Eric johnson amp setup

Johnson has tried his best to put this rumor to rest, maintaining that his sound is all in his picking technique, and his gear merely helps him deliver the show. First off, no matter what guitar you choose to call your go-to, make sure you use the bridge pickup for that sweet, sizzle sound.

If you have an amp with three channels clean, dirty, dirty boosted like a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe , then you are heading in the right direction. If you do not have an amp with amp channel switching features you can buy a couple of inexpensive and easy-to-use true bypass looper.

Want to kick-start experimenting with Eric Johnson's illuminating tone right away? Eric Johnson's Pedalboard and Signal Processing. Alternate picking or hammers-on and pull-offs? Eric Johnson's Gear All the specifics of Eric Johnson's guitar rig are readily available and are, in many cases, explained by Johnson himself. Johnson admits to using them routinely, particularly in the studio. The morale of the story is: Don't always default to Fender Strats when you're after Eric Johnson's lead tone.

It's not that simple. Clean Tone Amp and Setup Johnson has several different amp setups, though in most cases you could break them down into two different categories. Johnson has his Marshall JMP amplifier turned all the way up. This puts our settings at something like the following numbers: Presence: 2 Bass: 4 Middle: 3 Treble 0 What probably surprised me the most about this image is that Eric Johnson has his treble knob set at ZERO.

Now, I have to add a disclaimer here: In all of the research I did for this post, I found little if any info on Johnson's specific amp settings. Again, if this is correct, it's telling us that Johnson keeps the treble on his amp at zero. Here's a look at the volume settings on his Marshall JMP cranked to Here's a closeup of his Tube Driver, which looks to be on a fairly low setting.

We'll get into those in the next section. Yet, in that case, Marshall heads still seem to be handling the lead tones. Why he's going without the Marshall heads during certain gigs isn't certain. Eric Johnson's Pedalboard and Signal Processing When assessing Eric Johnson's lead tone, it's important to consider how it differs from his rhythm tones and the other sounds he uses.

Let's start with this shot of Johnson's pedalboard as of First of all, what a mess. No wonder this guy has horrendous noise issues with his Strats. Oh well, I digress. That was for free. Eric, buddy - time to clean up. Here's the version:. Eric Johnson's AB Switches The most important pieces of gear, when it comes to deciphering Johnson's pedalboard, are those two little silver boxes near the top of the photo.

Here they are again in a Harmony Central demo video. The first is a master AB box, pictured here:. This box switches between lead and rhythm, overall. Assuming he's got the master AB box on the "rhythm" setting, his signal is then routed to the second AB box which gives him two rhythm choices: Clean rhythm Dirty rhythm.

To summarize, Eric Johnson's signal essentially has three landing spots: Clean rhythm through effects pedals Dirty rhythm through a Fender or Marshall amp Dirty lead through a tube driver and Marshall JMP Here's the video where Eric Johnson explains it all.

It's the bedrock of his signal and the simplest way to understand his tone. However, gear is expensive. Let's delve into the Eric Johnson technique.

Eric Johnson's Technique The first "lane" of Eric Johnson's technique is how he picks the strings or his "right hand technique. What is hybrid picking? Practicing Hybrid Picking To practice hybrid picking, let's start off with something basic.

Here's a quick key for the right hand fingering labels:. Right hand fingering key. Now, hybrid picking isn't the most important aspect of Johnson's technique. His answer, was extremely insightful.

When do I pick and when do I use hammer-ons and pull-offs? We can easily take the same approach, if we have enough patience to do so. Commonly used scales? Here is a short list I've compiled from several of his interviews: Minor pentatonic scale Major Pentatonic scale Half tone scale Whole tone scale Diminished scale What we can do is take a few of these guitar scales and start playing through them at a speed that allows us to pick every single note.

Let's start with the Minor Pentatonic scale shape. Minor Pentatonic Scale. Major Pentatonic Scale. Diminished Scale.

Stick to alternate picking until you can really breeze through each one. Once you're comfortable with that, you can move onto more advanced legato techniques. Intervallic Lead Lines and Open-Voiced Triads Eric Johnson commonly employs wider intervals, both for his chord progressions and solo construction. As an offshoot of this technique, he commonly employs a chord pattern called open-voiced triads.

