Sound more like ERIC JOHNSON? | two 1954 “VIRGINIA” Stratocaster BUILDS sound demo

In this video I do a sound comparison between my two Eric Johnson "Virginia" guitar builds as well as a HSS s-type and vintage 60's style S-type. I also talk about the specs of the guitar builds and how I ended up building two EJ style Stratocasters.

EJ's specs on his '54 "Virginia" are quite a unique recipe and I was super curious to build a guitar inspired by it. This includes Sassasfras body wood, 500k pots, and Dimarzio HS-2 stacked coiled in the bridge (but only one coil wired).

Let me know if you think the EJ specs sound closer to his elusive tone than the more traditionally spec'd guitars I compare them to.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments below. Rock on!

-Johnny Z

[michaeltracanelli]

Great build looking and sounding EJ1 . But you playing so well respect 👍

[Ncb]

Hell yea. Gonna check this out tomorrow

[KyleCastroTheDrummerBoy]

Wow!! Excellent works on the guitar my dear friend!! Thanks for this very informative video!!!! Love and respect Kyle!! 😊🥁🇵🇭

[FioreTileWorks]

Wow! Love the level of detail. Curious about the recording chain you used for these great sounds. All in the box or amps? Reverb pedal or itb? Thanks.

[WeldmanJones-gjdl]

I still like the PRS more, although EJ sound is always amazing. I’d go for the blue one with the hum in the bridge. Love the sound of that guitar.

[Diax]

I built my instrument almost exactly like your roasted maple version. Callaham, roasted warmoth, locking klusons etc. I ended up swapping out the callaham because I really like doing whammy things. Kind of regret it sometimes but it was the right decision at the time.

[gmoody]

They all sound great because you make them sound great!

A simple experiment you might want to try with your #2... Pick up a Fender Pure Vintage trem block... Take 5 minutes with a razor blade and scrape off all the outside paint... Polish the mounting side flat with 1500 or 2000 grit sandpaper (put sandpaper on hard flat surface and rub block across)... And mount to bridge. I did this to my expensive partscaster a couple months ago and it literally made a significant audible difference unplugged AND amplified. I originally had a Callaham bridge/trem block installed. Installed the Wudtone bridge w/metal shim along with the Callaham block, and ended up removing the metal shim because of an unpleasant dissonance. Some time later I tried removing the paint from the Callaham block and, as was mentioned elsewhere, the Callaham block seems to be a much harder metal that has an unpleasant tone... Yeah, I know... I wouldn't have believed either it if it wasn't so obvious. Try it. For $35 it's a fairly inexpensive test. I'm 99% sure you'll notice a dramatic positive difference.

[idontgrillonwed]

Mind sharing the luthier you sourced the #1 body from? Great work on this.

[tomd.]

Thanks for sharing! Is there a way to listen to your tunes, these sound great!

[timothy]

Fantastic 3 piece series, I loved it. Your playing is great and I love your feel and style as well. I have been gassing and the reason I found you was your PRS 594 series. I certainly don’t have the budget for private stock but it was the new cheap SE series I was looking at. But!! I just finished the 3 videos on the EJ builds and it got me thinking. I have a MIJ 90’s yngwie malmsteen guitar that I just don’t like the sound of. I’m really loving you strat sounds and I would be interested in learning to redo the pickups and wiring to sound like yours. It does have HS3’s but doesn’t sound anything like yours. 🙏👍🤘🔥

[tymccudden]

Great videos! Can I ask how the Warmoth necks are, fret wise? Do they require fret work and are the fingerboard edges sharp etc or are they good to go on arrival? Thinking about doing a similar build.

[robbiegodinho]

EJ1 for sure, it is absolutely killer guitar

[seraphym]

EJ 1 for sure.. favorite tone was the one with the Rosewood board.

[FransSibarani-mutann]

Heii how do u set ur delay for this tone? So nicee

[MascarasMil]

Where did you find the sassafras body?

[rocketman]

Curious what weight they ended up being? Thanks

[vuralarslandemir]

They both look absolutely stunning. I m guessing the radius is 12'' on both. I liked the ej1 too but purely appereance reasons :D That dirty looking neck looks great. Sounds really similar as far as i am hearing. Great video. Thanks.

[joernbeineke]

... nice guitars and sounds - although it would be great if the guitars could be heard dry at some point ... :)

[jocro]

Makes you realize how ridiculous it is for Fender to charge 5k for a custom shop strat!

[tdillon]

Johnny - Stainless or nickel frets? Also, looks like EJ#1 is a flat sawn neck and EJ#2 is a quarter sawn neck? And, both are at least 5A flamed? BTW, all four guitars sounded phenomenal. Thanks for posting part 3.