Great in the studio, yet EJ's tone and sound are that good LIVE! He is such a fanatic about tone and sound setups - he's really much like a craftsman from another time. First saw him live about 25 years or more and was just completely blown away - first with his playing, and then with his awesome live sound. Talked to him briefly and he was such a shy and humble guy - no rock star ego at all. EJ IS the TOTAL package when it comes to playing electric guitar. He's no slouch on acoustic either!
What I love about EJ is that he is so entirely humble and down-to-earth, unlike so many stars who are egotistical prima donnas. He openly shares his techniques and knowledge with the rest of us. He is not only a guitar hero, he is a teacher as well!
Eric is definitely one of the most amazingly creative guitar players on the planet. I was so inspired by his awesome koto style playing (and his playing in general) when I first heard his Tones album in 1986. :)
Eric Johnson is just outstanding. definitly best guitarist tone wise and incredibly fast and great at chord progressions...whatever he plays at :45 till 1:09 and then 1:16 till 1:27 just makes you wanna think of a time where everything is just perfect and no worries at all. thats what his tone does to me and his tone makes everything "unreal" and to the point where it just gets you caught up in great memories. i never want him to stop playing. LIKE this post if you know what i mean!!
best video i've seen with Eric showing his gear I have seen him live about 100 times it's amazing how he can make the sound work live....love the new guitars wish I could afford one.
Some music puts me in a beautiful place on earth like Paco De Lucia, Eric Johnson is another planet in the solar system. Alan Holdsworth is a different solar system.
One of my favorite guitarists ever! sure, a lot of guys have well developed technique and can play real fast, but EJ has such an incredible and unique sense of phrase and chord progression, not too many others are quite this pleasant to listen to.
Notice he references others in his sound development "Y'know....like a Keith Richards" or "an old Clapton tone...." He is supremely unique. Identifiable from a single note. For him to say he still sort of chases his hero's tones is inspiring all itself.
He’s phenomenal in every way, but his lyricism is the quality that stands out to me the most. He could outshred anybody if he wanted to, but he’s so precise at any speed. He’s the closest player to Phil Keaggy I can think of.
Why does'nt my Strat sound as gorgeous as this? I want my money back! Eric is one of the best guitarists on the planet. Probably the universe. His clean sound is heavenly.
He's talking about keith richards, jimmy hendrix and eric clapton and so on, but alll I hear from beginning to end is... Eric Johnson signature sound... :)
At 0:42 he turned on the TC Electronic Stereo Chorus Flanger, which is either in Chorus or Pitch Shift mode and sends its stereo output to two Fender blackface Twin Reverb amplifiers. At 0:53 he stomped on a true bypass effects loop, and in the loop there is an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man. At 1:12 he turned on a (probably vintage) MXR Dyna Comp. Hope that helps.
Bejo0: I know what you mean, especially when he kicks the Memory man on at 0:54. There's a fair bit of reverb on there, probably with som predelay so it comes in later. He also seems to have a fairly subtle delay and then the MM is a bit stronger but the MM is also changing the sound in a high-pass with chorus kind of way, which makes it really stand out. One of the nicest clean sounds I've ever heard, I think.
simply amazing man, he was one of my first influences and when i heard him for the first time i definitely fell in love with his playing...thanks Mr johnson check out some of my cool videos by the way! aha!
Although I have a general disdain for computers, it is things like this which make it nearly worth it. I would be ashamed to say how many times I have watched this video. It is a wealth of tone knowledge, and (of course) gives you a good look at where all those little knobbies are. . . Now how does he get that much gain and saturation out of that lead amp with all the tone controls at nearly 0 and a Strat?!?!
@bacalhaues at 0.26 its just his guitar straight into his fender twin (with a bit of the amp's reverb), at 0.43 its the TC electronic chorus/flanger on the chorus setting, after that he adds the EH memory man delay, and then the MXR dyna-comp (not sure which one...)
@MichaelD8393 'Start Me Up' by the Stones, which is a regular C to C6sus4, although Keef would have played it in open G tuning, Eric transposes it into regular tuning here. Hope this helps.
Find it funny. While they go through in detail, his split setup, and all dirt pedals, they seem coy when it comes to reverb, which is THE major part of his sound. Don't see any reverb unit in there, and on the "violin" lead tone, it goes through the Echoplexes FIRST before hitting the amp. There's no built in reverb in the Marshalls, and no spring reverb resides inside those Echoplexes. One major contribution to his violin sound, and "naturally" compressed tone, is that in one of the first interviews I've read with him, he uses impedance mismatching on one of his Marshalls, the one with lead tone. That's why it comes out slightly muffled and muddy. Like he sets his amps head for running on the 4 Ohm speaker output but it goes into an 8 ohm speaker. You can have it upwards but not downwards, or else you will fry the amp. Upwards means it reduces effiency quite a lot, but that's why he cranks those 100W and the volume becomes somewhat squeezed and squashed, as well as his tone. If his reverbs and EP3 echoes goes into these amps first (especially Marshalls) they must be set with a very very low dry/wet mix otherwise you'll hear ugly intermodulation, from the echoes being distorted, as well as the reverbs. I think that's why it sounds like the echoes are "ducking". I e it's the compression of the tubes that makes the echoes sound like they're ducking.
What is held coy, is WHICH Maestro Echoplex unit he uses. He says it's an EP3. But EP3 came in 2 variations for a while. After the EP4 had been introduced it contained a compressor circuit. They decided to continue produce EP3 units too with this compressor circuit added, along with teh Ep4, without really notifying anyone. After a year or so they removed it from both units. You can't tell today from the outside which is which. The compressing effect is definitely heard as "ducking" or "pumping" when he plays those violin leads and there's a slight pause/break between the notes. Maybe it's that unit, and not the tubes in the amp?
His room reverb is the real deal, man! Do you see the room with all that acoustic treatment? It costs $$$$$$ than a reverb pedal, and it is natural reverb. Why does he need a reverb pedal? ^^. Otherwise, what I know is, in live situation, Eric uses reverb on the mixer. He is extremely careful about what tone he's making and what listeners us perceived from our side. The special thing is whatever he gets in his hands, he can make it sound like he wants. In a small room with only a Marshall 18W combo, he knows how to adapt his tone using different gears.
He also uses 70's Echoplexes for delay/reverb sounds. Note these are not tube driven just vintage solid state. The fuzz-face is a proto- type. The same one Joe Bonamasa has in his pedalboard.spiderjohn.
@johnathandk42134 He uses a TC Electronics Chorus/Flanger pedal. It is a longtime favorite of pros. He also uses George L's cables throughout his system.
@ts808heaven 100w isnt actually a lot louder than 50w. for example, to be twice as loud as 50w you'd need 500w. anyways, i think when he says "to add more gain" i think its more to add some extra "smoothness" and overdrive to the sound but not to actually make it louder. also, he doesnt have it in the #2 position, you can actually see/hear him swtich it over to the bridge position. i think he was in position 2 for the fuzz tone.