My chord style initially developed as a result of my dissatisfaction with the way traditional guitar voicings, particularly triads, sounded. I quickly realized that open-voiced triads - chords in which the individual notes, or voices, are spread out - lent themselves better to distortion. Here are some of the examples that Eric Johnson uses. It's also a hallmark features of Johnson's lead tone. All of the Above Eric Johnson's tone is not just about his gear or amp settings.

And this is good news. Because practicing technique is free. We don't have to go out and buy a new amp to do that.

Keep in mind that as you tinker with amp settings and effects as I previously mentioned, both are important , the meat of Eric Johnson's lead tone is to be found in his technique, namely the following: Alternate picking Hybrid picking The major and minor pentatonic scales Wide intervals Open-voiced chords Spend some time getting your gear right or as close as possible to Eric Johnson's settings , then zero in on the technique.

Getting good at any one technique is agnostic of musical context. References and Works Cited "MusicPlayers. Eric Johnson's Guitar Rig Musiciansfriend. Best, Michael Westbrook Nashville, Tennessee.

Hey, thanks for the kind words, Michael. Glad you enjoyed the article. A Kempler amp setup for EJ would also be very interesting to do a comparison. Thanks for the note. Thanks so much for sharing! Improves the article, for sure. Carbon only batteries, no back cover on the strat, fuzz face in the freezer up to the moment you play.

Gotta love the guy. Mentat Member. Not posting because of the demo, but to cop EJ tones you need one of these too. It's a major part of EJ's clean sound. Also a Tube Screamer. Last edited: Mar 3, TheoDog Silver Supporting Member. Messages 20, Make sure the screws on the back cover of the speaker cab are zinc, not stainless steel. The size of the rubber feet on the bottom of the amp chassis have not been shown to make a noticeable difference in the tone, but they are worth considering.

Neon Soul Member. I never had a problem getting EJ tone with a fuzz face, some sort of OD to stack it into or an already breaking up amp , Boss CE-2 for cheesy 80's chorus , and a tape style delay. A bigger part of EJ's sound is phrasing anyway. Play pentatonic licks in groups of 5. Neon Soul said:. Frank67 Member. He has a couple of different tones but the most popular one seems to be based on - Marshall cooking set very dark His fuzzface sound sounds just muddy to me.

The chorused sounds are on his clean chain. Happy tone chasing! Quintuplets or 5 notes of any length? My favorite tone is from the song Texas off of Up Close. I asked my buddy in Austin to check with EJ to see what he used to record that song.

Cranked Plexi and a fuzz face for part of the solo. Although this Signature line was made available to the market in , Johnson received a few stock ones including the very first serial number as early as , ever since then, this replica became one of his main highlights on stage and in-studio throughout the decade. The Fender Eric Johnson Signature Thinline Stratocaster was another collaboration between the Texas virtuoso and the guitar-manufacturing giant; this time with a bit more jazz to its design.

Eric has also shared that he envisioned the next step of the global Stratocaster, as his third signature model, this Thinline strat offers a broadened horizon in the style of Johnson. Nevertheless, there is an ES model in his catalog one that has become rather precious to him after he bought it on tour with Blues legend B.

B King. Although it was used on tour, it is a rare sight to see Johnson on-stage with this or even his SG despite being the two guitars he goes to when looking for a bulkier Gibson tone. Either way, it is known that this is yet another collection piece for Johnson, he keeps it at home along with several other vintage pieces. In classic Johnson fashion, he showed apprehension at first but got completely blown away by the sound once he tried it out.

As the story gets told by Eric himself, he was once at the Dallas Guitar Show and just so happened to come across the Flying V. A gift from his father, this Martin D has some real sentimental value to him, and as such has remained in his collection ever since he got it.

His dad bought this for him as a gift after Eric had quite a lot of guitars stolen from his apartment in It plays so well, and it has a real balanced sound.

As an exclusive product, just 90 units of this guitar have ever been made. In the early s, when Gibson reissued this model as a throwback to the golden era, Eric bought it again and has been using it since, but recent years have retreated the 59 LP to the studio mostly.

The one he uses has a bright cherry burst finish, with a solid mahogany neck, a maple top, and Custombucker Alnico III humbucking pickups.