PRS... PLEASE SAY HE IS A NEW SIGNATURE ARTIST!!!

IMHO John Mayer is a very good guitarist. He is also a good singer and songwriter. His style isn't for everyone, but I quite like it, especially his first couple of full-length albums and the Trio stuff. He was (and may still be) a bit of a twit, especially regarding relationships and his ego, but his chops are pretty darned good on the guitar. Again, IMHO.

+1 and +2 Who else do you know that can play the blues with the best but can turn right around and finger-pick with the best (example - Stop This Train) as well as sing and song write. His songs have a lot of interesting underlying chords and his arrangements (especially the earlier stuff) are fantastic. He is a twit, but he is also a dammed good musician (IMHO). He would be a good catch for PRS.
 
They did own Jackson....I think they still do.
Fender owns Jackson (and Charvel). Gibson owns Kramer.

My two cents on this....Regardless of anyone's personal feelings about John Mayer, he's a talented guitarist and could be an asset for PRS when it comes to Marketing. He's already made it obvious how pleased he is with the guitars Paul and the crew have made for him. Not to mention, a JM sig would re-open the door for Single coil guitars for PRS. With very few exceptions, the PRS lineup is currently mostly humbucker equipped. Being a PRS convert from LP style guitars, I immediately fell in love with the PRS SC shaped guitars. However, short of the Brent Mason and the Vela, there aren't a ton of models that might entice those that are used to S or T type guitars. Being that Mayer has always been known as a "Strat guy", a sig could lead to the thought process of "well, if JM has always used strats and now he's rocking a PRS, then maybe I should give them a try." As long as it sells, expanding your market is never a bad thing.
 
OK, I'll admit it. I don't get it.

Whether you like him as a person or his music or not, just what is the downside for PRS or you in particular of Mayer being a signature artist if you are against it?

Can you tell us exactly why it hurts PRS or you personally?

Yes, he makes weird enough faces while playing that would make Joe Cocker look like Nicholas Cage on his most expressionless day.

But the dude can play. Way better than me. Probably better than you.

Read this PRS blog entry and then tell us how Mayer does not qualify as being a signature artist...

how_to_get_an_artist_endorsement
 
OK, I'll admit it. I don't get it.

Haters gonna hate. Jealous folks are gonna jealous.

Why else would anyone express opposition to a company's decision to have an artist endorse their products?
 
Last edited:
I saw a picture of his (JM) all PRS amp rig while touring with the Dead right now... looked very tasty.

(Edit) I went back to FB and found said posted picture of his rig:

A717A7F4-17AA-449F-BB4F-91D3633736D9_zpslc2fl11d.jpg
 
Last edited:
I don't think I ever saw that control buttons layout on a PRS amp before...
 
Fender owns Jackson (and Charvel). Gibson owns Kramer.

My two cents on this....Regardless of anyone's personal feelings about John Mayer, he's a talented guitarist and could be an asset for PRS when it comes to Marketing. He's already made it obvious how pleased he is with the guitars Paul and the crew have made for him. Not to mention, a JM sig would re-open the door for Single coil guitars for PRS. With very few exceptions, the PRS lineup is currently mostly humbucker equipped. Being a PRS convert from LP style guitars, I immediately fell in love with the PRS SC shaped guitars. However, short of the Brent Mason and the Vela, there aren't a ton of models that might entice those that are used to S or T type guitars. Being that Mayer has always been known as a "Strat guy", a sig could lead to the thought process of "well, if JM has always used strats and now he's rocking a PRS, then maybe I should give them a try." As long as it sells, expanding your market is never a bad thing.

Yes. And No. lol

I've always been a Strat guy when it comes to electrics. I have a few odd duck guitars (Rogue sitar/guitar with symp stings, Turser 12 string that looks and sounds like a Ric, etc) but my main stage guitars always have been Stratocasters.

So Yes, we don't typically look towards PRS for our guitars. We tend to see them as expensive guitars for LP guys who want whammy bars lol. I never looked at one at all until I stumbled on the fantastic price for my flame maple 408. But No, I don't think putting single coil pups in them will be the thing to entice Strat players. I certainly would not buy a LesPaul just because someone stuck single coils in it.
 
I would encourage anyone who thinks Mayer lacks talent to listen to some the Dead & Company recordings from the first couple of shows. IMHO he fills the Jerry role better than pretty much anyone I've heard since 1995. This is coming from a huge Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead fan. If he sounds that good playing a PRS rig, great. I wouldn't care if he was doing it with Fenders either. Morning Dew from the 10/31/15 MSG show and the Scarlet Fire from 11/1/15 MSG show are standouts to me.

