The Story Of The BLK1 - John Mayer's Number One Guitar | A Complete Documentary
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- The BLK1. The guitar that is synonymous with John Mayer. Since it was created in 2004 this guitar has made it's name being "the Continuum guitar" and up on stage for countless incredible performances. This documentary will tell the full story of the BLK1 Strat: its creation, studio use, various modifications and theories around it's specs, insane tones and performances, and a ton of other moments of John with this guitar.
I hope you enjoy what is the biggest video I've ever done for my channel.
Special thanks to Tommy for his knowledge and assistance in the making of this video:
@tommyguitars
...
Thanks as well to Alejandro for the archival footage: @JohnMayerGear @JohnMayerHDVideos
Connect with me on Instagram: @justinjeskeguitar
/ justinjeskeguitar
#johnmayer #johnmayergear #fenderstratocaster #johnmayerlive #blk1 #stratocaster #mayer #continuum #sobrock #guitar #stevierayvaughan
I can hardly understand how much effort you did put into this. So… this video is amazing. Nothing else to say but great job!
Thank you so much! It was a lot of work I won't lie but everyone seems to be really enjoying it so that makes it all work it
@@JustinJeske hear me out. I have a wild theory. The uniqueness of the blk1 tone comes from the dummy coil situation! The tech put it in. From my research, you lose some output volume from doing so, and it maybe even changes the tone as well losing some highs (sounds like johns tone to me). This is why I think John’s pickups were raised so high to compensate for this. Those pickups were modeled after the Texas specials apparently (like SRV). So since the dummy coil lowers the output on the pickups already, he raises the pickups to his liking to bring back a little highs. Now the question is how the tech wired the dummy coil. In my research I’m guessing he just put it in between the switch and the volume like I’ve seen others do! What do you think? Love your videos. Please shout me out if you make a vid on this! I’m gonna experiment with this theory
@@JustinJeskedo u have one on his summer of love strat? The hendrix one u see him play live for slow dancing?
A true love letter to one of the most iconic guitars in history. Thanks for putting this together. 🤘🏼🎸
Ahaha😂
Thank you 🙏🏻
64 will always be my favorite. Was glad I got to see it in 2019 in Kansas City :)
Also recently rewatched “Someday I’ll fly” documentary about JM. If you haven’t watched it…it’s phenomenal!
KC represent!
KC forever!🤘
Absolutely unbelievable amount of effort, Justin. And I speak for everyone when I say, we appreciate it! I hope it means something that you managed to keep a drummer, such as myself, watching a video about ONE guitar for an hour and a half! I loved every second of it, so, so good!
John Cruz seems like a character
I am not a musician, never picked up a guitar let alone played one, but I am here because I love your love of JM and his skills. You explain everything so clearly and enthusiastically. I went to John's Solo tour in Paris and he played Gravity on THE BLK 1! 🖤 John Mayer is phenomenal as your clip at 1.10.36 demonstrates ❤ Thank you! ❤
Fantastic video Justin. The attention to detail and the level of research is above and beyond.
Call it bias, call it placebo, call it what you may - Not in any way dismissing the that he's achieved glorious tones countless times since - BUT...whether you want to call it "grit" or "gusto" or whatever, I can't help but claim the BLK1 just has way more BALLS than most of his other guitars (or at least he pushes it there) certainly more than the SS. I love plenty of his other tones - '64, Hardtail, JM Sig, SRV Sig, Monterey, Sonic Cruz, Hendrix...Call me nostalgic but to this say the BLK1 Mayer is still the single most iconic and aspiration-worthy tones he's ever put out there (fully acknowledging his amps, pedals and playing are all critical components, too) but that "Continuum era" and the decade or so he used that guitar will perpetually remain my personal aim in the way of guitar tone 🙌
This video is unbelievably well done! Really enjoyed watching this.
Thank you 🙏🏻
Yesss! Just the video I has been wishing for! Thanks!
Justin my man, I’ve been following your channel for a while now and the amount of effort you put into your videos is trully inspiring! Keep up the great work 🙌🙌
Watching this video makes me feel like I own the BLK1. Thanks so much!
Amazing video! Thank you so much! Would love to see one on the Clapton Strat!!
Just a side note for 32:12 when discussing the pole pieces and them getting pushed down vs changed- while I agree with you that it is indeed more likely that the pickup was changed, I can say from personal experience that pole pieces can and do get pushed down- especially in the case of falling off a wall hanger- without much more damage to the guitar than chips in the paint. I had to push the pole pieces of my bridge pickup of my main guitar back out after it was vibrated out of a wall hanger by the subwoofers at a venue right before a show.
