Sky and Stratocaster, few would call it a ‘direct clone’ – the type of model Fender is supposedly going after.

To make matters more interesting, the Silver Sky has become a key player in the S-style market, wrestling over a huge portion of players into its ranks over the past few years. It is the Stratocaster’s closest competitor, the SE variant a direct rival to the Player range, the US model a rival to Fender’s more premium American-made Strats.

According to Reverb stats, the Silver Sky outsold the Strat in 2022 and 2023, and has consistently been among the best-selling guitars for the past three years.

Whatever the case, PRS has stated that it “disagrees with Fender’s assessment”, implying it fully intends to fight Fender and defend the Silver Sky.

It could very well define the entire legal dispute – and the outcome of Fender’s cease-and-desist strategy could rest on this case. We’ll bring you developments as they come in.

Plini’s music is the perfect soundtrack for facing the wondrous Great Outdoors.

The Australian guitar virtuoso spent the early part of 2026 promoting An Unnamable Desire – the third staggering instrumental album to arrive under his mononym – through music videos that paired his djent and jazz-fusion-filled explorations with nature-set scenes of a woman crossing beach and forest vistas.

The visuals are filled with lush flora and awe-inspiring wildlife, kangaroos hopping off towards an untold horizon. Just before that, the Neural team sent him and guitarist John Connearn off on a one-day writing retreat at an idyllic Finnish cabin. The elegant back-and-forth runs they ripple into the resulting Helmi single – which was released on Valentine’s Day – reflected the heart-swelling lakeside view.

And though Plini is just about to head out to catch an Intervals performance in Berlin when Guitar World catches up with him to discuss the new album, he and an interpretive dancer spent the weekend filming a video for An Unnamable Desire’s The Time Will Pass Away at a national park bordering Germany and the Czech Republic.

When asked why he’s been taking in the scenery of late, he suggests that it’s because adventure is around every corner out there.

“You go into a forest and you're like, ‘What am I going to see? What will be out here?’ That's the same thing that I try to put into the music, because you listen to it and you're like, ‘I don't really know what's gonna happen here, but I'm intrigued.’”

On certain levels, An Unnamable Desire still finds Plini expressing the whimsically progressive yet singable guitar style he brought to 2016’s Handmade Cities and 2020’s Impulse Voices, and the new album’s most complex sections run wild with odd-metered arpeggiation and selective picking finesse. But he also points out how the title track doesn’t even have a solo, the guitarist often hanging onto a jazz-jangled chord amid swaggering synth-bass and sensual sax accents.

While minimal at times, Plini also consciously went into the sessions looking to push his abilities to the extreme. For album centerpiece Now & Then, for instance, he drops out of a quixotically djent-stuttered swing groove to perform a looping, selective-and-hybrid-picked quintuplet arpeggio that he admits was super hard to capture cleanly.

“I feel like with the last few records I've done, I've dabbled in some different techniques, or things that were out of my comfort zone, but nothing that wasn't just over the horizon,” he explains, adding that something he really wanted to level up was his metal chops. “There's a couple of tracks that are very fast and right-handy. I felt like I should not just try to write cool songs, but also improve as a guitarist.”

Canyon is one such ripper that works Plini’s rhythm-wrist to the bone, a relentless metalcore pace pushing the tempo as Plini power-chugs past the speed barrier. The blissfully melodic but blast-manic Manala is another certified heater that got him sweatin’.

“Manala was hard to even get up to speed to play for the video, which was mimed,” he says with a laugh. “Just to have the stamina to play 16th notes at 184 BPM… for a proper metal player it’s probably fine, but for me it was like, ‘This is exhausting!’”

Plini began writing Manala back in 2020, initially with the intention to bring a vocalist onto it. He ultimately opted to give the hyper-dense instrumental arrangement some breathing room. It’s the album’s oldest piece of music, and it faced a few other structural changes before arriving in its final form. He adds that the rest of An Unnamable Desire “definitely evolved two-or-three Pokémon stages from when I first [started] it.”

While he’s been getting the hang of playing outdoors – as evidenced by his collab with Connearn – Plini was crafting most of these songs at home in Sydney while recording onto his laptop. Plini cued up tones on his Quad Cortex while mainly running Neural DSP’s John Petrucci and Mateus Asato plugins, though he specifies that he dialed up the Archetype: Gojira X when he wanted to go extra-heavy.

Some of this was later re-amped by Simon Grove, who co-produced the album with Plini, in addition to mixing, engineering and playing bass on the recordings.

Plini played his parts using his signature headless .strandberg*, which was loaded up with Fishmans (“I abused the single-coil bridge pickup sound quite a lot”). The Swedish guitarmakers also loaned him a 7-string, which he plunged down to a low C sharp tuning – Grove routed the nut out to fit a heavier “million gauge” string.

While ultimately performed on guitar, a tension-building section through the record’s closing The Time Will Pass Anyway had also been envisioned using a different thick-stringed instrument.

“I was imagining a cello player in a huge, empty concert hall playing this difficult arpeggio, and it's kind of like what you'd expect to hear in a sci-fi movie,” he says of the vibe, adding of an imagined on-screen scenario, “I feel like it’s something to do with being incredibly alone. Like, you wake up and everyone on the spaceship is dead.’”

On that point, Plini’s name may be at the top of the marquee, but he proudly talks up the cast of collaborators he brought onto An Unnamable Desire. “Because this is the longest that I've spent on an album, it means it's also the longest that anyone else spent on it,” he says regarding the record’s six-year journey, and the tweaks he made along the way with his “really sick band” and a few other guests.

The player pool on An Unnamable Desire features Polish fretboard-blazer Jakub Zytecki, who hit a soaring series of back-to-back runs with Plini on Ciel. Other contributors include drummer Chris Allison, keyboardist Dave Mackay, saxophonist John Waugh, string arranger A.J. Minette, violinist Misha Vayman, cellist Yoshi Masuda and harpist Emily Hopkins.

In between his last two solo albums, Plini also delivered collaborative singles like his Helmi with Connearn, and 2025’s In Captivity track with Animals as Leaders’ Tosin Abasi

Looking toward the future, when Plini’s asked who he desires to collab with next, he says Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci would all be amazing to go toe-to-toe with, even if just for a few bars. Then Plini pauses for a few beats before coming up with another wonderous idea.

“I'd love to do something with John Mayer,” he says, citing how they could connect quite naturally via their mutual friends at Neural. “I think that would be really fun. My idea, John – if you're reading this – would be to write an odd-time signature John Mayer song, and then he can make me do a backing vocal. We’d do a guitar trade. It's still a sweet sort of bluesy, ballady song, but it’s in fives, or something.”

Between their respective approaches to guitar and Plini’s penchant for a picturesque music video, the sight and sound of that team-up should be stunning.

• An Unnameable Desire is out now.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Plini is manifesting a collaboration with John Mayer, and has issued an open call to the guitar hero in a bid to make one of his dream partnerships become a reality.

The Australian virtuoso is one of the biggest names in modern progressive metal instrumental guitar, having helped spearhead the headless guitar renaissance and winning over fans with his expansive songwriting and soloing chops.

Across his career, he’s also collab’d with some pretty big names that span the musical spectrum, trading licks with Tim Henson and Cory Wong, writing a song in a day with Tosin Abasi, shredding with Kiko Loureiro, and more.

But, in a new interview with Guitar World, Plini named some other players he’d like to link up with in the future. Steve Vai. Joe Satriani. John Petrucci. John Mayer. Wait, what?!

“I'd love to do something with John Mayer,” Plini admits. And he’s clearly put some thought into it. He reckons he could have an in with Mayer via their friends at Neural DSP. They both have signature plugins, after all.

“I think that would be really fun,” Plini adds, before issuing an open plea to Mayer himself. “My idea, John – if you're reading this – would be to write an odd-time signature John Mayer song, and then he can make me do a backing vocal. We’d do a guitar trade. It's still a sweet sort of bluesy, ballady song, but it’s in fives, or something.”

A bluesy ballad in fives? With Mayer singing? And both guitarists trading licks? Sign us up. We imagine Mayer would be game. After all, he enjoys collaborations that test him.

In the past, he’s played with a diverse cast of music greats from Buddy Guy and Fall Out Boy to Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Thundercat and Ed Sheeran. All that’s missing is a prog metal virtuoso. Make it happen, Neural DSP. We are also now manifesting “Plini and John Mayer Write a Song In A Day”.

Plini’s full interview with Guitar World will be published in the coming weeks.

It's not the first time Mayer has received an open call from a peer. Last year, Mike Dawes publicly apologized after he revealed the reason he'd been unable to meet John Mayer at NAMM one year.

Doug Pettibone has worked with everyone from Jewel to John Mayer, but his time with Lucinda Williams has defined his career. “It’s been the greatest gig for me,” he says.

“She was the first artist who told me, ‘Just play – be you.’ Before that, people were like, ‘Can you play like this?’ and you had to emulate. But Lucinda allows musicians to bring the music and have it be a part of her whole thing.”

He reflects: “I'm most proud of [2003's] World Without Tears. I did all the guitars on that record. She said, ‘Just play what you play,’ and that record represents what I do.”

Williams recently added Marc Ford to the band, forming a two-headed monster with Pettibone. “There’s absolutely no ego,” he says. “The more successful somebody is, the less they have to prove. You get all that shit out of the way and get down to the music.”

You studied jazz and classical guitar early on. How did that shape you as a player?

I started sight-reading when I was 10. That helped me learn adult chords and time signatures that weren’t the standard stuff on the radio. I don’t really play classical anymore, but I do work the fingerstyle stuff into my playing. Sometimes I’ll have a pick and I’ll put it between my fingers and fingerpick, just for a different texture.

Is it true that Andy Summers was your guitar teacher?

Yeah. Ernie Ball’s Guitar Store had two shops where I grew up, and that’s where everybody went for guitar lessons. I was 8 and Andy was my first guitar teacher – to me he was Mr. Summers with a funny accent!

He’d come over from London to study jazz at Cal State University, and to make extra money he’d teach guitar. I had a really crappy guitar and I was learning folk songs; but the only thing I really remember about him is that he was my first teacher.

Have you spoken with Andy since?

Years later, I ran into him at NAMM. I was with a friend, and I said, “Hey, check this out!” I go, “Hey, Mr. Summers!” He was like, “Yes?” I said, “Did you ever teach guitar at a place called Ernie Ball's? You were my guitar teacher!” He goes, “Oh, yeah; your mom used to drive you to lessons.” I was like, “What have you been doing since then?” He got a kick out of that!

How did you make the jump into session work?

I was in an original band out of university, and this guy Dusty Wakeman, a great friend who produced some of Lucinda’s early stuff, watched us one night. He wanted to do a development deal, so we went into the studio in Burbank and did three songs. He liked what I did, so he started pulling me into sessions.

Early in your career, you hooked up with Jewel after she released Spirit. What was that like?

I got the Spirit tour after I was recommended by the guitar player on the album. I toured with her for probably a year and a half. We started working on her next record, but she ended up going with a producer in Nashville who brought in all his guys, and that was the end of that.

But it was insane. It was my first big tour. We’d be walking through an airport and she’d be on the cover of every magazine on the newsstand. She couldn’t really go out and hang. But she’s really cool, a lot of fun, and really musical. I had a blast. Great band!

After that, you worked with Tracy Chapman and then got the gig with Lucinda Williams.

Yeah, Tracy Chapman was my second big gig. Shortly after that I got a call to audition for Lucinda. I’d been turned on to her music by an ex-girlfriend’s mom. It had really interesting guitar parts – Gurf Morlix, Charlie Sexton, Buddy Miller; all those guys were playing on the records. It was a really cool mixture of Americana.

The parts were interesting and simple, but also complex and rootsy. And on top of that you’ve got her poetry, her fantastic stories, and her voice. When I saw her I was like, “Oh my God – she’s amazing!”

How did you get the gig?

Her bass player, Taras Prodaniuk, told me she was looking for a guitar player. But he said he couldn’t recommend me, because the last guy he recommended got fired! I really wanted the gig, so I looked at all her records to see who played on them and who produced them; and by this time I knew most of them.

So I called them all and said, “Can you do me a favor – call Lucinda and see if I can get an audition?” I guess everybody called her that same day! She was like, “I think it’s a sign from God. We need to hear this guy.”

Her manager called me, and he was kind of pissed off for whatever reason. He goes, “Why do you think you’ve got to audition with Lucinda?” I’m like, “Well, I don’t think I have to. I’d like to.” He goes, “The audition is in Nashville tomorrow.” I go, “Cool – I’m here in Nashville!” I happened to be there rehearsing with some of the guys from the Mavericks, a band we had that was going to Europe for a tour.

How did he react to that?

He goes, “Well, there’s 45 songs you’ve got to know by tomorrow.” But because Taras had told me about it about a month and a half before, I knew all the songs. So I said, “No problem!”

I went down to the audition, but I didn’t think it went well at all. I kind of messed up because I’m not great at auditions. But after two songs, Lucinda was like, “Oh, my gosh! This is perfect. You’re the one!” Then she said, “We’re leaving next week.” I said, “Well, I’ve gotta go to Europe.” So they got another guitar player to take my place for two weeks, and then it was perfect.

Lucinda had gone through a number of guitarists before you joined. What’s kept you coming back for more?

She gets what I do; I get what she does. It’s as simple as that. It’s a great match musically and spiritually. But I took off for a while – I was with her for 10 years, then I went and worked with other people.

One of those was John Mayer.

I did the Born and Raised tour, and it was great. Don Was, who produced, and Greg Leisz, who played on the record, said they needed somebody to do the pedal steel stuff. I did that for about two years. I learned a lot working with John. He’s a good dude. He gets a lot of shit in the press but he’s a solid, solid guy, and a gentleman. He’s the best.

What’s a memorable moment from your time with John?

I’m not virtuosic by any means on pedal steel, and I never soloed too much, but I can fake it! We were rehearsing, and Chuck Leavell, the keyboard player, goes, “Hey, Doug, why don’t you sit down at that steel and let’s see what you got?” I was like, “Oh, shit – this is when I finally get found out!”

I sat down and we played and jammed, and I was pretty limited with what I could do. John said, “I guess the only way you can get better is by playing more.” Instead of firing me and getting somebody who could really play, he would throw me solos every night on the steel, so I got a lot better.

I thought that was a pretty solid thing for him to do. And that was when he had his sights set on the Grateful Dead thing, Dead & Company. We’d get messages every night saying, “Okay, let’s work on this song tomorrow at soundcheck.” It was like Friend of the Devil, or whatever he had to figure out.

He’d say, “We gotta crack this code,” and we’d jam on Grateful Dead songs for hours. It was fun. It was like going to music camp. I loved every minute of that gig.

What led you back to Lucinda Williams?

Her guitar player had COVID, and they found out I’d moved to Asheville, North Carolina, a few hours from Nashville, so they asked if I’d come and fill in. I showed up, played, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I really miss this.” It was a nice feeling to play with her again. I could stretch out, and the more I stretched out, the more she liked it.

It just felt like home. Everybody had grown up a little bit more, and it was just a great spot to be in. I’ve been back with her for about four years now.

The dynamic is different because Lucinda’s stroke prevents her from playing much guitar. So it’s you and Marc Ford. You two seem to have great chemistry.

I’ve always been a fan of Marc’s playing. He opened for us years ago and we played together during the encore. I could tell we had something. A lot of guitar players don’t listen. The ones you wanna play with are the guys with big ears.

It’s like you’re having a great conversation with somebody. We work out some parts, then some stuff is not worked out – it just happens. He’s a great musician.

What’s your main rig with Lucinda like now?

I’ve got a ’67 Gretsch semi-hollow for recording, and I’ve been getting into Japanese guitars like Tokai. I picked up a ’57 Stratocaster reissue from the ‘80s, which is really cool. On stage I’ve been using those, plus a newer Tokai 335, a ’58 Les Paul Jr., and a ’62 Strat reissue from the ‘80s.

Then, going into my ’68 Fender Deluxe, I have a few pedals down because we’ve been doing a lot of fly dates. We rent gear in Europe and just bring our pedalboards. So I’ve got a tiny one that fits in my suitcase.

What’s next for you?

I’ve been writing more – I wrote seven out of the 10 songs on Lu’s last record. We wrote another one last night, and we’re gonna go record today. I do a lot of remote recording from the road. People, send me tracks, please! And I’d like to break more into the soundtrack thing and get more of those gigs.

• Williams’ latest album, World’s Gone Wrong, is on sale via Highway 20 Records.

At NAMM 2025, PRS Guitars celebrated its 40th anniversary with a bumper live show that brought a score of its biggest players together, and Mark Lettieri was the impromptu glue that held it all together.

Paul Reed Smith founded the Maryland company in 1985 after unsuccessfully trying to sell his designs to Kramer and Yamaha. Despite Al Di Meola helping with his sales pitches, they all said no, and he decided to go solo.

Since then, John Mayer, Carlos Santana, Mark Tremonti, and Herman Li – amongst a dizzying slew of other virtuosos – have joined its ranks. But when it came to celebrating its ruby anniversary, there were a few teething issues that the Snarky Puppy maestro, Lettieri, was more than willing to solve.

“I got invited to perform with my band, the Mark Lettieri Group, but then we realized that John Mayer needed a rhythm section,” he recalls in a video with PRS. “And so I said, ‘Well, I know John, I'll volunteer my band.’ And so he said, ‘Great. That'll be a lot of fun.’”

Then the floodgates opened, with Lettieri soon realizing that two other esteemed guitarists, Randy Bowland and Philip Sayce, also needed a band for the show. Lettieri volunteered again. And again. But it wasn’t the first time he’d jammed with Mayer, the man behind one of PRS’s best-selling guitars, the Silver Sky.

“My good friend Bob Reynolds [saxophonist] and I were doing a gig at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles,” he explains. “Bob used to be a member of John's touring band. And back then, this was probably 2018 or so, he said, ‘I wonder if John would want to come and sit in.’

“Well, it turns out he was in town and wanted to come play,” he adds. “So, he rolled up with his guitar on his back, his Fender Deluxe in his right hand, plugged in, and we jammed out for the rest of the set. It was great: totally unexpected, but obviously totally musically fulfilling.”

The pair kept in touch, casually talking gear over Instagram, especially when Lettieri switched to playing PRS. So it’s no wonder he was so forthcoming when Mayer needed a band.

“I was kind of excited at the end. We got to do a dual guitar conversation,” the guitarist expands. “We didn't rehearse it, but we kind of fell into it in rehearsal, and we're like, ‘This is cool.’ We probably could have played for quite a bit longer, but there was a schedule.

“So, I went with more of a middle [pickup position] with the neck and the bridge, and John was position two. So, it was a nice little tonal contrast. We’ll have to do it again.”

In related news, Mayer recently reflected on “one of the strangest, most beautiful, serendipitous moments” of his career when he got to record with one of Prince's guitars (and we think we know which one). He also revealed his insecurities about becoming the foil to his guitar hero, the late Bob Weir, in Dead & Company.

Since its inception in 1999, Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival has featured the crème de la crème of guitarists who, in one way or another, have earned the blues-rock legend’s respect.

Now, the seventh edition of the festival will be held on September 26 and 27 in Austin, Texas, at the Moody Center, marking the 28th anniversary of the 1998 founding of the Crossroads Centre Antigua, the drug treatment facility spearheaded by Clapton himself.

Among the numerous Crossroads veterans returning this year will be Joe Bonamassa, Billy Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Sonny Landreth, John Mayer, the Del McCoury Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jimmie Vaughan, as well as Clapton himself, who will be performing on both nights. Meanwhile, Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage, and Pete Townshend will all be making their festival debut.

Guitar Center was also announced as the exclusive retail partner of the festival, and, in addition to onsite retail, there will also be a rare showcase of its Legends Collection. This includes Clapton’s 1956 Fender Stratocaster, “Blackie,” the 1964 Gibson ES-335 he played in Cream, and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s iconic 1965 Fender Stratocaster, “Lenny.”

Speaking about the festival in a 2019 interview with Guitar Center, Clapton said, “My identity is always going to be linked to Crossroads. I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play, and also invite people that I have high admiration for in the music world.”

He continued, “I like to use the festival platform as a way of getting [musicians] to come and play to a big audience, maybe for the first time. I think it's quite nice for the other musicians to meet them, too. I like cross-fertilization. I mean, that was a fascinating thing for me, the fantasy. And it worked.”

Tickets for the event will go on sale on April 3 at 10 a.m. CDT. For more information, head to the official Crossroads Guitar Festival website.

John Mayer has recalled how he once crossed paths with one of Prince’s guitars – and ended up using it on one of his records.

The PRS-wielding hitmaker has given CBS Sunday Morning an access-all-areas tour of Chaplin Recording Studios, which is part of a history-steeped Hollywood lot he recently co-purchased with film director McG. They want to help preserve and celebrate L.A’s rich cultural history, with the grounds hosting film, television, and music recording studios.

Mayer recorded his 2021 solo album Sob Rock there, as well as 2018’s smash single, New Light, which also featured on the LP. It isn't just the Silver Sky that you can hear on that track, though...