Here's a link to a video I posted from opening night. Sounds damn fine to me.

http://prsguitars.com/forum/showthread.php?15663-Dead-amp-Company-Opening-Night
 
Can I take a different slant on this? Maybe an attempt to re-balance the endorser portfolio back towards a broader audience? The company starts out with Carlos, Tommy Shaw, the Doobie Brothers guy, Howard Lesse, Dickie Betts for a while and Alex Lifeson and Al D. were considered radical. Now lots of, not metal, but much more aggressive players - Tremonti, Zack Meyers, others that may not connect with a portion of the target market for the product.

Bernie and Mayer bringing them back to the center more?
 
Yes. And No. lol

I've always been a Strat guy when it comes to electrics. I have a few odd duck guitars (Rogue sitar/guitar with symp stings, Turser 12 string that looks and sounds like a Ric, etc) but my main stage guitars always have been Stratocasters.

So Yes, we don't typically look towards PRS for our guitars. We tend to see them as expensive guitars for LP guys who want whammy bars lol. I never looked at one at all until I stumbled on the fantastic price for my flame maple 408. But No, I don't think putting single coil pups in them will be the thing to entice Strat players. I certainly would not buy a LesPaul just because someone stuck single coils in it.
I mean, if you want to dumb down my comment, that works too.

Clearly the Brent Mason is a Strat-LIKE guitar. Even the Vela can get some Tele-like tones. And there have been other guitars that PRS has made through the years that are more towards the Fender camp when it comes to design. I'm not saying that PRS should slap some single coils in a Custom and call it a day. I'm just saying that if I were PRSh or a part of PRS's marketing team, and I was trying to think of an idea for how to bring in some of that customer base (not saying this is actually what they're trying to do, just an idea), I would bring in someone who has been known for playing primarily that type of guitar (Strat or Tele) and design something that leans towards that camp.
 
I mean, if you want to dumb down my comment, that works too.

Clearly the Brent Mason is a Strat-LIKE guitar. Even the Vela can get some Tele-like tones. And there have been other guitars that PRS has made through the years that are more towards the Fender camp when it comes to design. I'm not saying that PRS should slap some single coils in a Custom and call it a day. I'm just saying that if I were PRSh or a part of PRS's marketing team, and I was trying to think of an idea for how to bring in some of that customer base (not saying this is actually what they're trying to do, just an idea), I would bring in someone who has been known for playing primarily that type of guitar (Strat or Tele) and design something that leans towards that camp.
The 'lol's in there were supposed to indicate that indeed, my comments were less than nuanced.

To me, the overall shape of the core PRS owes a significant debt to the Stratocaster influence. The asymmetrical double cut electric guitar essentially started with the Strat, and of course the PRS tremolo is a direct evolution of the Fender. So I see it, especially with something like the 408 with the coil split-taps, as a real confluence of many (perhaps all) of the best elements of the Strat AND the LesPaul.

The real problem IMO, if there is a problem, is in pricing. A good Strat can be had for a few hundred bucks. In fact, my latest and fave Strat is not even a Fender; it is a Squier Standard Statocaster I purchased new for $220 a decade ago. Great feel and playability on the neck, the frets were perfect right out of the box, two-point knife edge tremolo is fantastic, the sound was more like my old 70s Strats than any other guitar in the place. And just this year I upgraded it by getting a whole new preassembled pickguard with noiseless pups and the S1 switch. So for less than $500 total I have the functional equivalent of the $1700 American Deluxe Stratocaster.... which is a significantly lower price than any standard PRS.

Obviously the SE line etc are supposed to appeal to that price difference. Perhaps with Mayer endorsing, they will be able to grab some of the younger 'non-metal' players.... if such a person exists (non-nuanced alert lol)

edit: here's the 408, the Squier Standard Stratocaster, with the new Marshall DSL40c and the old 2x12.
The S1 switch gives ten different sound options.

ac4f6abd6bbfb4da846c7e69078b6e3a_zpsrd3tzxop.jpg
 
Last edited:
The real problem IMO, if there is a problem, is in pricing. A good Strat can be had for a few hundred bucks. In fact, my latest and fave Strat is not even a Fender; it is a Squier Standard Statocaster I purchased new for $220 a decade ago. Great feel and playability on the neck, the frets were perfect right out of the box, two-point knife edge tremolo is fantastic, the sound was more like my old 70s Strats than any other guitar in the place. And just this year I upgraded it by getting a whole new preassembled pickguard with noiseless pups and the S1 switch. So for less than $500 total I have the functional equivalent of the $1700 American Deluxe Stratocaster.... which is a significantly lower price than any standard PRS.

