Eric Johnson Strat owners...

[jgcable]

I have a question. What pickups would you suggest to put in a stock Fender strat to best mimic the tone of the EJ strat.
I have read several articles regarding EJ's pickups. Everything from stock Fender pickups to an HS-2 in the bridge wired as a single coil along with 2 stock Fender singles.

[bluebullet]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

i dont have any recomendations but i think fender is going to sell the ej pickups.

[thebisch]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

Yes, Fender will be releaseing the EJ pickups aftermarket soon...I hear the EJ pickups are super. I will let you know soon...I will be buying a EJ Strat real soon. IMO the EJ Strat is the best you can get from Fender right now as far as a traditional Strat is concerned. The big features of the EJ that trips my trigger is vintage hardware coupled with a quarter sawn neck, 12" radius, med jumbo frets and a chunky neck. I might end up with a Dimarzio Fast Track 1 in the bridge though. My '78 and '79 have these in them and I really like them for the bridge position.

[bonghits]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

If only Fender offered the EJ's with rosewood fingerboards then I'd be all over it. I'm not sure if it's going to ever happen but I'm hopeful.

[jim777]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

I'm definitely going to get a set of the EJ pickups when they come out as well. There are a lot of great Strat pickups out there already, but I'm thinking Eric's will be be great sounding while still being considerably less money than a full set of Fralins.

[jgcable]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

I am wondering if EJ's pickups will actually be Dimarzio HS-2's with the second coil tapped.

[jim777]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

Are they coming from Fender or DiMarzio?

[thebisch]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

No, The EJ pickups are single coils and are designed by Eric and Fender. It took them 19 tries to get the final pickup that Eric went with.

[jim777]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

Sounds like Eric! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I don't know how many times I've heard he likes the sound of Ray-O-Vac batteries over all other batteries inhis stomp boxes.

[jgcable]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

Just curious... how the heck does he elimated the 60hz hum when using single coil pickups and high gain amps. Even with a noise gate.. you can still hear the 60hz hum between notes. I have heard him many times live and he is totally hum free.

[jim777]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

Won't wax potting them get rid of a lot of it?

[thebisch]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

I'm not a EJ fan, so I don't know much about him other than the crazy things you hear about him on the web, but maybe it's possible that EJ isn't totally forth coming about exactly what he uses. It wouldn't be the first time a guitar hearo did this!

[jgcable]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not a EJ fan, so I don't know much about him other than the crazy things you hear about him on the web, but maybe it's possible that EJ isn't totally forth coming about exactly what he uses. It wouldn't be the first time a guitar hearo did this!

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. I know that EJ is really picky but his lack of hum and his claim to use single coils just doesn't add up.

[jgcable]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

[ QUOTE ]
Won't wax potting them get rid of a lot of it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope. Potting does very little if not nothing for 60hz hum. Shielding the control cavity helps a little but IMHO... nothing gets rid of single coil hum.

[hammer84]

Re: Eric Johnson Strat owners...

[ QUOTE ]
Just curious... how the heck does he elimated the 60hz hum when using single coil pickups and high gain amps. Even with a noise gate.. you can still hear the 60hz hum between notes. I have heard him many times live and he is totally hum free.

[/ QUOTE ]

Last time I saw EJ live his strat's hum was incredibly loud. He dicked with it for 40 minutes thus pushing the start of the show back. He ended up not using it all that night. He played an SG the entire time.