“It was a pretty big hit for me,” Mayer says of New Light. “I remember being here. Someone had brought Prince's guitar. This was after Prince had passed away and someone had brought by his guitar, and I went, ‘We’ll put it on this song.’

“So there’s a part of this song, in the bridge, where I'm standing here playing one of Prince's guitars,” he adds. “That was cool.”

Speaking of the track in 2018, while he sadly didn’t clarify which guitar it was, Mayer did speak about how the guitar entered his orbit.

“It was an incredible day, because we were working on this part of the song, which was definitely Prince-tastic, and the guitar magically came across the table in the studio from a friend,” he says. “It just appeared, for an hour. We didn’t know it was coming. It was one of the strangest, most beautiful, serendipitous moments.

“We sort of got into the spirit of the way Prince would’ve done it. So we plugged it into an API, put a little compressor on it – so that little bit of the song is direct input, I’m not even plugged into an amp.”

Now, the question of the day is, which of Prince's guitars did Mayer actually use on New Light?

Could it have been the infamous Yellow Cloud guitar that recently sold as part of the historic Jim Irsay Collection auction recently? After all, in 2019, Irsay did lend Mayer Jerry Garcia's Tiger – which also sold at that same auction earlier this month – for a Dead & Company show.

Irsay had purchased Prince's infamous Yellow Cloud guitar in 2016, so it wouldn't be outrageous to hypothesize that that was the guitar we hear on New Light...

In related news, Mayer has opened up about his insecurities about playing alongside his idol, Bob Weir, in Dead & Company, and recently said he isn't in a hurry to finish the successor to Sob Rock.

John Mayer can be seen as more than just a modern-day guitar hero. In recent months, he’s showcased his skills as a de facto pedal reviewer, and now he can also add guitar teacher to that list, having come to the aid of Doug Pettibone when he needed to up his game on the pedal steel.

The chameleon-like session player, who got the Lucinda Williams gig after lending his musicianship to Tracy Chapman's live band, has also recorded with Mark Knopfler, Marianne Faithfull, and a rich array of different artists across genres.

By the time producer Don Was and pedal steel player Greg Leisz approached Pettibone with a view of hiring him for John Mayer’s Born and Raised tour in 2012, he was well versed in the country-coded instrument. But there were still gaps in his skill set.

“I could learn stuff off the record and could do more atmospheric playing, but I’d never really soloed too much,” he says in conversation with Guitar World. “I’m not really a traditional country player, and I’m not virtuosic by any means on pedal steel.

“But I can fake it,” he admits. “And at the time, we were rehearsing, and Chuck Leavell, the keyboard player, was taking solos, along with everyone else in the band. He goes, ‘Hey, Doug, why don’t you sit down at that steel, and let’s see what you got?’”

Pettibone’s reaction was, “Oh, shit.” Not wanting to surrender, he muddled his way through a jam, but accepted his talents were “limited” in their scope. Cue Mayer, the teacher.

“He said, ‘I guess the only way you can get better is by playing more…’ After that, instead of firing me and getting somebody who could really play, he would throw me solos every night on the steel.”

It’s an admirable turn from Mayer, choosing to nurture Pettibone rather than cast him aside in favor of a quick fix.

“That was when he had his sights set on that Grateful Dead thing [Dead & Company],” Pettibone adds. “We’d get messages every night, you know, emails, saying, ‘Okay, let’s work on this song tomorrow at soundcheck.’”

Mayer recently discussed the insecurities he faced in his early days in Dead & Company as he learned to share stages with his hero, Bob Weir. But his getting his dream gig was perhaps fate. Like he showed patience and care with Pettibone, Weir, in turn, “took a chance” on the guitarist, and together they formed a dazzling, cross-generational partnership.

Guitar World’s full interview with Pettibone will be published in the coming weeks.

Nile Rodgers has opened up on his ill-fated collaboration with John Mayer, which failed to get off the ground after the pair exchanged their favorite albums with one another.

Rodgers’ collaborative credits reads like a who’s who of the upper echelons of the music world. Over the years, the funk guitar maestro has worked with everyone from David Bowie and Sister Sledge, all the way to Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Dianna Ross, Mick Jagger and many more.

Rodgers has never worked with Mayer, though – but that’s not for a lack of trying. As he tells Vulture in a new interview, Rodgers once set his sights on a collaboration with Mayer, but it fell apart before it picked up any steam.

As Rodgers explains, he was interested in getting to know artists “through their taste in art” by exchanging albums. It was a practice he learned from working with David Bowie on Let’s Dance, during which the pair spent time in libraries, exploring “different artistic concepts”.

Bowie and Mayer proved to be two completely different prospects, though, and Rodgers’ idea of album-swapping ended up doing more harm than good.

“I actually tried this once with John Mayer, and it went totally sour,” Rodgers admits. “He turned me onto his favorite record, which was Coldplay’s first album, Parachutes. I thought it was cool, but I gave him the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request, which I think is the most underrated rock-and-roll album of all time.

“It didn’t work with John. It’s weird, too, because John might be one of the smartest people that’s ever walked this Earth. Those first two days we got along like brothers, but then after we did the album thing, it was like, ‘This isn’t happening.’”

Mayer clearly wasn’t a fan of Their Satanic Majesties Request – but, then again, neither were the Stones themselves. In fact, as Keith Richards once admitted, they didn’t even want to make it.

“None of us wanted to make [the record],” he wrote in his memoir (via Guitar Player). “But it was time for another Stones album, and Sgt. Pepper was coming out, so we thought basically we were doing a put-on.”

The Stones’ daring foray into the world of psychedelic music isn’t short of critics, and it seems Mayer was one of them – so much so that the thought of working on music inspired by it was enough to put him off a potential collaboration with Rodgers.

And who can blame him – especially if he was religiously spinning Yellow at the time…

John Mayer has looked back on his partnership with the late Bob Weir, recalling the early days of the pair’s professional relationship as Dead & Company bandmates.

Weir, who passed away last month, became one of Mayer’s closest collaborators during the latter half of his life. After the pair were put in touch with each other by producer Don Was, a mutual respect – and a love for Grateful Dead’s music – soon developed into something more.

The resulting Dead & Company project continued the jam band’s legacy, resulting in numerous tours that – with the help of Mayer’s contributions – brought its music to a new generation of fans and listeners.

It was a project that Mayer approached with the utmost respect, and took some time getting used to. Playing electric guitar with one of his heroes, after all, was both the opportunity of a lifetime – and rather daunting.

“I spent a lot of shows in the beginning wondering if he was upset,” Mayer remembers in a new interview with Rolling Stone. “I’d think: ‘I hope he’s happy. He might not be. Oh, he just went and turned his guitar amp up. Does that mean he thinks I’m too loud? Is someone going to come into my [dressing] room and say, “Hey, can you turn your guitar down?”’

“Then one day, you walk up onstage and there’s plexiglass between the amps and you go, ‘I have a feeling I’m a little too loud.’”

Mayer clearly learned to manage his insecurities. You don’t embark on global tours – and host two high-profile residencies at the Las Vegas Sphere – if you don’t.

“The first couple of tours were proving to the audience that I had a right to be there. And the rest of the tours were proving to Bobby that I meant well for everything I was trying to do,” Mayer continues when asked about when he finally felt comfortable sharing the stage with Weir.

“You got to understand, I never quantified it. And I don’t think Bob ever quantified it. Looking at it now, I think he never interacted with whatever that energy field was of adulation, or ‘Oh, my God, can you believe?’ He didn’t account for it. And oddly, I didn’t account for it – only when I heard what it meant to people.

“We never talked about it. But towards the end, maybe from ’23 on, and certainly the two Sphere runs, we had done it for so long. How did I read his signals? I just knew the way his head moved – we all do – and had an understanding of what his instincts were night after night. It got to the point where, in those last few tours, he knew when I would step forward and really hit the gas.

“And because I’d figured it out by then, I knew when to step back, look at Bobby and say, 'It’s yours again.' We were aligned. Bobby and I both had the same clock – where he knew what I was going to do, and he knew I’d give it back and go, 'All yours.' There were times where Bobby started singing as a way of letting me know, 'That’s the end of your solo, son.'”

Weir’s death prompted an outpouring of tributes from all corners of the music, with Mayer delivering a powerful and emotional eulogy during a public memorial.

Last year, both Mayer and Weir sat down with Guitar World to discuss their years-long collaboration and ever-evolving musical partnership.

The 2026 Grammys took place last night (February 1) and proved to be something of a guitar music love-in. From Justin Bieber wielding a 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S, to Turnstile winning both Best Rock Album and, perhaps more controversially, Best Metal Performance, pop stars and quintessential rock bands alike were out in full force this year, flying the flag for the instrument.

The Ozzy Osbourne tribute (or should that be tributes?) took center stage across the weekend. Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll both honored the Prince of Darkness at record executive Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammys gala on Saturday night – with MGK opting for 2007's I Don’t Wanna Stop and the country star giving a heartfelt rendition of 1991's Mama, I’m Coming Home.

The award show’s own tribute took place on the actual Grammy stage, with an all-star lineup that included a Les Paul-laden Slash and Ozzy producer Andrew Watt brandishing an SG, Duff McKagan on bass, and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums.

Post Malone – who collaborated with Ozzy on Take What You Want and It’s a Raid from Osbourne’s first new album in a decade, 2019’s Ordinary Man – took up vocal duties on an abbreviated rendition of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, a version that visibly left the Osbourne family fighting back tears.

Aside from the Prince of Darkness, this year's In Memoriam segment kicked off with a voiceover from Bruce Springsteen, paying tribute to Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson: “The last of the Wilson brothers may be gone, but he leaves behind so many great songs, and good vibrations.”

John Mayer also paid his respects to Dead & Company bandmate and Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir, also in a voiceover: “He understood songwriting to its core, having written and performed some of the most enduring music in American history.

“Bob was a messenger, not only for the music he made with the Grateful Dead, but for the tapestry of influences that birthed it … Bob has left us, but the songs he sang will remain a road map for a better, more meaningful life. See you down the road, Ace.”

Neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo was honored by a host of artists and contemporaries: Lauryn Hill – marking her first Grammys performance since 1999 – Raphael Saadiq, Anthony Hamilton, Leon Thomas, and Jon Batiste.

And while guitar stars, including the likes of Ace Frehley were included in the segment, Mastodon fans pointed out that Brent Hinds was noticeably omitted, with Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and Zappa Plays Zappa bassist, Pete Griffin, taking to social media to call out the institution: “Shame on @grammys for not including my brother (and fellow Grammy winner) Brent Hinds in their ‘in memoriam’ segment.”

The omission seemed particularly odd, given Hinds had been nominated for no less than six Grammys, and won one in 2018 – Best Metal Performance for Sultan's Curse – during his tenure with Mastodon.

Yungblud, Ozzy’s mentee and part of the new vanguard leading rock into the future, won his first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance for his career-making rendition of Changes at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert.

“To grow up loving an idol who helped you develop your identity, not only as a musician, but as a man, is something that I’m truly grateful for,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“But then to get to know them and to form a relationship with them, and to honor them at their final show, and receive this because of it, is something that I and I think we are finding a bit strange to comprehend.

“We fucking love you, Ozzy,” he continued. “We would all like to thank Sharon, Jack, Kelly and Aimee [Osbourne] for this opportunity, and everyone at the Back To The Beginning show. Six generations of rock musicians came together in the name of our genre, in the name of Sabbath and in the name of Ozzy Osbourne.

“I deeply love this genre, it’s all I’ve ever known. I want to dedicate it to everyone in the guitar shop that I grew up in, and everyone in a guitar shop or in a bedroom with a dream. Rock music’s fucking coming back – watch out pop music, we’re gonna fucking get ya.”

And speaking of rock music's comeback, Turnstile bagged Best Rock Album for last year's triumphant album, Never Enough.

Accepting the award, frontman Brendan Yates commented, “The community we found through punk and hardcore music has given us a safe place to swing in the dark and land somewhere beautiful. So to our family, our friends, our partners, our peers, and to Baltimore, thank you. We love you.”

Perhaps more surprisingly, the genre-blending band also managed to win Best Metal Performance for Birds, beating the more metal through-and-through acts Dream Theater, Ghost, Sleep Token, and Spiritbox.

More standout guitar moments came by way of Bruno Mars, who, together with K-Pop star Rosé, delivered an overdriven rendition of their global hit APT.

Armed with a black Les Paul – as opposed to his signature Fender – Mars added some extra grit, as well as a squealing guitar solo, to the pop-punk-inflected track as the duo, who were nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, opened the show.

And it very much seemed like Justin Bieber went full-on Mk.gee with a stripped-down, guitar and looper performance of Yukon – from last year's album Swag (which, fun fact, included the contributions of both Mk.gee as well as his frequent collaborator Dijon).

Bieber’s guitar of choice was a left-handed purple 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S that definitely stood out on stage – an off-kilter choice that continues the trend of pop and indie stars à la Kesha and Phoebe Bridgers opting for ’80s and ’90s guitars more typically associated with metal or hardcore, whether for aesthetics or tone (or both).

Here's the full list of winners and nominees in the big four categories – and the guitar-adjacent ones:

Song of the year

Billie Eilish - Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Doechii – Anxiety

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Hunter/x – Golden

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA – Luther

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Record of the year

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA - Luther

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Doechii – Anxiety

Billie Eilish – Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Album of the year

Winner: Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Kendrick Lamar – GNX

Leon Thomas – Mutt

Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia

Best new artist

Olivia Dean

Katseye

The Marías

Addison Rae

Sombr

Leon Thomas

Alex Warren

Lola Young

Best pop solo performance

Lola Young – Messy

Justin Bieber – Daisies

Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild

Lady Gaga – Disease

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Best pop vocal album

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful

Teddy Swims – I've Tried Everything But Therapy Pt 2

Best pop duo/group performance

Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – Defying Gravity

Huntr/x – Golden

Katseye – Gabriela

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

SZA With Kendrick Lamar – 30 For 30

Best traditional pop vocal album

Laufey – A Matter Of Time

Laila Biali – Wintersongs

Jennifer Hudson – The Gift Of Love

Elton John & Brandi Carlile – Who Believes In Angels?

Lady Gaga – Harlequin

Barbra Streisand – The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume 2

Best rock performance

Yungblud ft Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman, II – Changes (Live From Villa Park) Back To The Beginning

Amyl and The Sniffers – U Should Not Be Doing That

Linkin Park – The Emptiness Machine

Turnstile – Never Enough

Hayley Williams – Mirtazapine

Best rock song

Nine Inch Nails – As Alive As You Need Me To Be

Sleep Token – Caramel

Hayley Williams – Glum

Turnstile – Never Enough

Yungblud – Zombie

Best rock album

Turnstile – Never Enough

Deftones – Private Music

Haim – I Quit

Linkin Park – From Zero

Yungblud – Idols

Best alternative music album

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Bon Iver – Sable, Fable

Tyler, The Creator – Don't Tap the Glass

Wet Leg – Moisturizer

Hayley Williams – Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

Best alternative music performance

The Cure – Alone

Bon Iver – Everything Is Peaceful Love

Turnstile – Seein' Stars

Wet Leg – Mangetout

Hayley Williams – Parachute

Best metal performance

Turnstile – Birds

Dream Theater – Night Terror

Ghost – Lachryma

Sleep Token – Emergence

Spiritbox – Soft Spine

Best country solo performance

Chris Stapleton – Bad As I Used To Be

Tyler Childers – Nose On The Grindstone

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Best country duo/group performance

Shaboozey & Jelly Roll – Amen

Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson – Trailblazer

Margo Price & Tyler Childers – Love Me Like You Used To Do

George Strait & Chris Stapleton – Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame

Best country song

Tyler Childers – Bitin' List

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Best contemporary country album

Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken

Kelsea Ballerini – Patterns

Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter

Eric Church – Evangeline vs The Machine

Miranda Lambert – Postcards From Texas

Best R&B performance

Kehlani – Folded

Justin Bieber – Yukon

Chris Brown feat Bryson Tiller – It Depends

Leon Thomas – Mutt (Live From NPR's Tiny Desk)

Summer Walker – Heart Of A Woman

Best African music performance

Tyla – Push 2 Start

Burna Boy – Love

Davido feat Omah Lay – With You

Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin – Hope & Love

Ayra Starr feat Wizkid – Gimme Dat

Best Latin pop album

Natalia Lafourcade – Cancionera

Rauw Alejandro – Cosa Nuestra

Andrés Cepeda – Bogotá (Deluxe)

Karol G – Tropicoqueta

Alejandro Sanz – ¿Y ahora qué?

Best música urbana album

Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

J Balvin – Mixteip

Feid – Ferxxo Vol X: Sagrado

Nicki Nicole – Naiki

Trueno – Eub Deluxe

Yandel – Sinfónico (En Vivo)

John Mayer has paid an emotional tribute to the late Bob Weir, whose life and legacy was honored at a recent public memorial at the Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco on Saturday (January 17).

Weir, the counter-culture guitar icon who helped define the jam band movement with the Grateful Dead, died earlier this month at the age of 78, prompting an outpouring of tributes from the likes of Steve Vai, Trey Anastasio, Joe Bonamassa, Bob Dylan and more.

Mayer, who spent the past 10 years of his professional career playing alongside Weir in Dead & Company, was also among those to honor the guitar juggernaut’s memory, with an emotional post that read, “Thanks for letting me ride alongside you.”

As part of a public memorial service for Weir last weekend, Mayer followed his post with a touching speech that looked back on their bond, which first began when the two started performing Grateful Dead music under the Dead & Company banner back in 2016.

“Bob and I were born on the same day exactly 30 years apart. In the 30 years that had preceded me, Bob had become a counter-cultural icon,” Mayer begins. “I was a child of the 1980s. I come from a world of structural thinking. The concept, the theorizing, the reassessing, the perfecting.

“Bob learned early on that spirit, heat, soul, curiosity and fearlessness was the path to glory. We both found success with each of our templates and then we found each other.

“The echoes of the music Bobby and the Grateful Dead made would lead me to him, through whatever strange and nervy knack I have for sidling up next to the things I’m in awe of. What would follow would become the adventure of a lifetime for me.

“It’s hard to find the words to describe the relationship Bob and I had. We never really went looking for them. We didn’t need to. We stood side by side together in the music. That’s where those 30 years would melt away, and that Libra balance would kick in, and we’d become comrades, sometimes brothers, even if only by one shared parent.

“We were unlikely partners and that was part of our magic. Over the course of a decade we came to trust each other. He taught me, among many other things, to trust in the moment, and I’d like to think I taught him a little bit to rely on a plan.

“Not as a substitute for the divine moments, but as a way to lure them in a little closer. I guess maybe what I was really doing was showing him he could rely on me.

“Bob took a chance on me. He staked his entire reputation on my joining a band with him. He gave me musical community. He gave me this community.”

Mayer first crossed paths with Weir via Don Was around 2015. At the time, Mayer had set his sights on recording a followup to 2013’s Paradise Valley but after the opportunity to play with Weir came up, any plans for an imminent record were shelved.

Instead, Mayer and Weir embarked on a journey that will go on to largely define both of their careers, with highlights including a blockbuster Las Vegas Sphere residency and a worldwide farewell tour.

Last year, both Mayer and Weir caught up with Guitar World reflect on 10 years of Dead & Company and discuss their ever-evolving guitar partnership.

John Mayer, Dave Grohl, and Ed Sheeran formed a perhaps unlikely triumvirate when they collaborated on the song Drive, featured in Brad Pitt's racing movie, F1.

Now, Mayer and Sheeran – together with all-star producer Blake Slatkin – are taking fans (and songwriting aficionados) behind the scenes on how the collaboration came about – and what exactly went down in the studio.

“I was called by my friends at Atlantic Records who were working on the soundtrack, and they had me come in and see the movie,” relates Slatkin in an interview with Variety.

“And I watched it, and got the feeling of watching the movie, which is just insane adrenaline, and like, ‘Holy shit. This is gonna be the biggest thing in the world, and people are gonna love this.’

“I literally walked out of the screening room and called Ed and John at the same time, and was like, ‘We have to make a song for this.’ Obviously, some of the greatest musicians in the entire world would be my first call. And luckily, they were down, and we all got into John's room at Henson [Studios] and started it.”

As Mayer details, as soon as they got together, there was no, “‘Well, let me just kick this around.” Instead, they all got straight down to business.

“Ed said, ‘What about this?’ And he kind of hummed the semblance of a guitar riff. He just starts writing. The distance between not having a song and having a song for Ed is a millimeter,” he quips.

“This is within 10 minutes of the session starting – Ed saying to John, ‘Give me a rock riff,’ kind of humming something,” exclaims Slatkin, to which Sheeran adds, “John’s got this toolkit of unwritten rock riffs, really. I wouldn't say that you’re, like, out and out, AC/DC rock – the music that you make – [but] you could easily do it.”

And for the keen-eared guitar geeks, there’s a spattering of blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em Easter eggs that Mayer reveals, including “this harmonic kind of whistling thing, and it's rhythmic – you can't tell what it is. It’s the speakers of Ed's first take of the vocals coming through that guitar part [through the pickups].”

There’s also “big dive bomb [in the bridge]. You know, the guitar's got the – whether people call it the whammy bar or the sort of Eddie Van Halen style whistle.”

