Sound more like ERIC JOHNSON? | two 1954 “VIRGINIA” Stratocaster BUILDS sound demo
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- In this video I do a sound comparison between my two Eric Johnson "Virginia" guitar builds as well as a HSS s-type and vintage 60's style S-type. I also talk about the specs of the guitar builds and how I ended up building two EJ style Stratocasters.
EJ's specs on his '54 "Virginia" are quite a unique recipe and I was super curious to build a guitar inspired by it. This includes Sassasfras body wood, 500k pots, and Dimarzio HS-2 stacked coiled in the bridge (but only one coil wired).
Let me know if you think the EJ specs sound closer to his elusive tone than the more traditionally spec'd guitars I compare them to.
Happy to answer any questions in the comments below. Rock on!
-Johnny Z - เพลง
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Great build looking and sounding EJ1 . But you playing so well respect 👍
Wow!! Excellent works on the guitar my dear friend!! Thanks for this very informative video!!!! Love and respect Kyle!! 😊🥁🇵🇭
Thank you as always! I’m glad you enjoyed. Rock on!
Hell yea. Gonna check this out tomorrow
Awesome!
Wow! Love the level of detail. Curious about the recording chain you used for these great sounds. All in the box or amps? Reverb pedal or itb? Thanks.
Good job 👏😎
Thank you! 🙏
I still like the PRS more, although EJ sound is always amazing. I’d go for the blue one with the hum in the bridge. Love the sound of that guitar.
I built my instrument almost exactly like your roasted maple version. Callaham, roasted warmoth, locking klusons etc. I ended up swapping out the callaham because I really like doing whammy things. Kind of regret it sometimes but it was the right decision at the time.
Fantastic 3 piece series, I loved it. Your playing is great and I love your feel and style as well. I have been gassing and the reason I found you was your PRS 594 series. I certainly don’t have the budget for private stock but it was the new cheap SE series I was looking at. But!! I just finished the 3 videos on the EJ builds and it got me thinking. I have a MIJ 90’s yngwie malmsteen guitar that I just don’t like the sound of. I’m really loving you strat sounds and I would be interested in learning to redo the pickups and wiring to sound like yours. It does have HS3’s but doesn’t sound anything like yours. 🙏👍🤘🔥
Thanks for the kind words as always! Glad you enjoyed the series. Id like to try the new 594 SE’s - they look really great. As for your Strat, electronics can really change the sound. Maybe trying a more vintage style in the Neck and middle could be worth trying.
Mind sharing the luthier you sourced the #1 body from? Great work on this.
Thanks! I got it from a seller on Reverb called Forty Guitars. I had inquired about more sassafras bodies, but no luck.
Heii how do u set ur delay for this tone? So nicee
Where did you find the sassafras body?
Curious what weight they ended up being? Thanks
They all sound great because you make them sound great!
A simple experiment you might want to try with your #2... Pick up a Fender Pure Vintage trem block... Take 5 minutes with a razor blade and scrape off all the outside paint... Polish the mounting side flat with 1500 or 2000 grit sandpaper (put sandpaper on hard flat surface and rub block across)... And mount to bridge. I did this to my expensive partscaster a couple months ago and it literally made a significant audible difference unplugged AND amplified. I originally had a Callaham bridge/trem block installed. Installed the Wudtone bridge w/metal shim along with the Callaham block, and ended up removing the metal shim because of an unpleasant dissonance. Some time later I tried removing the paint from the Callaham block and, as was mentioned elsewhere, the Callaham block seems to be a much harder metal that has an unpleasant tone... Yeah, I know... I wouldn't have believed either it if it wasn't so obvious. Try it. For $35 it's a fairly inexpensive test. I'm 99% sure you'll notice a dramatic positive difference.
Thank you! I’m intrigued. Thanks for the suggestion. I’m quite compelled to try this out given your experience. I’ll report back. Thanks!
