Eric Johnson on vintage guitars

[Jimi75]

EJ: I’ve sold a lot of guitars. I only own one vintage Strat now. I’ve lost interest in owning a bunch of stuff that doesn’t really serve me. Like, if it’s not an instrument that I go, “Man, I wanna pick this up, this is pullin’ me in, I want to write a song, I want to practice, it’s turning me on,” I don’t own it. Collecting is fine, if somebody wants to do it, but to me it’s more about trying to simplify life and just use the pieces that really work. So now if there’s amps or guitars that are just like, “Well, that’s cool, yeah, and it does this one thing really well,” I’m not interested anymore. I just want a guitar that’s like a Stradivari, that really is perfect for me. And I have one old Strat that really approaches that. I just realized the others worked, but they weren’t really putting me there.

JO: Describe the one that you’ve kept.

EJ: The one I’ve kept is a ’57 Strat, and it’s just a real resonant guitar. I finally realized that just using stock instruments is not really my thing. You know, I like to put big frets on ’em and switch-out the 3-way switch. And actually switch out the bridge pickup. I went through a period where here’s this old ’50s Strat that’s all original, and I would sit there and play through my amps and think, “It’s a cool guitar, and I can’t change it.” I finally realized, “Forget it, I don’t care about that anymore.” It’s like I’m holding myself back musically because I’m owning this guitar that’s really clean and hasn’t had the pickup changed. It’s like, I don’t care. So I put a DiMarzio HS2 in it, like I had in the ’54 Strat, and it was like, voila! All of a sudden, “Ah! I want to play this now!” I just realized that it’s more important to me to try to make the music.

[Robert****]

Wise words. Collecting is fine, but for playing, a guitar is still just a tool. Might as well tweak the tool so that one can do the best job with it!

That's why I play my Suhr all the time - it does the best job for me (although I haven't changed anything on it).

[marnold***]

Hehe. I can just imagine the thread that would be spawned by this on The Gear Page

[Jimi75]

I think EJ is right with what he says. I mean most of the Stradivaris are pimped. Better tuners, postintegrated woodblocks, changed bridges etc.

[Katastrophe]

Hehe. I can just imagine the thread that would be spawned by this on The Gear Page

Or the FDP...

[kiteman]

There's always room for improvements.

I did a few pup swaps on my DC127 and I settled on one set that I like the best, the Dimarzio D'Activators.

[jpfeifer]

Yeah, I completely agree with him. Anymore you can find so many good guitars that feel like a vintage instrument that are "pre-pimped" to some degree, with flatter radiused fretboards, larger frets, etc. I don't think that I would ever really want to own a stock vintage guitar unless it already played great without any mods to it. I couldn't see owning a vintage instrument if I couldn't play it all the time. I play all of my guitars. If there's ever one that isn't being used then I start to wonder why I have it in the first place.

I don't think that I've found that one "Stradivari" guitar yet that is perfect for me in every way. Maybe I just haven't spent enough money on one yet :-) But I have a lot of fun with the ones that I do own and each of them get's used.

--Jim

[Duffy]

I like what he has to say about mods. If he wants to mod an old classic treasure guitar, he does it.

I figure I buy this stuff and if I want to drill holes in it or take things off it exposing holes, switching pickups, doing electronic mods, etc. I can do that at my own discretion without worrying about what anybody else might think about it. I might ask for input on mods and things to take into consideration before I make my final decision as to how exactly I want to go about the mod.

I'd rather have the pickguard that I want, even if the holes don't match up. I drill a few new ones. I have really felt gratified by some of the premium pickups I've installed in guitars and the comparatively beautiful sounds that they make - a transformation has occurred that came thru me and gets it to where I can play MY music.

Of course, I don't have any real collectable old relics either, so I can't speak for that.

I have not modified my Epi Tribute cherry burst, but not because I'm trying to keep it original - rather, the stuff on it is already real good, like the Gibson 57 and 57 plus pickups, electronics, etc. I have a few stock guitars that I really like just the way they are; like my NOS Ibanez SZ320 Gold Top.

Then again I have some very modified guitars that bear no resemblance to their original sound or appearance.

Also, most of my guitars I probably won't ever sell anyway, and whoever sells them will probably practically give them away, so resale is not a motive for me.

I never bought a guitar and took care of it for the next guy that's going to own it in mind. I try to get to some real interesting and satisfying sound or look when I mod my guitars, so I can "turn" the guitar so I can make some of my own music, rather than accepting the sound the guitar has and letting it make music sometimes.

It's that tone quest thing. A Don Quiotte or Che Guevarra or Captain Ahab syndrome type of thing. Like in the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, "El Dorado" and the line: " 'Ride! Boldly ride," the Shade replied, "if you seek El Dorado' ". In this case it was the Spanish conquistadors quest for the city located mythically somewhere in the newly discovered World made of solid gold, but it's like our tone quest. It oftentimes isn't right there with our rigs and we go on that quest to try to get there. To others, however, their guitar and amp collections are like museums and historical preservation - it's all good.

One thing I'll say, though, is that it is REAL NICE when you buy that guitar or amp and it IS right there where you want to be. That's just the way my new inexpensive Epiphone Faded SG is affecting me. I'm starting to feel convinced that the SG is one of the best guitars going.

Anyway, those quotes from Eric Johnson made me think, and yeah, I can connect with those concepts.