[Summary] Eric Johnson's equipment [Amps, guitars, effects]

Eric Johnson was born on August 1954, 8 in Austin, Texas, USA.
Growing up in a musical family, he naturally developed an interest in piano and guitar from an early age.
After picking up a guitar at the age of 11, his talent blossomed rapidly.

Although influenced by the 60's rock sound of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Cream, etc.
At the same time, I was exposed to a wide range of genres, including classical music, jazz, blues, and country music.
This forms the foundation of his diverse and precise musicality.

He began performing professionally in his late teens, and in 10 joined the jazz rock band The Electromagnets.
They tour extensively, mainly in the southern United States, and have attracted attention for their sophisticated performance skills that combine elements of jazz and rock.

After the band broke up, he continued to work as a solo artist, and collaborated with Cat Stevens, Carole King, Christopher Cross, and others.
Participate in sessions with famous artistsAchievements as a studio musicianWe will steadily accumulate these.

In 1986, after he had turned 30, he finally released his solo album "Tones" through the major label Reprise Records.
This album made Eric Johnson's name known to the world, and the song "Zap" included on it was nominated for a Grammy Award.

By this time, he was already known for his crystal-clear clean tone and
A lead tone with a spacious feel was established.

In 1990, they released their second album, "Ah Via Musicom."
The song "Cliffs of Dover" from this album later won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
It caused a huge sensation among guitarists around the world.

A sweet lead tone, amazingly accurate fast playing, and a melody line where every single note has meaning.
With this one song, he went beyond being just a "technical guitarist" and established himself as a "tone magician."

"Venus Isle" (1996), "Bloom" (2005), "Up Close" (2010), "EJ" (2016), etc.
Since then, he has continued to release works consistently while also engaging in a variety of activities, including participating in the G3 tour and appearing at guitar festivals.
He has produced classical guitar albums, jazz arrangements, and performed live in acoustic arrangements.
Towards the latter part of his career he has taken on broader musical challenges.

Currently based in Austin, Texas.Continuing to record, tour and teach.
In his latest works, "The Book of Making" and "Yesterday Meets Today,"
This album showcases his mature playing and production sense, which can be said to be the culmination of his career.

Eric Johnson's main guitar is the Fender Stratocaster.
Throughout his career, he has had a preference for vintage Stratocasters, primarily using Strats from the late 50s to early 60s.
A representative example is the 1954 Stratocaster, which Eric nicknamed "Virginia" and used for many years.
The Virginia was also used in the recording of the albums "Tones" and "Ah Via Musicom", and is a guitar with a rich tone thanks to its sus-Afras body and special wiring.
Fender has also released a limited edition signature model that reproduces this “1954 Virginia” Strat, faithfully reflecting Eric’s attention to detail, including rare woods and custom wiring.

Eric has made some modifications to his Strat and uses it in his own unique way.
For example, the wiring has been changed so that the tone control also applies to the rear pickup, resulting in a mellow lead tone with no harsh high notes.
We've also paid attention to details such as removing the spring cover (back cover) of the bridge (tremolo) to increase resonance, and placing aluminum foil under the pickguard to reduce noise.
As for pickups, he prefers a vintage tone while also considering the balance between output and noise, and sometimes uses a DiMarzio HS-2 stacked humbucker in the bridge position.
This modification is said to be able to reproduce the famous lead tone from the "Ah Via Musicom" period.
Eric's passion for tone-making is apparent in how he has managed to combine the delicacy of a Stratocaster's single coil with the practicality of a custom guitar.

The Fender / Telecaster is used in country-style numbers such as the signature song "Steve's Boogie."
Eric owns a vintage reissue model that he had custom ordered from Fender, and he is so particular about the tone and phrasing that he only uses it for one song at a time.

Semi-acoustic guitars such as the Gibson/ES-335 also feature in Eric's repertoire.
It is used when you want to pursue a jazz-like tone or when you want a thick, rounded tone in recording.
It produces a lustrous, warm sound that's a little different from a Stratocaster.

For acoustic guitars, Martin steel-string models (mainly the D-45 class) are used.
In fingerpicking instrumentals such as the signature song "Song for George," Martin's clear sound and
The rich overtones are utilized to express Eric's delicate touch in a more three-dimensional way.