As for the other star collaborator (or should I say collaborators?), the track also features Dave Grohl back on drums – as well as session maestro Pino Palladino on bass.

“When we thought who should drum on this song, the first name was Dave Grohl,” explains Slatkin matter-of-factly.

“I texted him,” Mayer pipes in. “These things are too intriguing to say no to if you’re in town. Same way it got passed to me initially. ‘Hey, do you want to write a song for F1 – the big summer movie coming with Brad Pitt?’ I think everyone kind of knew this movie was coming. I'm pretty discerning. I like staying at home. I like doing minimal stuff. And that's one of those things you go, ‘Yeah.’”

“Honestly, since the day I've met both of these guys, anytime I would get a call from them, I'm there,” Sheeran concludes.

“Anytime that I’ve worked with John, he can take an eight out of 10 and make it 10, instantly. But he is, honestly, one of the greatest musicians of all time... I’m sort of sat in the middle of this, just kind of grinning. It’s been great. It’s been a really fun process.”

And, speaking of notable collaborations, following last year’s breakout performance at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning, Yungblud continued his winning streak by teaming up with both Aerosmith and the Smashing Pumpkins.

NAMM 2026: PRS has issued its latest aesthetic expansion pack for John Mayer’s Silver Sky signature guitar, and it finally rolls out one of the model’s most sought-after finishes.

Ever since Mayer took to the stage last year with a mysteriously finished, Brown-colored version of his best-selling electric guitar, fans have been asking for a signature production run.

The muted-yet-striking version became one of Mayer’s go-to Silver Sky models late last year, when he joined the late Bob Weir and his Dead & Company bandmates for a run for shows celebrating the 60th anniversary of Grateful Dead music.

He would later use it elsewhere on stage, including during a private concert last September at Henson Studios in support of The Heart and Armor Foundation for Veterans Health (as per John Mayer Gear).

Mayer has a track record of producing Silver Sky prototypes with one-off finishes that never see the light of day, so many glass-half-empty fans had believed this particular model would be resigned to the same fate.

However, PRS has answered fans' widespread requests by rolling out the official Mojave Brown Satin Silver Sky. It’s been joined by a Black Plum Satin version, both of which stay true to the original template.

The new-look Silver Sky models headline PRS Class of 2026 guitar drop, which comprises fresh finishes, wholesale SE updates, and all-new drops.

Elsewhere in the lineup for this year, the Maryland brand has issued an Elderberry Burst color for the SE Zach Myers signature, and has introduced new launches such as the DGT semi-hollow Core model and all-new S2 Vela HHT.

The DGT semi-hollow is based on David Grissom’s luxurious Private Stock mode – which has also been launched in limited-edition batches in the past – boasting all the same specs of the original Core DGT with the added bonus of a thinline design with one f-hole.

The S2 Vela HHT, on the other hand, gives the offset double-cut dual DS-01 humbuckers, a coil-tapping push/pull tone pot and a tremolo bridge.

PRS has also introduced some comprehensive housekeeping updates to its SE range. Many in the lineup will now feature PRS' proprietary Wing Buttons tuners – deemed both an aesthetic and tonal upgrade – and sloped pickup rings for a more elevated look.

Head over to PRS to explore the drop in full.

A myriad of guitarists from different walks of life have paid tribute to Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, who has died aged 78, underscoring the scope of his influence and impact on American culture.

He co-founded the band, whose genre-fusing exploits earned them a status as one of America's greatest, amidst the burgeoning counterculture movement of the 1960s, and never slowed down. Just last year, his GD-adjacent group, Dead & Company, completed the longest residency at Las Vegas' immersive Sphere venue. There was also a cameo with Sammy Hagar’s band across town.

Weir was diagnosed with lung cancer in July, and continued to perform in light of the news, with his Dead & Company co-guitarist John Mayer leading the tributes.

“Okay, Bob. I’ll do it your way. Fkn’ A…” he writes on Instagram. “Thanks for letting me ride alongside you. It sure was a pleasure. If you say it’s not the end, then I’ll believe you. I’ll meet you in the music. Come find me anytime.”

Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, meanwhile, has reflected on his interactions with the man and what his passing means.

“There were times when I was talking to him when I thought he was the last actual hippie,” he says (via the Guardian). “Bobby was completely allergic to compliments in the most endearing way. I’d say, ‘Man, that guitar riff you were doing on that song sounded really killer,’ and he’d respond, ‘Well, I’m sure I’ll fuck it up next time.’ I loved that about him.”

Steve Vai, who had the “great fortune” of playing with Weir at a 2017 charity concert, says, “for a few sublime hours we just sat around and jammed backstage, earthy and inspired, opening up my ears in ways I’ll never forget.

“Bob was a sharp listener, and his choice of chords, melodies, and tempos created an aura that was at once cosmic and playful…where the lines between sound and spirit blur in the best possible way,” he adds. “It was an absolute honor to share these moments with him, and I’m grateful for every note of light he gave this world.”

Country star Margo Price, meanwhile, who has grown close to Weir over the past decade, compared him to one of Dr. Seuss’s most famous creations.

“He always had a twinkle in his eye,” she says. “Like a barefoot philosopher or the Lorax, he was mystical. The records he made with the Grateful Dead are woven into the tapestry of American music forever.”

The Eagles’ Don Felder says he was “blessed” to have him sing on his solo track, Rock You, and Brandi Carlisle wrote that “Bob had time for all of us. He came to our shows, helped us write songs, and got so many of us out on stage to jam and just stand in his light.”

In a move indicative of Weir’s widespread influence, a truly vast cross section of guitar talent including, Warren Haynes, Joe Bonamassa, Molly Tuttle, Alex Skolnick, Robb Flynn, Duane Betts, Scott Ian, Lee Ranaldo and Aaron Dessner have also expressed their love for Weir and his playing.

“I along with my friend James helped him find a bigsby equipped all gold parts 1956 Les Paul,” relays Bonamassa. “The guitar had a very old sticker of two aces on the original pick guard. He politely reminded me that his most successful solo album was called "Ace". Sometimes things are meant to be and the world works in mysterious ways.”

Meanwhile Bob Dylan simply posted a captionless image of the pair performing together, bluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings looked back on his interactions with the guitar hero.

“I’ll always cherish the memories I have of Bob,” he says. “Of hanging out in his hotel room and him showing me his record collection and mobile recording rig. Sitting there listening to Kind of Blue in silence. Soaking in the frequencies. Of him busting into When I Paint my Masterpiece at my wedding, and in an instant, he turned the place into a joyous musical celebration.”

Bob Weir is survived by his wife, Natascha, two children, Shala Monet and Chloe, and a sprawling discography that has forever changed the face of American music.

Detroit-born bassist and producer Don Was has rubbed elbows with a who’s who of timeless artists including Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, the Rolling Stones and Willie Nelson – but his approach to the work remains simple.

“I try to play from the heart, listen and react, stay in the groove, support the storytelling, and refrain from showing off too much,” he tells Bass Player.

But he admits: “If we’re being honest, the weakest link in the rig has always been my fingers and harmonic naiveté. I harbor no illusions about being a session bassist. I’m not in the same league as Jamerson, Pino, Hutch, Lee Sklar, Marcus, Nathan, David Hood or Chuck Rainey.”

Which doesn’t mean he can’t hack it. “I’ve got a feel that’s occasionally appropriate for a song,” he allows. “Brian Wilson said he called me for sessions because I sounded like a guy in a band and not a session player. I’m okay with that.”

At 73, Was isn’t slowing down. He’s the President of Blue Note Records, and he recently started a new group, Don Was and The Pan-Detroit Ensemble. He says he’s driven by a rule he learned years ago: “The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is realizing that you just need to play with soul. It’s already inside you.”

What inspired you to pick up the bass guitar?

Seeing McCartney on Ed Sullivan in 1964, when I was 12. I noticed his guitar only had four strings, but I didn’t know what a bass actually did. I thought it was a guitar missing the high B and E strings – I was soon to learn otherwise!

The best band at our junior high, The Shy Guys, needed a bass player. I answered the ad, and the leader, Ron Lefko, came over with his guitar to audition me. He said, ‘Let’s play Walk, Don’t Run.’ I knew the chords and played them on my guitar, very carefully avoiding the B and E strings.

Ron said, ‘Okay, you know the chords – now play the bass part.’ I said, ‘That was the bass part. I never touched the B or E string!’ He looked perplexed, then kindly explained what the bass actually is.

I didn’t get the gig, but I did go buy a skinny-necked, Bill Wyman-style Framus Star Bass and an Ampeg B-15, and I started practicing.

You were influenced by the blues, jazz, and ’60s counterculture. How did that shape your playing?

Oh, I stunk at all three styles! But at 19, a brilliant Bill Evans–influenced jazz pianist in Detroit named Lenore Paxton hired me to play in her trio. She showed me the ropes about remembering changes, creating walking bass lines and locking down a groove.

I played in her trio for a decade – four or five sets a night, four nights a week – at a groovy, dimly-lit bar called Bob ’n Rob’s. It was maybe the best gig I ever had. We had a lot of fun and she made a bass player out of me.

Detroit exposed us to a cultural jambalaya of styles. On off-nights, I’d play with all kinds of musicians: a gypsy band, Ted Lucas’ folk-rock band, musical theater pit bands.

Did you get into the drug scene?

Got way into it! Self-consciousness and fear are a musician’s fiercest enemies, and drugs that obliterate those roadblocks have a strong allure. Unfortunately that approach comes with its own set of “ancillary issues.”

If you're in it for the long haul, I’d recommend a methodology that keeps your receptors open, but also lets you move through life gracefully, without wrapping your car around a phone pole or pushing your friends and family away.

What did your bass rig look like once you got going?

I’ve always favored a simple, direct setup. You can’t lose with an Ampeg SVT, though in recent years I’ve also gotten an incredible thrill from a Benson Gnostic. I’ve got a couple of ’60s Fenders, a couple of beautiful Roger Sadowsky Jazz basses.

For the past few years I’ve been playing Bill Nash’s 1963 Precision models – they give me all the joy I’m looking for. No pedals. I use David Gage pickups on double bass, but given the emphasis placed on subwoofers and bass drums in contemporary sound reinforcement, the warmth of the double bass gets somewhat obliterated in larger venues.

So I’ve started using an Ampeg Baby Bass or an Eminence 4-string with the Gage pickup for a little more definition. In the studio, I’ve been using the Acme MTP-66 Motown preamp as a direct box.

Tell us about working with The B-52s on Cosmic Thing and Good Stuff.

I can tell you who played bass – it wasn’t me! Sarah Lee played on Cosmic Thing, and Sarah, Tracy Wormworth, and Hutch Hutchinson played on Good Stuff, at least on the tracks I produced.

The sessions were fast. Everyone played and sang live in the room at once. Love Shack was recorded in one take. Both records were made in a relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere, and we had a lot of fun. Listeners can perceive the vibe in the room – they can hear joy and they can hear struggle.

You did play bass on Dylan’s Under the Red Sky.

I haven’t played on most of the records I’ve produced. I don’t play unless someone specifically asks; it feels presumptuous and unsavory to force yourself on an artist. The biggest problem with playing and producing is losing objectivity – you go into the control room and focus on what you just played instead of the big picture.

But Dylan is my hero. Since I was 14 my dream in life was to play bass with him. So I wrote myself into the scene. I don’t think I ruined any songs, and we had a ball. It was a loose, relaxed album.

Bob is smart, very funny, and a master record-maker. Over the years I’ve learned from him about putting a premium on feel, trusting your instincts and avoiding too much polish. I’ve done a bunch of things with him over 35 years – if you’re a fan of his work, I can assure you that your admiration is well-placed.

You produced Iggy Pop and Ringo Starr in the early ’90s.

Ringo and Iggy have one big thing in common: they’re incredibly underrated. Ringo has an unbelievable feel – he swings like crazy, plays with a lyrical musicality, and infuses joy and personality into every bar. The Beatles would not have impacted culture the way they did without his contribution. For bass players, he’s a total gas to play with.

As for Iggy, every wild story you’ve heard probably contains a kernel of truth, but he’s so much more than that. He’s a highly cultured, well-read, smart, and sensitive cat – a poet disguised as a human lightning bolt. Greatest frontman in rock ’n’ roll history and a brilliant, evocative songwriter with a unique perspective. I’m really proud of the two albums we made.

You’ve worked extensively with Bonnie Raitt. What’s she like?

It’s hard for me to talk about Bonnie without getting emotional because I love her so much. She’s the most soulful vocalist walking the face of the Earth, and to paraphrase Archie Bell, she can play guitar just as good as she sings. She learned from the blues masters and earned their complete respect.

There’s no disconnect between her voice and her guitar. It’s one voice, kinda like Aretha Franklin with her piano or Willie Nelson with his guitar, Trigger. I once produced a duet between Willie and Bonnie – their voices and guitars wove together seamlessly.

What’s the backstory behind producing the Stones’ Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon?

In 1993 the Stones had just signed with Virgin Records and the label wanted them to have a producer. They sent me to NYC while the band was auditioning bass players at SIR.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards came over and sat on either side of me, and both started talking at the same time – neither one of them yielded to the other guy! My head was whipping back and forth like I was watching a ping-pong match.

Best I could tell, Mick was outlining what he wanted in a producer, and Keith was explaining why they didn’t need a fucking producer! It went on for about two minutes, which, In that situation, is an excruciatingly long time!

Finally, they both ran out of steam. Silence. Then Keith said, “Are you sure you want to be the meat in this sandwich?” I walked out convinced I’d never see them again.

What changed?

Four days later, Keith called, apologized for being curt, and said maybe they could use a producer. He wanted to use Don Smith as the engineer for Voodoo Lounge because he’d done a great job on his two solo records with The Expensive Winos.

But Mick wanted a neutral partisan behind the board and Keith wanted me to talk with him about it. I'd been working with Don Smith a lot and I thought he would be perfect for the album. So I called Mick and told him that Don was my choice, not just Keith's.

Mick relented, and when I called Keith to tell him Don Smith was in, he said, ‘Your name's not Don Was – it's Don Is!’ I was hired, and the same pattern of shuttle diplomacy continued for the next 25 years!

We made four studio albums together: Voodoo Lounge, Bridges to Babylon, A Bigger Bang, and Blue and Lonesome. I also produced a handful of live albums, a bunch of new singles for greatest hits packages, and I finished old tracks for deluxe reissues of Exile on Main St. and Some Girls.

They've been like generous big brothers to me and taught me a whole lot about music. I also got to play bass with them any time Darryl Jones couldn't make it to a rehearsal or a writing session.

Is the chemistry between Mick and Keith as volatile yet magical as it’s made out to be?

All that crap is ephemeral and disappears the minute they start playing. The musical conversation going on between these guys is masterful, relaxed and jocular. They listen to each other closely and respond with lightning speed.

Charlie would play something on his hi-hat that would make Keith respond with a certain figure, which would make Mick phrase the next line differently, which would make Ronnie play something wild that Charlie would pick up on.

They were four enormous musical presences who came fully to life when they were playing as the Rolling Stones in front of a stadium full of folks. They are the greatest band ever.

What’s the key to getting the most out of Keith?

Keith is sharp as a tack and very well-read. He singlehandedly changed the concept of rhythm and lead guitar. The notion that he’s somewhat sloppy is a misnomer – if you listen to how crisp his attack is and how he releases the notes rather than letting them blur everything up, you understand that he's got impeccable technique and a deep groove.

As he gets older, he gets better; more succinct and effective in his choices. So yeah, he's still totally got it. And the key to getting the most out of him is to stay the fuck out of his way and let Keith be Keith!

Are you working on the next Stones album?

I think the torch has been passed. Mick wants to make modern pop albums, and I believe that Exile on Main St. sounds like what a modern Rolling Stones record should be. He’s certainly earned the right to chase what he hears.

I introduced him to my buddy Andrew Watt – younger, brilliant, rock-rooted, and hit-savvy. We're all still good friends. People liked Hackney Diamonds and all is well.

What was it like working with Chris and Rich Robinson on the Black Crowes' Lions?

Well, if you want the truth, I wasn’t in great shape during those sessions. I wasn’t putting a premium on sleep. When you’re making records, ‘good’ is the enemy. Any motherfucker can make a good record – if you can’t make a great one, stay home.

In my compromised state I didn’t have it in me to push for greatness, which is sad because Rich, Chris, and Steve Gorman were getting along well at that moment. I view it as a squandered chance to make a timeless classic. That’s not the Black Crowes’ fault – they’re good guys and can be an awesome band when they want.

You’ve worked with Willie Nelson. Is he as stoned as people say?

He’s probably had THC in his blood every day for the last half-century, but I’ve never once seen him compromised, weakened or out of control. He maintains a nice, Zen Willie Nelson bubble – a noble state of mind to aspire to.

Along with Jimmy Scott and Frank Sinatra, Willie is one of the great phrasing geniuses of all time. Every line feels heartfelt and warm. His guitar playing is the same; voice and guitar are one storyteller.

Go to a Willie show and you’ll see a cross-section of America getting along peacefully – folks who’d normally be at each other’s throats in these polarized times. That’s testimony to the unifying power of music and to the strength of Willie's artistry and intelligence.

Was working with Scott Weiland in 2010 a trip?

At that moment he’d just completed rehab and spent months in a halfway house. He was making a heroic effort to be sober and reliable. His bandmates were cautious, so I was hired to work with him privately on lyrics and vocals.

He was the opposite of volatile; he was quite sweet, had a fantastic work ethic, and was determined to deliver the goods. We worked every day for about three weeks. He wrote deep lyrics and sang the shit out of the songs. We had wonderful, philosophical conversations, and I had tremendous respect for him.

When he passed, it hit me hard. He fought his demons with all the courage a man could muster. He won many battles but was simply outflanked and couldn't win the war.

After a few albums with John Mayer, what can you say about him?

John is a brilliant guitarist, songwriter, and singer who gets even more expressive with time. He knows how to get thick, beautiful tones and how to build compelling arrangements. He generates a dizzying array of parts – my biggest role is helping him choose the most effective bits.

He also has the most comprehensive artistic vision I’ve ever seen. Before we even begin recording he knows what the album cover, tour ads and merch should look like. It blows your mind to watch him in action.

A couple of weeks ago I was telling him about an interview in which Woody Allen said that, as a director, if you get 40 percent of what you originally envisioned up on the screen, you're doing well. That seemed like a pretty unambitious batting average to me.

I asked John what percentage of his vision he was willing to reasonably accept. Without missing a beat, he said, “I accept nothing less than 100 per cent.” We've made three albums together, and that answer completely checks out.

Where does the bass player version of you end and the producer begin?

Everything I do seems inextricably connected, including my work as president of a record company. The goal is always to help create music that gets under people’s skin. It’s about making them feel something – helping them make sense of their lives and deal with a world that's increasingly chaotic and confusing.

Or at the very least, make them feel better for three and a half minutes. That’s why we’re here.

What’s next for you?

My new band, Don Was and The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, released our first album, Groove in the Face of Adversity, in October. We’re a nine-piece soul-jazz group from the Motor City that tries to embody the raw, honest, deep-pocketed musical traditions of our hometown.

We’ve got months of touring lined up for 2026, and we’ve started a new album. I’m in my 15th year as president of Blue Note Records and we’ve got the strongest release schedule in the company’s history.

Production-wise, there are some very cool records on the calendar – but I’m superstitious about discussing them until they’re in the can. I’m 73, but I feel energized like a kid, and the plan is to keep moving and growing till I drop.

• Groove in the Face of Adversity is on sale now.

Having worked with John Mayer on three studio albums over the course of nearly 10 years, Don Was is something of an authority when it comes to appraising and appreciating the guitar great’s musicality.

It is usually both Mayer’s irresistible guitar tones and unparalleled fretboard chops that receive most of the praise. But Was is uniquely positioned to appreciate other aspects of his musicianship – and, according to him, there are a few particular aspects of Mayer’s playing that could put him above a legendary Beatle.

Speaking to the Everything Mayer YouTube channel, the famed producer reflected on the parts of Mayer’s records that he believes are overlooked by fans, prompting some strong comparisons to none other than George Harrison.

“He's a great arranger,” Was says of Mayer’s under-appreciated talents. “The thing that separates John from everybody else that I've worked with, in terms of the process we go through, is I've never seen anyone with that many ideas for arrangements.

“He's never short of ideas. We know we have to do something in a section, and he'll find 10 different, really elegant ways of making that section work. And my job is never to tell him what to play. It's to help him sort through the wealth of information that he's laid down to choose the most effective.”

Arrangement is just part of it, though. Was also praises Mayer’s ability to create guitar sounds that are wholly unique to his own musical DNA, comparing it to Harrison’s own track record of doing the same while changing the face of music with the Beatles. In that regard, though, Mayer might just take the cake.

“His guitar tones are unparalleled,” Was continues of Mayer. “They're not just evocative, cool sounds, but they're thick and they're warm and they jump out of speakers – and I'm not sure how he does it.

“Yes, he's got the best gear you can have, but I've played his guitars and I don't sound like him. I think people might take that for granted. That's one of the first things I noticed when I listened to those records after not hearing them for a while.

