Fender Eric Johnson Strat
Comment of 1stguitar.com's editor: A passionate description of a guitar that is well loved by it's owner.
After having my Eric Johnson Strat for a couple weeks here are my impressions. It's a really, and I mean a really good strat. It does all the "stratty" things we like. It should after all with good components and a good classic design. So I guess I would be asking....are all the EJ tweaks worth the extra money? Do they really make it the strat to have? I will try and cover them point by point as they have been touted in the Fender propaganda.
Light two piece alder body.
Mine weighs about 7-1/2 lbs. The grain is nice but unremarkable. I've heard complaints about mismatched
sides. Mine exhibits a definate grain difference between the halves. It's really a non issue for me. It's wood. Neck pocket is very snug.
NO ADSENSE ACCOUNT SELECTED FOR
GOOGLE ADSENSE Thin Nitro finish.
I don't claim to be an expert on nitro but it looks good to me. Glossy and devoid of orange peel or dust specks. To my eye the burst transition is too heavy and could be feathered better but no biggie. Quite frankly the burst on my Carvin is way better just from a paint application standpoint. Vintage tint on the neck looks good to me. Nitro is applied over the frets and then sanded off during level and crown operations.
Hardware
Has the original style steel tremolo block with shallow string holes. No super bullets on this guitar unless you want the brass ends protruding from the back. Typical vintage style tremolo. I always have to bend the bar to get it a little closer to the body. It came with 5 springs. I'm using four and set it up to float. Stays in tune really well. The nut must be cut very well as there are no pings during tuning or tremolo use. n'57 style pg is a little warpy which is common. I may change it out for a 3-ply at some point. Staggered vintage style tuners are very nice. I love the no string tree look and feel but I could see how you might get a little sitar thing happening on the high 'e'. Mine sounds great but I do put a bunch of winds on the 'e' to make sure there is enough down angle.
Pickups
Here is where I begin to really notice a difference from other strats I've had. Really terrific classic strat tones here. The neck pup is a killer. All the bell tones and warm jazz tones you could want. Sounds really great dirtied up a little. Middle pup is great, although with no tone control you can get a shock going through the switch settings if you have the bridge and neck dialed in with the treble rolled off.
When you hit the neck pup it can tear your head off. Neck pup is really great clean and with a little break up. At high gain I am not so thrilled but I have gotten used to smooth modern distorted tones from my humbucker guitars so I will just have to adjust. I would say it is your typical vintage wound pup but maybe a little hotter.
The thing I am most thrilled about is the balance between pickups.
The last strat I had, if you dialed in a usable bridge tone then the neck was pure mud so I was constantly riding the tone controls. This guitar is way better. Nice pickups all round.....noisy per normal but very nice just the same.
Quarter sawn neck.
OK...for me this neck is nearly worth the price of admission. It is a much more "in your face" improvement
as far as I am concerned. It is very clearly quarter sawn with the best straight grain I've ever seen. It is extremely stiff and stable. I was concerned about the size but since I owned a Carvin Fatboy as of late I was prepared for a beefier profile. I don't really notice the 'V' profile down low. It's pretty subtle as it morphs into a nice 'C' higher up. The volute and base of the neck have a little more shaping than usual and feel great. For me the real selling point was the 12" radius. In combination with the medium jumbo frets this guitar is a breeze to set up for low Gibson action. Probably not you cup 'o tea if you like the 7-1/4" but I love it.
www.1stguitar.com gives you permission to copy this article to use on your website, providing you include the author's biog box.
The case is really cool looking...blonde tolex with black leather ends and black plush interior.
There you have it.....I know myself well enough to not make any rash statements but I can't imagine what else I would like from a strat. I expect this one will stay around for a while.
The following article about electric guitar history has achieved the following rating. Each score is out of 10.
Article reviewer's content quality score: 8
Article's click popularity: 6
Writing Style: 7
Overall rating of guitar article: 7
add your article
Back to top
| 
