Still Trying to get an Eric Johnson type tone!

I am still trying different things. Let me know if this is getting closer!

Here is another video with a little different settings! I am playing at low volume, not to be beaten to death with a frying pan. I think when I turn up the amps and get the tubes cooking it may sound pretty decent. I can back off the distortion pedals a little and let the amps overdrive some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw9D10RHbrY

I have heard Eric many times. All types of venues, living rooms, etc. Actually you get close. I applaud your effort.
Please don't take this in a bad way. I would say slow down a bit for now. Work on the vibrato. The delay is a bit off for the "EJ" sound. You are on the right track.
A very wise old man once told me "Play it with the feeling. Learn one song good. You play one song good, you can play all night! Play a hunned' songs bad, you got to play all by yoself cuz nobody wanna hear it." He meant a progression in different keys, time signitures, etc. Make it your own.
I guess that isn't much help, but work on that finger wiggle; slow down for now.
God Bless...
:grin::!::wink:

I have heard Eric many times. All types of venues, living rooms, etc. Actually you get close. I applaud your effort.
Please don't take this in a bad way. I would say slow down a bit for now. Work on the vibrato. The delay is a bit off for the "EJ" sound. You are on the right track.
A very wise old man once told me "Play it with the feeling. Learn one song good. You play one song good, you can play all night! Play a hunned' songs bad, you got to play all by yoself cuz nobody wanna hear it." He meant a progression in different keys, time signitures, etc. Make it your own.
I guess that isn't much help, but work on that finger wiggle; slow down for now.
God Bless...
:grin::!::wink:


Thanks for your comments:

I am not really trying to play like Eric Johnson. I don't know his tunes. I am just trying to get the amp tone down as close as I can. All of the websites say set the EP-3 Echoplex to 24 speed, volume 4, and sustain 6. His guitar tech even said that is what to do. Unless a bunch of people are wrong, my echo should be right??? I don't know, I have never seen it for myself on any photo or video, so I can't say. The 24 speed is 380 to 420 ms. Maybe he is running the other amps dry and their volume is taming down the echo sound. I don't know for sure.

It is hard to get the amp to bite at bedroom levels. The speakers and air are not moving. I will have to crank everything up and see if the settings that I made tonight are closer or not?

No doubt I would have recognized this as the EJ sound even if I hadn't known.
I am completely useless for suggesting tweeks to your setup but I think you are close.
I kept expecting some of those runs to turn into Cliffs of Dover, flying off your fretboard.

I am not really trying to play like Eric Johnson. I don't know his tunes.

I'm not sure when you will know EJ's tone if you are not playing his music? For my ears I would say you have the essence of the EJ tone amp/effect wise. But after that is it still the EJ tone if I'm playing Mustang Sally in a trio? Will anyone know that is not the EJ tone if I'm not playing EJ songs?

I think you have a great sound and fluid playing. Good luck in your quest for the holy grail. Let us hear your non EJ music when you get it sorted out.

I'm not sure when you will know EJ's tone if you are not playing his music? For my ears I would say you have the essence of the EJ tone amp/effect wise. But after that is it still the EJ tone if I'm playing Mustang Sally in a trio? Will anyone know that is not the EJ tone if I'm not playing EJ songs?

I think you have a great sound and fluid playing. Good luck in your quest for the holy grail. Let us hear your non EJ music when you get it sorted out.


I just love to hear his amp tones, and I want to be able to have something similar to his, without spending any more money. I can write down all of the settings and use the sound whenever I want. As far as I know, and I am probably wrong, he has only four main sounds. Lead, dirty rhythm, clean rhythm, and super clean.

The super smooth overdrive violin lead tone will not work playing rhythm. He hits his A/B box coming off of a lead for dirty rhythm, then A/B box going back on lead.

The Eric type sound that you hear on my video sounds pretty good for lead, but if you play bar chords or regular chords with it, it sounds like a muddy slurred mess. This is why it is so hard to get for me. I have to make my amps sound all muddy and heavy toned to produce a lead sound that sort of sounds like his lead tone. I guess this is why he uses Marshalls for lead, Dumbles for rhythm, and Fender Twins for clean. He can't reach over while playing and change all of the knobs around 25 times during a song. This is why I started running 3 or 4 amps at a time in the past few months.

I have a recording studio, tune pianos, and master CD's on the side. It kills me when I can't figure out how someone gets a certain sound.

It sounds good to me. Color me jealous. :D If anything, and I'm not an expert on EJ's sound, but have listened to him a lot, I'd say maybe he's a bit brighter.