“George Harrison was good at stuff like that, getting distinctive sounds that you only hear once on a certain song. That's a strength of John’s. It’s the same thing.

“I was loath to say John's better than George Harrison. It ain't gonna sit well with people, but he might be better than George Harrison.”

It’s a bold claim, but again, Was is perhaps uniquely positioned to make it. In the late 1980s during the sessions for Bob Dylan’s Under the Red Sky, Was worked with Harrison, who visited the studio to lay down a slide guitar solo for the album’s title track.

In a soon-to-published interview with Guitar World, Was dives deeper into his partnership with Mayer, saying, “His relentless pursuit of excellence is one reason that he's one of the biggest and most respected artists on the planet.”

Elsewhere in that interview, Was also looked back on how he started working with the Rolling Stones – after a particularly frosty first encounter with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

John Mayer’s PRS Silver Sky signature guitar has proven to be incredibly popular with fans in recent years, but one luthier has taken it to interesting new heights – reimagining it as the "Golden Sky".

Jay Faires, commissioned by Grammy-winning producer/guitarist Eric Krasno, has converted a prototype SE Silver Sky, complete with a custom neckplate and plenty of wild electronic accoutrements to boot.

Without getting into the weeds of the mod job, it's clear that Faires has bestowed this electric guitar with some serious kit. Its stock single-coil pickups have been replaced with three humbuckers, which are joined by a rather switch-heavy control panel with two individual jacks.

Unfortunately, there’s no specific breakdown of the work done, but there are four mini-switches, likely operating split coils and phasing for the pickups. There’s also a battery compartment in the back of the guitar, which could be for active pickups or something like a built-in gain boost.

With its three-humbucker layout and smorgasbord of switches, it injects the Silver Sky with a serious Jerry Garcia ‘Tiger’ vibe. Not surprising, since Mayer himself honors Garcia’s music in Dead & Company. That, and Faires and Krasno bonded over a shared love for the Grateful Dead. A Tiger/Silver Sky mash-up, then, makes total sense. And we’re all here for it.

There looks to be plenty of similarities in the layouts. The Tiger had 12 different voices, and the Golden Sky seems to have stayed close to that crazy template.

“I have been a fan of Eric’s since age 13, discovering his band Soulive and keeping up with his playing ever since,” Faires writes on Instagram. “It didn’t come as a surprise to discover that he, too, had a deeply-rooted love and appreciation for the Grateful Dead: the last time Phil Lesh & Friends came through Boston, Eric kindly invited me to see the show.

“What I didn’t know at the time was that it would be the last time I got to see Phil Lesh play. That experience meant a great deal.

“It was fitting that we later started chatting about the conversion work I do,” he continues. “He mentioned he had a prototype SE Silver Sky that would be a fun platform to make something extra special – and the rest is history! The Golden Sky is now complete and in Mr. Krasno’s hands.”

As a scroll through his Instagram feed proves, Faires has a long history with Garcia-like mods, but it’s fair to say he’s outdone himself this time. He was the only man for such a madcap job.

Meanwhile, tube amp loyalist John Mayer, who has surprised the world by releasing a signature plugin with Neural DSP, has explained what finally convinced him to put his faith in digital emulation.

Hello, and welcome to Guitar World’s gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay abreast of every new launch that may be of interest to you.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

You can probably guess what's at the top of the bill this week. Let's not beat around the bush. The John Mayer and Neural DSP thing happened. It actually happened. Let's just get right into it...

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X

I’ve been trying to think of a gear launch from the past few years that can rival the significance of the new Neural DSP: Archetype John Mayer X plugin. And I can’t. Sure, there have been some monumental strides in technology in that time, and firms have been pushing the boundaries for a while now, but despite all that, Mayer partnering with Neural DSP feels different. It feels bigger.

There are a few factors at play here. First and foremost, Mayer is a well-known tube amp fan. He plays Dumbles, Two Rocks, vintage Fenders. And he has an enviable pedalboard stacked with a Klon Centaur and a raft of choice pedal picks. If you want to give it a word, his rig is “traditional”.

But, after playing a Fractal on Sob Rock, flirting with the Quad Cortex at Coachella, and praising a UAFX pedal amp, Mayer has now gone one step further. Him vouching for a signature digital recreation of his prized gear is a huge vote of confidence in the technology Neural DSP has developed. He himself has said he can’t tell the difference between them. It’s a watershed moment for the market as a whole.

Not only that, Mayer has single-handedly inspired a generation of players with his music, influencing tone, technique and style along the way. His entire approach is centered on dynamics, feel, the ability to harness an intangible ‘vibe’ of playing guitar. That he feels comfortable and ready to put his faith in digital amp modeling to tap into that is huge. It could be the first domino that sets in motion a widescale exodus of players previously hesitant to dive into digital waters.

Remove Mayer from the equation, and you still have arguably the best plugin for boutique amps and effects ever curated. The times are a-changing, people.

For more: Neural DSP

Keeley Electronics Nocturne

Does Strymon need to be looking over its shoulder? The BlueSky might have some competition here. Meet Nocturne – an ambient space reverb like no other, designed by the minds at Keeley Electronics. It's a signature pedal for Andy Timmons, with three reverb modes, four control knobs and two footswitches.

It’s as streamlined and intuitive as you’ll get from a boutique reverb box, but the tones this thing is capable of sound otherworldly. Judging by Timmons’ demo, there are some really natural, subtle ’verbs on tap, but also cavernous ambient effects that can get pretty darn wild.

It takes the reverb half of his existing ‘Halo’ pedal and builds on it. Timmons is chuffed with the results: “It’s the sound I’ve been hearing, but was unable to get with other reverbs,” he says. “It’s the most inspiring reverb I’ve ever heard and I just want to play all day basking in its beauty.”

For more: Keeley Electronics

Fender JUKJAE Stratocaster Baggy

Mere months after Fender established its first official Korean branch, the Big F has now made good on its promise of supporting artists from the area by announcing a flagship signature Stratocaster for renowned singer-songwriter JUKJAE.

At first glance, it appears to be a pretty clean, rather unassuming Strat, but look closer. It has a few tricks up its sleeve. Namely, it only has two control knobs, with a TBX tone pot and a Push-Push active mid-boost volume parameter. So, it’s streamlined in one sense, but expansive in the other. That soft V neck profile also sounds mighty comfortable, too.

We’re looking forward to seeing which Korean artists Fender starts backing in the future. This is an awesome first signature to get the party started.

J. Rockett Aqueous Chorus

Overdrive, boost, and compressor specialist J. Rockett Audio Designs has dipped its tones into the world of modulation with the Aqueous – a new chorus pedal that’s been billed as an all-in-one, do-it-all stompbox for classic and contemporary tones.

Interestingly, there’s a dedicated preamp stage (you don’t see that in every modulation pedal), which helps out with some added dynamics and touch sensitivity that can often get swirled around and lost in conventional chorus circuits.

Expect plenty of Bucket brigade-style textures, and more than enough parameters to really dial in your tone – including a nifty Tilt EQ knob. J. Rockett is an expert at overdrive pedals. Judging by this, it might be an expert on modulation, too.

For more: J. Rockett Audio Designs

Red Witch Cybellium

In writing these roundups, I come across more clones than I can count. Tube Screamers, Klons… you name it. But here’s something interesting; something that’s very much its own thing. The Red Witch Cybellium is a “modulation masterpiece”, said to be a bold reimagining of conventional modulation effects.

What’s more, only 69 will be made – all with their own artwork – and no two Cybelliums will be the same. That’s right: this is a series of true one-of-one pedals, as each stompbox features its own unique take on the circuit that’s been designed.

It’s been designed as “an antidote to homogenized gear culture”, and reminds players to pursue the search for their own voice on the instrument, rather than doubling down on the popular tones of today.

We’re seeing a general move that way in the wider gear world anyway, but Red Witch is clearly keen to hurry things along. A noble cause, but one that comes with a price: $599 per pedal, to be precise.

For more: Red Witch

Harley Benton ST-Modern Carlos Asensio

It feels like every other week this year we’ve been given a guitar that seemingly redefines what we can get from modest-priced six-strings. The Harley Benton ST-Modern Carlos Asensio signature – built for the popular YouTuber – is certainly no exception. It’s not exactly cheap, per se, but it errs on the side of affordable (as all Harley Bentons do) and flaunts a spec sheet that boasts some serious juice.

We’re talking HSS Tesla pickups. Coil-splitting. Rolled fingerboard edges. Luminlay side dots. Roasted maple neck. And, most impressively, a Vega-Trem VT1 Ultratrem. All on a $700 guitar. The VT1 alone retails for around $289, and it’s usually reserved for higher-end builds – such as Alex Lifeon’s Lerxst Hentor Sportscaster. It’s a very premium appointment, included among plenty of other impressive specs. There’s a lot of quality for the price here.

For more: Harley Benton

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 Pi

Remember last week, when JHS Pedals unveiled the Big Muff 2? That new fuzz pedal based on a long-lost circuit schematic that had been unearthed after spending 50 years in a garage? Well, it's a cool story, and the pedal sounded awesome, but it was quite big. For players like me, who are playing pedalboard Tetris on their Pedaltrain Metro, there was no way it'd be squeezed in.

The Big Muff Pi 2, though? Well, that's a different story. Launched by Electro-Harmonix, it's a de facto smaller version of the larger Big Muff 2 in classic Pi form. It also sounds great, with the dual op-amp design of its older sibling. It's also $122, whereas the other is $249. My pedalboard is currently quaking in its boots.

For more: Electro-Harmonix

Not that long ago, John Mayer wasn't a huge fan of amp modelers. In his view, they got close. They sounded good. But when you take electric guitar tone from clean to the edge of break up, they left something to be desired.

However, that was then. This is now, and having recently put his name – and his über grail-worthy tube amps – to a signature Archetype X guitar plugin from Neural DSP, Mayer is officially a digital convert.

More than that, he can’t tell the difference between his plugin and real amps. Inded, he has now shared a demo video documenting the early stages of prototyping the plugin, A/Bing it with his amp rig, going back and forth, looking confused because... well, because he couldn’t tell them apart.

“We’d set up my amp rig in the live room and were switching between the rig and the plugin,” writes Mayer. “I threw every test at it; does turning the volume knob to 5 create a natural response in tone? It did. Does a single note that’s held die out without a noise gate eating it or the ‘math’ just giving up? It did. Do two notes bent at once with distortion on create natural harmonic overtones exactly like the amps in the room? They did, exactly.”

This was the Pepsi Challenge except with a Dumble Steel String Singer (serial #002) and some 1s and 0s, with a Two Rock prototype going head-to-head with an algorithm.

“I had the engineer switch between signals without my knowing. ‘That’s the amps,’ I’d guess. ‘Plugin,’ the engineer would say, several times. It fooled me,” he says. “Neural DSP had done it. It wasn’t just a faithful recreation of my sound – it was the first plugin I’d ever heard that proved that digital modeling could create a digital emulation with zero compromises.”

The fact it had Mayer fooled was enough. He was convinced. Modeling tech had finally achieved what he'd previously pulled them up on. It was bound to happen eventually.

Neural DSP launched the Archetype: John Mayer X on Wednesday, promising a digital in-the-box solution for nailing Mayer’s tones. You had the aforementioned trifecta of tube amps, plus emulations of the matching cabinets and microphones that Mayer uses with them.

You have the capacity to use them all in parallel, just as Mayer might in a live situation, all this gourmet boutique, high-end electric guitar amp tech at your fingertips.

And then you have the effects, the Gravity Tank, a custom-designed emulation of his Victoria Reverberato spring reverb and harmonic tremolo unit. Yes, this is what you need to get that Gravity tone. Douglas Castro, Neural DSP’s co-founder and CEO, said putting this together was no gimme. Mayer’s rig pretty much has its own lifeforce.

“There’s an intimacy to the way his rig responds,” said Castro. “It breathes, it opens up, it carries emotion – and capturing that behavior was one of the most meaningful projects we’ve taken on.”

Mayer says what you see in his Instagram video is not far from the finished article. There were not many revisions.

“I’d like to say that we went back and forth countless times, making tweaks until it was right, but the truth is that they pretty much nailed it on the first try,” he says. “Only a few EQ changes and some revisions to a couple of the effects pedals were needed.

“The thousands of hours of creation came to fruition yesterday when the plugin was released, and it’s been a joy to see and hear players putting this software to the test and being as impressed as I was in this video.”

For longtime Mayer fans, it would also be a joy to see him mess around on a Fender Stratocaster. His PRS signature guitar sat this one out, though Mayer did also share test footage of him playing a Silver Sky on his Instagram stories.

“Thank you to every guitar player who created such clever and great sounding presets and for spreading the word,” says Mayer. “I can’t wait to hear all the new music that’s created with this plugin. Getting my sound is just the beginning of what it can do, and I can’t wait to hear what musicians create with it.”

You can find out more at Neural DSP. The asking price is €199. But be sure to read Guitar World’s review of the Archetype: John Mayer X. Spoiler warning: we liked it a lot.

Deep breath, everyone. We made it. 2025 is drawing to a close, and what a wild ride it’s been. It seems like only yesterday we were knee-deep in the annual NAMM gear avalanche, but a lot has happened since then – and it seems high time to sit back and take a look at what made ’25 such a great year for guitar.

Because there’s no doubt about it. 2025 was a great year for the guitar. There were some historic shows, a once-in-a-lifetime reunion, the emergence of generational guitar talents, a complete tonal revolution, some watershed gear drops… we won’t spoil it at all here, but a lot has happened.

In a year that wasn’t without its sad moments – we lost many guitar and music greats in 2025 – we head into 2026 off the back of a genuinely inspiring 12 months, which will live long in the memory.

So pull up a pew, grab a brew, and take a jolly through our guide to the 25 reasons why 2025 was a great year for guitars – as assembled by Team GW. Starting with…

1. Ozzy Osbourne went out in style – and made a music event a global phenomenon

In July, Ozzy Osbourne headlined Back to the Beginning, a generational farewell concert featuring, deep breath, Metallica, Pantera, Halestorm, Slayer, Alice in Chains, Jake E. Lee, Nuno Bettencourt… this could take all day. Barely two and a half weeks later, he was gone.

My GW online colleague, EIC Michael Astley-Brown, noted at the time that although it was Ozzy’s chance to say goodbye, the evening was also a tribute to Tony Iommi’s singular impact on guitar music, and I couldn’t agree more.

I’m hardly a Sabbath fanatic, but when I heard Ozzy confidently declare, one last time, “we are Black Sabbath!” as the leviathan opening chords of War Pigs rang out around him, I was shocked by how emotional I became.

Mentally, I found myself in my best friend’s basement at 12 years old, him playing Paranoid on his Epiphone SG, me doing Ozzy, then him showing the riff to me (“look how easy it is!”) The freaks storming the castle. “Back to the Beginning”, huh? – JM

2. Guitar solos are big business in pop again – just ask Olivia Rodrigo

‘Move over Taylor Swift: Olivia Rodrigo is this generation’s Eddie Van Halen – her Glastonbury performance proved it’.

Of all the headlines I expected to write this year, this was not it. But that proves the sheer guitar magnetism of Rodrigo’s set at one of the world’s biggest music festivals: session vet Arianna Powell shredding a Jackson Soloist at every opportunity, extended riff breakdowns, Rodrigo herself busting out a Mustang and duetting with the Cure’s Robert Smith. This was no polished pop performance: this was a legit rock show.

Oh, and before you @ me without reading the article, lemme break down that headline: EVH inspired people to pick up the guitar in the ’80s. Taylor Swift was hailed by The Internet as doing the same in the 2010s. And I think Rodrigo will do that for 2020s kids. She is promoting visibility of the electric guitar and its musical lineage at the highest level – and I think that’s pretty rad. – MAB

3. Amp modelers continued to level up – and 2025 was a watershed moment

Every year, something raises the bar in the amp modeling market. But 2025 felt different. It felt bigger. Part of that was the arrival of Helix 2 – AKA Helix Stadium – which reinvented one of the world’s premier floorboard modelers from the ground up with new tech. Part of it was also down to the various updates introduced by Fender, Neural DSP, and Kemper to their own hardware, and the huge strides made by more affordable companies.

But, if we’re being honest, the biggest wave in the modeler market was caused by John Mayer, who created a rip tide when he partnered with Neural DSP for a signature plugin. It is a watershed moment for the industry. A tube amp loyalist putting his faith in digital modeling? A true sign of the times. Expect even more people to make the switch now. If it’s good enough for Mayer, it’s good enough for anyone. – MO

4. Geese and Y2K nostalgia are keeping the dream of the guitar band alive

If you frequent music TikTok – specifically, #indierocktok – chances are you've probably come across Geese. The Brooklyn-based indie-rock band reached new heights this year, arguably becoming “America's most thrilling young rock band” (according to GQ at least).

The Y2K and indie sleaze nostalgia are rife with Geese – you'd be forgiven for mistaking them for a band billed alongside The Strokes at a festival in the early to mid-aughts.

But the band, led by frontman Cameron Winter, are dominating the algorithm and introducing indie rock to a whole new generation, while also keeping the dream of the guitar band alive. – JB

5. People still want their guitar heroes to be worthy of the term

If the whole sorry saga of Giacomo Turra has taught us anything, it’s that originality and credibility are still qualities that we want from our guitar heroes.

The sad fact is that not every guitarist we encounter is technically gifted, exuberantly creative, and treats others with kindness and respect. But let’s just agree not to accept one out of three, OK? Especially, if you’re going to take to social media and portray yourself as a pastel-clad international playboy.

Social media is a delivery mechanism and, used well, a levelling force in championing new music and musicians. On the other hand, you could also argue it’s an unpoliced hellhole and an ecosystem that encourages profile over providence – that need for a reality check has never been more apparent to players. – MP

6. Bad guitar tone is a thing of the past

2025 was the year bad tone got good, and we have mk.gee to thank. The trailblazing tonesmith is not only a leading gen Z guitar hero, but he’s also Eric Clapton’s favorite new guitar player – and he recorded all his anthems with a Tascam 424 preamp. You know, like in that Portastudio you used to own/read about in history books.

Cue two big-brand reincarnations of the recently reappraised preamp via JHS Pedals and Benson Amps, plus one philosophical John Mayer demo, and suddenly, the guitar world found itself reevaluating its sense of tone. Or, at least, GW staff did.

As I posited in my own thesis, ‘Does ‘bad’ guitar tone even exist anymore?’, you could argue that it’s too easy to get a pro-level guitar tone with plugins and modelers these days. Adopting a traditionally maligned one might be the quickest way to stand out. And that’s A Cool Thing: every tone is valid! – MAB

7. The blues is in remarkably good shape, and was the musical driver of a box office smash

“Yeah, that was Buddy Guy! He’s, like, the last of the original bluesmen. He’s a legend!”

I’m in a bar with my friends after we’ve just seen Sinners, the (literally) barnstorming Ryan Coogler-directed horror smash set in early ‘30s Mississippi. Though it’s primarily a vampire movie, Sinners is true to its setting with a score heavily inspired by the haunting acoustic blues of that era and region – with a joint cameo from Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Buddy Guy linking two generations of the genre together.

I can’t fully explain his role without revealing too much of the story, but Buddy Guy isn’t just our last living line to the real origins of the blues – he’s a hell of an actor, too!

The highest-grossing fully original film in the United States since 2010 (!), Sinners brought the blues to new audiences far and wide.

“They had me play a little spot in a movie,” Guy told Guitar World earlier this year in reference to Sinners, “and I still get more calls about the movie than I do my records!” – JM

8. The Oasis reunion no one thought would happen actually happened

If you asked the Gallagher brothers three years ago whether there’d ever be a chance we’d see them on stage together again, they’d have called you a naughty word and laughed you out the room. Well, we got the last laugh, because that’s exactly what happened. 2025 will forever be remembered as the year Oasis got back together.

Did it help put the spotlight on guitar music? The instrument was in rude health well before the Oasis reunion, but Liam’s son sure thought so. Whatever the case, the Oasis reunion was a cultural and musical phenomenon like no other.

It was also a goldmine for guitar fans. Noel started playing solos again. He had a mystery Les Paul built for the shows, and it broke the internet when it was released as a signature model. Gem Archer and Bonehead also got signature guitars. The biggest music event of the year – Back to the Beginning aside – had guitars at its heart. That alone makes it worthy of praise. But for fans like me, who never thought we’d see the day, it was a helluva ride. – MO

9. Guitar brands are leveling up their budget guitar game

Buying a budget guitar hasn't meant settling for subpar specs for a while now. But some of this year's standout releases were, in fact, guitars at the lower range of the price spectrum – and, frankly, we're here for it.

The T-style PRS SE NF 53 was perhaps this year’s most impressive release, blowing away our reviews team, who described it as “a workingman’s tool pure and simple: any guitar player could use one, which might well qualify it as the most essential guitar yet of 2025”.

The Cort G200SE, Spira T-450, Sterling By Music Man's Intro Series Cutlass, and Jet Guitars' JT-350 BKM H and JJ-300 P90 SFG are also among 2025's standouts. – JB

10. The year hardcore went mainstream – and embraced guitar solos

Yeah, I hear you, ‘hardcore has been going mainstream’ for about five years now, but 2025 feels like a new zenith.