To which I have to say, "so what?"

There are an awful lot of differences between a PRS and a Strat, enough that comparing them by price isn't really relevant. If an orange costs more than an apple, but what you want is an orange, then it really doesn't matter how cheap the apple is.

No doubt you meant this kind of thing when you said, "if there is a problem."

No one's forcing anyone to buy the orange, so if people want to be more tight with a buck, well, that's cool, too.

As a guy with a few fairly pricy Private Stocks, I can say - for me, maybe not for you - they are a very good value, because they're that good. And by that I mean, they're that good at being guitars to play, not showpieces.

But no one else has to agree -- after all, it's my decision alone as to what's worth it for me. I think that's the case at any price point.

It's great to have a nice, cheap guitar, and it's great to have a nice, moderately priced guitar, and it's great to have a nice, expensive guitar - whatever floats your boat with an instrument is a good thing. There is no right, and there is no wrong.

Then too, PRS has their S2 line, and I think the guitars play wonderfully and are (just my opinion) preferable to any Strat at a similar price. But I'm not a Strat guy, so that's part of it. To take your analogy a bit further, you can put humbuckers in a Strat and it still doesn't sound like a PRS. It's a different beast entirely, and that's not a bad thing. It's just a thing, no value judgment needed.
 
Last edited:
To which I have to say, "so what?"

There are an awful lot of differences between a PRS and a Strat, enough that comparing them by price isn't really relevant. If an orange costs more than an apple, but what you want is an orange, then it really doesn't matter how cheap the apple is.

No doubt you meant this kind of thing when you said, "if there is a problem."

No one's forcing anyone to buy the orange, so if people want to be more tight with a buck, well, that's cool, too.

As a guy with a few fairly pricy Private Stocks, I can say - for me, maybe not for you - they are a very good value, because they're that good. And by that I mean, they're that good at being guitars to play, not showpieces.

But no one else has to agree -- after all, it's my decision alone as to what's worth it for me. I think that's the case at any price point.

It's great to have a nice, cheap guitar, and it's great to have a nice, moderately priced guitar, and it's great to have a nice, expensive guitar - whatever floats your boat with an instrument is a good thing. There is no right, and there is no wrong.

Then too, PRS has their S2 line, and I think the guitars play wonderfully and are (just my opinion) preferable to any Strat at a similar price. But I'm not a Strat guy, so that's part of it. To take your analogy a bit further, you can put humbuckers in a Strat and it still doesn't sound like a PRS. It's a different beast entirely, and that's not a bad thing. It's just a thing, no value judgment needed.
Basically, this.

Sure, I can go pick up a Squier for very little and get a decent guitar. For a little more, I can get a MiM Fender, then MiA, and so on. Everything has its range. I'm not going to compare a Squier to a core PRS. Same as I'm not going to compare an SE to a custom shop Fender or a Suhr. People will want what they want and everyone has a different definition of value. Sure, there are plenty of brands that make loads of low price value guitars that are great. But there's a reason that companies such as Suhr and Heritage exist, making extremely high end guitars that are extremely similar to Fender and Gibson.

If you don't see the value there, that's fine. Nobody is saying you can't keep rocking your Squier. But you shouldn't talk down to the people that are willing to spend the extra money.
 
I don't care one bit if he gets an endorsement deal or model named after him, it's all business and marketing.
As for the debate over his merits as a guitarist, I find him underwhelming, he always sounds to me like he's just "ape"-ing what he's learned, and has no uniqueness to what he does in soloing and improvisation. (the most important thing to me, even over technical prowess)

I can't finger pick to save my life, so I respect his skill in that area, and if I could sing I would love to be able to sound like him. His vocal style is (to me) one of the most important & unique in recent times, as for being a virtuoso guitar man?.............................:laugh:
 
The price of a guitar (watch, car, hamburger, ... ) isn't the driving force if you know what you are looking for. It's a factor, but there are more important goals to consider in almost every case.

One of the things I like best about the "this similar but different thing only costs half as much" argument is its sheer, baldface meaninglessness and easy dismissal.
 
One of the things I like best about the "this similar but different thing only costs half as much" argument is its sheer, baldface meaninglessness and easy dismissal.

Exactly.

These look similar, but are different, and one is a lot cheaper to buy.

Mercedes-Benz:

2014-S-CLASS-SEDAN-GALLERY-012-GOE-D.jpg


Hyundai:
Phantom%20Black.png


Both might be good choices for different people. But they are apples and oranges.
 
Hmmm...

Like a lot of things.

Average cheap car repair may be quarters on the dollar compared to a 'Benz, but it happens 10 times more often.
 
Back
Top