This Eric Johnson Thin line review was excellent, and Very informative. The description, tones, and construction of the guitar were demonstrated and described perfectly! Thank you for a job well done. I currently own one EJ Fender guitar, and I absolutely love the feel and tone. After viewing your demonstration of this EJ Thin Line, I believe I’m going to someday purchase one.
Countersunk screw holes for the pick-ups generate better tone transfer? That's stretching things a bit surely? Either way, great playing from Richard as always.
It's nonsense lol. The major difference between all production Strats is the resistance and capacitance of the electronics. They're all different because they're only made to a 20% tolerance. It's a far more significant variable than any of the hardware. A 400k pot is waayyy darker than a 600k pot, and they're all in between somewhere.
Left Past Saturn While it seems silly, I would note that I looked for a Strat with decent resonant vibration unplugged for a few years and finally found one. It definitely meant better amplified tone, perhaps because of the way it feels under the hand affects the way i play. Years later I had the Pickguard off and found it had a ‘swimming pool” rout for the pickups! So, perhaps the Pickguard acting as a vibrating soundboard is possibly a factor?
A 'swimming pool' rout can arguably change the resonant qualities of an instrument yes, but implying that countersunk screws make any difference (other than comfort) is nonsense... without the large cavity underneath it, a plastic scratchplate has all the resonant qualities of a bank of fog.
They did sound different, I quite liked the EJ. They are his pickups but it sounded slightly clearer, or the red strat sounded thicker. I'm definitely interested in it thanks to this cheers guys!
Those wider vintage style saddles are cool. Makes the strings have a bigger distance between them. Now the strings cover all the fretboard. No lost space on the fingerboard like in modern Strats
A lot of the variability of sound from one Strat to the next has to do with the tuning of the SPRINGS. People don't pay attention to this, but having the springs tuned to pleasant harmonics makes a HUGE difference in tone. If you want to hear it, turn up the guitar, dampen the strings with one hand and tap on the bridge with the handle of a screw-driver. Then tap with the strings un-dampened. The springs are like having a reverb/resonator screwed to the middle of the guitar. If the springs are out of tune with the guitar the tone WILL suffer greatly.
i'm with you with half of this. when you play strats for a while you will notice some notes resonate like CRAZY, which paired with adequate gain will give you beautiful harmonics and splendid overtones. this is because of the total tension the springs are under: just like a string, the springs will be tuned to a certain note. i use 3 springs on my strat because i have a heavy use of the tremolo system, all 3 are tuned to D after setting up the guitar. when i play a D note, it resonates alongside the springs, giving all D notes a special sound: it is kind of a natural feedback produced by the overtones of the springs vibrating in the same frequency as the string playing the D note. this is whether you are playing the one D one, or if D is present in a chord you are playing. but i wouldn't say out of tune springs make the guitar tone "suffer greatly", it's just the one note produced by your springs. to tune the springs, by the way, you gotta set it up perfectly; or reduce its mass. just like tuning forks. but with guitar springs it is kind of a lucky thing. i got real lucky.
@@tintecobrizo More than anything else it's important to NOT have the springs a quarter tone off any guitar note, or out of tune with one another, unless you like unpleasant dissonance that is... Just tap the bridge and tune (tighten/loosen) the springs until they sound pleasing to your ear. I've never heard Eric Johnson talk about this, which is surprising since he's supposed to be so anal about his sound...
If you are willing to settle for a Mexican Strat, then check out the Fender Classic Series '50s Stratocaster Lacquer. If you are willing to do without nitrocellulose, then check out the Fender Classic Series '50s Stratocaster for a vintage radius and bridge or a Fender Classic Player '50s Stratocaster for locking tuners, a flatter radius, bigger frets, and a two-point vibrato bridge (the price should be the same).
8:15 I think that maple fretboards tend to be more warm and less bright and high edged than rosewood ones, meanwhile the maple ones have more overtones and less fundamentals because it hasn't have open pores like Rosewood. At least in my own exp. with exact same specs guitars, with same pickups and gauges.
I think it's a great guitar! At first glance when I saw one, I thought the "f" hole looked a little weird, but it has since grown on me and inspired me to build my own semi hollow Strat. I'll save about $1600 and have a lot of fun too!👍😎🎸🎶
Tone control leaks treble, there’s no way the high end of the middle pickup isn’t affected in positions 2 and 4 unless the tone control is not active on the front and back pickups in those positions either.
