Johnson Necks

[monradon]

A friend that knew about my project brought over a couple of necks to look at he is using on a couple of his projects and I was impressed at the workmenship. The shape of the headstock is different from Fender. They are made by Johnson and five times the quality of some of the Squier necks I have seen if they play as nice as they look they should sound good anyone know anything about them

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

monradon said:

anyone know anything about them

If they say something like "Johnson by AXL" on the headstock, it's definitely these guys: www.johnsongtr.com.
I've got one of their JS-050-¾ "downsized Strats" (hence my username), and I love it. My first solidbody/cutaway axe, with pickups (EMGs, I believe) that measure hotter than Lindy Fralin Blues Specials. My younger stepson has it over at his apartment right now. I really should get him some slab he can wail on, so I can get mine back. (Lending it to him was his mother's idea, part of the "What are you going to do with all those guitars anyway" campaign. )

Somebody must've "parted out" a couple of the guitars to get those necks, because the company is like about impossible to contact for parts or anything. (In my experience, anyway.) Fortunately, I think any part made for an import Strat will work on 'em.

[RandomHero]

That's bizarre. Every Johnson guitar I have ever seen has been an erudite joke. They're reviled where I work, and for good reason; I've played five and they all were terribly twisted, bowed back irreperably, or just prey to some terribly shoddy fretwork.

[badams]

I've built three guitars using Johnson necks ( maple with a maple cap ) and I've found them to be well made. Straight as can be with good fret work. I've been able to get a nice low action without buzzing . Thats good enough for me.

[sumgai]

Guys,

I suspect there's gonna be a trademark war in the near future.

It would appear that there are at least two, if not three, companies claiming to sell goods under the Johnson marque. My particular base of operations (a music store in Redmond, WA) sells Johnson stuff, and our rep also sells Digitech, Line6, and other "well known" stuff to us. I can say that this particular flavor of Johnson is headquartered in Sandy, Utah. They farm out the manufacturing to various overseas operations, and they aim strictly at the very low-end market, what we euphemistically call 'students'. They sell with fair success to said students, and so far, none of those sold have come back with problems. (In the 4+ years or so that I've been keeping track.)

However, if you go to the site www.johnsongtr.com, you'll get treated to an amazing array of goodies. Absolutely none of these items - guitars, basses, amps, etc. - nuttin' here looks like what we're selling under the Johnson name. (Uh oh, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore! ) Some of this looks fairly high class, so I might surmise that they may sell separate guitar parts, but the website doesn't bear that out.

Speaking of websites, I can't find anything that purports to sell individual necks by anyone named Johnson. Newguy badams, can you give us more info on where you get those, please?


sumgai

[quarry]

I saw a really nice Cigar Box Guitar on eBay that featured a "Johnson" neck...
I asked the seller about it and he directed me to the web site mentioned above.
He didn't mention if where/how he got the neck (maybe he had an old Johnson guitar and just scavenged the neck), but I could ask him...
He mentioned the neck was very playable, and had fairly quality sealed tuning machines...

[sumgai]

quarry,

Thanks for the update. If you can gather up any more information from that eBay seller, it would be nice to know. Keep us posted on that, please.


sumgai

[quarry]

I spoke to my friend, who said he purchased the Johnson neck, alone, from an eBay seller...

He bought the tuners separately, from the same seller, and they were Johnson's also.

He said both were of decent quality, and he'd buy them again for a project...

Just for your info...

[sumgai]

quarry,

Thanks for helping out here.

Right now on eBay, there are a couple of Johnson necks for sale. They look like what's on Johnson's website, but wait.... what's this?

They also look like what we sell in the store! Looks like I better re-think my earlier statements, and remember to ask the rep the next time he comes around why we aren't carrying more of the Johnson line. Some of that stuff on their site looks pretty interesting.

Thanks for the tip, but now that I know what's up, I'm gonna ask the rep if he's got any guitars in the back of the warehouse that came in with damaged bodies, but the neck survived. ;D Might find a deal that way, and Lowerd knows, I can always use a deal.


sumgai