Good to see you got it fixed to your preference. It's weird how you had to change pickup's to get that tone. Eric Johnson always has that thick violin type tone, as he would put it, from his guitars and with this being a sig model i just don't get it at all.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Thanks, Gary. You clearly think, like I did, that a signature model's sound might more closely reflect the artist's signature sound using his own (but not for example his 335).

Apart from the really quite extreme glassiness of the pickups, the guitar is as I would expect of a high end Strat - quality materials and finish, sets up well. Indeed, it exceeds those expectations because it is an extraordinarily good replica of the several real 57's I've played.

But, oh, the pickups. However I play, I genuinely don't think EJ could sound like EJ through them. If he wasn't such a busy guy, I'd be really happy to return them with the challenge of his dropping them into the instrument he plays when I see him in London in July!

Makes me almost wonder if Eric actually plays the exact pickups that are in his sig model? His solo tone is that thick mid rangey sound, that's what he go's for. It's perplexing this one it really is. But no matter, at the end of the day you've got it how you wanted it so enjoy it and make some cool music on it

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Absolutely no clue if I'm right or not, but here's my take on it -

Bright pickups + just the right Fuzz Face + a bit of amp drive = Big thick vaguely EJ-ish lead tone.

Eric uses a Fuzz Face a lot, and they love bright single coils, as they get loaded up more due to the way the (current controlled and highly impedance sensitive) circuit works.

I use a Fuzz Face (well, my home made clone with correct 60's NOS components and hand selected germanium loveliness!) extensively, and the best, thickest tones I get out of it only come from a particular one of my Strats which otherwise sounds slightly thin. Odd, but true! Given my main Strat to play with (which until recently had an otherwise big and thick sounding SSL-5 in the bridge) the Fuzz Face sounded just weedy and couldn't develop enough drive. Feed it from bright, lower output single coils, and it fuzzes up and becomes just perfect.

Not to mention, of course, that it's always better to have too much treble than not enough, as you can take it away, but not put it back in.

Having said that, I haven't heard many other comments about the EJ Strats being overly bright or thin, so all the above may be complete rubbish that I just came up with due to it being before 8am and I haven't had coffee.

Hey, Gorgon, I think you could well be right about the Fuzz Face thing. I'll set up a patch in my Axe-Fx to investigate, albeit in a crude way.

Although I have a lot of guitars, I needed this Strat to be versatile enough to gig, which meant great clean and lead sounds, and i couldn''t get the latter with the stock pickups.

Enjoy your playing too!

Thanks, Kingofesquire. Awesome guitar and video, albeit a rosewood kinda like my gorgeous '61/2 shoreline gold (http://rockbeareguitars.com/electrics/f ... old-strat/).

It seems that while EJ does actually play his signature model Strats, they are heavily modded, particularly in the pickup department. There will be different pov's on this, but my personal view is that this shows that aspect of the signature model to be lacking.

My MusicMan EVH signature sounds like me playing one of EVH's mid-period guitars. My MusicMan Albert Lee model sounds like me playing one of Albert Lee's guitars - when Albert himself played it, it sounded much the same but of course far better played. But until I dropped the Lollars into it, my EJ Strat sounded like me smashing a sheet of glass, regardless of amp/fx.

I guess one acid test would be to put the pickups up for sale and see how much they fetch, but I'm not going to do that because I want to keep the package intact for whenever I sell.

But if I thought there was any chance, I'd love to reload the stock pickups, take the guitar to EJ's London gig in July and offer him the chance to perform on it. While I feel it is absolutely true that a guitarist's sound is in his/her hands, I would be really, really, REALLY surprised if he could get it to sound like he would want it to.

Hey, maybe he'll stumble across this thread and decide to prove me wrong!

Please watch from 1:00 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4uYxO4rcd8

Cheers,
Robin

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http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
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Hi: bit late in the day for this, but I took a stroll along Denmark Street today. Regent Sounds has an EJ-maple Strat on the wall, and the gentleman in Wunjo Guitars opposite said he has one coming in with his next order from Fender. I didn't go into Macari's or over to Chappell so I don't know if either of them has one in currently - though I did see an EJ in Chappell a while back.