Nice review really enjoyed it ..Eric Johnson strat sounds gorgeous..a little brighter compressed sound ..sounds lime your playing from a Fender BassMan or plexi Marshall ....Beautiful clean sound love the F Hole ..More exciting than the red strat ..Red straight stunning guitar to ..
I agree with everything except the bit at 8:14 . Rosewood fingerboards do not make a guitar darker. IME, it's the opposite. All maple add some high mids and take away a smidgen of the the very top end. By contrast, rosewood is a bit more hollow sounding as well as more chimey.
What time is it? 12:05. Time for The Tone Lounge. These are truly awesome reviews. Neville’s strat is pure tone. I’m starting to like the F hole too. What can you say...if Eric Johnson created this it’s gotta be good.
They are selling you a bill of goods here alot of hogwash is it poly finish and sealer ? Yea so much for the mystical bullshit SNAP BACK INTO REALITY PLEASE....
I have the 2005 and I changed the pickups out. I loved the EJ nick and bridge but the middle just doesn’t cut it. I replaced them with Klein 63 set and love it. Totally makes this more Strat like! Try them!
Good one! Not that they use to tune the guitars tones by the wood choice. Now they do it by choosing how they sound by the direction of the wood fibers. The most guitarded sentence I've ever herd until now!! I guess the pickups pots strings and all those amps and amps knobs are obsolete. Wood fibres direction.
I like the F-hole, but I would honestly love to have an Eric Johnson Thinline Strat with the chambering, but without the F-hole. That would be a very cool option, if it were available.
Robstafarian well thanks robstafarian but im not sure you know what a hardtail is then...but thanks . a hardtail strat has no trem bridge and strings go thru like a tele..its a stock option on standard strats. if i missunderstood u forgive me
ya i figured there was a point u were making it would be hard to run a string thru a semi hollow too.....not impossible but akward ... thought about this later .... but i see now what u meant thanks
I do not know how you can properly review a guitar without giving the specs on the pickups, I read Mr. Johnson uses a Dimarzio in the bridge, does this guitar have a Dimarzio in it....well I do not know because you did not tell me.
Thanks I just read a "Rig Rundown" for Mr. Johnson in Premier Guitar Digital Magazine that had the thinline strat he actually uses in shows, it talks about the Dimarzio in the bridge. along with the '54 strat
I really don't think an f hole looks good on a Strat. It needs a less obvious shape to get away from the trad semi trope. Other than that it sounds very much like my EJ Strat but a little warmer.
I was inspired by these guitars to build a semi hollow Strat...gathering parts for it now. I was kind of thinking the same about the "f" hole and wondered what shape would look better. If you've ever seen Samantha Fish's Tele, she has her fish logo, instead of the standard "f" hole in the body. I'd love to come up with a similar cool look!👍😎🎸🎶
You claim " nothing about it to criticize " ... How about the neck is too narrow at the body? The High E is off the fret end. All EJ guitar have this. I had to use a 2 1/16" string span bridge in mine.
I bought one of these pieces of crap. Poorly made, Estring too close to the edge of the neck, cheap tuners, way too trebly sounding pickups. Sent it back. Buy the amp not the guitar.
@@johnvcougar Good for you. As for me, I'm sick and tired of buying relative expensive guitars and having to pay $300+ in setup to get a mediocre guitar. I have actually bought several $200 Malaysian copies that play much better right out of the box. I have a $100 Monoprice Tele with Fralin pickups that plays better than my Fender Ultra Tele. The neck was excellent, out of the box....
@@johnnylance I hear ya, man. I have some Squiers that play beautifully, too, but I had to put the work in. I do the setups myself and always get great results. I'll have a crack at Fender in a Vlog about this one, I reckon. Because you're absolutely right: shouldn't need this level of correction on a signature instrument.
![Rig Rundown - Eric Johnson [2018]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Nx6cUuH7QGw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Rig Rundown - Eric Johnson [2018]](/img/tr.png)
"wow that thinline sounds great"
*the fiesta red kicks in*
MAKE SPACE FOR GOD
Lol I thought the same thing. That custom shop sounds unreal
Love this podcast Neville & Richard Rock. Keep the show going please....epic tones and playing.
