John Mayer can make life tough: he writes sensitive pop like Your Body Is A Wonderland, collects Grammys like baseball cards and dates the likes of Jennifer Aniston.

But Mayer is also a serious, Strat-loving blues hound, influenced by Eric Clapton (who‘s a fan), Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy. Here he is, with Vaughan’s former guitar tech Rene Martinez checking out one of the first SRV ’Lenny’ reissues - now one of Mayer’s 200 guitars.

In 2005 he formed The John Mayer Trio with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino. Their well-received album Try! put the world on notice that there was more to Mayer than radio fluff.

Mayer is pictured above with his limited-edition Signature Strat (all 500 were sold). His current Artist Series Strat features a three-tone sunburst body and three ’Big Dipper’ single-coils.

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