At the head of the pack, still, are Turnstile who returned with Never Enough (tied with Broncho’s Natural Pleasure for my personal album of the year). It got laden with more glowing reviews than an Amazon drop-shipper; enjoyed a previously unthinkable profile on late-night TV; received five Grammy nominations; they played in front of enormous crowds worldwide – and were even asked to rep Fender’s new American Professional Classic line.

They also made a video with a vocalist on a jet ski, a drummer in the desert, and Pat McCory ripping a whammy-laden guitar solo in an alpine valley. The hardcore tag is now largely irrelevant: Turnstile are now looking like a solid bet to be one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

And Turnstile might have broken the mould but they’re not alone. Look at Drain’s Cody Chavez bringing the thrash riffs and shred solos to their last album …Is Your Friend. Hardcore is a changed beast that’s for sure. And all this from a scene in which the biggest flex used to be what kind of van you had… – MP

11. One of the best – and biggest – indie-guitar albums in years arrived

moisturizer confirmed that tongue-very-much-in-cheek Brit-rockers Wet Leg are one of rock’s most exciting new talents. Their second record is a masterpiece: it has the catchiest guitar hooks of the year and the sharpest indie-pop songwriting, tapping into the sweet spot between Pavement and PJ Harvey I never knew I needed.

It’s subverting the genre’s norms, too: Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers have been repping B.C. Rich and Kramer shred sticks onstage – and yes (trigger warning, Kevin Shields acolytes), one of them is being used for shoegaze whammy dives. Myles Kennedy and Steve Stevens told us this was their most-listened to album this year. It was mine, too. – MAB

12. TikTok – still kicking, and bringing new audiences to guitar innovation of days past and present

As the sun rose on 2025, it seemed like TikTok would be banned from the US app market, but after a round of rope-tugging between outgoing US President Joe Biden and incoming President Donald Trump, the app lived to see another year – and now it’s bigger than ever before.

Last year, it brought the Darkness’s seminal I Believe In A Thing Called Love, 20 years later, back to the top of the US Rock charts, and this year, it brought a three-decade-old slow-burning Radiohead ballad that nearly broke the band up back, improbably, into the Billboard Hot 100.

It also brought my personal favorite guitar riff of the year – the nasty, nylon-string one that drives Hudson Freeman’s If You Know Me – to the attention of John Mayer. Everyone and their brother has a take on whether TikTok is a force for bad or good, but its power to elevate tunes, riffs, and players into – or back into – the limelight, is indisputable. – JM

13. The metal offset campaign reaches its conclusion

“Are we still talking about metal offsets in 2025?” I hear you ask. Well, yes, we are, because although it’s been a topic of conversation the past few years, the campaign to have them back in the mainstream finally came to a head in 2025.

After spending over a year ogling at Misha Mansoor’s Surfcaster, and drooling over Mike Stringer’s Charvel, our thirst for an accessible offset was quenched when Jackson revived the Surfcaster as an ultra-affordable model at NAMM. Lee Malia was then given a signature version. Aristides also unveiled its STX collection, designed with Stringer.

Sure, some brands have been doing this for a while – Balaguer for one – but before 2025 these things were always a rarity, reserved only for high-end or signature models. The democratization of the metal offset came to the forefront this year. Long may it continue. – MO

14. The notion of the guitar hero is far from dead – it's just being redefined

Who says the concept of the “guitar hero” is dead – or a long-forgotten relic of the past? Like any other notion, it has simply transformed and adapted to the 2020s and the digital age.

Yungblud immediately springs to mind: the Ozzy Osbourne protégé and Aerosmith collaborator has proven he's the embodiment of a 21st-century rockstar. His Back to the Beginning performance was perhaps the most defining “passing of the torch” moment – but rest assured, he's not on his own.

Thomas Raggi, Grace Bowers, Diamond Rowe, Yvette Young, Tim Henson, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Sophie Lloyd, Yoyoyoshie, Mateus Asato, Geese's Emily Green and Spiro are just a few of the younger generation of guitarists who are challenging the traditional notion of “guitar hero,” and proving to everyone that, while it may look slightly different, rock ’n’ roll is far from dead. – JB

15. Collaboration not confrontation

It would be a brave writer proclaiming that the guitar industry is not somewhat cutthroat in its business dealings, but it does feel that in the face of adversity in the last 12 months, we’ve seen it pull together in a new way.

NAMM have been directly lobbying Washington over the impact of tariffs, pedal builders (who admittedly have a more fraternal approach among those in the boutique clique) have been highlighting their own plight, and firms of all stripes are realizing they’re in it together when it comes to raising awareness of the cost implications of changing import policies.

On a similar-but-different note, guitar-makers seem to be taking a much more pluralistic approach to their signature deals (Cory Wong’s signature Strat and StingRay, for example) – understanding that it’s better to have the right artist’s name on some of their gear, than force them to commit completely and risk it being on nothing.

I don’t think we’re going to see Gibson and Fender falling out of a bar together anytime soon, but the idea that an iconic guitarist might want to acknowledge that they play both a Strat and a Les Paul no longer seems unthinkable in the eyes of the corporate machine. – MP

16. We got a new contender for Mayer-level feel

Put me in a (gentle, please) headlock, and ask me to name the most lyrical guitar players on the planet, and Mayer and Trucks would be the first names out of my mouth. Buck, if you need a third. But Maya Delilah would be next.

The Fender-backed 25-year-old’s first album on storied jazz label Blue Note dropped this year, and highlights her off-the-charts feel – the dynamic control and soul-searching note choices are pure storytelling. No wonder, given how intertwined she finds lyrics and leads. “If I’ve said exactly what I want to say lyrically, I feel like I need to mirror that with feeling when I play the guitar,” she told us.

It’s not all aching neo-soul solos, though: Delilah does a mean line in sleazy Prince funk and skronky fuzz, too. We can’t wait to see where she goes next. – MAB

17. Jake Kiszka and Chris Turpin conjured old-school guitar magic on Mirador’s debut album

Back in May, Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka and Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin stopped by Guitar World’s NYC headquarters to discuss their influences and how their six-string chemistry developed, and to play through a selection of the heaviest (and sweetest) tunes featured on the self-titled debut album from their new project, Mirador.

With their partnership hardly public knowledge at that point, I didn’t quite know what to expect when I joined my GW colleagues in the studio for the session. Seeing them plug in and rip from a few feet away, though, showed clear as day the unique wavelength these two found together. Listen to the thundering Mirador standout Fortune's Fate – with its whirlwind Kiszka solo – to hear it for yourself. – JM

18. Jacob Collier’s five-string revolution opened up new ways to think about playing

If 2024 was the year Jacob Collier became known for his guitar chops, 2025 was the year he put in a serious case for being a modern-day guitar hero. He might not be shredding at the speed of light, but he’s doing something even more important: he’s encouraging people to approach the guitar in new ways.

He’s doing that through his five-string guitars, and a symmetrical open tuning that makes playing chords hugely accessible. It also opens up whole new paths for exploring the instrument, and is a reminder that, when we think everything there is to discover has been discovered, there’s still room for so much more.

The proof is in the pudding. Collier’s five-string Strandberg was more popular than the six-string. Players are buying into the five-string. We dare say it could soon be a mainstream option. Viva la revolución. – MO

19. Guitarist biopics are all the rage

2025 has been the year of music – and specifically guitarist – biopics.

The Bob Dylan biopic (and a big shout-out to Joan Baez as well), A Complete Unknown, was released in 2024 but continued buzzing all the way through 2025 with eight Oscar nominations – not too shabby!

Bruce Springsteen’s Deliver Me from Nowhere followed, with high hopes to replicate the success of Dylan’s biopic, albeit to mixed reviews.

Hollywood is also betting big on director Sam Mendes’ four (yes, four) Beatles biopics, while finally shining a long-overdue spotlight on Sister Rosetta Tharpe in an upcoming film starring popstar Lizzo. Oh, and did I mention that the first – and only – authorized biopic of B.B. King was just announced? – JB

20. The redemption of Jake E. Lee

Back to the Beginning was an emotional experience for a lot of reasons, but for me, one of the most compelling parts was the long-overdue redemption of Jake E. Lee in the eyes of Ozzy fans and the wider guitar community.

The man’s main sin of the last 40+ years has essentially been the fact that he was not Randy Rhoads, which is an affliction that I think we can all relate to. But the fact is he was there when he was needed, he did fine work in a tough situation with Bark at the Moon and he – quite literally – did not get the credit he was due.

More miraculously, he mostly refused to badmouth the Ozzy camp, chalking a move that would have destroyed lesser players up to ‘business’.

To see him take to the stage, and to his shock, be greeted by a stadium full of Ozzy fans, led by Nuno Bettencourt, all chanting his name was incredibly moving. – MP

21. It’s easier than ever to practice guitar – and it’s never sounded better

Bit of a personal one, this: I became a dad this year and am therefore legally obliged to tell you about it. My new arrival has made me not only value every spare minute I can find to play guitar, but also realize how fortunate we are to have so many handy practice doodads. I have become reliant on headphones and extremely low-volume mini amps whenever my newborn blesses us with 10 minutes of sleep.

There were some big shifts in that arena this year: Positive Grid brought the price of guitar amp headphones way down with the Spark Neo and Core, and Blackstar and IK Multimedia dropped some serious guitar-jack units that offer proper big-rig tones. It’s devices like this that can keep your skills ticking over when you have to fit the guitar around the people that you love. – MAB

22. Legacy bands gave the people what they want

Each of the last five consecutive decades, guitarist extraordinaire Robert Fripp has completely reinvented the sound and onstage repertoire of his band, King Crimson, and he’s never apologized for it.

With that in mind, one might assume that he’d regard the idea of a group devoted to performing the band’s knotty ‘80s material with disdain. Quite to the contrary, he was delighted by the formation of BEAT – a group comprised of two Crimson alums – vocalist/guitarist Adrian Belew and bass maestro Tony Levin – Tool drummer Danny Carey, and none other than Steve Vai. Fripp even offered some tips to Vai as BEAT worked through their first gigs.

Former frontman John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) has been much less enthusiastic about punk legends the Sex Pistols reuniting with Frank Carter in his place, but the band’s shows have proven to be a rousing success.

Age hasn’t dwindled the audiences for these and countless other legacy acts, and as long as they’re there, many of these bands and artists will be happy to give fans new and old what they crave to hear. – JM

23. Gear nostalgia hit new heights

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That means, for every step taken in the direction of a futuristic digital utopia, there is also a move to embrace the gear and tones that have come before us.

That force was particularly apparent in 2025, especially through the gear drops that took place and the playing habits of guitarists. JHS Pedals released the Tascam-aping 424 Gain Stage. Gibson and Epiphone launched a Back to the Future ES-345. MXR’s MX100 Rockman repurposed cult classic ’80s tones.

And everyone went nuts for it. Reverb’s end of year stats show the MXR topped its new-to-2025 best-selling pedals. The Epiphone did the same for the guitar list. As companies use cutting edge tech to push the boundaries of guitar gear, it seems an appetite for cult kit of yesteryear is gaining traction. – MO

24. Movie and TV soundtracks are prioritizing guitar

Guitarists have long lent their chops to movie soundtracks. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood has carved out a niche for himself as a composer, scoring the likes of 2021's The Power of the Dog and 2017's Phantom Thread, while Jimmy Page leveraged his session musician days to write, produce and record an array of instruments for the Death Wish II and III soundtracks.

The tradition continues with each generation of guitarists – in 2025, Yvette Young, Tim Henson, and IDLES played key roles in soundtracks for blockbusters Superman and F1, and Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing, respectively – while shows like Cobra Kai continued to recruit top guitar talent to their musical dojo.

As Young herself told Guitar World earlier this year, in an increasingly oversaturated (and expensive) touring environment, “it's really difficult to figure out how to monetize certain things, especially with streaming being so ass at paying.”

Therefore, soundtracks are proving to be one of the remaining solid avenues where guitarists (and musicians at large) can flex their creativity and still get fairly compensated. – JB

25. AI in music gear = good, AI in music-writing = bad

“Create a statement of 150 words on why AI is good and bad for creativity in 2025.” Oh, hello. My apologies, I was talking to someone else…

AI is now, officially, all-up in just about everything. Gear-wise, it’s gone from ‘press release-worthy’ to ‘accepted norm’ in the space of a year. The debate rumbles on, but I think we can broadly define the conclusion of the musician community thus far as ‘AI in gear = useful’ and ‘AI in writing music = bad’.

The fundamental point of the tech, of course, is to offload all of the boring, repetitive, and fiddly stuff that we don’t want to, or cannot deal with, to leave us free to focus on the things we do want to do. I have a hard time accepting AI will replace musicians, because music is the thing we do for fun, whether listening, or consuming it. It’s, quite frankly, the last thing I’d wish to automate, or direct towards all my copyright material.

The point of music, and any culture, is to express emotions and connect people, to create literal and emotional resonance between humans. I think that process is broken by AI writing or song generation.

On the other hand, browsing and creating patches on a modeler? For me, that often gets in the way of playing, so if I can ask AI to knock a patch together as a starting point, then, I for one, welcome our new robot overlords. – MP

What is it?

John Mayer is a guitarist who's now become a household name. He is one of the few artists who has managed to demonstrate a virtuosic mastery of the instrument in the context of mainstream music - just ask any guitarist who has attempted that Neon riff.

From a guitar player's perspective, it’s more than just songwriting and technique that impresses - it’s tone too. Now, John Mayer is teaming up with Neural DSP to release a guitar plugin that makes these tones available to the masses. And the decision by such a world-renowned analog aficionado to collaborate on releasing models of his favourite tube amps and effects isn't just a big deal for fans and Neural DSP, but a showcase of just how far the technology has come.

What John Mayer brings in guitar expertise, Neural DSP matches with plugin know-how. The company has a renowned history in building guitar plugins with artists such as Cory Wong, Rabea Massad, and Misha Mansoor, all getting the Neural treatment, as well as authentic recreations of sought-after amplifiers demonstrated by the likes of Neural’s Soldano SLO 100 X plugin.

What makes this collaboration extra interesting is that John Mayer isn’t someone who has been known to use digital modeling to the same extent as some of those aforementioned artists in Neural’s Archetype roster.

Sure, he has been spotted with a Quad Cortex at Coachella, but is still primarily known for a discerning collection of boutique and vintage amps.

So, having someone like John Mayer diving in the deep end with a plugin is a real vote of confidence in where Neural’s digital modeling technology is at.

The Archetype: John Mayer X, then, is a meeting of two leaders in their respective fields that should yield some heavenly guitar tones. To achieve this, the plugin models three of John Mayer’s favorite amps - the Vibrato channel of his 1964 Fender Vibroverb, the Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and the Two Rock John Mayer Signature Prototype ‘Signature #83’.

You can use these individually or a blend of all three at once, and they all come with matching cabs and an array of microphones that can be swapped and moved.

Then, modeled after his actual rig, we have a collection of overdrive pedals featuring a recreation of the infamous Klon, as well as a Tube Screamer and a Blues Breaker. Other effects include an EQ and a compressor he uses in the studio, a harmonic tremolo, spring reverb and a Studio Verb which can mimic either a hall or plate reverb.

And of course, we have the usual global features in Neural’s Archetype plugins - a Noise Gate, Transpose function, and Doubler.

Specs

• Launch price: €199
• Type: Amp and FX modelling Plugin (hosted or standalone)
• Formats: Windows and PC
• System requirements: MacOS 13 Ventura or higher/Windows 10 or higher, AMD Quad Core R52200G/Intel Core i3/Mac Silicon M1 or higher, 1GB storage space, 8GB RAM
• Formats: VST2, VST3, AU, AAX
• Contact: Neural DSP

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★½

As you will have gathered, there is a lot here to get stuck into, and thankfully, it's made accessible via Neural’s tried and tested interface. It’s highly visual, with the signal chain (Pre FX, Verb and Trem, Amp, Cab, EQ and Comp, Post FX) displayed at the top and the three amps plus the Three-In-One mode, situated at the bottom.

Just below that signal chain sit the global functions. All of this is represented via handy icons or easily understood text, which makes it a breeze to jump in and start playing.

The titles on the amps are a little hard to read, so unless you spot the somewhat discreet pop-up at the bottom of the screen as you select an amp, it may be a little difficult to discern the name of the one you are using if you're not familiar with their aesthetic. To be clear, it is obvious which one is currently selected, just not obvious what it's called.

The images representing the amps, cabs, and effects are all highly detailed, complete with movable dials and drag-and-drop microphones on the cabs. As a result, tweaking settings on the plugin feels oddly like adjusting real pieces of gear.

Furthering this is the fact that the plugin can run standalone. No need to fire up a DAW to fiddle around with some tones, just open the plugin app and go. When it comes to saving your tones, however, they all go into the same folder named ‘User’ with no easy way to organise them from the plugin.

Spoiler alert - this plugin sounds fantastic (more on that later), so I’m likely to be creating a large number of tones within it. Therefore, I’d like an easier way to organise the tones I create into separate folders for different projects/sounds so I can quickly recall them later.

This is mitigated a little by a tag function, meaning I can search tags for tones I’ve created, but I’d still prefer to have things stored in separate folders as well.

The last thing to mention here is the MIDI learn function. Simply right-click, select MIDI Learn, and adjust the MIDI controller you wish to use. Easy.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Given that we have a collection of presets from John Mayer himself, I’m going to start making some noise with those, then go from there. Lacking a PRS Silver Sky (Mayer’s signature PRS), I grab my Fender Elite Stratocaster and get stuck in. Immediately, the problem with the presets is a good one; I don’t want to stop playing them and evaluate the rest of this plugin.

The highlights for me are the Gravity Clean and Lead 2 Live Room presets. The former offers a glassy, clean sound, featuring plenty of low end but also a healthy amount of high. All on the edge of breakup so that it compresses nicely, reflects picking dynamics, and cleans up beautifully on the volume control with my Strat's fourth-generation Noiseless pickups.

The latter is a smooth, mid-forward lead, with a ton of compression and sustain, making it feel incredibly easy to play. There is a smattering of reverb to create some space, all of which makes it an absorbing tone. There are also presets from a large selection of other renowned artists such as Cory Wong, John Petrucci, and Joey Landreth that really showcase the breadth on offer with this modeled rig.

So, we know there are great sounds in here. Both the Gravity Clean and Lead 2 Live Room presets make use of all three amps at once. Looking at them individually, they are all amps suited to that edge of breakup, pedal platform thing, and are well-balanced in their tonal differences.

Smooth Operator (1964 Fender Vibroverb) is the brightest of the bunch, the Headroom Hero (Dumble Steel String Singer) is the most mid-forward, and the Signature 83 (based on the prototype for Two-Rock's John Mayer Signature amp, of which only 25 were made) brings more low end than the other two.

When it comes to how they break up, the Smooth Operator gives out that gnarly, aggressive Fender-style thing, breaking up relatively early on in the volume controls sweep.

The Headroom Hero unsurprisingly has a ton of headroom until you activate the FET switch. At which point, the clean headroom gives way to a pleasingly smooth overdrive. This amp also features a Mid switch that will move the midrange into a higher frequency.

The Signature 83 sports a ton of headroom, just not quite as much as the Headroom Hero, and is more full-range. All three of the amps have Bright switches to add some bite.

Each amp has EQ options. A subtle Bass and Treble on the Smooth Operator, a three-band EQ on the Headroom Hero, which, as well as being a much wider EQ sweep than the Smooth Operator, also has a pronounced effect on the gain, and another powerful three-band EQ on the Signature 83, which also includes a more subtle presence control.

It’s worth noting that the Headroom Hero is a little more streamlined than the real thing, in that it lacks the High and Low Filter controls, as well as the Deep and Rock/Jazz switches. Personally, I’m not missing them in this Mayer-esque context, but if you are after a more authentic replica of that particular amp in digital form, you may be left wanting.

Same too with the Signature 83; it’s missing the Mid and Deep switches, plus the Contour control of the Two Rock John Mayer signature it's based on.

Even with that streamlining of the controls, there is still a lot of versatility within the bluesy pop genre John Mayer resides. The amps can go from a delightful, crystal clear clean to a fun, old-school breakup and a rewarding, smooth drive. It's all very touch-responsive too, which makes them feel alive under the fingers.

Adding extra tonal possibilities is the cab section, within which we can switch between 11 different mics and edit their position to taste, as well as load in our own impulse responses if we want to.

What is clear, though, is that this plugin will not baby you into a good tone. For example, turn the Smooth Operators Bright switch on with the Treble in the wrong place, and you will find yourself having an ear-piercingly bad time.

This is arguably a good thing. It shows that the amps have been authentically recreated and demonstrates a trust that the user will know how to get the best out of them. To this end, I find that the Pre FX section is a useful tool.

The first pedal there is the ‘Just A Boost’, based on the Keely Katana. This fattens things up nicely, and once it’s on, you're going to want to leave it on. The Antelope Filter is next in the chain and is modeled on the EHX Q-Tron. An auto-wah style effect, I had a ton of fun recreating the intro to I Don’t Trust Myself, as the effect is very reactive to picking dynamics.