This Eric Johnson Thin line review was excellent, and Very informative. The description, tones, and construction of the guitar were demonstrated and described perfectly! Thank you for a job well done. I currently own one EJ Fender guitar, and I absolutely love the feel and tone. After viewing your demonstration of this EJ Thin Line, I believe I’m going to someday purchase one.
Beautiful Strat Fiesta Red.
Two great sounding Strats for sure, but I can't help thinking the real star of the show here is the Friedman amp.
I guess Im kinda randomly asking but does anybody know a good site to watch new series online ?
You both are so thorough when doing reviews on products and you do it so well. Thanks always.
Countersunk screw holes for the pick-ups generate better tone transfer? That's stretching things a bit surely?
Either way, great playing from Richard as always.
It's nonsense lol. The major difference between all production Strats is the resistance and capacitance of the electronics. They're all different because they're only made to a 20% tolerance. It's a far more significant variable than any of the hardware. A 400k pot is waayyy darker than a 600k pot, and they're all in between somewhere.
Left Past Saturn While it seems silly, I would note that I looked for a Strat with decent resonant vibration unplugged for a few years and finally found one. It definitely meant better amplified tone, perhaps because of the way it feels under the hand affects the way i play. Years later I had the Pickguard off and found it had a ‘swimming pool” rout for the pickups! So, perhaps the Pickguard acting as a vibrating soundboard is possibly a factor?
If it makes Eric play well, then I am for letting him believe anything which does not result in suffering.
A 'swimming pool' rout can arguably change the resonant qualities of an instrument yes, but implying that countersunk screws make any difference (other than comfort) is nonsense... without the large cavity underneath it, a plastic scratchplate has all the resonant qualities of a bank of fog.
Eric says he loves UK mains voltage the best. He is a bit crazy haha.
Love these videos, Neville is extremely knowledgeable and Richard plays like the devil.
Very good review chaps and nice playing. I have a thinline Tele Cabronita and it is also a fantastic sounding and very versatile guitar
Full video ny
ruclips.net/video/hYbgeTbLmfA/видео.html
Does that Tele have a humbucker? As I watched the video, I became curious about what a humbucker in the bridge might sound like.☺
I love these classy reviews.
They did sound different, I quite liked the EJ. They are his pickups but it sounded slightly clearer, or the red strat sounded thicker. I'm definitely interested in it thanks to this cheers guys!
I would love to hear more about that custom blues junior that you have.
Those wider vintage style saddles are cool. Makes the strings have a bigger distance between them. Now the strings cover all the fretboard. No lost space on the fingerboard like in modern Strats
Brilliant show
I know is always the combination of the guitar, amp and the player, but still the tone of this thinline is spectacular
A lot of the variability of sound from one Strat to the next has to do with the tuning of the SPRINGS. People don't pay attention to this, but having the springs tuned to pleasant harmonics makes a HUGE difference in tone. If you want to hear it, turn up the guitar, dampen the strings with one hand and tap on the bridge with the handle of a screw-driver. Then tap with the strings un-dampened. The springs are like having a reverb/resonator screwed to the middle of the guitar. If the springs are out of tune with the guitar the tone WILL suffer greatly.
i'm with you with half of this. when you play strats for a while you will notice some notes resonate like CRAZY, which paired with adequate gain will give you beautiful harmonics and splendid overtones. this is because of the total tension the springs are under: just like a string, the springs will be tuned to a certain note. i use 3 springs on my strat because i have a heavy use of the tremolo system, all 3 are tuned to D after setting up the guitar. when i play a D note, it resonates alongside the springs, giving all D notes a special sound: it is kind of a natural feedback produced by the overtones of the springs vibrating in the same frequency as the string playing the D note. this is whether you are playing the one D one, or if D is present in a chord you are playing. but i wouldn't say out of tune springs make the guitar tone "suffer greatly", it's just the one note produced by your springs. to tune the springs, by the way, you gotta set it up perfectly; or reduce its mass. just like tuning forks. but with guitar springs it is kind of a lucky thing. i got real lucky.