@@RatherBeRiffing When I put together my partscaster, initially I was a bit disappointed because although it wasn't "dead", it wasn't even close to being as resonant to my other electric (G&L). I also noticed that on my G&L Strat style guitar, the neck bolts would fall through the body without resistance, while on my partscaster, I was basically threading them thru. I used a drill bit that I already had that was the perfect size, and just using my fingers, worked it thru the body holes. Took maybe 10-15 seconds per hole and the neck bolts slide right thru without any slop. I think what that does, is it allows the the neck to seat tightly against the body and the neck doesn't get pulled out of the pocket when the neck bolts are tightened down, maximizing contact, maximizing vibration transfer. Doing that and removing the paint from the trem block, I think, made the most difference, and now the two guitars are really close to each other vibration wise and acoustically. Best of luck.
@@gmoody3000 Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. It has inspired me to do some more tinkering! Have you ever tried loosening and re-tightening neck screws under string tension? I've read that that can help too.
@@RatherBeRiffing Sorry, just saw this...Yes, I've done that. Prior to just slightly opening up the body holes, the neck would crack just a bit when loosening the screws a quarter turn.
(I apologize now for the long reply... Figured I might as well add some details and something I forgot about / Wudtone bridge screws)
After opening the screw holes (slightly) the screws can fall thru freely, just barely, and doing the same exercise, there was no longer any "crack". Looking back, I wonder if tightening down the neck screws was actually pulling the neck out of the pocket just a tiny bit.
I only tried opening the body holes because my G&L came like that. I've tried to figure out why that particular guitar is so acoustically loud and resonant and I think I've narrowed it down to the body holes allowing the neck to pull down as tight as possible against the body under tension and G&L's modernized tremolo bridge that uses 2 tapped bolts deep in the body that the bridge floats on, maximizing string vibrations.
Just added info...
The specs of my partscaster are an Eric Johnson body/Eric Clapton neck (feels like it was made for me), Highwood saddles/ Raw Vintage trem springs/ Wudtone bridge / Eric Johnson trem block (has to be the same as their "Pure Vintage" block), Gotoh staggered tuners.
Despite being a beautiful/lightweight guitar, it was maybe only half as resonant/"alive"/ loud as my G&L. As I may have mentioned prior, I tried the Wudtone trem bridge with the metal shim to see if it would work some magic. It DID seem to be louder, but it gained some weird noticeable transient. I attributed it to the metal shim and removed it. I didn't notice the metallic transient after, but it wasn't as loud either...
That was good for awhile and then "millstap" on TH-cam posted about removing the paint off his trem block. I was curious and gave it a try, thinking it might be the cherry on top of an already nice guitar. I thought it might have a nice positive effect while unplugged, but I really didn't expect it would change the sound/tone/feel while ampified.
After removing the paint from the block (Callaham) it was not only louder acoustically, but to me I finally heard the "built in reverb" of the strat tremolo that I've heard described by others. I was really surprised after plugging in and that change in tone/feel was still there. That said, I realized then what millstap had mentioned about his Callaham block that seemed to be true, the Callaham block has a higher pitch thing going on that millstap attributes to the Callaham being a much harder metal.
I dug out the trem block that came with my EJ body (has EJ imprinted on the block), scrapped off the paint, and sanded down/polished the mating surfaces of the block and bridge and reinstalled.
Partscaster is now pretty much as loud as the G&L. (I did use a little super glue and corn startch to fill the 6 bridge screw holes and then used a tiny drill bit to ream them back to depth in order to make sure the screws had has much tension on them as possible... Make sure to cover your guitar body really well to make sure no super glue gets on it if you try/ Don't ask me how I know)
*** I just remembered too, when I originally installed the Wudtone bridge, I ended up using the Callaham bridge screws that I'd been using prior instead of the Wudtone supplied ones for whatever reason. When I replaced the Callaham block with the EJ block, I took out the Wudtone screws from storage and noticed that they were almost 1/8th of an inch longer...! So not only were the screws going into a filled hole, they went deeper into the body... I was actually concerned they might go all the way thru but figured they were supplied with the set, they wouldn't send screws that would go thru the body, and they didn't.
The guitars are apples and oranges as far as how they sound acoustically because of build characteristics, one vintage, one modernized, but they're similar as far as loudness and vibration now.