The key to the clean tone is the Fender Twin Reverb.
Eric is a fan of vintage blackface-era (mid-1960s) Twin Reverbs, and he uses two of them in stereo to add width and depth to his clean sounds.
Taking advantage of the powerful 85W output and huge headroom provided by the two 2-inch speakers, it delivers crystal clear, clean sound without distortion even when the volume is turned up.
Eric himself says, "Good tone starts with a pure and simple clean sound.
That's why I recommend amps that produce a pure sound, like the silverface era Fender Twin or Pro Reverb," ​​he says, emphasizing the technique of adding effects and distortion to the foundation sound created by a clean-based amp.

Eric's Twin Reverb settings are mostly fixed, with the volume kept at around 4-5 to keep it clean, and the treble and presence set higher to give it some high-end sparkle.
The mid-range is adjusted using the tone controls and effects on the guitar, and the low-range is cut moderately so that it doesn't get lost in the band.
The reverb is also lightly applied using the built-in spring reverb, just enough to add depth.
For live performances, two Twins are configured in a stereo configuration, with each output connected to a Marshall 2x4 cabinet (equipped with Celestion speakers), achieving a powerful, spacious sound despite the clean sound.
In this way, the Twin Reverb is the key to Eric's clean tone and an important amp that acts as his "sonic canvas."

A great choice for anything from crunch to lead tones is Marshall's 100W amp, the late 1960s model known as the Plexi.
Eric owns a 1968-69 Marshall Superlead (1959 model) and Super Bass, among others, and mainly uses the 50W and 100W heads.
For example, you might use a 1969W Plexi head made in 50 as your main amp, with a 100W head made in the same year as a backup.

Because the Marshall's tubes begin to distort earlier than the Fender, Eric uses it as a lead-only amp and turns up the volume to drive the power tubes hard.
The thick sustain and unique compression achieved in this way are the source of his "violin tone."

The Marshall settings tend to be a bit less present and treble, and more low-midrange and midrange richer.
This is intended to prevent the sharp high notes produced by the Stratocaster's single coils from becoming too sharp, resulting in a distorted yet smooth lead sound that is pleasant to listen to.
Eric also pairs his Marshall amps with external cabinets, and uses vintage Greenback speakers and Electro-Voice EVM12L (high-input speakers) to achieve both sound pressure and clarity.
He plays by switching between the Twin Reverb clean and the Marshall lead using the foot switch, bringing out the ideal distortion texture for each song.

The most legendary of Eric Johnson's equipment is the Dumble amplifier built by Howard Dumble.
Dumble amps are custom amps that are handcrafted one by one by California amp craftsman Alexander "Howard" Dumble, and are known as "phantom amps" that are only available to a very select few guitarists.
Eric was one of the lucky ones to get his hands on one of these Dumble amps, and he used a custom-made pre-amp + power amp set (commonly known as the "Manzamp") based on models such as the "Overdrive Special" and "Steel String Singer".
This amp was not used frequently because it was so powerful and loud, but its crystal clear clean and smooth driving sound was used on some recordings, including the classic song "Zap."

The sound quality of Dumble amps has been described as having "a color palette more than twice that of Fender clean amps," and Eric was deeply impressed by the depth of tone.
In fact, it combines the brilliant clean sound of a Fender Twin with the taut distortion characteristics of a Marshall, and it responds extremely well to volume adjustments.
Eric has used Dumble amps to enhance clean tones in studio recordings, and also to add color to crunch tones during live performances.
However, because it is an extremely valuable and difficult to handle amp, it is rarely taken on tours in recent years, and boutique amps such as the Two-Rock, described below, are increasingly being used instead.

In recent years, Eric has started using amps from Two-Rock, an American boutique amplifier brand.
In particular, the "Traditional Clean" head has been used as Eric's crunch/rhythm amp since touring in the late 2010s.
The Two-Rock Traditional Clean is a high-quality clean amp that can be switched between 100W and 50W, and is characterized by its combination of the clear clean sound of Fender-style with the thickness and high-fidelity of Dumble.
Eric plugs this amp into a Marshall 4x12 cabinet (with a 30W Celestion) and uses it primarily for crunch-like rhythm sounds.

