Eric Johnson Strat: The best non-CS Fender on the market?

Caffeine_Vampire

Custom shop quality imo. If this model was the only Strat Fender made I’d have no complaints. 

Any other converts out there?

sweepy

I had one of the early ones, huge baseball neck with the 12" radius fretboard and so dull it sounded like I had cotton wool in my ears, not a fan as you can guess

richardhomer

Maple neck models I’ve played have had really sticky necks - and the flat board feels too ‘unFendery’ to me.

Caffeine_Vampire

Interesting. How on earth did it sound dull?

stonevibe

I would agree that they sound a little bland, also the super flat radius felt uncomfortable and not very nice. I did like the large neck profile though.

Sold mine fairly quickly, as it didn't quite feel like a good fit for my tastes.

thegummy

Googled just to see what it looked like - surprisingly as generic as a Strat could possibly look.

Not that I see that as a bad thing, was just expecting something a lot more camp considering EJ's dress sense lol

horse

Mine is the best sounding strat I've had - bright rather than dull as it happens. I'd prefer a smaller neck though tbh, but then I learnt on guitars with fairly thin necks to begin with

Elwood

The original Dave Murray strat. Easily the best non CS!

Caffeine_Vampire

Loving the fat neck on mine, especially as my hands are now in their 40’s. I couldn’t get it to sound dull if I tried. 

sweepy

It was dull inasmuch as i thought the tone control was on, like a wooly sock etc etc but then EJ does have possibly the dullest tone to grace Vinyl etc

Dan

I had one and it was crazy resonant. I agree with the above though, 12" radius on a strat doesnt feel right.

crunchman

12" radius is wrong.

At this point in time, the American Original looks like the best non-CS offering.  Whether the difference in quality from the Mexican Classic Series is enough to justify the price jump is debatable.

bermudianbrit

I have one and love it. The neck is a tad thick, but I do like that radius. I just wish it was slightly thinner. I also find mine quite bright so taming it is useful. Oddly, I get a really good Nashville country twang out of that bridge pickup on full lol. I wasn't expecting that but it was a pleasant surprise.

newi123

I had a sunburst - lovely and light. Neck too big and radius too flat - felt un-strat like to me. Also thought the pickups were surprisingly weak........... loved the idea of it, but kept paying the lightly modded highway 1 in preference, so the EJ went. Still have the Highway 1 as my main gigging guitar 17 yrs later............

mudslide73

I've got an EJ neck on my MJT Strat. The12" radius is a proper boon if you've grown up on Gibsons. I think the staggered tuners do stiffen the tension a bit but it's super resonant with a one piece ash body. I like it anyway.

ICBM

I've played two of them - one was good, and the other was the deadest modern US Fender I've ever come across... not sure why, but it had all the resonance of a damp cereal box.

I don't like the tone control arrangement - by not having one on the middle pickup it not only makes that position too 'shouty' (I know a lot of people never use it though), it also makes the neck/middle position too bright and too similar to the bridge/middle, because on a standard Strat *both* tone controls are connected in that position. I don't particularly like the feel of them either, they seem somehow a bit 'un-Strat-like' - it may be the flatter fingerboard.

In my opinion the best non-CS Fenders are the Mexican Classic Series. (Lacquer finish version if that matters to you.)

Caffeine_Vampire

I should possibly have stated that I’m basing this entirely on the new EJ Thinline. Horses for courses as always but this neck plays ridiculously nice.