John Mayer's New Guitar Holds Special New York Knicks Connection

After a two-night showing at the New York Knicks' home arena, John Mayer will be taking a piece of Madison Square Garden with him on the road.

Not even Patrick Ewing could take this part of the Madison Square Garden paint away from John Mayer.

Fresh off two sold-out shows at MSG on Oct. 3-4, the singer-songwriter was bestowed a special gift from the New York Knicks' home arena: The Garden bestowed the singer-songwriter a Charvel guitar whose body is made from the maple hardwood floor of the Knicks' playing surface, namely the painted blue area that Ewing and countless other metropolitan big men have patrolled over the years. A modern Knicks emblem is featured at the bottom.

Charvel master builder Joe Williams showcased the instrument on his Instagram page, saying he was "very honored to have been a part (in) this special project whipped up by the legendary Madison Square Garden."

"A while back, we were contacted to build a guitar for (Mayer) who had already sold out (The Garden) venue two nights in a row," Williams explained. "As a gift to him, they asked us to make a guitar out of the recently removed Knicks basketball court. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to really go crazy with it, but it seems like everyone was happy with what I came up with."

Mayer opened his acoustic tour with two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden / USA TODAY Network

Mayer's latest set at MSG was a throwback to the acoustic sounds that defined his early solo career, which kicked off in 2001. The 46-year-old has been nominated for 19 Grammy Awards, winning seven, the last couple coming in 2009 (Best Male Vocal Pop Performance for "Belief" and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Gravity"). MSG opened the fall leg of his solo acoustic tour, which has since visited NBA arenas in Boston, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Chicago. 

The Knicks (1-2) will return to the new Garden hardwood on Wednesday night as they wrap up their 2023 preseason slate against the Washington Wizards (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).