All user reviews of 4/5 for the Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster Maple

The Fender Eric Johnson Strat is a guitar that was designed between fusion guitar master Eric Johnson and Fender. Eric has long been known for his endless quest for tone and the late fities Strats that he has played for years are a focal point. For many years people aspired to get that classic EJ "violin" tone, and now with his signature model you can get that next step closer. It features an alder body, a quartersawn maple neck and fretboard with 21 frets, Kluson tuners, a vintage style tremolo unit with larger tremolo block and 5 springs per EJ's spec. The pickups are Fender made and were designed by Eric and Michael Braun to get the vintage and clear tones that work for the "violin" sound as heard in Cliffs of Dover. It's wired to a volume, dual tones (neck and bridge) and a 5 way switch. Built in the USA.

UTILIZATION

The design of this guitar is pretty ergonomic for sure. The body is extremely contoured just like the real old Strats, and it's also quite light. The quartersawn maple neck feels very nice. The one major issue I have with this guitar is the glossy neck finish which gets quite sticky and annoying, so much so that I have turned down buying one for that reason alone. If the finish was satin, it would possibly be the perfect non Custom Shop Strat. The upper fret access is quite nice though which is good, and the tones are just stellar from this instrument. It's very resonant unplugged, and when put through good tube amps it's really a thing of beauty.

SOUNDS

The tones out of this ax are pretty amazing. The custom designed Fender pickups are just the perfect blend of that old world Strat tone brought into the modern context. They're extremely awesome and glassy sounding. Through a nice clean Fender like a Twin they just sing with bell like qualities. Whether you're doing jazzy chords, harmonic based passages or lead work a-la the master, the tones are right there delivering purity of sound through and through. Switching over to a drive sound brings this guitar to a whole other level. The punchiness of the pickups really comes through well and it's just awesome to use for blues, rock, or even some heavier tones if you want that bright sound. It's a pretty quiet instrument as well which is a nice plus.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I think the Fender Eric Johnson Strat is awesome. People say it's probably the best non Custom Shop Fender made, and I'd have to agree. Other than the overly glossy neck, it's nearly perfect, and short of having a custom Suhr or Fender made, I'd argue that for the dollar you can't get better. The look is classic, the feel is very vintage, and the tones range from pristine to pretty raunchy and it does them all convincingly and with power. For about $1,900 new this guitar is a great deal and well worth looking into if you need a killer Strat.

This is an American Stratocaster, which is based off of guitar hero Eric Johnson's personal input. The guitar has an alder body with a maple neck and maple fretboard. The guitar has 21 medium sized frets. The pickups are 3 single-coil pickups that are custom designed to Eric Johnson's specifications. The guitar also features a five-way selector switch, and has a master volume and two tone knobs (one controls the tone of individual pickups, the other controls the tone of two pickups in conjunction.)

UTILIZATION

Playing this guitar is pretty easy. It's easy to get really fast leads going on it, as well as play solid rhythm parts. The design makes the guitar really feel almost effortless to play. I don't know if it is my ideal guitar, but the design and comfortability of playing this guitar is superior to the vast majority of guitars I've tried. The sounds that come out of it are pretty varied, and the pickups are some of the best I've ever heard in a Strat. The guitar isn't very heavy or awkward so ergonomics are fine. The drivers are all stable and everything seems to be in order.

SOUNDS

This guitar has a pretty particular sound. It won't be ideal for everyone, however, it's pretty much one of the greatest sounding guitars I've played. This is mainly because every sound and nuance of the guitar comes through, and the pickups are probably the main reason for this. Considering that Eric Johnson designed this guitar mainly for his fans' use, and eventually started using it himself (a surprisingly rare occurrence), that gives testament to how well this thing plays and how good it sounds. The leads ring through with a surprisingly clear tone. My only beef with the guitar is that it can make everything sound slightly "80s", and by that I mean similar to guitar virtuosos like Steve Vai and Johnson himself. This can be kind of unfortunate, so make sure you use the right amp and distortion to avoid falling into this trap, since I don't know anybody who really likes those tones anymore.

OVERALL OPINION

I think that the playability and the sound of the guitar (when played tastefully) are pretty much the best things about it. It doesn't look much nicer than any other Stratocaster out there. I think that it's a pretty ridiculously expensive guitar, but it's also one of the only brand new Strats that I've played in a long time that I even remotely liked. A good vintage strat will run you almost twice as much as this, so I'd say this isn't a particularly irresponsible choice. The guitar is pretty stellar and doesn't fall into the same traps that a lot of Stratocasters do.