Though he’s no stranger to budget gear – he once made an Epiphone Les Paul and Roland combo amp sound like a million dollars – John Mayer is often associated with the best equipment money can buy.
After all, this is the man who once had a spare Dumble waiting in the wings to replace his onstage guitar amp that broke mid-song, which also happened to be another Dumble.
Having said that, though Mayer may have a pedalboard containing numerous rare pieces and super-expensive effects, it turns out he’s not wholly averse to strapping a budget pedal onto his main touring rig from time to time.
That’s exactly what he did for his joint Born and Raised and Paradise Valley world tour – which took place across 2013 and 2014 to promote his fifth and sixth studio albums – when Mayer paired his usual rig with a $58 delay pedal.
As noted by John Mayer guru and gear YouTuber Justin Jeske, Mayer bolstered his ‘board with an affordable Mooer Ana Echo, which the Sob Rock mastermind used during live renditions of Paper Doll.
Though the Mooer Ana Echo wasn’t Mayer’s main delay pedal – that title goes to his unsurprisingly super-rare and pricey Pete Cornish TES delay – it still played a crucial and consistent part in the Born and Raised/Paradise Valley tour set.
It was used for one purpose only. Thanks to Jeske’s sleuthing, we know that Mayer linked the Ana Echo to a TC Electronic Ditto and Keeley True Bypass Looper to perform the brief improvised intro loops to Paper Doll, which can be heard in action in the opening exchanges of the video below.
When the Born and Raised/Paradise Valley world tour took place, it was Mayer’s first tour in three years after he underwent treatment for a granuloma discovered on his vocal cords.
The recent interest surrounding Mayer’s oft-underrated Born and Raised/Paradise Valley era stems from his recent headline Rise For the River gig, during which he performed the 2012 album in its entirety for the first time ever.
In a post to Instagram, Mayer revealed that his trio of Pine Creek Lodge gigs – which also featured Bob Weir and Dave Chappelle – raised $1.2 million to support SWMT Flood Relief.
