Guitar of the Week! - Fender Artist Series Eric Johnson Stratocaster

Hi Guys n Gals! Working here at Absolute Music, it's safe to say I get my greedy hands on a wide selection of stringed wonders, so I thought why not talk about them? I plan to make this a regular feature in my blogs so hopefully somebody, somewhere wwill find it interesting.

Feel free to comment or message me with any suggestion for future reviews, let me know what you guys want to know about and I'll do my best. Hopefully we can get some good threads going!

Right, let's get the ball rolling... My first award for 'Guitar of the Week' goes to Fender's Artist Series Eric Johnson Stratocaster!

For pics see here...
https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/store/index.php/bst2usfenej/p_21785.html

Now I'm a HUGE Johnson fan; I would have to say he's without a doubt in my top 3 favourite players of all time. I'm sure you've all heard 'Cliffs Of Dover', but trust me, this only scratches the surface of what EJ has to offer. I'd recommend checking out the track 'Lonely In The Night' from his album 'Venus Isle' - the guitar solo at the end will do one of two things: make you want to give up now and take up something a little easier (like drums haha), OR you'll pick up your guitar and start practicing - for anybody interested in melodic lead guitar it is a MUST!

Besides his incredible technique and melodic playing, there another big reason he has gained such fame... HIS TONE! Something so many players have since tried to recreate. Now true, some of it's in his fingers but the rest is hiding in his equipment, particularly the guitar!

Overall the guitar has a vintage vibe to it. Johnson chose his favourite 1957 lightweight alder body with a two tone sunburst and thin nitro finish on which to base this signature model. The neck is a maple 1 piece with vintage soft V shape and a smoothed join to the headstock. With all this in mind it's one of the most comfortable strats I've played; all the way from 1st fret to 21st.

Being the tone purist he is, Johnson added a few features to this guitar that make it very unique. He would always remove the string tree and backplate from his guitars, believing that it generally improved the overall tone of the instrument. The signature model features height staggered vintage tuners which eliminates the need for a string tree, and all models ship with the trem springs exposed at the back. Whether this makes a difference? I'll leave that to you decide... far be it for me to disagree with EJ :)

I'm gonna wrap this up now - this guitar can be a collectors item or it can be a workhorse. It is what you make it. It's tone has that classic strat vibe that everybody loves - it produces gorgeous chimey, glassy cleans yet thick, warm overdrive sounds.

Anyone can pick this up and it will do what is says on the tin, but put it in the right hands and it will do SO much more.