So anyway, they're available for comparison, just to check for certain whether the "glassy tone" issue is just in the guitar this thread is about, or whether it is characteristic of the model as a whole.

Cheers - C

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Thanks, Robin and Ceri. I'd seen this rig rundown, which confirms that he's hotrodded the bridge and middle on his '57 and the bridge on his signature model, though both retain their neck pickups. All three of mine shrieked.

I'll try and get down to Denmark Street for a bit of useful comparison. (I would go tomorrow during my lunch break, but I am having the Ceriatone Overtone Special 50w head which has just arrived tuned to my playing by a very tech-capable friend who has been inside Robben Ford's Dumble Overdrive Special. After auditioning most everything on the planet, it's about the nearest I'll ever get to my own Dumble!).

Yeah, I think the tone your looking for isn't that of a regular
strat, but more modern. No offense.
Try the hot rod 57 strat it has scns neck and middle
And a tonezone S bridge. It has a warmer tone and with
OD or distortion it really sounds great.
eBay the stratosphere sells loaded PGs with HR 57 pickups
And wiring you could directly drop in to your strat.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

I find it funny how a company would put out a signature guitar and not use the same pickups used by that artist... just lame - they know full well people buy the guitar hoping to cop the tone.

Yes, Guitar Fiend, I tend to agree with you, especially on behalf of all those real musicians who can't afford as much gear as I have amassed over a lifetime of playing.

But to be quite fair, it's an excellent top-end Strat which rewarded my waiting for the right one to come along at a keen price. It's just that the pickups really disappointed at both subjective level (i.e. my ears and tastes) AND the objective one (i.e. I still challenge anybody, even EJ himself, to make it sound anything at all like EJ. But Buddy Holly, no problem).

Thankfully, the excellent Mr Lollar's products put it right and it's as I had hoped. I also got to try it briefly through my new Ceriatone Overtone Special which is currently undergoing some final mods and sea trials (nearest thing I'm ever going to get to a Dumble!), and I can't wait to spend a lot more time with the combination.

Happy playing.

The moderators had probably breathed a sigh of relief that I'd lost gone away, but I'm posting again.

I've been gigging the EJ Strat with the Lollar Special S pickups regularly and it's worked out great. I've run it through a variety of amps and stomps, but mainly with a Ceriatone 50w HRM Overtone Special and can get really fantastic tones from the outfit. Several pro player friends have complemented the instrument, a couple even offering good money for it. I'll post some video clips on my YouTube channel some time so people can hear/judge for themselves.

In the meantime, I've managed to track down a few more EJ Strats. I think I got lucky with the chassis of mine as it's the most resonant and has the best action of those I've now played. All have had similarly nasty stock pickups. Mine just sit quietly in the case in the event I ever decide to sell it.

Anyway, the time came round for me to go and see EJ himself play while he was in London this week. I was really looking forward to seeing such a masterful guitarist, and of course I wasn't seriously expecting him to take up the challenge I threw down in this forum - of playing my guitar with the stock pickups and making it sound like EJ. Sure enough, he didn't, which was just as well as he had a few other demons going on.

It was an intriguing gig. On the up side, remarkable technique, an obviously encyclopaedic grasp of harmony and a fabulous clean sound. But balancing on the down side were a lack of sufficient strong material, a tendency not to stray from major and relative minor pentatonics (except when he played Coltrane as a showcase for his excellent bass player and drummer), and a sound crew that managed to help suppress his legendary overdriven lead tone.

He had at least five boutique amps and cabs on stage with him whose transport must have eaten up most of the profits, and much of the time it sounded like like it came straight out Amplitube for iPhone. Maybe just use a cabin-baggage sized Axe-Fx next time, Eric?

For a man who reputedly can hear the difference between brands of battery in his stomps, this must have been excruciating. It was pretty disappointing for for the audience too. So there wouldn't have been any point in asking EJ to play my guitar and sound like EJ, because although his playing was pure EJ, his sound (at least half the bargain) wasn't.

Granted, he also played a 335 occasionally, but surely the single Strat he played couldn't have been an EJ Strat? The symmetry of that would be exquisite!