Mayer is a Jimi Hendrix fan, always incorporating covers of the late musician in his setlists. Most notably perhaps "Bold As Love." So it's not surprising that Mayer has adopted the same style of playing "within" the chord as Hendrix did, doing lot's of pull-offs and hammer-ons within the current chord structure. Mayer also tends to play barre chords in the same style as Hendrix, using the thumb to fret the base note and mute the A-string of the guitar. This way, his remaining four fingers can easier do fills and small licks.

Although you mostly see Mayer playing guitars with single-coil pickups, he has on occasion played a Gibson ES-335, as he told Guitarist Magazine in 2008: "I also have a gorgeous, beautiful sounding Gibson ES-335 which is another kind of sonic power to write for." John reportedly has over 200 guitars in his collection.

A great guitar to use if you want to emulate Mayer's single-coil sound is the 2012 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which has push/pull pots that turn the humbuckers into single-coils. That way you get both the crunch and power of a Les Paul, and the smooth melodic sounds of a single-coil pickup.

Talking about what guitar to use, Mayer had some interesting things to say on the subject to MusicRadar: "I'll tell ya the number one rule about guitars for me is that, I'm so sorry you couldn't get the color that you wanted, but if you pick up a guitar at a store and it's sunburst, and you hate sunburst, but it feels and plays great for you � lightning strikes � then that's your guitar!" So basically, if a guitar sounds great to you, then that's the model for you want.