I've had the honor of hearing John play his '64 Strat live in Amsterdam from 2014 to 2019 (5 times total) and I truly believe it's his best sounding Strat. The BLK1 sounded weak in comparison (still great tho). Thank you for this great video, those 40 minutes went by way too quickly!

The best performance with that guitar is his cover of „you don’t know how it feels“ Tom Petty cover 👌🏻

one of the best videos so far! the 64 is a truly gem for those who know appreciate it! the slow dancing guitar! my fav mayer guitar, not even a doubt!

The 64 is my favourite of Mayer’s guitars. I was able to shoot my 2018 silver sky to a real vintage 64 (mint guard, transition logo, lam board) and sound and felt so close to each other. Neck shape was identical and pickups were voiced so similarly with a high-end that I think is missing from the current silver sky pickups

My second guitar was a 1964 Stratocaster I bought used, in 1965. My first guitar was a 1954 Stratocaster, my dad gave me for Christmas of 1963. I was very fortunate.

One of my favorite videos you've produced so far. Thank you, sir!

I’m writing this comment while watching through the video, and it’s about the 12/3/08 Grammy Nomination show with BB King and John using the ‘64 for that performance. I would bet all the money I have (not saying much 😂), the the reason he used the ‘64 Strat is because he was quoted as saying his favorite BB King record, even his most favorite blues record of all time, is BB’s “Live at the Regal”, which, was recorded in…you guessed it: 1964. 😉 Absolutely killer video so far Justin!! This will forever serve as the perfect reference material for this guitar!

Amazing content as always! So much interesting information! Can you do a story video on his Srv strat?

alright. so. i clicked on this video both because i enjoy your content and i spoke to who i believe to be behind the reverb listing. The story he told me at the shop he had in Vegas when i stopped in was almost identical to the one in that listing. He worked at Manny’s for years and has a comment under a groundguitar article about johns ‘64 claiming this as well. He said to me that he was John’s go to “guitar guy” when he lived in NY during the early to mid 2000’s. He told me stories of John’s collection(including him having 2 Monterey strats, one just as a collectible, and him walking into johns apartment to a room that had about 8 Dumbles in it), meeting up with him before or after his shows, had a guest pass for the 2018 world tour (with pics of him, Pino, and Steve Jordan), i find it all too elaborate to have any desire to fabricate. He showed me pics of him back stage with the stones, told me stories of other huge guys that would come into Manny’s like Prince with endless stories to accompany. He also claimed to have sold John a early CBS strat with pics on his ipad to support all of this (i can’t confidently say it was the hendrix strat but it may have been, it was in the same setting as the pics of John with the Hendrix strat, same guitar tech in the background, etc). He also showed me physically a master built replica of one of his personal ‘50s strats (with pics of them side by side) so that aligns with that story. I just find it extremely elaborate if it was a lie and he had all of these things together long before I showed up and had tons of other pics and videos with other big names. He has also sold his fair few guitars to Bonamassa. Just wanted to say what I heard of the story!

blk1 -> 64 -> silver sky. What a journey. I like 64 the most but unfortunately it is hard to listen that guitar lately. I understand that it is too old to be played hard. But, I wanna hear some more. Btw, thanks for the great video!

I judt finished your excellent documentary on the Black 1, and now I'm here, and I'm subscribed. Phenomenal work!

in the battle studies era, the 64 was used for performances of voodoo chile. my favorite was a performance where he used “machine gun” as an intro for the hendrix tune. it was epic.

Great video! Love the sheer amount of research you put into this 🙌🏼

The Silver Sky is cool but for me the Black1, Monterrey and 64 will always be the Mayer sound.

Great vid! Enjoyed it buddy, keep ‘em coming!

Another great performance with the 64 is at Jones Beach 2017 playing Vultures! He takes a drum stick to it, Buddy Guy style.

Love it! Pumped to watch it. :)

You are so so brave. And so so inspiring.

I'm getting the idea that for live performances at least, John can get the tone he wants out of whatever Strat he happens to select. If we're all completely honest, it's a tough call to hear the differences between Vintage/Modern/Custom shop strats at the best of times, let alone in a live setting. The vast majority of our guitar preferences are about how are guitar feels when you're playing it rather than how it actually sounds. Who's playing it, the signal chain and the amp have a far greater effect than the nuances of 50 year old pickups and wood. Great video though, really enjoyed this one and the BLK1 video.

Incredible video, just finished it!

