Hi All - Planning to buy another Strat and curious what forum members think between the John Mayer and Stevie Ray Vaughan SRV strat models.

I know, I know.... both very different but curious what the opinions are between these two if given their own choice to purchase between the two strats.

I played the JM with pearl tuners in black at Ray Mulllins ( Swansea ) last year.
Liked it a lot..(1) it's subtle as far as sig model, which (2) is exactly what turns me off from the SRV..Gorgeous repro.... BUT...I'd no more get up on stage with that guitar than I would wearing either a copy of his strap or sig hat...

To me it's about playing their songs but as far as adopting the look, it was done once by the original and everyone else will be second rate at best....
I believe that respect is playing their songs in your own version, not note for note or for that matter with the mimic statement....

Of two guitars I would consider would be the JM mentioned but I would instead go for the Eric Johnson model, once again it is understated but a definite contender....

_________________
"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I've heard a lot of good comments on the Eric Johnson model!

Depends if its going to be a play out or play with....

I could only choose a SRV, Such good copies of what he played, Custom Shop at a Deluxe price really, Hots as blues guitars, The frets so big make it a really positive guitar to play, Huge trunk of tree and hot TS's....That soft Pero Ferrai'o Board... Or however its spelt is really nice feeling too...Like balsa to touch...

But unless your with just good friends at a private Jam or home its doesn't play out is the problem.....Its just too ostentatious......Rockin up to a blues night with its just not cool.... Everyones gunna say...."Here we go look at white lightning".....heh heh heh..... I took it as a second guitar once to give a Traveling friend a crack at a blues night..... He played the L outta of it though....No one blinked....As yes after several Beers i picked it up too!!!....Ha ha.....Safety in numbers!!! The john Mayer's gunna play out with a lot more subelty.....But if you already have a play out, The SRV is the one IMHO.....
Enjoy which ever you choose....You'll be spending a lot of time connected to it!!!!

Cheers.

_________________

If you like it play it. As far as the SRV change the pick guard and play it out they are too good not to.

I put a leather pickguard on my SRV and play it out regularly.

they are all great guitars but the small differences are what set them apart. I played them all and ended up going with the 62 hot rod,

I didn't like the reversed trem on the SRV model, it felt odd to me. the neck was nice though
The Mayer didn't feel quite as well finished and had a boxy U'ish neck shape, also no hard case. i also didn't like the pickups much.

the Eric Johnson was real nice but I didn't care for the neck shape much, although the flatter radius was nice. but its the most expensive, the little things on this one weren't worth the price to me.

If you aren't stuck on a signature model any of the vintage reissues are in that price range and not artist specific in specs.

but in the end the hot rod series guitars were my favorite, they seemed better made in my opinion.

you should do what I did and make a pros and cons list and give them all a score. it helps

_________________

Why buy a guitar with someone else's name on it?

Get a guitar you like, and make it yours. Change the pickups out. Change the hardware. Change the scratchplate. Whatever, just make it how you'd want it. I've literally only just finally perfected my American Deluxe Strat. Had it for 10 years, it's mutated 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6 times, and I only just got it right.

I've never understood this whole signature thing. Maybe that's just me. It's always nice to add your own touch to a guitar and be known for *your* tone, not your *imitation* of someone else's tone...

_________________
'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

Every guitar has someone else's name on it.

_________________
Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

+1

I know this wasn't one of your choices but at least play one if you haven't.

Exactly. You know the Beatles actually avoided using Strats for years because they didn't want to be seen as trying to copy Hank Marvin? Seems silly in retrospect doesn't it? Now, if signature guitars were just Am. Standards with a signature decal on them, then that indeed would be pointless and silly to pay more for. But, plenty of sig models (take the EC Strat for example) push the Strat platform to new limits and are worth having an extra model distinction.

As for OP's question: I think those two guitars are wayyyy more similar than different. After all, JM's signature guitar was spec'd almost exactly from his SRV signature strat. I owned a JM Strat and some days thought it was awesome, some days it sounded no better than my buddy's Am. Standard in A/B tests. It was hit or miss. Eventually, I grew very tired of the "scooped" tone. Too much bass.