New thinline Eric Johnson Strat

carlos

There isn't much to say about it. It's a strat with a body that's even more chambered than usual and an f-hole. There's more marketing speak here if you care about stuff like the nitrocellulose lacquer finish letting the body breathe with its true tonal character.

Seriously, I have 2 questions:
1 - does such a small chamber make any significant change to a guitar's plugged in tone?
2 - aren't centre-block, thin hollowbodies like the 335 already hybrids between thick jazzboxes and solid body electrics?

note: I like the colour!

axisus

I rather like it. I'm a bit undecided with an f hole on a strat but I think I'm coming around to it.

punchesjudy

I sorta like it, but sorta don't at the same time. 
If I were to get an EJ strat though I'd get the normal solid body one. 

impmann

I'd like to play/hear it before passing judgement on the f-hole/semi hollow thing. FWIW, its usually the mids that are most affected tonally by such things and on a Strat that effect may be... moot, shall we say?

The banana yellow isn't that appealing, though. I know what its supposed to be, but it looks like banana custard on my computer...

guitars4you

impmann said:

I'd like to play/hear it before passing judgement on the f-hole/semi hollow thing. FWIW, its usually the mids that are most affected tonally by such things and on a Strat that effect may be... moot, shall we say?

The banana yellow isn't that appealing, though. I know what its supposed to be, but it looks like banana custard on my computer...

agree with your thoughts on the tonal aspect - Not meant to be a pun but it will take some 'body' out of the overall tone - Not sure why they couldn't have done the same chambered body, but without the actual F - hole - To Fender + EJ, I dare say they wanted to make that F hole an obvious aesthetic statement, but IMO it would have been better just chambered - The likes of Anderson have done this many times

BigLicks67

Looks awful to me and somewhat pointless as the natural design of the guitar means it's already missing large chunks of wood from the centre block.

Sassafras

F-holes look fine on jazz boxes but faintly ridiculous on a strat.
Why not a violin headstock as well.
Just looks incongruous.
Don't really care about any subtle differences in sound it might make.

cbellanga

For me that’s just another mkt thingy flavour to make some extra cash.. don’t think EJ will stop playing his old gear so what’s the point apart from mkt..

Octafish

carlos said:

There isn't much to say about it. It's a strat with a body that's even more chambered than usual and an f-hole. There's more marketing speak here if you care about stuff like the nitrocellulose lacquer finish letting the body breathe with its true tonal character.

Seriously, I have 2 questions:
1 - does such a small chamber make any significant change to a guitar's plugged in tone?
2 - aren't centre-block, thin hollowbodies like the 335 already hybrids between thick jazzboxes and solid body electrics?

note: I like the colour!

So presumably this doesn't (unlike suffocated 60s Strats or AVRIs) have a poly undercoat, cos how's the laquer finish going to allow it to breathe if there's a poly undercoat, that or it's just marketing bullshit for the gullible  

carlos

Octafish said:

So presumably this doesn't (unlike suffocated 60s Strats or AVRIs) have a poly undercoat, cos how's the laquer finish going to allow it to breathe if there's a poly undercoat, that or it's just marketing bullshit for the gullible  

One of the features of the EJ strat is not having a trem cover in the back to give it a more open sound. Make of that what you will.

Sesh

Looks like it will play like butter.

Strat54

cbellanga said:

For me that’s just another mkt thingy flavour to make some extra cash.. don’t think EJ will stop playing his old gear so what’s the point apart from mkt..

He actually plays it quite at bit on his present tour. His will be the proto and probably not one straight off the line though. I actually like the design. 
I'm thinking though that from my experience with chambered Tom Andersons that the difference plugged in is not as great as you'd think. Its not like you'd listen blind and immediately say that sounds semi hollow bodied. 

Octafish

carlos said:

Octafish said:

So presumably this doesn't (unlike suffocated 60s Strats or AVRIs) have a poly undercoat, cos how's the laquer finish going to allow it to breathe if there's a poly undercoat, that or it's just marketing bullshit for the gullible  

One of the features of the EJ strat is not having a trem cover in the back to give it a more open sound. Make of that what you will.

Yes, I've heard that one  

ICBM

carlos said:

Octafish said:

So presumably this doesn't (unlike suffocated 60s Strats or AVRIs) have a poly undercoat, cos how's the laquer finish going to allow it to breathe if there's a poly undercoat, that or it's just marketing bullshit for the gullible  

One of the features of the EJ strat is not having a trem cover in the back to give it a more open sound. Make of that what you will.

I've played a couple of the normal EJ Strats. One was quite nice, although no nicer than any normal AVRI I can remember.

The other one was the deadest-sounding US-made Fender I've ever played - it sounded like it was made from damp MDF or something - simply no resonance, tone or sustain at all.

I forgot to look if someone had taken it upon themselves to fit a backplate, that might have explained it...



The f-hole in the new one is an abomination - it looks like it's painted on for a joke, like Paul Gilbert's Ibanez.

carlos

ICBM said:

The f-hole in the new one is an abomination - it looks like it's painted on for a joke, like Paul Gilbert's Ibanez.

I agree. The design and layout of a strat doesn't really have room for an f-hole in that slot. If they really needed a soundhole (doubtful) instead of just chambering, they could have used another shape like the diamond that's in the trini lopez or something else.

DrBob

impmann said:

I'd like to play/hear it before passing judgement on the f-hole/semi hollow thing. FWIW, its usually the mids that are most affected tonally by such things and on a Strat that effect may be... moot, shall we say?

Would that be the oft discussed "Haunting Mids" Tim ?

chris78

I quite like it, but 2k street for a production line Fender? I honestly think with the new cs pricing and production guitars at this cost, Fender are going to price a lot of people out of buying new guitars 

WezV

It’s an actual alternative to a standard strat.  What’s wrong with that?

F-holes are a bit marmite on strats.  In needs to be quite small to fit and the position is hard to get right.  some have it much further back

this has it about right for me