A working guitarist may have out-rigged even the best of the forum.... Mayer content!

Teetonetal

Heartfeltdawn said:

Chaps, allow me the right to reply and then I'll shut up. I freely admit my original comment was snarky. Some wonder why I'd post here and other such thoughts. Equally I'm wondering why people are so defensive and come to such odd conclusions.
Apparently I am full of burning hate for Mayer, possess oodles of jealousy, I can't recognise that he's talented, and it's even rumoured that I might read the Daily Mail. There goes my pinko Commie forum image...

That I find his music immensely boring is a given but he clearly can play a guitar. I don't like listening to Guthrie Govan but I can recognise that he has great technique and playing ability, or John Squire in the post-coke Seahorses day. Respect the technique, don't bother listening to the recorded product. It's like watching a terrible film but admiring the cinematography. Visiting a thread like this... well, why not? If the thread had been "Mayer albums streamed continuously free for you" then that's a different matter.

So I respect the sensibilities of people here and I shall erase my comments other than this one. 

So much wisdom. Couldn't agree more. This applies to so many forum chats. 

dindude

Heartfeltdawn said:

Chaps, allow me the right to reply and then I'll shut up. I freely admit my original comment was snarky. Some wonder why I'd post here and other such thoughts. Equally I'm wondering why people are so defensive and come to odd conclusions, like being full of burning hate for Mayer, oodles of jealousy, and that I might even read the Mail. There goes my pinko Commie forum image...

That I find his music immensely boring is a given but he clearly can play a guitar. I don't like listening to Guthrie Govan but I can recognise that he has great technique and playing ability, or John Squire in the post-coke Seahorses day. Respect the technique, don't bother listening to the recorded product. It's like watching a terrible film but admiring the cinematography. Visiting a thread like this... well, why not? If the thread had been "Mayer albums streamed continuously free for you" then that's a different matter.

So I respect the sensibilities of people here and I shall erase my comments other than this one. 

Fair comment, certainly no hard feelings on my part.

sgosden

he should just get an Axe FX or helix, no one out the front could tell the difference...

*note to admin - we need a 'poking the bear' emoji

Heartfeltdawn

dindude said:

Fair comment, certainly no hard feelings on my part.

And none here from me toward anyone. It'd actually be quite a cool discussion elsewhere, why the like of Mayer and Bonamassa get a certain polarity of defence. I reckon it's actually being more defensive of the musical form (ie. the blues itself) rather than the artist as there aren't many playing it and being successful now. 

joeyowen

Heartfeltdawn said:

dindude said:

Fair comment, certainly no hard feelings on my part.

And none here from me toward anyone. It'd actually be quite a cool discussion elsewhere, why the like of Mayer and Bonamassa get a certain polarity of defence. I reckon it's actually being more defensive of the musical form (ie. the blues itself) rather than the artist as there aren't many playing it and being successful now. 

As guitarists, we should defend the crap out of any guitar based music. There are many guitar bands I don't like, but I still prefer musicians to DJs/Charts etc.  More musicians the better, more future people will pick up a guitar etc...

BintyTwanger77

I don't really hate John Mayer. In the same way I don't hate grouting or Special K or carpets.

robinbowes

Heartfeltdawn said:

dindude said:

Fair comment, certainly no hard feelings on my part.

And none here from me toward anyone. It'd actually be quite a cool discussion elsewhere, why the like of Mayer and Bonamassa get a certain polarity of defence. I reckon it's actually being more defensive of the musical form (ie. the blues itself) rather than the artist as there aren't many playing it and being successful now. 

I'd just like to point out I'm not defending Mayer specifically, or Bonamassa, or "the blues". I just don't think it's helpful or constructive to bring artistic critique into a discussion about gear.

R.

Alterlifeson

Massive Mayer fan here, but that does look like a lot. Maybe the arrangements of his new material requires it though? This is 'The Search for Everything' tour so a lot of the material won't have been played before. 

Here's the Edge's 2015 rig for comparison. I'm guessing he will use it in the same way. A bank per song with multiple patches used within that. 

sgosden

Alterlifeson said:

Massive Mayer fan here, but that does look like a lot. Maybe the arrangements of his new material requires it though? This is 'The Search for Everything' tour so a lot of the material won't have been played before. 

Here's the Edge's 2015 rig for comparison. I'm guessing he will use it in the same way. A bank per song with multiple patches used within that. 

along with a fridge sized rack

dindude

Heartfeltdawn said:

dindude said:

Fair comment, certainly no hard feelings on my part.

And none here from me toward anyone. It'd actually be quite a cool discussion elsewhere, why the like of Mayer and Bonamassa get a certain polarity of defence. I reckon it's actually being more defensive of the musical form (ie. the blues itself) rather than the artist as there aren't many playing it and being successful now. 

I agree it would be a good debate, I'm not a Mayer obsessive, but he's done enough stuff that's got me to consider myself a fan, and he is an incredible guitarist. Not flashy or in your face, I can see why some would call it boring, but it's got a subtlety and restraint that is rare to come by.

