New Eric Johnson strats - with bound rosewood board
- Thread starter FretFire
- Start date
ganzosrevenge
New member
Re: New Eric Johnson strats - with bound rosewood board
lemme add this up...
$1,000 (2007 Fender American Special Stratocaster HSS Mahogany)
$0,126 (Callaham American Deluxe Bridge and Saddle kit)
$0,000 (2 extra black Fender American Series tremolo Springs)
$0,168 (Seymour Duncan Brobucker)
$0,225 (2 SSL-1s, 2 Luxe Caps (1 1958-1961 and 1 1961-1968), Warmoth HSS B/W/B PG, and Labor costs)
$0,050 (Onyx Forge Size 12-24 machine screws made from 18-8 stainless steel, and 4 stainless steel inserts)
$0,100 (Labor costs to put in inserts)
Total Cost: $1,669
And for that $1,669 I have the 9.5" rosewood radius board and contoured heel of a Jeff Beck, the Decked and clamped trem of an Eric Clapton, the machine screw / neck insert combination of Yngwie Malmsteen, and 5 springs and a high-mass bridge block like an Eric Johnson. Even starting at a mid to high level guitar still yields several hundred dollars in difference between a hot-rodded American Deluxe and this stock Eric Johnson RW Strat. At $2,500+, the EJ is treading DANGEROUSLY close to full-on CS territory as well as Gibson territory. I could understand the $2,500 price if it meant a CS EJ strat... but it's still an assembly line strat... and it is at a level where modifications are extremely cost-prohibitive. As much as I love the feel of a bound rosewood board, I wonder how many people are actually going to go and spend that amount of money in this economy on such an instrument when for about $800 or so less, one could get a hot-rod '62 and get a rosewood board, the vintage look and feel, etc., get a new PG and a callaham bridge for about $470, and get a tonal monster with $300 to spare!
For the difference in money between the EJ strat and a normal strat with a LOT of hot-rodding under the hood... i'd be much happier taking that difference and buying an absolutely killer amplifier to compliment my strat. After all, if you have a monster guitar and a crap amp... what good is it? The only reason I ask is quite simple. It's all nice to have an artist's name plastered onto a headstock, or a kokopelli on a neckplate... but is an artist's whim or specifications really that much of a rationale to pay a premium over buying its stock variant and doing the work yourself to get to that same point? These artist models are meant to emulate an artist's sound, but other than the john mayer strat, most artists' own stratocasters were at one point bog standard guitars like what you, me, and 99% of guitarists wrap his or her respective hands around... That doesn't automatically make an artist model better or worse than a normal model, but it should make people sit back and really ask if an artist's specifications are really worth the premium over either a) doing the work yourself, or b) going out there and making your own signature guitar just for you!
lemme add this up...
$1,000 (2007 Fender American Special Stratocaster HSS Mahogany)
$0,126 (Callaham American Deluxe Bridge and Saddle kit)
$0,000 (2 extra black Fender American Series tremolo Springs)
$0,168 (Seymour Duncan Brobucker)
$0,225 (2 SSL-1s, 2 Luxe Caps (1 1958-1961 and 1 1961-1968), Warmoth HSS B/W/B PG, and Labor costs)
$0,050 (Onyx Forge Size 12-24 machine screws made from 18-8 stainless steel, and 4 stainless steel inserts)
$0,100 (Labor costs to put in inserts)
Total Cost: $1,669
And for that $1,669 I have the 9.5" rosewood radius board and contoured heel of a Jeff Beck, the Decked and clamped trem of an Eric Clapton, the machine screw / neck insert combination of Yngwie Malmsteen, and 5 springs and a high-mass bridge block like an Eric Johnson. Even starting at a mid to high level guitar still yields several hundred dollars in difference between a hot-rodded American Deluxe and this stock Eric Johnson RW Strat. At $2,500+, the EJ is treading DANGEROUSLY close to full-on CS territory as well as Gibson territory. I could understand the $2,500 price if it meant a CS EJ strat... but it's still an assembly line strat... and it is at a level where modifications are extremely cost-prohibitive. As much as I love the feel of a bound rosewood board, I wonder how many people are actually going to go and spend that amount of money in this economy on such an instrument when for about $800 or so less, one could get a hot-rod '62 and get a rosewood board, the vintage look and feel, etc., get a new PG and a callaham bridge for about $470, and get a tonal monster with $300 to spare!
For the difference in money between the EJ strat and a normal strat with a LOT of hot-rodding under the hood... i'd be much happier taking that difference and buying an absolutely killer amplifier to compliment my strat. After all, if you have a monster guitar and a crap amp... what good is it? The only reason I ask is quite simple. It's all nice to have an artist's name plastered onto a headstock, or a kokopelli on a neckplate... but is an artist's whim or specifications really that much of a rationale to pay a premium over buying its stock variant and doing the work yourself to get to that same point? These artist models are meant to emulate an artist's sound, but other than the john mayer strat, most artists' own stratocasters were at one point bog standard guitars like what you, me, and 99% of guitarists wrap his or her respective hands around... That doesn't automatically make an artist model better or worse than a normal model, but it should make people sit back and really ask if an artist's specifications are really worth the premium over either a) doing the work yourself, or b) going out there and making your own signature guitar just for you!
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