John Mayer Strat

Barnezy

What are the opinions on an appropriate value for a mint Sunburst JM Strat, Artist Series? Looking to buy one, but struggling to work out what a good price is. Thanks

barnstorm

American Original money would be my limit, but I imagine the seller is expecting a bit more; people are routinely asking close to £2k now.

Olympic White is more expensive than Sunburst. One of the big shops wants £3k for an OW one, which I just can't get my head around. At the original price, the pickups and neck shape made the Mayer sig a fairly unique proposition but they're poor value now, IMHO, given what else is available used for £2k.

I still like the Big Dippers a lot, though.

barnstorm

Re-reading that, it sounds more negative than I intended – they're cool guitars. Just don't think they're fairly priced anymore.

Th4fonz

I played one of those years ago when they was in andertons.  It was average nothing special to me, and im a huge mayer fan.  I wouldnt pay no more than 1k tbh for one.

richardhomer

I played one of these when they were first released - basically an AVRI with pick-ups which lacked mids. Nothing intrinsically wrong with this combination of features - but if they’re going for ‘daft’ money - an AVRI fitted with scooped-sounding aftermarket pick-ups would probably be better value....

barnstorm

9.5" radius and 6105s, though, so close to the ’62 Hot Rod rather than the standard AVRI – and unfortunately people seem to want quite a lot for the Hot Rods these days, too!

If the OP ends up looking at a pickup swap rather than buying the Mayer, I can recommend the Klein Jazzy Cats.

Barnezy

AVRI minus the nitro finish, which is a real shame. I guess these might become more collectable in the future, given JM has moved away from Fender, hence the asporational prices today. Thanks for the input. 

thegummy

I've heard that the Big Dipper pickups are all marketing; that it's actually impossible to wind pickups to have any more significant of a mid-range scoop than any other pickups of that type and the mid-scooped sound is more to do with amp settings.

Maybe someone like OilCityPickups can confirm if that's true or not?

Barnezy

That would be interesting to know as people are selling them for £500+ 

barnstorm

Aspirational is right! I can understand high used prices for out-of-production guitars that offer a set of features not available elsewhere, but the Mayer isn't one of those.

Re. the Big Dippers, they're definitely not worth buying at crazy eBay prices; I found them a very pleasing match with the rest of my gear, but they're not magic.

BGG

Buy a Silver Sky 

PonchoGreg

Buy an AVRI (with nitro finish unlike the JM), get it refretted to 6105s with a radius change if you fancy, get some fancier pickups if needed - should probably leave you with some change surely? Saying this as a big Mayer fan too

Arktik83

A little word of warning with AVRI's, I have sunburst one and I love it but the finish comes off even if you just look at it wrong.  It's proper thin skin and, to me, I like that but I could see it annoying some people.  My AVRI 52 tele does the same thing so I know it's not just a one off.

Also, they are 7.25" radius which a lot of people can't deal with but it doesn't bother me either.  They're great guitars but I would try before you buy if you can to see if you can get on with it because buying a guitar and having re-radiused and re-fretted before you would be happy with it just seems a bit extreme to me.  I would give the radius a good college try unless you already know you can't abide by a vintage radius.

I wouldn't bother with what people are charging for JM sigs though, they really are just tarted up American strats.