No blues/rock/pop rig would be complete without a complement of drives, and here we find some real treasure. The Halfman OD (Klon) and the Tealbreaker, which switches between Blues Breaker and Tube Screamer-style overdrives.

The Tealbreaker’s Tube Screamer side is great for recreating leads the likes of which can be found in Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. By far, my favourite way to use these drives is to have the Tealbreaker set up for this soft type of lead, and then bring in the Halfman OD for some mid-forward saturation.

The BB side of the Tealbreaker provides some great, full-range rhythm sounds, which I find a ton of fun for choppy, aggressive bluesy riffing, as well as the Hendrix-style, Bold As Love thing covered in John Mayer’s Continuum album.

The last item in the Pre FX section is the Millipede Delay, which is based on the Way Huge Aqua Puss. Emulating a short analogue delay with just Time, Feedback, and Blend controls, it’s a simple tool for adding a little slapback and beefing up those leads.

We aren’t quite done with effects before the amp, as next in the chain is the Gravity Tank. This is a two-in-one effect, providing movement ranging from a subtle wobble to an organ-like sound via a harmonic tremolo and some space courtesy of a convincing, delightfully drippy spring reverb.

It would be nice to have the option to move the Spring Reverb post-amplifier, but alas, none of the signal chain can be moved around in this way, which is a little limiting for anyone wanting to experiment with the models here.

What we do have post-amp is a powerful four-band parametric EQ that provides everything needed to make studio-ready tone tweaks, and a compressor. Another limitation comes with the compressor, as the only controls are Input and Output.

This is because the other settings one might expect to have access to are preset to Mayer’s specifications, allowing you to get straight to Mayer-esque tones. While I appreciate the benefit of this, I would rather have the extra versatility to tweak for myself.

The Post FX section consists of the Dream Delay and Studio Verb, with the reverb emulating both a Hall and a Plate. Here lies the longer delay times that the Millipede delay is lacking, and a more modern-sounding Reverb compared to the aforementioned spring reverb.

The delay is a fairly simple affair with just Mix, Feedback, Time, and Hardness controls. It’s that last one that I find particularly useful, as at zero, it darkens the delay, keeping it out of the way of the mix. Combine it with the Ping Pong option, and there are a lot of ambient tones to be found here.

The Studio Verb sports a Mix, Pre-Delay, Decay, Low Cut, and High Cut. My favourite setting is the Plate on a fairly high Mix (around 45%), with a short Decay and a little Pre-Delay. It results in a sound that encapsulates the guitar tone without getting in the way of it, adding a lovely amount of space, which is incredibly pleasing for those ballad-like clean riffs.

The highlight of the plugin for me is using these effects with the ‘Three In One’ amp, which blends all three amps together, recreating the setup John Mayer uses live and in the studio. The amplifier’s different EQs complement each other nicely, resulting in a well-balanced nature that lends itself to clean and edge-of-breakup sounds.

Turning the gain up here yields an old-school type of bitey overdrive. As I go to change settings on each amp, to find that I can’t. Similarly, the cab section is disabled too, meaning I cannot tweak any of the mic settings.

In this mode, the three amps and cabs are set to John’s preferences, with the idea that the user is able to blend in each amp to taste and adjust drive via an overall Gain control, and some reverb through a Room Send.

Again, like with the compressor, I see the benefit here, but I would rather have the extra versatility of editing each amp and cab for myself.

Instead, I set up the Three-In-One amp to an edge-of-breakup tone and make use of the drive pedals in the Pre-FX section. This is so much fun that I spend way too much time here. Combine this with the rest of the effects, and it’s bluesy/pop/rock heaven.

To round this all off, we have a couple of useful utilities in the Gate, Transpose, and Doubler. The Gate works well, easily getting rid of amplifier hiss.

Transpose allows a 12 semi-tone shift either way. Single note lines translate well throughout the range, and chords are good down to four semitones, at which point the more sophisticated voicings start to become a little dark and warbly, which is an impressive range for these types of chords.

The Doubler is a real plus in my book. It introduces an almost imperceptible delay and creates an impression of a stereo spread, similar to the effect of double tracking audio and panning the two tracks hard left and right. Once this is experienced, it’s hard to bring yourself to turn it off.

And I could say the same thing about the plugin as a whole. I just want to keep playing it.

Verdict

At €199, this is priced a little higher than other Archetype products, but for the John Mayer fan at least, this is the perfect plugin. Which is a pretty obvious conclusion, but recreating iconic tones from a highly discerning modern guitar hero is no mean feat, so Neural DSP deserves the plaudits for having done it so successfully.

Most will not be able to get the real amplifiers modeled here, so it’s a real treat to be able to recreate those tones within the plugin at sensible home-friendly volumes, even considering the streamlined controls of the Headroom Hero and Signature 83. With the included pedals, Neural has convincingly recreated the important parts of John’s rig.

Personally, I would have liked a bit more tweakability in the compressor, the ability to change settings on each individual amp in the Three-In-One mode, and more flexibility in ordering the signal chain. The flip side of having these set to John Mayer’s preferences, however, is that it points you squarely at his tone, which makes sense given that this is a signature plugin.

And for those of us who play live with a Quad Cortex, there will be a whole other element to be explored when this X edition becomes compatible with the unit soon.

Guitar World Verdict: From ambient cleans, bluesy crunch, and mid-forward saturated leads, the John Mayer Archetype X covers the gamut of Mayer’s tones. Modeling all the important elements of his rig, it’s the perfect plugin for fans and provides endless fun for guitarists in that bluesy/pop/rock realm.

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• Best Neural DSP plugins: 10 recommended Neural plugins tested with sound samples

Neural DSP and John Mayer have formed a landmark partnership to release Archetype: John Mayer X – a new plugin that makes some of Mayer’s most iconic guitar tones available to the masses in digital form.

It is, quite simply, one of the most significant gear launches of the modern era. On one side of the partnership is John Mayer – a 21st century guitar hero, lauded for his unrivalled guitar tones and famed gear collection, which comprises a range of boutique and vintage amps and pedals.

And, on the other side is Neural DSP – the market’s leading innovator in the amp and pedal modeling space, who, over the course of its various plugins, artist collaborations, and hardware launches, has changed the face of the amp modeler landscape as we know it.

A partnership between the two, then, seems surprising at first. Particularly, given that Mayer is largely a loyalist to vintage analog gear and tube amps. His tone – the muse of many YouTubers and social media accounts – is carefully curated from a stacked rig that has over the years featured Two Rocks, Dumbles, vintage Fenders, and a fluid pedalboard that always has a Klon Centaur at its heart.

For Mayer to put his faith and name into a plugin, therefore, is a watershed moment for modeling – and, likely, a compelling signal to players who may have felt reluctant to try the technology before.

It’s also a statement of Mayer’s intent to embrace new technology – similar to his approach with refining the Strat for his signature Silver Sky – and the ability of Neural DSP’s cutting edge software in convincing an analog connoisseur to place his faith in the product.

There have been signs this day would come, too. Not only was a Fractal used to record some of Sob Rock’s guitar parts, Mayer also played a Quad Cortex during a Coachella guest spot, and praised a Universal Audio amp modeler.

And so, Archetype: John Mayer X – it offers models of Mayer’s most prized gear, which have been behind some of the most influential studio and live guitar recordings of the past 20 years.

For amps, the plugin is “grounded in the amps that anchor his clean tones”. That means there are three standalone models based on his 1964 Fender Vibroverb, his Dumble Steel String Singer #002, and his Two Rock prototype signature #83.

There’s also an all-encompassing Three-In-One amp, which recreates the multi-amp setup that Mayer uses live and in the studio. Here, the amps – and matching cabs – are blended and routed exactly like Mayer’s own rig.

These are paired with matching cabinets for each amp, including Mayer’s Fender combo with a 15” CTS speaker, his Dumble cabinet loaded with a vintage EVM12L, and the Celestion G12M Greenback from his Two Rock cab.

Five essential John Mayer pedals have also been modeled. There’s the Justa Boost, a model of his always-on Keeley Katana compressor; the Halfman OD, a recreation of his indispensable Klon Centaur; and the Millipede Delay, a replica of his Way Huge Aqua Puss.

There’s also the Antelope Filter – a take on his EHX Q-Tron, which is essential for songs such as I Don’t Trust Myself (Loving You) – and the Tealbreaker, a two-in-one drive effect with sides for the Ibanez TS-10 and Marshall Bluesbreaker pedals.

The plugin also features Dream Delay – modeled after Mayer’s go-to Providence Chrono-Delay – as well as an additional compressor and EQ. And there's a tweaked UI, reportedly introduced at Mayer’s request, for greater usability.

It is, in other words, a comprehensive plugin that covers all the bases that any discerning Mayer fan would ever desire in order to tap into his tone.

As Neural DSP CEO Douglas Castro tells Guitar World of the plugin’s creation, the company first started working with Mayer back in 2022, and began work on the Archetype earlier this year.

“We had a call with John and after about 20 minutes of explaining that we could do pretty much anything he was looking for, he became genuinely excited,” he says of the collaboration. “That’s essentially how the relationship kicked off.”

The project was headed up by Neural DSP Plugins Product Manager François Barrillon. It was a partnership like no other, he explains to Guitar World, because it involved the Neural DSP team shipping all their modeling equipment from the HQ in Finland to Mayer’s studio.

It was a success, though, and the results speak for themselves. Mayer has already given his signature plugin its live debut on the radio during a Life with John Mayer radio show.

Guitar World has already reviewed Archetype: John Mayer X, too, with Pete Emery praising its ambient cleans and bluesy crunch, calling it "the perfect plugin for fans".

“There are still plenty of people who doubt digital amp modeling,” Barrillon reflects in an upcoming interview.

“I’m not trying to convert anyone, but honestly, if it’s good enough for John Mayer to use on stage and to develop a full plugin with us, it’s good enough for basically any player.

“I’m convinced that even die-hard tube amp purists will be very surprised by how dynamic, warm, and genuinely ‘real’ this plugin feels. I know plenty of tube amps that sound far colder and more lifeless than this.

“I’ll never forget sending John the first prototype,” he continues. “I was so nervous and thought, ‘God, I hope this sounds right.’ Two days later, he sent me a video of himself in the studio playing the Slow Dancing in a Burning Room solo through the plugin… and it sounded just like the record. That’s when I knew we had it.”

“John’s sound has inspired guitarists around the world, and it was a privilege to work with him directly to recreate the rig that anchors his tone,” Castro said in a press release. “There’s an intimacy to the way his rig responds – it breathes, it opens up, it carries emotion – and capturing that behavior was one of the most meaningful projects we’ve taken on.”

Archetype: John Mayer X is available now. It is priced at €169 in the US plus tax calculated at checkout, and €199 in the UK/EU VAT included.

Visit Neural DSP for more, and keep an eye out for Guitar World’s upcoming interview with the company on how one of the biggest gear collaborations of the modern age came to be.

[Update: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Archetype: John Mayer X is Quad Cortex compatible. This compatibility will be made available at a later update]

When PRS dropped its USA-made Core Silver Sky in 2018, they weren’t just releasing a John Mayer signature six-string, and they weren’t trying to break the internet; they were reinventing the wheel, to speak.

The wheel in question was the Fender Strat, a guitar brandished by everyone from Jeff Beck to David Gilmour to Mayer himself. But Mayer – and Paul Reed Smith – wanted something different, something fresh, new and inventive. This would require forward thinking, painstaking effort and, to be frank, balls. Of Mayer’s general mentality toward the Silver Sky, Smith says, “He’s not messing around. If he had a guitar that he liked better, he would use it.”

The Silver Sky, be it the Core or SE model, has been a sensation since its release. But beyond its favored status, it's a guitar that Mayer actually plays.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to pretend to love them,” he says. “I’m not playing something else in the studio, because this is the guitar I always wanted to own. I can’t outplay it. That’s the dream.”

Now that Mayer’s dream has become a reality, has his appreciation for the Silver Sky grown? “Let me answer it like this: I love guitar players. I adore their minds – they’re closed until they’re open, and when something opens it, they tend to give respect to whatever it was that could manage to change it.”

Mayer knew that changing – and opening – minds would take time. “I knew the Silver Sky would take years to take its place in the world,” he says. “And I say this cautiously, but it feels like it’s become pretty widely accepted. You can accept it and still not dig it, but what’s happened over the past several years is that people have kind of agreed it has a right to exist.”

The Silver Sky has continued to be a bestseller. PRS now offers an affordable yet high-quality SE version, making the guitar accessible to a broader audience.

The Silver Sky is on our list of the 50 most important pieces of gear of the last 25 years. What does that mean to you?

John Mayer: It’s definitely one of my proudest accomplishments in my life. I wanted to design – or redesign, to get ahead of any objections there – an instrument that players can use to make their music on. The guitar is usually referred to as a Silver Sky without my name attached.

I love that, because my favorite thing is to see how other guitarists use it to express themselves. The ultimate dream is to see it in the hands of people who don’t even consider themselves a fan of my music. That’s how you know you’ve created something worthwhile.

Paul Reed Smith: It’s an honor. Watching John get the tones he gets out of it has been fascinating. He said, “This is what I need it to do when I play it. I don’t want to look down and try to find where I’m at.” I thought he really did a great job when we released it.

After playing Strats for so many years, John, what led to the guitar's creation?

Mayer: It’s been a dream for many years to have more input on the design of a guitar than simply having a signature model. I was looking to create something based on the past but fully updated to have a modern-day ethos. And PRS saw the vision there.

As you were retooling an iconic instrument, the Silver Sky’s general specs were important. What went into them?

Smith: We spent a huge amount of time on the headstock shape, pickguard shape and body. We retooled the knobs, jack plate, pickup covers, bobbins, magnets and windings. The way we finished the body, how we leveled the necks, frets and nuts we used was different from anything we’d done before. There wasn’t anything that was left untouched until John was happy.

What was your goal for the pickups and their voicing, John?

Mayer: I wanted to sound like I’ve been known to sound, but with a little less midrange dip. As I get older, I understand and enjoy a little more midrange. It’s pleasant to me now.

Those deep EQ carve-outs are super-fun, but after thousands of hours of playing, certain frequencies have made permanent grooves in my brain, and I want to cut new ones next to, but not on top of them. Maybe that’s the definition of evolution, I don’t know. [Laughs]

Paul, what went into voicing the pickups?

Smith: We went to a soundcheck with a Silver Sky prototype at this huge indoor arena in Washington, D.C. I was standing on the stage, and John had his ’64 Strat that he played Gravity on, and he compared it to the Silver Sky prototype. And the Strat’s pickups had 6dB more bass and 6dB less harsh high-end – they were louder.

Everything about them was different. I had wound the Silver Sky pickups exactly the way you see on the internet, but they were off by 6dB in every direction. I said to him, “If I can measure the Strat’s pickups on my pickup machine, I can do it.”

John said, “I can live without it for one day.” His tech, René Martinez, gave me the Strat. I put it in the back of our car and said to my wife, “Whatever you do, don’t get in a rear‑end accident.” [Laughs]

What did you find while evaluating the Strat’s pickups?

Smith: I did the sacrilegious thing: I unsoldered the bass pickup, which I don’t think had ever been done before, took it out, and put it in my pickup machine. What came up on the screen was something we’d never seen the likes of. I was like, “Whoa!”

We soldered the bass pickup back in, put the guitar back together, took it back to John, and I started calling electrical engineers about why I was seeing wildly different results. It was that bass pickup that Gravity was recorded on, right? And we got it.

Not only did we get it, you’re talking about having to do it exactly the same – it’s not easy. The magnets, wires and bobbins are from different factories. But we got it. It was very difficult, but it also was joyful.

You also reworked the neck profile, correct?

Mayer: Before creating this guitar, I didn’t understand what neck radius meant. I just looked at the guitars I loved the most, and they were 7.25”. That was my measuring stick.

Now that I know the math behind it, I still don’t think about it. The difference between 7.25” and 9.5” is less significant than your strap being an inch higher or lower. I’ll fight anybody on that.

The reason I believe this is because every guitar is different and has about 100 points of variation. Neck profile helps sort out neck profile, which is only one of many details. So the only way to truly compare radii is to build two molecularly exact copies of the same guitar with just that difference.

But we have to try and organize these details in some less-chaotic way, which is why we debate 7.25” vs 9.5”. I can do everything on this neck that I could do on a 9.5”. If the guitar is set up correctly, if the frets are level – which these are – you can do anything you want in regard to bending strings on this neck radius.

Why has the Silver Sky resonated with so many people?

Mayer: I think it’s because I really play them. I designed a guitar that I track-tested. It’s like a sports car that can hug a turn at 100 mph – whether you’re on the track or just driving down the coastline, you know the performance capability is there.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

John Mayer named his favorite Grateful Dead tune to solo over during a recent Q&A on his radio show – and took the opportunity to play it live on air.

Since its inception back in November 2023, Life with John Mayer – the Sob Rock electric guitar star’s own exclusive year-round radio program on SiriusXM – has been a hotbed of insight, offering unique behind-the-scenes glimpses of Mayer’s creative activities.

Not only has he openly discussed his approach to songwriting, and named his favorite album from his own repertoire, in the past, he’s also used the channel to shine a light on emerging players, praising the likes of George Collins.

Now, in an on-air Q&A, he’s named his favorite Grateful Dead song to solo over.

“Well, I happen to have a guitar here. Do you know this song?” Mayer says in the studio in response to the question, before riffing through China Cat Sunflower – a track lifted from the band’s 1969 studio record, Aoxomoxoa.

Mayer takes a beat to explain why he likes China Cat Sunflower so much. Moving around the fretboard and flicking between rhythm and lead, he pulls out some of his go-to licks, including some tasty descending chromatic runs, which lead directly back into the main hook.

With some helpful narrative, it’s a useful insight into what goes through Mayer’s mind when he’s constructing a solo.

China Cat Sunflower is a particularly interesting ‘case study’ – Mayer always has his mind on Weir’s vocal melodies, and is aware of what’s going on around him, shaping the parts he plays in service of the song.

He's still completely in the zone, though. When he finishes the solo, he admits, “I step back and I’m like, ‘Don’t think about it. Maybe you nailed it, maybe you didn’t.’”

It helps that his phrasing is characteristically top notch, and that his tone and feel is impeccable. He could riff a rubber band over China Cat Sunflower and it would still sound good.

The best part of the clip? Funnily enough, it’s not Mayer’s playing. It’s the fact the person asking the question filmed their reaction to his answer – and the look they give when Mayer starts to solo away is priceless.

Mayer has spent the past 10 years playing with Bob Weir in Dead & Company, having formed the supergroup back in 2015. In that time, they’ve been honoring the music of Grateful Dead, but during an interview with Guitar World earlier this the pair hinted at the possibility of releasing new music together.

The video seems pretty unassuming at first glance – a guy standing in a field with an acoustic guitar; a dramatic, open blue sky behind him. Sure, he's holding a nylon-string, not quite your typical campfire acoustic, but it's a scene that can be found, say, in many a music video.

But Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Hudson Freeman, with the idyllic vista of rural Southern Indiana behind him, then digs into If You Know Me, an understated lament with a bulls-eye riff; one of those magic ones that hits you like a hammer from bar one.

One could wax poetic about it, but listening to it yourself is far easier.

The word “viral” long ago descended into over-use, but you can't really describe the video – posted to TikTok on August 30 – any other way; its view count currently sits at 1.5 million.

If you're anywhere even adjacent to the guitar side of TikTok, you've probably either seen the original, or watched one of the many, many covers that've already sprung up. A sizable percentage of these are simply guitarists disregarding the lyrics, and just grooving on the riff – and who can blame them?

Earlier this month, none other than John Mayer had a go at it, posting a version on his Instagram and shouting Freeman out, with the caption, “Had to learn this riff.” Not a small compliment from the man who himself wrote one of the 21st century's ultimate song-opening show-stoppers.

So what it makes it so distinct?

A whole lot of it is the tuning Freeman uses: C#, F#, B, E, G#, B, as the man himself clarified in a tutorial. He absolutely digs into that top string to open the tune, it sounds like he's halfway to ripping it off entirely.

The tuning is off-the-beaten-path and distinctly grunge-y, conjuring flannel and TV static. “Country Nirvana,” commented one user on the original video. “I’m here for it.”

Earlier this month, Freeman released a more polished, full-band version of the song, with some tasty doubling of the magic riff on electric guitar.

A standalone single as of right now, whatever album accompanies If You Know Me in 2026 (or later) will surely be one of the most anticipated in the indiesphere...

Though Pino Palladino’s resume is staggering, his approach to work is quite simple: “I just turn up with a couple of basses, to be quite honest,” he tells Bass Player. Of course, it’s not that simple.

Through the ’80s and ’90s his beloved fretless StringRay appeared on records by Paul Young, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Don Henley, Phil Collins, Tears For Fears, Go West and Joan Armatrading, among others. That iconic instrument has now been commemorated by Ernie Ball Music Man with a new signature model.

After 50 years in the game, his fretted and fretless playing still reaches the top of the charts.

“Miley Cyrus, Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé, Harry Styles – they’re all great artists,” he says. “Their songs sound great before I even get to them. The question is, ‘How do I fit in but also add something?’ That process has never changed.”

