Johnson guitars

they are low end Chinese made guitars. each one varies with quality.
definaetly play several and pick the one that plays, feels, and sounds the best.

Good advice from dogbite, I have an AXL strat (same company) that has a good straight neck, decent frets, a nice heavy alder body, but the pickups were weak and the electronics were cheap so I replaced them. The tuners tend to be a bit cheap (molded-on plastic knobs), tuning's not real smooth but it's decent. It didn't come setup, I had to do that, but you should expect that if you're buying over the internet. Except for the tuners it's probably on a par with SX. Hope that helps.

I have a Johnson I bought used for cheap.
It was unplayable when I got it but I was going to replace some of the crappy parts and use it as a knockaround guitar.
After going through and seeing what I should replace there was nothing left of the original guitar. It will be in the garbage next week when I clean out my garage.

i have a Johnson acoustic. It served me well, but then the neck pretty much fell off. It didn't come entirely off, but the joint came loose and it wasnt pretty. I glued it back on myself, it looks very crappy. Plus, a friend of mine gave me a syringe of "wood glue" to fix it, and it turned out it was Gorilla Glue and now all the glue oozed out of the joint and looks even crappier!! But hey, live and learn, right?

That said, even before that happened, it wasn't that great. High action, sounded l ike junk and was made of plywood. Unless you find one that's exceptionally decent, i don't recommend Johnsons at all.

My experience with them hasn't been very good. My friends sister had one that was quite messed up. Asides from very high action, the intonation was very very off. Many notes wern't in tune at all, the frets were not spaced right.

I've only ever played this one, it was an acoustic.

I had a Johnson electric strat. Sunburst body, rosewood fretboard.

My experience with this guitar was good.

All the budget guitars will have cheap tuners. That doesn't necessarily mean cheap tuners are bad. Some hold tune very well and I only change tuners to Grovers when it is warranted.

The guitar did sound 'bland', also to be expected. I replaced the neck pickup with a Carvin twin-blade for around $35 and it helped a lot.

I had no problems with this guitar. I got a good one.

8)

My Jay Turser Telecaster was another story. I got a bad one. :evil: The factory did honor the warranty and fixed it but they had it for 4 very long months. :evil:

My Samick Avion 3 Les Paul.....I love it. :D

Hi,

I've got a Johnson hollow bodied guitar.

It's the type with f holes, that are sometimes called "jazz style".

I'm not sure if they are all made in China now, or whether they still make some in the US, but mine is a Chinese plywood job. (EDIT: They may actually have never made them in the USA - that could be just my faulty assumption. :wink: )

It looks nice, plays fine, and seems quite reasonably made for the price. I did need to set it up again after I'd bought it though. The action was way off (easily reset with the adjusting knobs on that model though).

The nut was also poorly selected and fitted ( a bit too wide and not well located). The distributor offered to pay to have that fixed professionally but I just bought another nut for $1 and fitted it myself.

Seems OK to me, and a pro player friend seemed to think it was a good buy after he played it. However, I'm not sure it's something I'd buy sight unseen. I'd want to look and play first.

Cheers Chris

My friend got one at a pawn shop for $50. He put brand new strings on it and sounds really nice. It's a strat-o-copy.

They're all Chinese made. It's a brand name used by Music Link, Inc., which is the U.S. importer for AXL instruments.

I used to have a Johnson JR-200 "Chicago Blues" spider bridge resonator, and it was a decent cheap guitar. I now have a Style 1 Tricone, that's one of the first Chinese made ones. Previously they were made by Amistar in the Czech Republic at a much higher price. Mine had to have a bunch of upgrades to get it like I wanted it, but I bought my teacher one a year and a half ago that was perfect. This is a much more expensive instrument than their entry level acoustics, however.

They're all Chinese made. It's a brand name used by Music Link, Inc., which is the U.S. importer for AXL instruments.

Hi Ricochet,

Did they ever make them in the USA? Or have I just imagined that because of the company name, and models like "Las Vegas"? Thanks for the info about Music Link and AXL, that'll give me some names to search with.

It seems hard these days to put a country to a brand as so much is contracted out elsewhere. I imagine that the name Ibanez was originally chosen to make it sound Spanish, although (as far as I know) they're Japanese company and have their guitars made and assembled all over the place.

Cheers, Chris

I have a Johnson acoustic $99.00 I use it mostly for slide. I love my Johnson!!!! the best cheap guitar i have ever owned :D you can hear it here http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=284421&songID=2836929

listen for the acoustic slide parts. I used 2 mics on it but i alsu use a pick up at times to get a good Elmor James Sound-- I LOVE CHEAP THINGS THAT WORK WELL :lol: :lol:

I don't think they've ever been made in the USA, but it's possible the brand name is an older one, like "Regal," previously used by a U.S. maker. Regals are made in China nowadays, too, some say by the same maker as Johnsons. No connection to the old Regal company.

Hey Smokin Dog........

I listened to a few of your songs over there. You are a REAL player!

I really liked Jinx Jam! Wish I could play like that! If you like that music and tone, you would like Andy Aledort and the Groove Kings.

8)

If you get one, you'll never run out of material for jokes about playing with your Johnson.