My last attempt at Eric Johnson tone, I promise!

[Telewanger]

I have read every article, and watched every video that I could find in my quest for the Eric Johnson tone. I appreciate you guys putting up with my videos and questions. This will be the last video that I ask you to watch! I have beat this subject to death, but I didn't want to stop until I was satisfied.

I did learn one important thing. At first, I laughed when people said that Eric Johnson is very picky about batteries that go into his effects, and that he liked to use batteries that are almost dead. I thought that it sounded absolutely crazy. Well, it might just be the answer! Batteries that are almost dead have given me the best or most close Eric Johnson tone to date. It is pretty freaky, but so far it is works.

I really enjoy playing guitar with this type of tone. To me, having this type of sound makes me not want to put the guitar down. It has a serious attack or bite to it, a fuzzy like top end sound, and a Chello like bottom end. I think this is where the almost dead batteries come into play.

One of my friends built me a power supply to simulate almost dead 9 volt batteries. It works like a charm. It works great for other effects pedals as well. It is weird stuff, but does something to the circuits.

Here is a new video. Please let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSy1QKqQGno

[oldguy]

Sounds good, Tele!
What's your effects chain/amp setup like getting that sound?

[Telewanger]

Sounds good, Tele!
What's your effects chain/amp setup like getting that sound?


Thanks for your comment:

I am still missing the big "post plate/hall reverb" sound, but after recording the guitar, I can add that to the track later.

I will have to write down all of the settings on my amps and effects. It took me a good while to get the distortion / overdrive set up this way and have the clean tone to sound good also on the same 2 amps, instead of having 4 amps running at the same time like Eric Johnson. Trying to get other tones only take a little while, but this was a real pain and a lot of reading. It is as close as I will get I think, but that's okay. I like it!

As far as final setup, I think any tube amps will work. You just have to stack 3 or 4 overdrive and distortions together. You have to adjust and adjust the gains, mids, treble, amount of echo, reverb. Make sure you are running almost dead batteries or very low voltage to them. It's a mess.

There's probably a Pod or rack effects unit out there that may do the same thing, but I don't know about it. I just like the simple stomp boxes.

Here is a photo of the effects chain and my toy box.

http://www.atlanticplumbing.net/mikesignal.jpg

http://www.atlanticplumbing.net/amps.jpg

[oldguy]

Wow! No wonder it sounds so "fat" whether it's on the clean or O/D side.
Getting that full, fat tone on a clean setting is sometimes elusive and tricky, but I think you've done it. And thanks for the effects diagram and the picture. Very nice!:AOK

[Telewanger]

Thanks!

I am finished messing around with the tone. It takes a lot of time. I am satisfied with it now. When I turn the volume up to band level volume, it really sounds good.