Few bassists have a catalog as extensive as yours. What do you think when you look back?

I wasn’t particularly ambitious when I started playing. It wasn’t like, as a teenager, I thought I’d be a session musician. I just wanted to play guitar or bass in a band.

Did you choose the bass or did it choose you?

It chose me, definitely. I was really into sports in my early teens, but a short time after I started playing guitar, I could hear chords and recognize them, even if I didn’t have a guitar. I didn’t realize that was unusual!

How did you get your start in session work?

It just happened. I saw a couple of concerts with backing musicians playing behind solo artists, and I thought, “They sound really good, but they’re not a band as such. I wonder who they are?”

Early on in your session career, you began using a Music Man StingRay fretless bass. What led to that?

I grew up in Cardiff, Wales, and I’d had a Kramer fretless for a little while. I often try to remember what the hell I did with it! I must have sold it or traded it. But I’d I never really gravitated toward it – I’d just wanted to try it out.

But then in 1981, when I was in New York on tour, I went into a Sam Ash on 48th Street and saw this StingRay fretless bass, and it just looked cool. I bought it and I played it at the show that night. It was a big turning point for me – I started to find my own sound.

Another key piece of your early rig was the Boss Octave pedal. What led you to that?

I was working on a session and I came up with a bassline, then I had the idea to double the line an octave higher. I liked it, so I bought a Boss OC-2 to get that sound live.

At what point did you begin to feel you’d created a sound on bass that people wanted on their records?

That was in the ’80s. The first chance I got to play my Music Man on a record was Gary Numan’s I, Assassin. Gary was very encouraging and gave me license to express myself.

Then Laurie Latham and Ian Kewley, who were working for Paul Young, called me to play on his No Parlez record. I went did five records and numerous tours with Paul through the ’80s. That’s when people heard me playing the fretless. I got a lot of calls after that!

One of those records was David Gilmour’s About Face in 1984.

I’d played on a song for Paul called Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home). We did an arrangement that was pretty different from Marvin Gaye’s original; we slowed it down, and Paul really made the song his own – he really killed it.

They had left space for a bass intro and suggested I should come up with a fretless melody to introduce the vocal. David Gilmour heard that song; he’d seen me playing live with Paul around 1983, so he invited me to play on his record.

That was like a dream for me! I was a huge Pink Floyd fan, and even more a David Gilmour fan! His guitar playing is so melodic and soulful. He told me who was playing on the record – “We’ve got Jeff Porcaro on drums, Steve Winwood on keyboards” – and I’m freaking out. It was one of those huge moments for me.

In 1985 you played on Pete Townshend’s White City: A Novel.

That’s connected, too – David did a song on his record called Love On The Air that he’d written with Pete. Pete heard that, and so I was recommended for White City. That was the start of my relationship with Pete.

Was the chemistry between you and Pete immediate?

It was actually the second song where we really kicked off. The first song was White City Fighting, and there was a bass feature in there. It all went well, and Pete was very positive. He asked Chris Thomas, the producer: “You know that song we cut the other day? Why doesn’t Pino try playing on that as well?”

He left the room while Chris played me Give Blood, which David Gilmour had played on, along with Simon Phillips on drums. It sounded so amazing, but there was no bass on it. It was like, “Hello – it’s my lucky day!”

I came up with an idea using the octaver. Pete came back while I was doing it and he really liked it. I think Give Blood really opened up the thing with Pete.

In 1989 you played on Eric Clapton’s comeback hit, Bad Love.

That came about through Phil Collins. I’d already worked with Phil, who was doing that song with Eric, and I got the call. I remember hearing the intro and coming up with a fretless line. Once we cut the track live I went into the control room and fleshed out my intro idea.

In the ’90s you transitioned from the fretless StingRay to a traditional fretted. What led to that?

From the early ’80s through 1995, that fretless was pretty much the only instrument I used. That’s a lot of fretless over a long time! Then I had a short-scale Fender Mustang bass, and I started playing that. In the ’70s I listened to a lot of R&B, funk and Motown; and in the ’90s, I just wanted to get back to that stuff.

Is that when the Fender P-Bass came into play?

In 1974 my father had bought me my first-ever bass, a 1974 Fender Precision. Round about 1992 I got myself a ’60s Fender Precision and put some flatwound strings on it.

My great friend Steve Jordan and I were always talking about the sound of those incredible records from back in the day. That’s what inspired me to put flats on my Precision Bass. As soon as I put them on I was like, “There’s the sound!”

I felt like that was the sound I wanted to hear again. It certainly wasn’t popular; in fact, that sound had been considered pretty old-fashioned through the ’70s and ’80s. In 1997 I was asked to play on an album of duets for B.B. King, Deuces Wild.

That’s how I met D’Angelo, which led to me to recording and touring with him, then using my P-Bass at Electric Lady Studios with the Soulquarians. We recorded for Erykah Badu, Common, Bilal, De La Soul, Talib Kweli and Roy Hargrove, amongst others.

In 1999 you featured on Jeff Beck’s Who Else! record.

I’d actually toured with Jeff back in 1993. He was just so special – for me he’s the greatest. I’d been a fan since The Jeff Beck Group days; then later on the Blow by Blow album blew my mind. I also toured with him in 2006 and we did a live record with Vinnie Colaiuta and Jason Rebello, Official Bootleg USA ’06. That was such great band.

Jeff liked the way the fretless bass sounded and I learned so much from playing unison lines with him – the way he’d bend notes and use vibrato. He’d sometimes pick up my fretless and just play the craziest licks. I was in awe! “Jeff, please show me that lick you just played!”

Your work with John Mayer beginning with 2005’s Try! is also noteworthy. How did you hook up with him?

That came through Steve Jordan. I got the call to go and play with John and Steve in New York, and after rehearsing a song for the tsunami relief TV show, we started jamming on other stuff.

There was obvious chemistry there; John’s playing and his love for that music really shone through. It was just the perfect meeting at the perfect time for us. He actually booked a tour for us as The John Mayer Trio, even though we didn’t have many songs to play!

What were your observations of John as a player and bandmate?

He’s a very natural musician – he’s got such a great ear for melody, harmony and arrangement. Just listen to Neon, an amazing guitar piece. He plays that live on an acoustic, with the bassline and the chords at the same time, along with some topline stuff. And he’s singing too!

You’ve been playing with The Who since John Entwistle’s death in 2002. Pete has often said your arrival opened new avenues of inspiration for him.

I guess Pete knew what he was getting with me, but there was no way I could have played in the same style that John did; he was unique. Luckily for me, Pete encouraged me to be myself.

There are obviously some iconic, brilliant and memorable basslines that John played. His lines are often integral parts of the songs and they need to be played like he did. I always tried to pay homage to the music of the band – in the end it’s all about the music.

Did you have to alter your approach much to fit in with The Who?

Not really, apart from hitting the strings harder, and digging in more to cut through that huge band sound. I just tried to follow Pete but be ready to react with the group’s dynamics.

What are your typical recording and touring rigs like these days?

For recording it’s pretty much just turning up with a couple of basses. Sometimes I’ll take a pedalboard with a Khan DI. At most studios there’s an Ampeg B-15 amp, and I have a Pure Tone valve amp and an Eich combo. But I’m okay with whatever they have at the session. Most engineers will take a DI as well as an amp sound and match them up.

For playing live we all have in-ears now, so there’s no big rigs on stage. Last time I toured with John Mayer I had a B-15. I don’t even know if the speaker was plugged in – it was a B-15 head driving the bass sound and the DI into the in-ears.

What’s next for you?

I recently released That Wasn’t a Dream, my second album with Blake Mills. We had a lot of fun making it. Blake is an incredibly gifted musician and producer. I’m really looking forward to touring to support it with Blake, Chris Dave and Sam Gendel.

I’ve also worked with Ernie Ball on the signature version of my ’79 fretless Music Man StingRay bass that’s just come out. I enjoyed working with the team at Ernie Ball; we really got into the fine details of what makes my bass unique, and built all those details into the signature model.

• For more information on the Pino Palladino StingRay, head to Ernie Ball Music Man.

John Mayer has offered a potentially spicy hot take concerning the build of an electric guitar: neck radius doesn't actually matter all that much.

His PRS Silver Sky has become one of the best-selling signature guitars in recent years, having topped Reverb’s sales charts for 2022 and 2023. It took two years to fully develop, and speaking about that process in the new issue of Guitar World, Mayer detailed how the experience proved to be an education for him, too.

“Before creating this guitar, I didn't understand what neck radius meant,” he admits, “I just looked at the guitars I loved the most, and they were 7.25". That was my measuring stick. Now that I know the math behind it, I still don't think about it.”

In simple terms, 'neck' radius – or, more accurately, fretboard radius – relates to how much a fretboard curves. As conventional wisdom would have it, 'rounder' fretboards make fretting easier as they better trace the natural curvature of our fingers. Flatter necks are typically better at bends and guitar solos, because there's less resistance to move over.

Many firms have their preferred measurements. Very broadly speaking, a 7.25" radius offers a more 'vintage' style, while the likes of 9.5" and 12" are used on more modern builds. But Mayer doesn’t see it as the be-all and end-all.

“The difference between 7.25" and 9.5" is less significant than your guitar strap being an inch higher or lower,” he professes. “I'll fight anybody on that.

“Every guitar is different and has about 100 points of variation,” he explains. “Neck profile helps sort out neck profile, which is only one of many details. So the only way to truly compare radii is to build two molecularly exact copies of the same guitar with just that difference.

“I can do everything on this neck that I could do on a 9.25". If the guitar is set up correctly, if the frets are level, you can do anything you want.”

Elsewhere in his Guitar World interview, for which he was joined by Paul Reed Smith, Mayer looked back on the making of the Silver Sky. During the conversation, Smith recalled the unexpected discovery he made when he put Mayer's 1964 Strat under the microscope.

Head to Magazines Direct to pick up the new issue of Guitar World, which features a list of the best guitar gear of the 21st century.

Jim Root has looked back on the development of his game-changing Fender signature guitar, and discussed why it was such a monumental launch for both him and the company.

Ever since Fender’s flagship Telecaster became the world’s first mass-produced solidbody electric guitar almost three-quarters of a century ago, the design has remained relatively constant.

Sure, the recipe has been refined to the nth degree, and there have been whole tiers of Teles over the years, but the overarching spirit has largely remained unchanged.

That was until Slipknot’s Jim Root came along and completely flipped things on their head with a signature that reimagined the traditional T-type as a no-nonsense, frill-free heavy metal machine.

It pushed the boundaries of what a Tele could be, bringing it into the modern age and alleviating the stigma that came with tweaking traditional Fender builds. John Mayer even praised it as what “every Tele should look like in this day and age”.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitar World, Root recalled the making of his signature Tele and explained why it came at a pivotal time for him and Fender.

“I was endorsed by the Fender Custom Shop, and they wanted to push me toward Charvel,” he remembers.

“Their prototypes weren’t landing, so I talked to Alex Perez [from Fender's research and development team] – who, if it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be a Fender artist – and I said, ‘Can we just come back to the Fender side of things?’”

The Slipknot guitarist had his eye on the Tele, so when Perez helped him bring things back to the Fender fold, he knew where to start.

“If I walked on stage with a Jackson or B.C. Rich, that would be typical, so I wanted to take something classic and iconic and make it functional for what I do,” he explains of his decision.

“And I think Fender, at the time, needed something to, not erase the stigma of being an iconic, older company, but bring them into more modern times. It made sense, and Fender was down. I got lucky. The stars aligned!”

The concept of the Root Tele was simple. It had to pay homage to the original design, but in a way that would cater to Root’s aesthetic and tonal needs.

“I wanted to be minimalist with it. I almost thought about trying to see if we could lose the pickguard, but I wanted it to be traditional-looking,” he states. “I went with the modern string-through, hardtail bridge and the EMG pickups I was already using.

“I wanted it to be a workhorse I could bash around, beat up, hit with metal pipes and get thrown into kegs without breaking in half.”

Root’s Tele is one of Fender’s most notable signature releases, and was later followed by a similarly radical Jazzmaster and Stratocaster. And, although the Slipknot guitarist initially wanted to steer clear of the Charvel route, he did launch a signature guitar with the company a few years ago.

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features a list of the best guitar gear of the 21st century.

When John Mayer and PRS unveiled the Silver Sky, the reception was divisive. Some praised it for taking the Strat into the modern age. Others dismissed it as yet another Stratocaster clone.

The truth of the matter is that the Silver Sky was the result of two years of research and development, during which Mayer and Paul Reed Smith worked to redesign and retool the classic S-type template.

Their success developing the Silver Sky paid off, and it has been one of the best-selling electric guitars on the market for the past few years. It not only speaks volumes of how public opinion towards the model has warmed in recent times, but also how highly players rate it.

A lot of that is down to how good it sounds – largely thanks to its specially voiced pickups, which were inspired by one of Mayer’s prized vintage Fender Strats.

To land on that winning formula, Smith turned his attention to Mayer’s 1964 Fender Stratocaster – the famed vintage sunburst model that ranks second only to the Black One in the list of Mayer's most well-known Fenders.

It is the model that's most closely associated with Slow Dancing In a Burning Room, and one that became a mainstay in Mayer's pre-PRS guitar rotation. When it went under the microscope for inspection, though, Smith ended up stumbling upon something he’d never come across.

“We went to a soundcheck with a Silver Sky prototype at this huge indoor arena in Washington, D.C,” Smith says in the new issue of Guitar World. “I was standing on the stage, and John had his ’64 Strat that he played Gravity on, and he compared it to the Silver Sky prototype.

“And the Strat’s pickups had 6 dB more bass and 6 dB less harsh high end – they were louder. Everything about them was different. I had wound the Silver Sky pickups exactly the way you see on the internet, but they were off by 6 dB in every direction.”

Tapping into the Strat’s sounds was a critical part of the process. They had to get it right. Smith needed to go deeper.

“I said to him, 'If I can measure the Strat’s pickups on my pickup machine, I can do it.' John said, 'I can live without it for one day.' His tech, René Martinez, gave me the Strat. I put it in the back of our car and said to my wife, 'Whatever you do, don’t get in a rear‑end accident.'”

The Strat arrived in one piece at PRS HQ, where Smith made an unexpected discovery after performing some rather heinous surgery on the single-coils.

“I did the sacrilegious thing: I unsoldered the bass pickup, which I don’t think had ever been done before, took it out, and put it in my pickup machine,” he remembers. “What came up on the screen was something we’d never seen the likes of.

“I was like, ‘Whoa!’ We soldered the bass pickup back in, put the guitar back together, took it back to John, and I started calling electrical engineers about why I was seeing wildly different results.”

Smith plays it coy on what exactly made the bass pickup so special – a magician never reveals his secrets, after all – but the lengthy process was worth it. They ended up nailing the design brief.

“We got it. Not only did we get it, you’re talking about having to do it exactly the same – it’s not easy,” Smith says. “The magnets, wires and bobbins are from different factories. But we got it. It was very difficult, but it also was joyful.”

As for what he wanted those pickups to sound like, Mayer explains to Guitar World, “I wanted to sound like I’ve been known to sound, but with a little less midrange dip. As I get older, I understand and enjoy a little more midrange.

“It’s pleasant to me now. Those deep EQ carve-outs are super-fun, but after thousands of hours of playing, certain frequencies have made permanent grooves in my brain, and I want to cut new ones next to, but not on top of them. Maybe that’s the definition of evolution, I don’t know.”

Pick up the latest issue of Guitar World at Magazines Direct to read John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith’s full recollection of the Silver Sky’s origins, along with a list of the best guitar gear of the 21st century.

John Mayer has waxed lyrical about what makes his PRS Silver Sky signature guitar – and PRS electric guitars in general – unlike any other, saying there’s one “miraculous” thing about it.

As is well known, Mayer was a Fender Strat player during the first half of his career but later pivoted to the PRS ranks, launching his highly acclaimed Silver Sky in 2018 after a two year R&D period.

Since then, the Silver Sky has sold like hot cakes, topping Reverb’s list of best-selling electric guitars for two years running before it was dethroned last year.

In a new video, Mayer has once again discussed what it is about PRS guitars that captured his heart – and though it comes from a PRS post that no doubt wants to highlight the Silver Sky, Mayer's comments on the brand's ethos make for interesting listening.

“When I started playing PRS, I never looked back,” he says. “They're extremely high-performance instruments, and whether you are playing on the couch at home or on a stage in front of a crowd of people, there's nothing you can't do on these guitars.”

Above all, though, he champions two features of the Silver Sky design, which has been aesthetically reprised in various forms over the years, The first of those is the consistency of the builds.

“I could go into any music store in the world, pick a Silver Sky up off the wall, play it that night, and never skip a beat,” he purrs. “The same instrument that I play is available to anyone in the world who picks up a PRS, and that is the most exciting thing as a guitar player, which I still am, no matter what.

“I don't think you've ever seen me break a string on-stage with this guitar or any PRS,” he adds, “and that's just miraculous.”

Again, Mayer has a vested interest in selling the Silver Sky here, but with PRS' reputation for flawless craftsmanship and build quality, his comments strike a chord. Plus, it's an interesting insight into Mayer's priorities as a guitar player and designer, and how PRS was able to capture his affection.

Having said that, his relationship with PRS actually got off to a rocky start when he had to go above and beyond to prove to the person he was calling at the firm that he was actually John Mayer, and not some prankster.

In related news, Mayer was a guest star at Matthew McConaughey's book launch, providing an artist crossover none of us knew we needed.

The guitarist has also revealed he has enough songs to put out a follow-up record to 2021's Sob Rock, but he won't be rushing its creation.

Josh Scott, the mad scientist behind JHS Pedals, had to dial down the crazy after a recent mountain biking accident – but he’s getting back in the saddle now. “I definitely keep overdoing it, because I love getting stuff done,” he admits.

That’s life for the man who invented the Internet-breaking NotaKlön and a host of stomp-boxes. So of course he used his convalescence to his advantage, reporting: “The accident gave me lots of time to rest, dream, and work on ideas and concepts.

“I think I’ll come back better than ever. And I think JHS will do some very exciting things that would have never come to fruition if I hadn’t had the downtime. There was a silver lining in it.”

The NotaKlön has been a massive hit. How did it come about?

“It came from me loving the Klon. But there are so many good replications or clones of the circuit, and I wanted to do something unique. After several years of wrestling with that dynamic, I had an epiphany at an IKEA.

“I started thinking about the IKEA Effect – an actual sociological term. When we build a piece of furniture, it’s more valuable to us because we put effort in. That’s a big piece of IKEA’s success.

“And it felt like a really fun idea. I saw a product where parents who love the JHS brand could do something as a craft with their kids. That’s how we filmed the video and marketed the product.”

Has the continued demand surprised you?

“Yes! But I feel like I shouldn’t have been. With every release we’ve done over the last couple of years, I’m learning that we need to build more than we ever dreamed.”

What makes the NotaKlön different?

“There are clones of the Klon circuit, even DIY kits, but there’s nothing as simple, modular, intuitive and almost Lego-like as the NotaKlön. I don’t have vast ideas about changing or reshaping the market, but I do think it’s a truly innovative way to make a pedal.

“It even irritated a few people! I saw a couple of other pedal builders who seemed to be annoyed by how toy-like and fun it was. And to me, that was the whole point. I wasn’t trying to change the world – I was trying to create a product that got parents to build something they love with their kids.”

Guitar World named the NotaKlön one of the top 50 pieces of gear of the last 25 years. What does that mean to you?

“I don’t really think about ranking my pedals; it can sometimes feel silly! But as a guy who spends days of my week on pedal history, writing and filming, there really has been nothing like it.

“To sell tens of thousands as a kit from our website shows it struck a chord with people in a deep way. A lot of people may have gotten hung up on the cork-sniffing boutique-type thinking, and missed the point.

“So I’d say it does deserve to be considered as an important pedal, because it’s about the experience as much as the sound.”

JHS pedal kits are changing the game; other companies are hopping on that trend.

“There have always been DIY kits – JHS is not special in that! I even created kits with StewMac and they sold fine. I’ve had other people’s DIY kits on my show or on my Short Circuit series. So it’s hard to say people are jumping on a trend when the trend has existed since the ‘70s.

“I do think that our product line is less intimidating and more satisfying to build for most customers. Not everybody wants to solder; not everybody feels like they can, and that’s okay. We give them a product they feel comfortable with. To me, that’s how it changes the game.”

Elsewhere, the 424-gain stage is helping change tone trends.

“My earliest memories of recording were on a multi-track tape recorder. I’ve always loved those units for their tactile feel and nostalgia. I don’t think the 424 created any kind of trend – pedals and other things have played off the concept for quite a while.”

How did the 424 come about?

“I always wanted to do my take on it and fit it in the infrastructure of products I’d already made. Around January, I made the official call to go for it, because I kept getting texts from my friends who were really interested in working something practical into their live guitar rigs.

“There are some conceptual units that will come out, adding more features and much more powerful interfaces. When we developed the version you see now, we were also developing bigger versions of it. That’s all I can say without giving away the secrets!”

After your accident, John Mayer dropped a surprise video.