Finally is there a dummy coil or not?
Great video, man! Thanks for this, I'm sure had so much effort searching and recording. Please keep going, we've learned so much about John's music and tech through you. Greetings from Brazil!
Fantastic. Love anything about that guitar. Great job .
Plus he put the same tuning pegs on the black one that SRV had and there is nothing wrong with him wanting a guitar like SRV but for some reason John never acts like that's why he wanted his guitar to have that look, so I'm happy you pointed that out 👍
What a great job on this video!!!!! Thanks for all your effort man... ❤
Great job Justine!
Usually don't comment but had to say thank you for this!
That is very appreciated 🙏🏻
I finally got around to watching this video ...thanks Justin! ...Great job putting it together!
An amazing guitar. An amazing documentary. Sad that Fender wouldn’t take another idea from John and he walked away from Fender.
The amount of time and effort put in this video is amazing! Great video man
Bro yessssss. Justin you knocked this out of the park. Killer video. Thanks man :)
Thanks so much brotha 🙏🏻
Great video!
I play bass.
I hope one day somebody will do an in depth video/ interview on Dela (David LaBruyere), his time with John Mayer and his gear.
For me, he was the best bassplayer to ever play with John! I still love his playing, tone and his style the most!
When ‘Heavier Things’ came out, my band was doing an album in a nice studio here in The Netherlands. I tracked almost all the bass parts.
Then there was this little interview with David in Bassplayer Magazine. He talked about his gear too. His point was that he was using this tube SIB pedal called the FatDrive both live and in the studio to get his tone.
Well, I got the pedal from the US and redid all of the bass parts on our than album with it. The engineer/ producer loved it!
🖖
When John tells the freezer story it’s hilarious because it’s not a good look for the Fender custom shop that they sent him this top-of-the-line custom shop guitar that didn’t work because it was wired wrong. Nice job Cruise 😂
They threw themselves at the lore of this guitar in spite of it which is a ballsy way to save face in the era when John Suhr etc. were starting to put out insanely high-quality production-model Strats
And yet, it was just another lie.
@@Snek03 exactly why would he say that. Specially, when he would get more custom shop guitars from Cruise
@@nimitz1739 Who knows. He lies all the time. Maybe because he thinks it makes a good story, or maybe he’s a pathological liar. He lied about his first SRV having broken pickups, not wanting his black1 to look like SRV’s Number 1, the black1 pickups being wired wrong, and his black1 pickup poles unstaggering themselves because he dropped it. 😂 And that’s just guitar related lies.
@@Snek03 I like the part where John Cruz said, legally they couldn’t make a black version of the SRV guitar. So instead, they made a black version of the SRV guitar. 😂
The BLK1 will be played at Crossroads, I'm calling it now.
I hope so, I really hope so!
Had to comment twice because it’s such a raw video 🤌🏼🥵🔥
THIS GUY IS THE REASON WE ARE A BAND
This was absolutely amazing to watch being a big fan of that guitar many beautiful blessings to you
im 8 days late but your channel always amazes me with your dedication to john's journey! BLK1 will always be the holy grail mayer strat tone for me. Amazing video yet again 👌🏻
Thank you so much!
Amazing video, man!! So much that I didn't know, reigniting my love for this guitar. Well done!
That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you 🙏🏻
This is what we've been waiting for
Great stuff Justin, appreciate the time and effort you put in towards researching accurate information, the next guitar if you may please, would be the John cruz racing stripe Stratocasters, the charcoal frost metallic and specially the silver one with burgundy stipe from "bigger than my body'.
Awesome video man!! Thanks a lot for putting this together 😊
Anytime, thank you 🙏🏻
Thanks for the amazing work, Justin!
Glad you enjoyed it 🙏🏻
Justin, this is such a comprehensive and great video. Thanks for all of the hard work on this and your contributions to the JM gear community.
Just one quick question: does the BLK1 have Big Dipper pickups?
😂 you're welcome, and I really appreciate that 🙏🏻
Amazing job on this video!
Thank you 🙏🏻
Wow! That was fun! Thank you!
Glad you liked it Tommy!
Seeing John soloing over to Infinity isn’t something I knew I needed
I love the deep dive videos on John's guitars. Keep them coming 😊
Incredibly detailed video. 🙌🏼🎸
So cool, i search so many info on john’s gear ! That’s a dream tanks !
Great job man
So John went to John Cruz and ask for the black version of the SRV guitar. Legally Crus couldn’t do it so Instead, he made the black version of the SRV guitar. 😂
Im gonna make some popcorn for this one!
