Donovan Banks

It is no secret that I am a HUGE John Mayer fan. Not so much because I am fat, but that I love his work.

I have been trying so hard to get his tone right. I played a little bit with my GT8 and VOX VT50 and came very close to his tone in "Somethings Missing." but now I am very stoked.

I was playing around with the sound of  "I dont trust myself (With Loving You)" and found the Boss Slow Gear on the GT8 can get you fairly close.

This is what My guitar sounds like so far. I am trying to get it as close to the original as possible. I don't even know why I just want to conquer this...

Using the GT8 and the Slow gear effect, quite a bit of EQ as well but the slow gear is set with Sensitivity at 47, and rise time 79.

here's my sample...
http://www.box.net/shared/dt7isgqi09

its a little louder than the backing track.
If any GT8 owners can get it closer let me know.
For the record the Preamp was the Tweed, gain 22, bass 83, mid 60, treble 43, presence 7, level 48
and added some reverb and very slight chorus in.

I got a Fender Jeff Beck Hot Noiseless pickup for a Strat. Its supposed to be a hotter pup with more gain and stronger tone.

The result is fantastic and I also changed the look slightly of my guitar.

Before


After

I need to find a cover that fits the HN.

Inside before


Inside After


Tonally it sounds very cool. I made a video of that as well,

I made a backing track to practice my scales. The first one is a simple blues progression in C#m.
The chords are C#m and A. Then E, F# and A.
Download the mp3 from my soundclick page.

Here I was messing about with it and my Strat.


I'll be doing some more soon. Maybe some Jazz and rock soon.

Well it has been incredibly busy lately, not on the blog but in general.
I have now moved home, had to get my new Internet connection up and running, thanks to cybersmart.
I also have some new gear, I bought a mexican power strat, a Vox VT50 and a Boss BR600. I need to play with all of them a little more so soon you will hear sound clips etc.

I have to get playing soon so I'll get into this soon again, if anyone out there cares?

In case you're wondering I thought I'd tell you about my gear.

1990 Squier Stratocaster
I bought this guitar off a friend of mine in 1999. He had a similar design in stuck on Vinyl, i just painted it on rather badly. It needs a bit of a clean up and now that I have more guitars I can afford to "decommission" them one by one and get them up to scratch. The N Series Squiers were remarkable and the neck on this guitar is pristine. It still has the original pickups and I reckon its about time for new ones. I am thinking of the Jeff Beck Noiseless pups. I love the tone and feel of this guitar and it was my first that I bought myself.








2006 Epiphone Les Paul 100
I found this guitar online for very cheap. I had a Les Paul Special before which was absolute rubbish. The difference between the LP100 and other Les Pauls (excluding the studio) is that the body of this guitar is very thin and excludes binding. This makes it a lot lighter than a standard Les paul but with similar electronics and neck. One major flaw in these is that they are made very cheap. I am changing the selector switch as it doens't work 100% and the D and G strings go out of tune after a song or two of heavy bending. New Machine heads are on the cards but I am going for grover Rotamatics when I have the budget available. I love the tone but I don't give full credit to the pups on this baby. They are standard but sound very sweet. I may keep them on. I also like the finish on this as it looks great

You have seen my Ibanez.

The amplifier pictured with the Strat is a Fender Bassman 50, made sometime in the 70's. It was black I recovered it with white vinyl and it looks sweeeeeeeet!!! I recently sold it as it was too big for me to use in gigs and I have a small car and an even smaller apartment.

I currently use a Laney TF200 amp. I'll get a picture sometime soon. Its a standard 120W combo amp with two lead channels (that I dont really use) and a Spring reverb unit which is quite nice.

For effects I have the Boss GT-8 effects processor. I am still learning to use it but the more I play with it, the more I learn. It is a superb item and is definitely cheaper than buying even 10% of the effects it holds.

I am in the process of getting a Boss Micro BR recorder. I say in the process as it belongs to a friend who wants to sell it and I am playing with it at the moment. It is a fantastic item and I will write more about it soon.

Feel free to tell me about your gear, I love guitar stuff in all shapes and sizes.