“John texted me after the accident and said he wanted to make sure things kept moving forward in my absence. He knew I wasn’t able to film and I was in a lot of pain.

“I think he just did it to be awesome and encouraging and a friend, and it was really special. John truly is an amazing person; he took a lot of time out of his day to film that video. It’s a humbling and really wonderful experience.

“The video was a blast, it reached a lot of people, and we sold lots of units because of it – and that’s exactly what John wanted. I love that he had the intuition to do that and that he enjoyed helping out in a time of need.”

How is your recovery going, and what’s next for you?

“I’m recovering well. I’m about seven weeks out. My face has healed up shockingly fast, according to the doctors, but I’m dealing with a lot of fatigue and soreness. I’m not 100 percent – it may take several months for me to feel like I’m back to where I was.”

• Check out the JHS Pedals range.

John Mayer was a surprise guest at Matthew McConaughey's book launch event in Hollywood, and provided a live soundtrack as the Oscar-winning actor read his poetry.

Poems & Prayers is McConaughey's latest book, and the poetry collection finds him reflecting on life, faith, and relationships. While it shows his talents extend beyond acting, he also enlisted his old friend Mayer for a unique launch party at the Saban Theater.

Speaking to the actor as his pedalboard was wheeled out on stage behind him, the guitarist says, “Thanks for having me, this was an instant yes.”

There was also talk of the similarities in their respective approaches to art.

“I metabolize things very quickly, I make the record, and it's done; I can't feel it, it's a balance,” Mayer says to his collaborator. “How much do you live off the success you've already had, and how much do you erase it off the chalkboard and say, ‘It's time for something new.’

“If you do that too much, all you ever do is create new things. But you seem to have really struck a balance between having solidarity in your life and setting aside time every day to go and explore, which I think is why we all love you so much.”

Mayer flitted between acoustic and electric guitar for the performance, adding a charming undercurrent to McConaughey's poetry. He also entertained the crowd with Slow Dancing in a Burning Room on his PRS Silver Sky.

McConaughey has made full use of his Rolodex of contacts during his book tour, having invited Jon Bon Jovi on stage in Brooklyn. He also tapped Post Malone and Andrew Watt for a livestream in 2021, with the pair taking on country hits.

Mayer has been in a helpful mood of late, becoming JHS’s de facto pedal demoer while Josh Scott recovered from a cycling incident.

He's also been getting high praise from some notable players. Paul McCartney's guitarist says he once mistook Mayer's playing for Eric Clapton's, whilst Steve Vai became an unlikely champion of what he can do with six strings.

Just a few weeks ago, John Mayer tried his hand at demoing gear, becoming JHS Pedals' de facto gear tester while the brand's captain, Josh Scott, was recovering from a serious mountain bike accident.

And while it was far from Mayer's usual role, we (and Scott) can safely say he did an excellent job putting the JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage – the “perfect replica of the front end of a 424 MK1 multi-track recorder” – through its paces.

For those wondering how Scott managed to clinch such an A-list product specialist, it turns out it was Mayer – a close friend and collaborator of Scott's – who offered to help.

“John texted me after my mountain bike accident and just said he wanted to do a video because he wanted to make sure that things kept moving forward in my obvious absence,” he reveals in a new Guitar World interview. “He knew I wasn’t able to film. He knew I was in a lot of pain.

“I think he just did it to be awesome and encouraging and a friend, and it was really special. It showed me that John truly is an amazing person, and he took a lot of his time out of his day to film that video and put himself out there just to help a friend.”

In fact, Scott goes on to call Mayer's timely assistance “a humbling and really wonderful experience, and I’m really thankful for it.”

He continues, “The video was a blast, and it reached a lot of people, and we sold lots of units because of it, and that’s exactly what John wanted. I love that he had the intuition to do that and that he enjoyed helping out our company in a time of need. That says a lot about him as a person.”

In the demo video, which has since gone viral among guitar circles, Mayer observes, “A revolution [is] taking place right now in guitar playing, and it has to do with dynamics. For most of guitar playing history, guitars were plugged into amplifiers, and the way that a tube amp responds has kind of defined the way people played guitar.

“But now people have been plugging into things that aren't tube amplifiers, like USB interfaces for DAWs, and they react completely different [to an amp],” he explains. “How it reacts, sonically, is 50% of the thing; feel is the other 50%, and the fun part about that is it makes you play different stuff.”

Mayer goes on to give the pedal his seal of approval by saying that, “a lot of times, when people have the same pedal, they have the same sound.

“That will not happen with this pedal, because this is a whole new dynamic approach. What you do with this pedal is up to you; it is not so much a paint color, but a whole different brush,” he asserts.

Guitar World's upcoming interview with Josh Scott will be published in the coming weeks. Head over to JHS Pedals to check out the 424 Gain Stage.

The charmingly virtuosic guitar tandem of John Mayer and Isaiah Sharkey is back out on the road, and it appears that Sharkey has taken one of his in-the-works Ibanez signature guitars for a test drive at a record-breaking show.

Sharkey joined Mayer's solo band in 2016 after Mayer had sat in for a show with The Roots, and soon persuaded him to make the jump from the Roots to blues rock. Their tandem has become hugely celebrated in the intervening years, with Sharkey’s gospel-rooted playing style a fine match for Mayer’s silky blues.

Mayer was pulling a double shift that night, opening for and performing with Zach Bryan in front of an audience of 112,000 people at Michigan Stadium, making it the biggest ticketed single concert in U.S. history. Not a bad turnout, then.

Mayer played his PRS Silver Sky signature, locking into some sweet harmonies with Sharkey during Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, who looks to be playing a prototype of his in-the-works Ibanez signature.

It's based on its AZS Telecaster copy, having employed a double humbucker Crews Maniac Sound T-type during his recent residency at the Blue Note jazz club in New York City.

Speaking to Guitar World in early September, Sharkey lifted the lid on what will be a double whammy of namesake Ibanez axes.

“One is a solidbody and the other is a semi-hollow,” he said of the in-development instruments. “We want to create something so that guitarists can bring two guitars, and not a million, to a session or on a tour. So it’s two guitars that cover the spectrum.”

From limited video footage – most camera phones are locked ardently onto John Mayer – it looks to be black, with a pickguard, maple neck and fretboard, and chrome-covered pickups. It could be a while until it hits the shelves, but at first glimpse, the electric guitar is packed full of promise.

“Playing with John is awesome,” the 36-year-old says of his partner in shred. “It’s always fun, and it’s always a university of learning and experimenting with tones.”

Having played with Mayer, as well as D'Angelo and Paul Simon, Sharkey says he's learned a lot about soloing, and stressed the importance of removing ego from the performance.

Back in August, he received a one-of-a-kind prototype guitar originally crafted for a jazz great, so he's amassed a powerful arsenal of axes.

Mayer, meanwhile, recently said that, while he has enough material for a new album, he isn't in a rush to finish it.

John Mayer is one of the most expressive guitar players on the circuit. Now, he’s shared a simple but effective trick he uses for punctuating his lead playing in all the right places.

Mayer unveiled his nifty hack during an interview with Sweetwater. In the clip, he can be seen sitting in front of his downsized demo pedalboard, and demonstrates his tone tip with one of his overdrive pedals of choice – an Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer.

Luckily for the common player, though, it will work with any OD pedal of your choosing.

“I used to do this thing where I'd switch the distortion pedal on and off to switch between the lead and the rhythm,” he explains. “It's kind of a trick.”

In his demonstration, played on his uber-popular PRS Silver Sky signature guitar, Mayer flits between sweet, minimalist leads and shuffling rhythm parts, with the pedal only turned on for the leads.

The pedal is subtly dialled in – we're not going from zero to 100 here – but there's enough of a boost to add a little grit and extra emphasis to his lead lines, with his tone then settling back into clean territory when he goes back to playing rhythm.

It’s worth noting that he uses the past tense here, hinting that the trick isn’t perhaps one in his current arsenal. Nevertheless, it shows how even the simplest tonal changes can have a big impact on your sound and style. Picking a little harder when the OD is on would also strengthen that light-dark dynamic.

Some commenters on the post have quipped about how the video is going to send vintage TS10 prices (already at a premium on the used market) skyward, while others have been quick to marvel at Mayer’s seemingly magic, light-yet-firm foot, considering how temperamental TS10 footswitches can reportedly be.

Mayer is fresh from becoming JHS Pedals' new de facto pedal demonstrator while Josh Scott is out injured after a biking incident, showing what the 424 Gain Stage can do.

He’s also revealed that he has enough material ready for a new album, but insists he won’t rush it out any time soon.

ZZ Top’s 2009 show at the House of Blues in West Hollywood was already blazing hot by the time the encore rolled around.

They opened with Got Me Under Pressure. Waitin’ for the Bus, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Cheap Sunglasses followed. The hits kept coming. A cover of Foxey Lady called back to Billy F. Gibbons’ early days supporting Jimi Hendrix with the Moving Sidewalks.

Then came the grand finale, and a moment that would take us from habanero to Carolina Reaper on the Scoville Scale. Enter John Mayer and Slash for an all-star set-closing performance of La Grange.

And while this moment was fully deserving of the Blu-ray treatment, to be savored in Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound – a few cold ones optional but recommended – luckily it was captured for posterity on YouTube.

You have the video embedded in this page, so you don’t need commentary from us. But to set the scene, you’ve got Slash in his top hat and wielding a Gibson Les Paul, because that is how he rolls.

Mayer was on a white Fender Stratocaster and – although it is hard to tell from YouTube footage – it looks very much like his signature guitar of the era, finished in Olympic White.

And, be still my beating heart, is that Pearly Gates with Gibbons? He takes the first solo and crowdsources suggestions for his successor. The crowd screams Slash (of course it does, we’re in Hollywood, home turf for the Guns N’ Roses guitarist).

Slash does his thing, one elastic note ringing out for Mayer – who looks kind of like he has just been ejected from a wedding reception, what with the suit trousers, black tie and white shirt, and sneakers. Mayerologists would no doubt be able to fill in the blanks here but Mayer… Well, he smokes this jam.

These things are not competitions but the comments say Mayer lit this thing up. “I’m a big slash [sic] fan but ya gotta admit John stole the show that was an amazing solo by him,” wrote Joe Lawlor.

Some complain that Slash hits some bum notes and he does. But that’s the nature of live improv. You don’t get a soundcheck. You’re not on in-ears. Head down and go.

Watching this makes us think that, if Slash decided to do a sequel to Orgy of the Damned – his star-studded blues guitar album – he should drop Mayer a call. He could sing, too. Maybe get Gibbons and Mayer on a track... and why not La Grange?

Gibbons would surely be up for it. He has a history of jamming La Grange with Slash. See below, when he joined Slash's all-star birthday bash for a jam. And he was on the first Orgy..., joining Slash on Willie Dixon’s Hoochie Coochie Man, bringing Pearly Gates along for the session.

“It’s fair to say Slash and our collective adventures cover wide ranges of bluesy influence,” said Gibbons, speaking to Guitar World in 2024. “Most everyone appears to enjoy maintaining an actual ongoing relationship with all things sonically ‘blue.’ Muddy Waters’ Hoochie Coochie Man is something [that’s], quite simply, fundamental.

“Slash and I approached the number with a sincere, personalized vision, forwarding the arrangement to expand the track with some extra breathing room and sound luster. It’s a Willie Dixon standby ‘oldie’ – and [it’s] still kickin’ in a big way.”

Now we need to bring the three together – Gibbons, Mayer and Slash – to do this one more time.

Mike Dawes has reflected on the time he missed out on meeting guitar hero John Mayer after his cover of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room went viral.

The acoustic guitar virtuoso is no stranger to putting his signature percussive fingerstyle spin on classic tracks, having covered everyone from Foo Fighters to Sleep Token. Speaking to Guitar World about his popular take on John Mayer’s Slow Dancing in a Burning Room from 2017, Dawes reveals he once came close to meeting Mayer himself – but failed to show up to the rendezvous when he slept in.

“I was invited to meet John Mayer. I've never met John Mayer – I've never met you, John, if you're watching,” he confesses, addressing the Slow Dancing songwriter directly. “I regret to say that the reason I missed that opportunity, from Paul Reed Smith himself around the launch of the Silver Sky, was that I slept in. That was the reason.”

John Mayer's signature guitar, the PRS Silver Sky, was launched in 2018, a year after Dawes dished out his viral Slow Dancing rendition. That means that, seven years later, the pair still haven't crossed paths.

“It was at NAMM,” Dawes details of the ill-fated meet. “Anyone who's ever been to the show can understand why one would want to sleep in. So I apologize. It was a public event, so it wasn't a one-to-one meeting or anything, but I do regret that.”

Dawes’ arrangement of the Mayer classic is a little harder to play than the original, but he reckons all players would benefit from wrapping their heads around the 2006 track.

“Having learned that song and dissected it in the way one does for a solo guitar cover, you really get to know a song,” he says. “The curse of solo guitar arrangements is that when you're really going through things so forensically and getting all the nuances in there, you don't want to listen to the song anymore. It ruins it for you.”

Mayer’s cut, though, proved to be an exception to the rule, and Dawes is convinced the “timeless” song is one every player can and should get under their fingers, calling it “a masterclass in songwriting.”

The percussive extraordinaire, who named Eddie Van Halen and Tommy Emmanuel as life-changing influences to his playing last year, has recently collaborated with Periphery and found himself going back to basics for his pedalboard on their recent tour together.

John Mayer, meanwhile, says he isn't rushing his next album despite having more than enough material ready. He's also been keeping himself busy working as a de facto gear influencer, having recently posted a surprise demo of JHS Pedals' new Mk.gee-coded 424 Gain Stage.

Back in 2017, Guitar World featured acoustic guitar virtuoso Mike Dawes' stellar rendition of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and – spoiler alert – it went mega viral.

“Actually, it went viral partly because you guys at Guitar World natively posted it,” Dawes divulges in a recent video interview with Guitar World, during which he reminisces about this pivotal moment in his career, which even led to a collaboration with Tommy Emmanuel.

“I arranged this amazing John Mayer song, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room for solo guitar back in, like, 2017 so quite a while ago,” he recalls. “This was before it kind of became a guitar meme. Now, you go into Guitar Center, and someone does that.

“I feel ashamed to say this, [but] I wasn't too familiar with John Mayer's music. I grew up listening to Iron Maiden, and it was just a different world. But I just heard that specific song, totally organically on the radio, and I just thought, ‘That's a great song.’

He continues, “When I listen to certain songs and think about, ‘Oh, would it make a good guitar arrangement?’ There are certain characteristics that they have to have, and this had all those characteristics. And I was also looking for a ballad in my set that was a cover that would tick certain boxes, and this just had all of that.”

As for whether he has ever talked to Mayer himself about it, Dawes says he hasn't had “any communication with John Mayer – but I know a lot of his guitar techs and people in his circle have probably shared it around.”

And one thing he'd tell Mayer if he had the chance to meet him? Dawes' response is simple: “Oh gosh, thank you for the incredible song, man.

“Honestly, having learned that song and dissected it in the way that one does when they're doing a solo guitar cover, you really get to know a song,” he explains.

“You know, the ironic thing, and the curse of solo guitar arrangements, is that when you're really going through things so forensically and getting all the little nuances in there, you then don't want to listen to the song anymore, because it kind of ruins the song for you.

“But I will say, out of all the songs I've done, I still listen to Slow Dancing in the Burning Room, because it's just timeless. Every guitar player should really learn that song. I think it's just a masterclass in songwriting.

“And there's so much tasty guitar playing that's also pretty achievable for a lot of people as well. I think it should, should be in everyone's repertoire,” he concludes.

Elsewhere in the interview, Dawes talks about working with Tommy Emmanuel – and that one time he nearly met John Mayer.

Isaiah Sharkey is a master of jazz, R&B, gospel, blues, rock and more – and if you’ve heard D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, Miles Davis’ Rubberband, or seen John Mayer live, you’re a witness.

“Playing with John is awesome,” says Sharkey, 36. “It’s always fun and it’s always a university of learning and experimenting with tones.

“Sometimes I have to go and seek what he used. I’ll get that pedal or use that kind of amp or guitar. I’ll shift my rig to suit the style of his playing.”

Sharkey just wrapped up a residency at the Blue Note jazz club in New York City. He’s got two Ibanez signature guitars on tap, and a host of solo and collaborative touring across the fall. He’s fired up about all that – but nothing matches his burgeoning friendship with George Benson.

“To be able to sit down, and more than even playing, just listen to his stories, was beautiful,” Sharkey says, having recently spent a weekend with the jazz guitar icon. “The wisdom he has, just in basic conversation, gives you so many perspectives to take into consideration – musically and in life.”

What was your rig like for your four-night run at the Blue Note?

“It was a great turnout and we had a lot of fun. I was using a Fender Hot Rod Deville and a Crews Maniac Sound guitar that’s basically like a Tele with two humbuckers. And I was using a Boss GT-1000 pedal.”

How does that differ from your typical live rig?

“It’s definitely more compact. If I’m doing an extensive tour I’m using a lot more analog pedals. It can range from boutique pedals, like Chase Bliss and J. Rockett to some old Boss stuff. The speakers are pretty much stereo, so I use Victory V140s. And of course, way more guitars!”

You’ve got two signature guitars on the horizon with Ibanez.

“We’re currently in development. One is a solidbody and the other is a semi-hollow. We want to create something so that guitarists can bring two guitars, and not a million, to a session or on a tour. So it’s two guitars that cover the spectrum for the most part.

“Being a session and touring musician with different people, I’ve found myself playing Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, 335s – and in some instances, archtops. Then, for funkier stuff, old Jazzmasters, Jaguars and that kind of thing, where you can get those kinds of out-of-phase tones.

“Now I’m able to achieve a lot of different sounds just by using one of the signature models – not even including the other semi-hollow.”

You’ve also been spotted playing the Ritter Princess Isabella.

“I don’t really get a chance to play that much. I acquired it a couple of weeks ago; it’s very special because Ritter made that guitar for George Benson. It’s the prototype for George Benson. It's one of one. It’s surprisingly warm for the body shape, being so thin.”

What was your weekend with George like?

“It was beautiful! Over the years we’ve met briefly; but connecting with him on a more consistent basis has been surreal. You grow up and listen to the greats like Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell; and, of course, George is among those greats. He’s funny and a really great guy. And we all know he’s the best on the guitar.”

You’ve been touring with John Mayer for around a decade. What has that taught you?

“It’s very experimental when it comes to tone. It can be as simple as a tube being changed in an amp, or the subtle differences between kinds of overdrives. It’s the same with delays, reverbs, and the effect they have on the sound of the guitar.”

Has your choice in gear changed because of that?

“He’s really got me into trying out vintage guitars. I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and just lost my mind with that – he’s ruined me with getting new guitars and some vintage stuff!

“He achieves different tones for different songs that he’s pulling from those classic albums, and he’s also experimenting with new stuff. I have to expand the possibilities of my own rig.”

What sticks out to you about his playing?

“John is a very tasteful player. He can make you cry and laugh, and his playing can get complex. But his simplistic way of playing is just incredible. He gave me a perspective about being simple and connecting with my audience.”

You played guitar on D’Angelo’s Black Messiah album in 2014. How do you look back on your performance?

“I’m like, ‘Wow, that seems like forever ago!’ I only had three or four guitars. My main axe was a gift, which was a Lucille B.B. King signature model, and a Strat that was modified. It was from the ’80s, and it had some Seymour Duncan pickups. I also had a Vox HDC77.

“Those were the guitars that I used on that entire album – and not a whole bunch of pedals. We might have done some stuff where I put my guitar through a Leslie, but it was a lot of clean stuff.”

Is there a song from Black Messiah that sticks out to you?

“I used kind of like a Fuzz Face on 1000 Deaths because it’s kind of a dirtier kind of vibe. On Till It’s Done (Tutu) I used a Leslie; and on Another Life I used my Gibson Lucille, but I also used a Danelectro sitar.”

Would you change anything on that record?

“As a guitar player I probably would have been a different kind of player. Maybe my thoughts would have been a little different, my process; and maybe I would have added different tones. But I think for what it is, it’s what it needed to be.”

You contributed to Miles Davis’ 2019 Rubberband album, billed as his final recording.

“I got a call from the producer, Vince Wilburn, who’s Miles’ nephew. We worked on So Emotional with Lalah Hathaway and I used a Fodera Monarch guitar and a Fender Twin.

“I had some Vertex pedals, a Strymon Flint, a Strymon Mobius and a Meris Mercury7. I wanna say I had something like an Xotic Wah, and maybe an Ibanez TS9 from the ’80s. I had a Nightshade for an overdrive. It was an honor to be a part of that session.”

What’s next for you?

“I’ve been out with my band, and there’s John Mayer dates coming up throughout September and early October. Then I’ll be back in New York for some more Robert Glasper dates for his annual residency.

“At the end of October I’ll be doing a very cool gig with a giant – Darryl Jones, who played bass with the Rolling Stones. He’s an alumnus with Miles Davis and Bernard Fowler. We’ll be doing a residency in Copenhagen. It’s going to be really, really great!”

• Sharkey’s latest album Red is available on streaming platforms.