@@tintecobrizo More than anything else it's important to NOT have the springs a quarter tone off any guitar note, or out of tune with one another, unless you like unpleasant dissonance that is... Just tap the bridge and tune (tighten/loosen) the springs until they sound pleasing to your ear. I've never heard Eric Johnson talk about this, which is surprising since he's supposed to be so anal about his sound...
Great review chaps - I'll wait for the Squier version though... :-)
If you are willing to settle for a Mexican Strat, then check out the Fender Classic Series '50s Stratocaster Lacquer. If you are willing to do without nitrocellulose, then check out the Fender Classic Series '50s Stratocaster for a vintage radius and bridge or a Fender Classic Player '50s Stratocaster for locking tuners, a flatter radius, bigger frets, and a two-point vibrato bridge (the price should be the same).
Do you know if the guitar in the video, the thin line is nitro cellulite? Rob
It's proper nitro, not mexican 'nitro' with a poly undercoat
Order a body through Warmoth. They have been doing the Strat with an F hole for a long time.
Thanks for the great breakdown on the different lines and features.
Much better review. I really like the EJ sound overall. I better buy one before the cost goes up
8:15 I think that maple fretboards tend to be more warm and less bright and high edged than rosewood ones, meanwhile the maple ones have more overtones and less fundamentals because it hasn't have open pores like Rosewood. At least in my own exp. with exact same specs guitars, with same pickups and gauges.
I love the Fender maple necks!👍😎
Great guitars
The 2 most underrated signature series guitars to me are the Jimmie Vaughan Strat and The eric Johnson strats. This one is just beautiful.
Overlooked.
I think it's a great guitar! At first glance when I saw one, I thought the "f" hole looked a little weird, but it has since grown on me and inspired me to build my own semi hollow Strat. I'll save about $1600 and have a lot of fun too!👍😎🎸🎶
Awesome playing, and thank you for the video!! Great stuff :)
I LOVE the sound of the red strat! SO much!
Who is the guy on the left? He's just awesome player!
His name is Richard Barrett.
Tone control leaks treble, there’s no way the high end of the middle pickup isn’t affected in positions 2 and 4 unless the tone control is not active on the front and back pickups in those positions either.
Nice review really enjoyed it ..Eric Johnson strat sounds gorgeous..a little brighter compressed sound ..sounds lime your playing from a Fender BassMan or plexi Marshall ....Beautiful clean sound love the F Hole ..More exciting than the red strat ..Red straight stunning guitar to ..
I agree with everything except the bit at 8:14 . Rosewood fingerboards do not make a guitar darker. IME, it's the opposite. All maple add some high mids and take away a smidgen of the the very top end. By contrast, rosewood is a bit more hollow sounding as well as more chimey.
The Dakota Red Strat sounds glorious!
mwrable fiesta
Party
Owned a original ej had a super neck and by far the best strat I’ve owned
I always feel like time stands still during these videos
What time is it? 12:05. Time for The Tone Lounge. These are truly awesome reviews. Neville’s strat is pure tone. I’m starting to like the F hole too. What can you say...if Eric Johnson created this it’s gotta be good.
They are selling you a bill of goods here alot of hogwash is it poly finish and sealer ? Yea so much for the mystical bullshit SNAP BACK INTO REALITY PLEASE....
great playing !
I had a thinline Tele. That thing weighed about the same as a big mac.
Stealing a bunch of licks from around 7:00! Gr8 playing Richard!
the first thing to do, was to play the both instruments unplugged to make the difference between the two guitars feel.
good review, liked it. but just to mention one thing: it's not a cartoon, it's a kokopelli
I like how the clock never changes
How bad is the single coil hum?
What are the specs on the red strat?
Played this at Sweetwater, love the guitar but hate he pickups. What happens when i need to turn the truss rod?
I have the 2005 and I changed the pickups out. I loved the EJ nick and bridge but the middle just doesn’t cut it. I replaced them with Klein 63 set and love it. Totally makes this more Strat like! Try them!
Will the springs fall out if you take the grill of the back?
lol no
Bernd Schuller oh yes! All the springs fall out....roll across the floor. Just gone!
The last thing we need is a Strat that a bit brighter!
Good one! Not that they use to tune the guitars tones by the wood choice. Now they do it by choosing how they sound by the direction of the wood fibers. The most guitarded sentence I've ever herd until now!! I guess the pickups pots strings and all those amps and amps knobs are obsolete. Wood fibres direction.
