How Does Eric Johnson get his clean tone?

[Lev]

the clean tones at the start of this video are to die for even before he turns his effects on. I take it much of this tone comes from a stereo amp setup with some kind of stereo ping pong delay effect?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?doc_id=102063&autop=1&pgvar=interviews&wv=EricJohnson-03-effects_1&vname=Eric%20Johnson%20-%20Effects

[Tone2TheBone]

Using 2 twins right? Interesting vids I always thought his setups were secrets.

One word...Echoplex. For some reason these videos seem to carry a fizzy top end with his overdrive. He normally doesn't have that. It kills me to see my old Marshall top cabinet (one like his not the actual one) in his rig.....ughhh.

[Lev]

Using 2 twins right? Interesting vids I always thought his setups were secrets.

One word...Echoplex. For some reason these videos seem to carry a fizzy top end with his overdrive. He normally doesn't have that. It kills me to see my old Marshall top cabinet (one like his not the actual one) in his rig.....ughhh.

yeah, I don't care too much for his overdrive sounds but that clean sound is awsome. I must go do some research on an echoplex, I've tried setup two clean amps with a stereo delay before but never got it to sound as good as that.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Those videos are great. I can't help you Lev, but wanted to thank you for posting them.

[tunghaichuan]

Using 2 twins right?

I remember one of the guitar mags saying that EJ had switched from two 100W Twin Reverb amps to two 20W Deluxe Reverb amps. The two 100W Twins were killing his hearing.

Having said that, I remember seeing EJ in a *small* craphole bar in Wichita, KS back in the mid 80s right after Ah Via Musicom came out. He had two 100W Twin Reverbs, a 100W Dumble and a 100W Marshall. Awesome show, but deafening. I can see why he scaled back to Deluxe Reverbs.

tung

[tot_Ou_tard]

I remember one of the guitar mags saying that EJ had switched from two 100W Twin Reverb amps to two 20W Deluxe Reverb amps. The two 100W Twins were killing his hearing.

Having said that, I remember seeing EJ in a *small* craphole bar in Wichita, KS back in the mid 80s right after Ah Via Musicom came out. He had two 100W Twin Reverbs, a 100W Dumble and a 100W Marshall. Awesome show, but deafening. I can see why he scaled back to Deluxe Reverbs.

tung
Was that a 100 Watt amph per spectator? Which one was 3" from your ears tung?

[rkwrenn]

Check this page...

http://www.ericjohnson.com/flash/pedals.html#alcpedals

Cheers and HTH

Bob

[SuperSwede]

Awesome videos.. Eric seems to be a really nice guy. I love the comment about the anti-bacterial spray :)

[tunghaichuan]

Was that a 100 Watt amph per spectator?

:rotflmao:

There were about 100 people or so there, still way too much wattage for a small venue.



Which one was 3" from your ears tung?


That wasn't at the Eric Johnson show, I had learned by then :) That was Ozzy Osbourne, it was the first concert I ever saw, back in 1981. I made the mistake of sitting about 40' from the left-hand PA column. What the heck did I know? I was only 16. I couldn't hear out of my left ear for 2 days.

tung

[Robert]

I have to say, I think his clean tone sounds a bit over-processed for my tastes. I prefer a "simpler" tone - like SRV had, or Bonamassa's clean tones. I'm guess I'm getting old... :)

[duhvoodooman]

I dunno, Robert--I'd kill for tone like that, clean or dirty! That Fuzz Face tone was great--now I know how he gets that great Cliffs of Dover warm sustain. Sweet stuff....

[Robert]

Maybe you need some new nice shiny effects then DVM, if you want that type of tone?

[jpfeifer]

I am probably responding to this thread late, but yes, I agree Eric Johnson's clean tone is realy nice. I love this sound. The secret to getting this sound is to use a stereo chorus (preferably a TC Electronics, but a plain old Boss chorus works pretty good too) and tape delay (or pedal that simulates tape delay) together.

I used to have a Fender Cybertwin that had a really nice stereo tape delay simulator built in. I would plug in a TC Electronics chorus with this sound and it came very close to getting his clean sound. Now, if I could only play like him :-)

I saw him live quite a few times in some small clubs when I lived in Austin way back in the 80's. He would use a pair of Fender Deluxe's with his setup and it sounded fantastic. The guitar would kind of fill the room as if it were comming from all around you.

-- Jim