If I'm not mistaken, early SRV sigs actually came with brazilian rosewood boards, and then they transitioned to pau ferro when the conservation stuff started, so Mayer's could possibly have brazilian, but I'm not that eagle-eyed. Also, it's 100% obvious that in the original recording of SDIABR, it's the middle pup, and I honestly have no idea why any semi-talented/experienced guitar player would think otherwise. I mean...it doesn't sound like any of the other positions...like...yo. That said, I'd LOVE to hear John explain why and at what point he decided to always play SDIABR in position 4, which I bet has something to do with the phase issues with the 1/3/5 positions, which always are more problematic to use live. Also, fun fact, I always thought it was interesting how in the origin song of Belief, commonly referred to as "Simmering Melody" in a lot of the pre-Continuum bootleg live recordings, he almost always plays the entire song using only the neck pup.

Damn that London performance is absolutely insane

I hadn’t realized 23 minutes of this was going to be about a guitar JM had absolutely nothing to do with. 😅😂👍

Just want to make the most minor correction, but the Silver Sky debuted on April 9 in Boston, not April 11 in Chicago. Another great video Justin, keep it up!

Oh yesss that '64. All these years I though this was the same guitar on the heavier things album cover and thought he just replaced the pick guard

Do you think it’s difficult to switch back and forth? I personally need a moment to adjust when going back and forth between Fender Strat and PRS SS.

Love your channel.

This is excellent. How in the world did the wear repair itself since John purchased the guitar?

My favourite performance of him with that guitar is the 2013 Wembley Slow Dancing mid solo... Unfortunately the only recording on KZfaq has terrible quality, but even still the playing and the tone was something else there

Crazy long form, but very good dude!

My favorite Mayer strat

Personally this is my favorite guitar he played, I like it over the Black1

hmmm... This '64 strat was also used in the "wait til tomorrow" (in the 'Where the light is' gig) clip I believe?

Can you do a critique of the guitars John plays with Dead and Company?

I would love to see John play the SRV Strat

1:32 This statement is incorrect. In 1965 Fender used polysol coated wire in their Strat pickups and in late 1964 they used enamel coated wire pickups. These pickups are not the same. 65 Starts sound hotter and have pronounced mids and an upper midrange squawk. The late 64 Strats have very scooped mids and sound round and smooth and have a lower output. Essentially the late 64 pickups are the same as 69 Strat pickups.

what pickup can get me closer to this 64 tones?

The custom shop version has a brown tortoise shell guard Johns has a red tortoise shell which is completely different.

If I want to order a custom shop version closest to this, how should I go about that?

Hi Justin! Loved this video, thanks for the deep dive! Hey--I have a BLK-1-inspired Xotic XSC-1 that you might think is neat. I'd love to send photos just to nerd out over it, but don't have Instagram. Let me know if there's a good way to get into contact. All good if you'd rather not!

Don't mean to be critical... But comparing colors from photographs is insane. Anyone who's prepared images for the web and PC versus Apple monitors knows it's a pain. With a live image, who knows what the lighting was, let alone the color balance in the camera. Also, you won't have the problem anytime soon, but I had cataract surgery in one eye and not the other. Looking at my cell phone I thought the surgery went wrong. The "new" eye sees blue, the "old" red and yellow. Basically the old lens is similar to the smoke that clouded Michelangelo's frescoes on the Sistine ceiling, before they were cleaned. I bought a Dragon Fruit Silver Sky SE from Sweetwater based on photos. I hate the color. With either eye. Didn't look anything like what I saw on the site on my phone. If someone had told me about this when I studied art history, I probably wouldn't have believed them. For me, the logo is more persuasive. That said, even though the "copy" it's a Masterbuilt, based on Fender's recent performance who knows. Fender apparently can't make a case that latches based on my Vintage II's and PRS can't make one you can lift. Anyway, like your channel and John Mayer. Thanks.

I recon he'll go back to playing strats one day.

Idk why I thought it was a 63 strat. Maybe because the pick ups are 63’s.

Looks like in that Helpless solo snippet he was on the bridge pickup even though it sounds like the 3rd position. hmmm.

I wonder why he chose the 64 instead of the black 1 as the basis of the silver sky

John Frusciante video soon? ) 🎉

Sorry 20:33 till 20:56 is false. But in overall, very informative and thankyou for sharing.

Slab boards are better.

A very nice video to watch but john’s tones and his sound are not affected that much by his 64 at all when everything is mostly from his fingers and his world class rig and settings. Love how you use your sentiments and delusions to make this video anyway… cheers

In fact, I think it's one of his least iconic guitars. It's all about the Black1.

Great research and good story! Nice job @justinjeske