Fender needs to make more of these thin line guitars that weigh very little. My back would love them. Come on Fender, make a 4 lb guitar!
The reason for removing the backplate on a strat imo is to silence the springs with your clothes.
Would have thought they would have shaved the neck joint to aid playability in the high registers.
10:56 counter thunk ? explain me please what is this? My english is bad
countersunk. a Flathead screw goes in a countersunk screw hole. look it up
That sounds rather good
Demoing the thin line EJ with that CS slab board Strat in the room might not have been a great idea, lol.
I like the F-hole, but I would honestly love to have an Eric Johnson Thinline Strat with the chambering, but without the F-hole. That would be a very cool option, if it were available.
Nice review :)
Come on where was the cliffs of dover :) :)
do they have a hardtail option
Those five springs are the hardtail option.
Robstafarian well thanks robstafarian but im not sure you know what a hardtail is then...but thanks . a hardtail strat has no trem bridge and strings go thru like a tele..its a stock option on standard strats. if i missunderstood u forgive me
My point was that the five-spring setup is as close as you will get to a hardtail on a signature model for an artist who uses a vibrato bridge.
ya i figured there was a point u were making it would be hard to run a string thru a semi hollow too.....not impossible but akward ... thought about this later .... but i see now what u meant thanks
all good advice but i prefer that tele twang thanks tho point wellmade
And Eric Johnson has the treble set on the Marshalls at 0 try it.Everybody is treble crazy!Puts it on 5-6 is just way to much.
On those old Marshall’s, putting the treble down all the way for some reason also boosts the gain.
I do not know how you can properly review a guitar without giving the specs on the pickups, I read Mr. Johnson uses a Dimarzio in the bridge, does this guitar have a Dimarzio in it....well I do not know because you did not tell me.
Fender made rather a big deal about developing new signature pickups for Eric a couple of years ago:
ruclips.net/video/j6PaK5q0Xyk/видео.html
Thanks I just read a "Rig Rundown" for Mr. Johnson in Premier Guitar Digital Magazine that had the thinline strat he actually uses in shows, it talks about the Dimarzio in the bridge. along with the '54 strat
I really don't think an f hole looks good on a Strat. It needs a less obvious shape to get away from the trad semi trope. Other than that it sounds very much like my EJ Strat but a little warmer.
I was inspired by these guitars to build a semi hollow Strat...gathering parts for it now. I was kind of thinking the same about the "f" hole and wondered what shape would look better. If you've ever seen Samantha Fish's Tele, she has her fish logo, instead of the standard "f" hole in the body. I'd love to come up with a similar cool look!👍😎🎸🎶
Alder than who?
Ya clock's broken!
6:36 I need a slow mo please
Sounds killer, nice and spanky. Not sure about the f-hole though, probably looks fine in reality....
You claim " nothing about it to criticize " ... How about the neck is too narrow at the body? The High E is off the fret end. All EJ guitar have this. I had to use a 2 1/16" string span bridge in mine.
jelly bean tuna
Maple and rosewood boards make for a poor comparison . The CS dose not sound dark.You both play nicely but that was useless as a review .
Come on dude's you know that hole is just a marketing scam and nothing more.
10:53 gtfo
If only they made a lefty .. same old story ..,
I bought one of these pieces of crap. Poorly made, Estring too close to the edge of the neck, cheap tuners, way too trebly sounding pickups. Sent it back. Buy the amp not the guitar.
Interesting, I saw the same thing. But apart from that I loved it. Those little issues can be fixed when I do my setup. The tone won me over.
@@johnvcougar Good for you. As for me, I'm sick and tired of buying relative expensive guitars and having to pay $300+ in setup to get a mediocre guitar. I have actually bought several $200 Malaysian copies that play much better right out of the box. I have a $100 Monoprice Tele with Fralin pickups that plays better than my Fender Ultra Tele. The neck was excellent, out of the box....
@@johnnylance I hear ya, man. I have some Squiers that play beautifully, too, but I had to put the work in. I do the setups myself and always get great results. I'll have a crack at Fender in a Vlog about this one, I reckon. Because you're absolutely right: shouldn't need this level of correction on a signature instrument.