Thanks man for clarifying the crack video. Never really knew the history of that guitar post WTLI and thought that this video would end with that and how John never used it again after
Ha, it's what I do! Thank you 🙏🏻
This video should be on the JM textbook. Thanks for uploading it!
I would love to write a JM Gear book like Kentaro did for John Frusciante one day, would be super cool.
Good job sir !
What a video justin! 😮 Goat
Fantastic work my dude 🔥🔥🔥
Thanks brotha
Quality work, man! Great job!
Congrats, well done man
Hey man, great job as always! Just a conspiracy theory…if you look at the footage at 2:00, it appears that John is spraying black onto a relatively bare Strat body. However, the actual black one has a yellow undercoat (mimicking a Homoclad undercoat?) that is very visible around the forearm area and with the checking around the guitar.
If I recall correctly, JM and some of the FCS staff signed the inside of the cavity too. My thought is that John Cruz stripped the body, aside from the cavity, and then repainted it with a yellow undercoat and black on top, and did the relicing after that with his stencils and other techniques. JC has gone in the record that JM didn’t do that great of a job painting the body, in his opinion.
What do you think about this?
Great Video, same as always! keep going mate!
Insane efforts!!
Incredible 🙌🏻
Is this channel about John Mayer's guitars ??What about John Suhr signature trans red ?
I would like you to review Suhr.
Thanks
Master " Screwed Together " by the custom shop .
I never thought that it had Big Dipper pick-ups.... it sounds so similar to SRV's #ONE that it couldn't have them.
Awesome video. Pause the Rig Rundown video where Caesar is holding the guitar with the back facing the camera. There are clearly holes drilled in the body for a backplate.
Yeah that’s one just dumb mistake on my end ffs 🫠
@JustinJeske I see that Order 66 hat bro! Love it!
Ha! Had to get this one for the Ahsoka show! I'm glad someone noticed it 😆
Black1 siting, March 22 2024 in Amsterdam!
What is the dummy coil underneath the pickguard thing and what does it do?
A dummy coil reduces hum.
Great vid... Perhaps not a full conclusion on what pick-ups are in it tho? It's a real rollercoaster ride of a theory that there's big dippers in there.
@Justin Jeske: great vid, so I just heard John Cruz saying Mayer's own BLK1 DOES have big dippers but the ones made after don't, wouldn't that prove that his guitar DO have big dippers ?
I wasn’t able to catch were he talks about the pickups?
What pickups does John have on his BLK1 please ?
Do they sell the same type on guitar shops ?
It’s amazing to me that a strat can have such a distinct tone. The BLK1 is immediately recognizable for me. It has a warmth and sweetness other strats just don’t typically have. Love my Silver Sky, but I would kill to have a guitar that sounds like the BLK1.
Honestly I agree, the Silver Sky is great, but once I switched back to having a Strat... it's just a different animal
@@JustinJeske but does your strat sound like the BLK1... that's the question ha
Great vid man
Thank you!!
Thank you so much! Hope you enjoyed the video 🙏🏻
Great video.
Hi Justin! Simply amazing video, your stuff is fantastic as always. I have a quick question regarding Mayer's driven tone, as of late. Any time I go back and listen to a recording from 2021 onwards, especially with D&C, it sounds like his driven tone has some sort of filter on it that gives it a more scooped sound of some sort. Do you know what could be contributing to this? Maybe the EUNA? I'm assuming that it's a combination of multiple pedals since I haven't heard this sound being produced in isolation from any given pedal. Thanks for all the hard work you do for us nerds! Cheers
Bit late but I think you are referring to the TS10 and Klon combo
Hi Justin, is the Silver Sky the guitar closest to the BLCK1? Because John made it after his favorite startspecs? Like the pick-ups are special made, maybe a copy of the black1 pu’s?
The Silver Sky are said to have pickups modeled between a '63 and '64 Strat. However, the pickups have also change since the release of the SS.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻great!
It's because Mike Eldred has said on numerous occasions that the BLK1 DID have Big Dipper pickups, so what John Cruz said in the video, and what Mike Eldred, head of the Fender Custom Shop at that time said, seems to be contradictory, which is why you still have lots of confused people over what the BLK1s actually have.
Fender custom shop has doing relic since 1995...
Hi Justin. Great video. I’d like to connect with you about a time where I met John in 2005 and was able to play the BLK1. (Too long for a comment thread). Where’s the best place to send you a DM?
DM me on Instagram @justinjeskeguitar ! I'll keep an eye out for it!