Also just because...
I've had multiple pickup sets in the partscaster, but I've settled on a homemade calibrated set.
Neck: CS69 5.4 ohms
Middle: Texas Special (neck) 6..0 ohms
Bridge" Texas Special(bridge) 6.9 ohms
All mounted in an Illitch noise canceling faceplate (basically a dummy coil - works perfect)
Prior I was using Pure Vintage 65's, which to me, sound like what my brain tells me a strat should sound like (very Hendrixy)
The calibrated set though is more versitile and has a more beautiful neck tone/ spanky middle / thick bridge tone - Can pull off Gilmour and even Thorogood surpisingly with a little overdrive thru my setup.
One more thing, you might consider playing with the pickup heights of your different guitars to get slightly different sounds/tones.
I've messed around a bunch over the years and have settled on using coins to set the pickup heights. Right now I'm hearing what I want using a nickle and dime stacked, balanced on both the bass and treble sides on all three pickups, pressing down on the outside strings on the last fret.
Premier Guitar has a good article that uses much different measurments that will yield a much different result, and then there's Bill Lawrence's recomendations as well.
Looking forward to seeing new TH-cam posts from you. Your videos standout in your obvious talent and the great tones you coax out of your instruments. Interesting and inspiring, Thanks!
Sorry for the extended reply. Best to you, cheers...
They both look absolutely stunning. I m guessing the radius is 12'' on both. I liked the ej1 too but purely appereance reasons :D That dirty looking neck looks great. Sounds really similar as far as i am hearing. Great video. Thanks.
Thank you! The necks are both 12-16” compound radius instead of the pure 12” like EJ’s. I did spec another Warmoth vintage modern neck with 12” that I may test on one of these guitars in a future video. They did sound really similar in the video, but I ran the tone controls on 7 for #1 and 10 for #2 (so #2 is a darker sounding guitar due to the A2 magnets in the Lollar blondes). Thanks for the comments!
@@RatherBeRiffing yea that is a cool modern touch.
EJ1 for sure, it is absolutely killer guitar tone.....
Thanks Robbie. It really is quite special and I'm grateful all the right stuff came together on that one!
Great videos! Can I ask how the Warmoth necks are, fret wise? Do they require fret work and are the fingerboard edges sharp etc or are they good to go on arrival? Thinking about doing a similar build.
Thank you! No sharp edges but they do require a level and crown for optimal playability. I tested it out before I leveled them and it’s playable with medium action, but much better after level/crown.
@@RatherBeRiffing awesome, thanks very much for the input, appreciate it.
EJ 1 for sure.. But.....my favorite tone was the one with the Rosewood board.
Yeah, man - I’m hearing that too. Some killer tones from those two guitars!
Thanks for sharing! Is there a way to listen to your tunes, these sound great!
My pleasure! I don’t have my music out there yet, but soon hopefully. I have a 5 song EP of my more atmospheric jam music ready to be mixed and mastered. After that I’d like to make an EP of the style music in this video. Thanks for watching!
Looking forward to it, you’re inspiring!
@@tomd.5645 thanks! Very encouraging to hear.
@@RatherBeRiffing Would definititly love to hear that EP.
... nice guitars and sounds - although it would be great if the guitars could be heard dry at some point ... :)
Thank you! Good point. I’ll plan to add that perspective in future vids.
Johnny - Stainless or nickel frets? Also, looks like EJ#1 is a flat sawn neck and EJ#2 is a quarter sawn neck? And, both are at least 5A flamed? BTW, all four guitars sounded phenomenal. Thanks for posting part 3.
My pleasure! Both have Nickel frets and are 5A. #1 is definitely flat sawn, but not sure about #2. They were both in-stock/pre-made and I snagged them while I was impatiently waiting for my custom spec’d neck to be made. Ironically, the custom build is just sitting around now. Glad you liked the way they sounded!
Do you mean the bodies weight over 4lbs, or just over 4 ounces as you said twice??
Oops 😬
Would you like to sell the LPB Strat ?