Eric has three basic tones in his live performances: completely clean with the Twin Reverb, deep distortion with the Marshall, and medium distortion somewhere in between with the Two-Rock.
When using Two-Rock, a light push of distortion with the Fuzz Face and Tube Screamer (described below) provides a comfortable crunch and sustain.
The Two-Rock also has good effect response, making it a great match for the MXR flanger doubler and digital delay built into the crunch rhythm board.
The result is a modern, well-separated crunch sound that's different from both Fender and Marshall, and it succeeds in making its presence known without getting lost in backing tracks.
The introduction of Two-Rock is a great example of how Eric is able to maintain his classic tone while also incorporating modern equipment.

The models he uses include VOX vintage wahs (V846 and current V845) and Jim Dunlop's Cry Baby wah.
He can often be seen using a Jim Dunlop Cry Baby (GCB95) especially during live performances, which he uses to create a strong filter effect in some parts of the songs.
For example, in songs such as "Trail Of Tears," you can hear an impressive solo using the wah, which shows that they make even more use of the wah in live performances than they do on the studio albums.

When talking about Eric's lead tones, the Fuzz Face is an absolute must.
This vintage fuzz pedal, characterized by its large, round body, is a legendary machine that was also used by Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour, among others. Eric has also been fascinated by its sound since his teenage years and has included it on his own pedal board.

When talking about smooth overdrive sounds, the Ibanez Tube Screamer is a pedal that cannot be left out.
Eric has been a fan of the Tube Screamer for a long time, following in the footsteps of his fellow Texas native, Stevie Ray Vaughan.
He particularly likes the early model called the TS-808, released in 1979, and pushes the amp with its mild distortion that emphasizes the midrange.

Eric has a clever way of using the Tube Screamer.
Generally, TS pedals are used to create an overdrive sound on their own by connecting them to a clean amp,
Or it is often used as a booster before a distorted amplifier,
Eric uses a unique setting: low level (volume), high drive (amount of distortion), and 0 tone.
In other words, rather than using it as a boost, it is used as an overdrive that makes use of the distortion of the pedal itself.

This setting provides a smooth distortion with the high frequencies cut,
Blending it with Marshall or Two-Rock tube distortion creates a rounded, sticky sound.
Eric uses the TS-808 primarily for rhythmic distortion and gain stacking with a Fuzz Face.
You can create a bluesy rhythm tone by putting a TS-808 on the Two-Rock crunch channel,
It has a wide range of uses, such as connecting it before a Fuzz Face to stabilize the behavior of the fuzz.
The TS buffer circuit also has the effect of smoothing out high-frequency components, and Eric seems to be making use of this as well.

Another key to Eric Johnson's lead sound is a vacuum tube overdrive pedal called a Tube Driver.
Originally designed by BK Butler and released by Chandler, this pedal contains a 12AX7 vacuum tube in a small case, producing distortion similar to that of a tube amplifier.
Eric started using this pedal in the late 1980s and it remains one of the most important pedals on his board to this day.

The tube driver is unique in that when connected to a clean amplifier it produces a sound that is just like a cranked tube amplifier.
Eric mainly uses this pedal on the lead channel of his Marshall to create a lead tone with a different stickiness and thickness than the Fuzz Face.
Specifically, the sound obtained by combining Marshall and tube drivers is as follows:
The midrange is more forward and has more sound pressure, but it's smooth and not rough like fuzz.
For that reason, I sometimes use it in conjunction with a Fuzz Face depending on the song, and in some cases I stack the two to achieve an even more saturated feel.

The secret ingredient in Eric Johnson's sound creation is Maestro's Echoplex EP-3.
This is a classic tape echo unit that has been popular with guitarists since the 1960s.
Eric has had the EP-3 in his rack for many years, taking advantage of the tonal sweetening that its preamp circuitry provides.
The Echoplex itself is a device that produces a delay effect, but in Eric's case, it serves more as a preamplifier to make the sound smoother and thicker than a pure delay device.

Specifically, connecting the EP-3 between your amplifier and the signal is slightly boosted, adding a unique warmth and thickness.
This effect makes clean sounds more lustrous and distorted sounds more smooth and mellow.
Eric always had two Echoplexes set up, one running a Marshall-type lead and the other a Fender-type clean.
However, because the method of running the original tape requires a lot of maintenance, in recent years experts have modified it so that the tape mechanism is bypassed and only the preamplifier section is used as a unit.
In addition, we combined modern delay pedals such as the Catalinbread Belle Epoch and MXR Digital Delay to achieve a similar echo effect without using tape.

