Anyone own or have played an Eric Johnson Stratocaster?

[se7en]

I have an upcoming project where I need a Gilmour-ish strat tone to hard rock. The EJ strat has me intrigued. It's about half of what a Gilmour strat costs. I guess my concern would be how it would handle the heavier stuff. I always tend to prefer maple boards on a strat and the 12" fretboard radius is something I think I'd greatly prefer over the traditional strat radii.

 

[severinsteel]

I own one and like it a lot. I have gone back and forth about the finish (sometimes it is too glossy), but it really is a killer instrument. It's in favor at the moment. Here is a super quick video I just did using my EJ Strat.

 

[DrugDM]

Hello EJ strat is great but the pickups are not noiseless and will squeal under significant gain. As a guitar, I believe it is the best strat built by Fender without going to the custom shop. The neck is real comfy and flattens out as you go up the neck which makes it easy to shred.

 

[jmgman69]

^^^^^^^^ I agree with these guys!!!!! Killer strats!!

 

[stratotone]

Owned three, two maple boards and a rosewood w/binding, still have one of the maple boards. Fantastic guitars, all three were light and very resonant. I did put humbucking single coil sized pickups in the bridge of each though, I have to have a bridge HB. Probably the best fender non custom shop strat you can get. Lots of little changes like no string trees - the tuners are staggered. Has a larger trem block than usual, 12" radius, fairly big frets, etc.

On mine I refretted it with Jumbo stainless frets, my only gripe is 21 frets instead of 22, but it is supposed to be a more 'vintage' kinda strat. Neck is fairly big, which I prefer also. It's not a club like a Jeff Beck, but it's certainly not a thin neck either.

 

[mooncobra]

check out the newer jeff beck strat, the neck is no longer the baseball bat neck, its a nice c shape that is easy to throw leads down on and lets you open up the workshop! noiseless pickups also. one of the better strats I have come across and you can get gilmourish tones also.

 

[robertkoa]

The Gilmour tone can be done on a good Strat with a Duncan SL5 in the Bridge and a neck add switch helps also.*

There are many other ways....

The EJs are really cool Strats IMO, one of the Strats I can just pick up and play as a Non Strat player.

I suggest you get an EJ with the deepest tone, the most bottom end....



Yeah-Gilmour may not use it , but if you have it add the neck in Series, not Parallel it makes it easier to get huge tones by blending it in.

 

[Zap]

PM sent!

 

[gibson08]

I find the EJ, Beck, Clapton Strats to all be nice guitars with great tones,, I kinda like the Clapton, the boost works really well. If you want to buy used I would suggest a Strat Plus, one of my old favorites . Another move would be to buy a new American Special, they play really well, and put a Gilmour EMG set in. All suggestions from a LP guy

 

[snowdog]

The Gilmour tone can be done on a good Strat with a Duncan SL5 in the Bridge and a neck add switch helps also

One Guitar Player interviewer asked Dave for an example when he used that switch and he said he can't recall ever using it on anything.

 

[se7en]

The Gilmour tone can be done on a good Strat with a Duncan SL5 in the Bridge and a neck add switch helps also

One Guitar Player interviewer asked Dave for an example when he used that switch and he said he can't recall ever using it on anything.

 

[robertkoa]

The Gilmour tone can be done on a good Strat with a Duncan SL5 in the Bridge and a neck add switch helps also

One Guitar Player interviewer asked Dave for an example when he used that switch and he said he can't recall ever using it on anything.

Adding some neck in series(not parallel ) can get really fat tones from a Strat type without a huge rig though,
especially if you are not Gilmour.

 

[se7en]

Cool to know. I'm not DG btw. My only real concern with the EJ strat is if it's a bit thinner sounding due to the light weight and two ply alder body.

 

[atrox]

I own the Gilmour Stat and i can tell you this... The Duncan SSL5 in that thing slays. I normally play heavier music and am also in a Pink Floyd project, I can use the Gilmour for all my heavy stuff. The neck and mid pickups are weak and chimey. Typical old Strat sounding pickups.

With that in mind, and EJ Strat with an SSL5 would be perfect for your Gilmourish bridge tones. You don't need the neck-on switch. I never use it and as far as i can tell, neither has David. I think that was an experiment that was just left alone.

 

[se7en]

Atrox: good to hear that the Duncan SSL5 can handle the heavy stuff. Have you played an EJ strat? I noticed your about an hour away from me, btw (Buffalo).

 

[atrox]

Atrox: good to hear that the Duncan SSL5 can handle the heavy stuff. Have you played an EJ strat? I noticed your about an hour away from me, btw (Buffalo).

I have worked on a few EJ Strats. They are very nice. I only got to play them through my shop amp, so I can't much about how they sound. I did like the playability and quality though.

I was just in Buffalo recording last weekend. Lockport to be exact.

 

[se7en]

Atrox: good to hear that the Duncan SSL5 can handle the heavy stuff. Have you played an EJ strat? I noticed your about an hour away from me, btw (Buffalo).

I have worked on a few EJ Strats. They are very nice. I only got to play them through my shop amp, so I can't much about how they sound. I did like the playability and quality though.

I was just in Buffalo recording last weekend. Lockport to be exact.

Ah, you must have been at Watchman Studios. My band recorded there as well. I work in Lockport, btw.

Yeah, I usually prefer a flatter radius neck than the usual Fender offerings so the EJ strat seems perfect in theory.

 

[atrox]

Atrox: good to hear that the Duncan SSL5 can handle the heavy stuff. Have you played an EJ strat? I noticed your about an hour away from me, btw (Buffalo).

I have worked on a few EJ Strats. They are very nice. I only got to play them through my shop amp, so I can't much about how they sound. I did like the playability and quality though.

I was just in Buffalo recording last weekend. Lockport to be exact.

Ah, you must have been at Watchman Studios. My band recorded there as well. I work in Lockport, btw.

Yeah, I usually prefer a flatter radius neck than the usual Fender offerings so the EJ strat seems perfect in theory.

yup. been going to Doug for many years now.

 

[Travis]

I like the EJ strat. It's definitely a great sounding guitar off the shelf and it's relatively available. The thing I do t like about them is the amount of finish on the neck; totally chokes the guitar, it's nothing like EJ's old strats but he has a couple of them at his studio so that is definitely a testimony to its quality. He also keeps his tone control for the bridge pickup somewhere in the 4-7 range; it's almost never all the way up.

EJ will also occasionally use SSL type bridge pickups too for a hotter thing.

If you don't use a tremolo arm, the older Mexican Robert Cray strat is my favorite. Basically a 60's hardtail strat. That'll do hard rock. I know, it's Robert Cray, but the hardtail makes the guitar vastly different for the bridge pickup; more meat.

On the Gilmour tip; I just read about a pickup maker making a set of grey bobbin strat pickups but the bridge had a switch that toggled between a 7.something K bridge pickup and a more SSL5-ish 12K.

Another thing you could do to get some more variety out of any humbucking pickup is to add a switch to toggle between just the singular pickup being in series or in parallel. It can make your otherwise muddy humbucker into something with a little more jangle and single coil-y-ness but still a humbucker...

My mind wanders.

 

[se7en]

Good information, Travis. Thanks. I was considering a humbucker but think I'll go SSS. Now, if I could just track one down.