Fender Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster

nyone familiar with Eric
Johnson will know that, apart
from his truly magical touch
on the guitar, his life’s quest is for
the perfect tone. Eric wants to
evoke the smooth, singing voice
of the violin in his lead passages
and so hates sounds that are thin
and spiky, preferring instead
thick tones that fall like liquid
from his guitar.
A true afi cionado of vintage
Strats, Johnson is someone who
knows better than most how the
world’s favourite electric guitar
could be ‘improved’. And with
that in mind he got together with
Fender and came up with this
very retro looking instrument.
“They used my favourite
Stratocaster,” Eric told us. “It’s
a 1957 sunburst with maple neck
that I found in Florida when I was
on tour a few years ago.”
He stipulated an exceptionally
light weight, heavily contoured
alder body fi nished in the thinnest
nitro-cellulose lacquer. Mated to this
would be a quarter-sawn tinted maple
neck with the smoothest transition
between neck and headstock, armed
with 21 medium-jumbo frets and with
a modern, 12-inch fi ngerboard radius.
Eric likes his Strats to be fi tted with
the full fi ve springs but not ‘blocked up’
as with his namesake Clapton’s guitar.
“All my guitars are like that,” he
confi rmed. Nor a fan of the tricky-to-
negotiate Strat back-plate with its
fi ddly string-loading holes, Johnson
decided it would be omitted from his
signature guitar. But EJ tells us there’s
more to it than that: “Actually the
backplates are removed from all my
guitars because I think they sound
better with them off.”
Johnson wanted his Strat to look as
‘normal’ as possible. Due to his desire
for a string-tree-free headstock, one
millimetre or so has been
skimmed from its front surface
and staggered Gotoh tuners
fi tted. “The reason I did this is
because the guitar stays in tune
better,” explains Eric. “It was my
idea to stagger the tuners, then
Michael Braun at Fender made it
work by skimming the face of the
peghead to increase string angle
over the nut.”
Other personal features include
a parchment coloured single-ply
scratchplate, authentic vibrato
block – “It’s closer to those used
in the 1950s and 1960s; the holes
are smaller and the string doesn’t
go in as deep” – and a discreet
neck-plate bearing the guitarist’s
initials and the fi gure of
Kokopelli, a Native American
character symbolising the
‘mischievous minstrel’.
But the most important weapon
in the guitar’s arsenal is its
pickups and wiring. Eric worked
with the Custom Shop to develop
pickups that sounded both warm and
hot, with a distinct vintage vibe that
retained every ounce of tone possible.
Traditionally Strats don’t have a tone
control on the bridge pickup, leaving
this often harsh-sounding single-coil as
many people’s least favourite selection.
Johnson simply switched the tone pot
from the middle pickup to the bridge,
leaving the neck unit covered by its
own tone control but the middle wired
wide open.
The EJ’s cellulose lacquered neck is
a touch bigger than the average
Vintage Reissue Strat, with a chunky
Fender Eric Johnson
Signature Stratocaster
£1,549
Eric Johnson is a true virtuoso guitarist and a man renowned for his love of great tone.
So does his new signature Strat have what it takes? by Neville Marten
ERIC JOHNSON STRAT TEST RESULTS
Build quality
Playability
Sound
Value for money
■ WE LIKED Flawless build; looks; feather
weight; bridge pickup tone control
■ WE DISLIKED Nothing to dislike…
Fender Eric Clapton Strat
£1,299
Fender Jeff Beck Strat
£1,299
Fender John Mayer Strat
£1,299
These are three of our
favourite signature
Strats and among the
most versatile going.
The Clapton Strat’s
great mild ‘V’ neck,
powerful mid-boost
system and blocked
up vibrato make it the
ideal guitar for players
with several musical
roles to fulfi l – anywhere
from country to rock it’s
a gem. The latest JB
signature is a player’s
dream, with its smooth-
action chunky neck,
rosewood fi ngerboard,
modern vibrato system
and Fender’s super
Noiseless pickups.
John Mayer’s signature
Strat mixes vintage
and modern specs,
with midway 9.5-
inch radius African
rosewood fi ngerboard,
jumbo Dunlop 6105
frets, middle-voiced
Big Dipper pickups,
fi ve-spring vibrato with
uninstalled back-plate,
chunky satin fi nished
neck with buffed
headstock
The rivals
The neckplate depicts
Kokopelli – a Native
American character
symbolising the
‘mischievous minstrel’
FENDER ERIC JOHNSON SIGNATURE STRATOCASTER £1,549
ELECTRICS
106 JANUARY 2006
A
GIT272.rev_fender 106GIT272.rev_fender 106 7/12/05 11:52:17 am7/12/05 11:52:17 am