Thing is, people paint you into a corner, I like Mayer, but I'm not a huge fan of Bonamassa, I'm not even a massive blues fan, but it is a music form I grew up with and have a huge amount of respect for. I like loads of stuff, good music is good music, and I'm just as likely to listen to the Velvet Underground or the Flaming Lips as I am Mayer.

What really winds me up is when people type "blooze" in a derogatory way, as if you're only allowed one pedal if you play such a lowly art form, and as if you are somehow on a higher musical plain because you are using your pedalboard to make abstract soundscapes, it's a complete load of nonsense and shows a real lack of musical awareness IMO and it's lazy. 

Alterlifeson

sgosden said:

Alterlifeson said:

Massive Mayer fan here, but that does look like a lot. Maybe the arrangements of his new material requires it though? This is 'The Search for Everything' tour so a lot of the material won't have been played before. 

Here's the Edge's 2015 rig for comparison. I'm guessing he will use it in the same way. A bank per song with multiple patches used within that. 

along with a fridge sized rack

Very true! I always assume from the size of those CAE controllers that there would be a rack, but i guess not in Mayers case.

Kebabkid

This might surprise some as you don't expect him to have multiple sounds but it was one of Lou Reed's set up.

At the end of the day, it's whatever the user wants

Gassage

The Lou Reed one is nowhere near as complex as you may think, but Pete and Lou go back years.

The Gilmour PULSE rig is pretty special since Pete handbuilt a 24 loop MIDI switcher and amp controlle for him- it's in the LH rack.

sgosden

monstrous system!

Heartfeltdawn

dindude said:

I agree it would be a good debate, I'm not a Mayer obsessive, but he's done enough stuff that's got me to consider myself a fan, and he is an incredible guitarist. Not flashy or in your face, I can see why some would call it boring, but it's got a subtlety and restraint that is rare to come by.

Thing is, people paint you into a corner, I like Mayer, but I'm not a huge fan of Bonamassa, I'm not even a massive blues fan, but it is a music form I grew up with and have a huge amount of respect for. I like loads of stuff, good music is good music, and I'm just as likely to listen to the Velvet Underground or the Flaming Lips as I am Mayer.

What really winds me up is when people type "blooze" in a derogatory way, as if you're only allowed one pedal if you play such a lowly art form, and as if you are somehow on a higher musical plain because you are using your pedalboard to make abstract soundscapes, it's a complete load of nonsense and shows a real lack of musical awareness IMO and it's lazy. 

Clouds Taste Metallic era Flaming Lips... now there's a guitarist and a half. Ronald Jones, still haven't heard anyone quite like him. 

 

Sassafras

Because he can.
Besides, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

sgosden

Sassafras said:

Because he can.

If I had techs and sound guys to help set up, and roadies to vary all the shit, and played stages bigger than matchboxes?

Hell I would too!

Cirrus

Looking at Edge's floorboard, that should give you some clues as to how all those buttons get used.

If you have a look, the top left buttons scroll banks up and down, so that will be song selection. And with each bank there will probably be messages sent to midi effects telling them what preset to go to, what delay time to use etc.

The vast majority of the buttons - the top right and entire middle two rows - always do the same thing. Each of those buttons turns one effect on or off. So no matter what's going on in terms of your bank/ patch choices, you'll be able to see at a glance what's on or off and add/remove individual effects as easily as if you had the actual effect pedal at your foot. This comes in handy because it means that no matter where you are in the set, if something breaks you can bypass it easily. If the singer calls out a song you've not programmed in you can just wing it, and if you just fancy trying a different overdrive in a song it's as easy as hitting that one switch.

The bottom buttons are presumably the song specific presets. So you don't have to tap-dance with the middle rows, just one push brings up specific combinations of effects. So if you've got it all dialled in nicely, you only need to change bank once per song, and other than that you can stick to the bottom row of footswitches.

So it looks like the controls of a particularly complicated spacecraft, but it's not really all that. And if you want a backup to make sure the show goes on... suddenly it appears twice as daunting, but it's really not.

rsvmark

Kebabkid said:

This might surprise some as you don't expect him to have multiple sounds but it was one of Lou Reed's set up.

At the end of the day, it's whatever the user wants

Now that is ridiculous. I mean, pink? Honestly.....

thecolourbox

rsvmark said:

Kebabkid said:

This might surprise some as you don't expect him to have multiple sounds but it was one of Lou Reed's set up.

At the end of the day, it's whatever the user wants

Now that is ridiculous. I mean, pink? Honestly.....

No I don't think he was the guitarist for pink?

I've just listened to Continuum for the first time, on my train journey home out of interest having read this thread. Is that not one of his blues based albums then? I only heard one song that was bluesey apart from the Hendrix cover which doesn't count. Are there any where he actually plays blues? Seems all fairly inoffensive stuff otherwise, seems fairly subtle guitar work which would make sense with the millions of fx conversely as I think it does take a lot of possibilities to show restraint with them. 

My only thought re the millions of buttons, if you just have a bank per song then patches lined up for the sections, why not let somebody else switch it for you and save you the bother?