Justin, since we know the Black 1 didn't have the Big Dipped pickups, what pickups do you recommend for Continuum tones?
johns fingers.
Fender Pure Vintage '59 will probably get you quite close I think
@davemish4163 I am just starting to do a bit of a deeper dive into pickups myself personally. The Foley or Genesis BLK1 clones would be my suggestion though as they are replicas of the pickups in the 1/83 BLK1's.
Pickups aside, if you are able I'd seriously consider a Two Rock if those are the tones you are truly after. Those amps are a bigger component of that sound that'll get you a lot closer than a pickup swap.
@@JustinJeske I've had Mark Foley pickups , CM Daugherty's , Alexander Pribora , CS 65s , C's 69s , but the closest I've ever got to SRV ( which Mayer was chasing ) and I wish I'd never sold them were Dominger Hippie Pickups , absolutely hands down GREATEST I've ever owned imo 👍
I loved the video, but where can I see Frank Ocean's performance with Mayer?
He played the blck1 tonight at MSG.
Literally filming the video right now 😂
@@JustinJeske I have some pictures and video if you want them
Please!!! Dm me on instagram @justinjeskeguitar 🙏🏻@@AntonioLopez-bc6qg
I wanna know more about this dummy coil! Any ideas what it was specifically?
It didn't happen more than likely. Nothing to discuss.
So they didn't QC the guitar 😂 not the first time the Custom Shop has stuffed up. They built Hank Marvin a strat with the bridge out of scale lenght. Yes it went back 😂😂😂
The Fender/Jackson CS is pretty well known for that at this point
That story from John is such bullshit... Anyone who has ever soldered anything knows that is total garbage
The guy with SRV tech wanted a his spec like, SRV strat at the custom shop. Gets guitar from custom shop, has Rene mod the guitar to SRV spec, boom, tone done. End of story.
It’s so funny, the Custom Shop have made so many flawless guitars over the years, but they let the one that’s going to John Mayer have a loose ground😅 it’s funny how those things happen even to the best of us!
I have read a few times that John has gone through a few necks on the BLK1. For example, the signature that you can clearly see on the back of the headstock at 10:46 doesn't appear to be there on the back shot of the guitar at 11:46. Thoughts on this? I haven't watched the whole video yet, so maybe you address this:) Well done on this expose.
Hopefully you watched the whole thing 😉 and thank you!
42:20 CS MB BLK1 - Neck seems slim @ .825 - .945… thoughts?
"OH YA? WELL, I KNOW STRAT STUFF TOO" - everyone that loves music ha 🤘
I'm surprised they didn't make him wear a mask in the spray booth.
The old fender were all dipped in fullerplast. Dipped.
So the whole idea of a thin coat is BS.
There was a lot of sealer
Even though you know how The Black One got its name, you still call it The Black... One
I still can’t believe Fender sent him that guitar and it wasn’t wired right lol.
I guess since we don’t see reliced Silver Skys, the wood breathing isn’t so important?
It isn't
Guitar Tone is from pickups. Young people say stupid false things all the time that they fully believe. Old people do too. Maybe I should just say people. Young people just do it way more thinking they know stuff.
👏 👏 👏 👏
John Cruz doesnt talk too fondly about Mayer does he.
Mayer threw him under the bus for either a lie or misinformed reason. That guitar worked from an electronics standpoint when it was sent from Fender.
@justinjeske oh font of knowledge for all things JM can you tell me how John sets his Trem on strats is it just straight decked? How many springs please tell me, I know he almost never has the arm in buy you never know maybe he does something other than deck it
It's decked - you see 5 springs in the trem cavity at multiple points in this video.
"oh font of knowledge for all things JM" that has me laughing 😆
The only real example, for a Strat at least, of him using the bar and having a different bridge setup is with the Jeff Beck strat. All others pretty much are with the trem resting on the body and 5 springs in. I went back and looked at a magazine I have from the 2008 Continuum Tour cause it has photos of the guitars front and back. The ones that don't have a back plate on (Blk1, Monty, & '65 [Hendrix owned]) all have 5 springs in the back. '64 has a backplate buuuuuut I am pretty sure I've seen a shot with 5 springs in it too!
Hope that helps!!
The BLK1 does not have Big Dipper pickups in it.
Does it have big dippers?
Small dippers actually
The BLK1 does not have big dipper pickups in it. :D
Good boy
The Black 1 does NOT have big dipper pickups in it
Doesn't the BLK1 have big dipper pickups???
THE BLK1 DOES NOT HAVE BIG DIPPER PICKUPS!