From a sound design perspective, the Echoplex is a key component in adding richness and spaciousness to each of Eric's sounds.
For clean tones, it is combined with the Deluxe Memory Man to add depth, and for lead tones, it is combined with the tube driver to add a lustrous color to the sound.
If there was one secret weapon in Eric's sound creation, it would be this Echoplex preamp.
Without this unit, which sweetens the tone like a ``magic box,'' Eric's unique rich tone would not be achieved.

Delay effects are also an essential element of Eric's sound.
One of the early examples is the BOSS DD-2 digital delay, which has been built into the board since its inception.
The DD-2 was released in 1983 as the world's first compact digital delay, and Eric has been using this pedal to thicken clean sounds since the late 1980s.

Eric uses the DD-2 in a clean rhythm chain using Twin Reverb, mixing in a slight delay sound to add depth to his playing.
The specific settings are a short delay time (around 300 ms) and little feedback, with just one reverberation to give the sound a sense of spaciousness.
The level is set modestly so that it functions as a very faint echo component that does not interfere with the original sound.
This adds a reverberant tail to arpeggios and clean cuts, creating a pleasing afterimage.

Eric also praises the DD-2 for the minimal degradation in sound quality that is unique to digital, and seems to like the clear repeating sound that cannot be obtained with analog delay.
The DD-12, equipped with a 2-bit AD converter, which was state-of-the-art at the time, matched his hi-fi clean tone.
In recent years, we have added MXR digital delay (digital time delay) to accommodate situations where longer delay times or stereo effects are required.
However, for basic short delays, the DD-2 is still in use on the board.
Though not flashy, this digital delay is designed to blend in with Eric's sound, silently supporting his tone in both clean and lead songs.

Eric has been using GHS guitar strings for many years.
Early in his career, he used nickel-wound strings called GHS Nickel Rockers in the common light gauges of .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, and .046.
Nickel Rockers strings are characterized by the use of pure nickel for the wound strings (strings 4-6), which are further finished to be semi-flat by roller rolling.
The pure nickel material gives the tone a warm, vintage-like feel, and the semi-flat finish gives it a smooth feel and a calm tone.
We believe that these string materials play a large role in the clean, mellow sound that Eric produces.

Eric later released a signature string from GHS with a slightly altered gauge to suit his own needs.
This GHS Eric Johnson Signature Strings set features thicker gauges for the 3rd (G), 5th (A), and 6th (E) strings, with the entire set coming in gauges of .010, .013, .018, .026, .038, and .050.
The thicker third string increases the tension of the plain strings to stabilize the pitch, while the thicker fifth and sixth strings are intended to give more body and depth to the bass.
On the other hand, the material of these signature strings has been changed from pure nickel to nickel-plated steel, and they have been tuned to produce a slightly brighter tone.
Eric uses either Nickel Rockers or Signature strings depending on the song and conditions, and both strings combine warmth and responsiveness to help shape his tone.

Eric's attention to detail is also evident in his choice of picks.
He has long used Jim Dunlop's Jazz III, a small teardrop-shaped pick, and in particular uses the Eric Johnson signature model, which reflects his own personal preferences.
The Jazz III is a hard nylon pick that is approximately 1.38 mm thick with a pointed tip that is ideal for fast playing and expressing fine picking nuances.
Eric uses this tiny pick to effortlessly perform alternate picking and skipping phrases at incredibly fast speeds.

Eric's signature Jazz III (red) is engraved with "ERIC JOHNSON TX" and has a specially designed grip on the surface.
He himself says, "It's a small and hard pick, but once you get used to it you can control your cutting freely," and that it has also helped improve his right-hand technique.
Using this pick, the strings do not get caught easily even in fast passages, and a clear picking sound is produced, making it possible for Eric to play with precise phrasing.

Interestingly, Eric is also sensitive to the change in tone that occurs when playing with a pick, and sometimes changes picks depending on the mood of the song.
For example, for clean parts where a softer attack is desired, a Fender Heavy pick, which is slightly larger than a teardrop-shaped pick, may be used, and for studio recordings, fingerpicking or a thumb pick may be used.
However, during live performances he almost exclusively uses a Jazz III, which has become emblematic of his playing style, which combines "big expressiveness with a small pick."