Watch John Mayer Reunite with the John Mayer Trio – and His Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster

John Mayer performs at the Love Rocks NYC benefit concert on March 9, 2023 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City
(Image credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images/Love Rocks NYC/God's Love We Deliver)

Back in 2018, John Mayer – previously a Fender endorsee – rocked the guitar universe when he and PRS introduced the Silver Sky, a signature electric guitar that sought to build upon the Fender Stratocaster template.  

Controversial upon its introduction, the six-string has since become a smashing success, quickly becoming one of the best-selling electric guitars on the market. 

In the years since its introduction, Mayer has almost exclusively used the Silver Sky onstage for his solo shows and with Dead & Co. 

Last week (March 9), though, during the Love Rocks Benefit Concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, Mayer not only picked up a Stratocaster again, he did so with a reunited John Mayer Trio.

Mayer, session legend Pino Palladino on bass guitar, and now-Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan performed together for the first time in six years, easing their way through a scintillating three-song set, the entirety of which you can see below.

The trio opened with "Who Did You Think I Was," a Mayer original that featured on their 2005 live album, Try!, followed by "Vultures," which also featured on Try!, and, later, Mayer's hit 2006 album, Continuum. For these two tunes, Mayer used a Silver Sky.

The finale, though, was a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Wait Until Tomorrow" (a version of which also appeared on Try!). For this, Mayer – appropriately – donned a stylish Fender Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster.

For all the novelty of seeing Mayer play a Strat again, last week's performance also marked the first time the virtuoso had ever used his best-selling signature PRS onstage with Jordan and Palladino, with whom he often typically explores his bluesier side.

Silver Sky or Strat in hand, Mayer seemed right at home with his old rhythm section, dishing out some absolutely sublime solos.

That guitar fire aside, though, Mayer is currently in the midst of a solo acoustic tour that will take him to arenas across North America over the coming weeks.

For tickets and more info on the shows, visit johnmayer.com.

Jackson Maxwell
Associate Editor, GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.