We all know Eric Johnson makes some wierd claims on what affects his tone (which is killer though), and although they sound a bit off, most of them can concievably actually do something. I was reading mays guitar player and Matthias Jabs from the Scorpions was talking about how when he got a certain new guitar, he would keep it on stage, even though he wasnt playing it because "the sound frequencies from the speakers moving through the wood changed its tone". Apparently, his ear is so spot on, he can sense tonal changes on the molecular level.

freaky !

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"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

Maybe it has an aging effect making it sound more vintage since those sound pressures would be greater than actually playing the guitar causing the wood to vibrate and "break in"

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

If sympathetic vibration changes the wood 'on the molecular level' I think it would in fact have an effect on the guitars tone. No idea if it does though. It might change the magnetic fields of the pole pieces in the pickups too.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Hmmm.... That's just freakish.

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cough***BULLSHIT***cough...

Yeah, I don't buy it, especially if the guitar has a thicker polyester or urethane finish...even if it had a thinner skin nitro finish, its still a big bill of goods...

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The mind is like a parachute; it doesn't work unless its open-FZ

that doesn't work for solid body guitars.

the only time it has an effect is on an acoustic instrument with a solid top. (no laminate tops.) Some finishing techniques leave the wood very stiff and solid, so it doesn't vibrate that easily at first, and needs to be broken in a bit.

for example, people tend to stick to a few scales when just playing around. So if a person constantly plays in G, on an acoustic with a solid top, the wood begins to accustom itself to the frequencies of that scale over time. Therefore, eventually, the guitar will start to sound better in a G scale than it would in a B scale, etc.

So the idea is to leave the instrument in near speakers when you listen to music, so that all sorts of frequencies pass through it, and the wood breaks itself in more evenly, and therefore doesn't only sound good in one or two scales.

But this is really just a theory, and it certainly would not have much effect on a solid body electric at all.

+1

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

Tone makes all the differance in the world.Santana,Gary Moore,VanHalen,SRV,Jeff Beck,Clapton,Hendrix,Angus,Gilmour,Brian May.This is my personal top ten players of whos tones who move me the most.Some guys get a little carried away with cables and picks and fretboareds whichcan have a slight effect on your tone but the bottom line is the bulk of it is in the players fingers. Eric Johnson is a monster player with killer everything.Yet I do not care for his tone.I mean he is such a tone freak and so much is said about it but to be honest I dont like it .Does anyone else feel this way

"the sound frequencies from the speakers moving through the wood changed its tone".

uh huh.

I feel that way too. The "real tone" of his great Strats through his great old amps (Fenders and Marshalls) is covered up by too much delay and other processing (compression, distortion, and who knows what else). A real shame.

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My other guitar is a Strat.

Maybe EJ has to eat as many Beans as he can the sit in a closed off room with his guitar overnight and let it pick up some of those frequencies.
Does something smell like Bull$hi* here? Thats right just vibrating the guitars.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I always thought he had a somewhat muddy, generic tone. Most of it comes from the delay and chorus he uses. Other than that, just a very base strat sound, and not even a favorite of mine. I can get his tone dead on out of a damn Line 6 pod.

Great player though.

It was a Les Paul that he was talking about. One thing about E. Johnsons set up that I found interesting, well 2 actually; he prefers the tone of the cheap plastic nuts to bone or brass, and 2; his pickup height is set with the middle pickup set much higher than the neck and bridge, which ive never seen.