Johnson JS -500 Upgrade Update

In a post back in 2010 I wrote about my worries that something might break on this one and that's exactly the reason why I had to do some upgrades to make it playable again.



A picture that shows the original condition:

Over time the tuners startet to slip and get wobbly, so I had to change them.

Then the bridge started to ratlle and the bushings came loose, so I exchanged it with a Schaller STM bridge and tialpiece.

While I was at it, I replaced the stock pickups with a set of "Berserker" humbuckers by Viking Pickups.

Actually advertised as Thrash Metal pickups, these two sport Alnico V magnets with alleged 8,6k and 16,6k DC resistance. Doesn't really matter much, all this means is that they're pretty hot but I don't turn them up all the way and they sound quite decent.


Recent models of this guitar are sold as Johnson JS - 500 "Grooveyard" and are now made in China, with a maple top and back over the centerblock and a maple neck.
But Johnson Guitars is a rather elusive brand and solid information is hard to come by, so I'm not sure about the actual specs of my guitar.
That said, the instrument itself plays nicely and holds up well over the years and now the hardware is up to snuff too.

It has the "appropriate" scale length of 628 mm (24,75") and I put 10 - 46 strings on.
Tuning is E - standard.

Fenix Les Paul - Alchemy - The long true story of turning sh*t into gold

Let me elaborate for a moment because this one took me so long and life is made out of stories you tell, isn't it?

When I was seventeen, I was shovelling shit, muddy water and other waste at the local sewage plant.
It was one of the hottest summers even before climate change turned our planet into a crazy pressure cooker and the only thing that kept me going was the idea of buying my first electric guitar with the earnings of my labour.

All summer long I would work in the heat, reciting ICP's "The Great Milenko" in my head - it was like a mantra that kept me going.

When all was said and done I could perform the stupid verses of  said album like a Shakespearean actor and I could finally afford my first Les Paul copy.

No, it wasn't the Fenix one - just hear me out, there's more....
In the same year on a family vacation in hungary I walked into a local guitar store.
All the way up behind the counter there was the most expensive guitar they had on offer, hanging on the wall - a slime green Epiphone Les Paul.
I bought it with my hard earned money after just holding it in my little hands for about 15 seconds - I could not try it out because I didn't even knew any chords to play back then.
I will remember the face of the shop keeper forever though....

So where is the connection to the Fenix Les Paul?
Well, even back then I was thinking about a pickup replacement and I wanted a Pearly Gates humbucker but it was just too pricey for a poor boy like me.

I picked up the Fenix Les Paul quite cheap because a girlfriend was selling the guitar of a former ex.
We met close to a local graveyard (how fitting) and although nothing worked on the instrument, I went along with the deal.
Just like life goes, I got an opportunity to finally get a Pearly Gates humbucker for reasonable money.

So there we go - Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates at the neck and a Rio Grande BBQ pickup at the bridge to live and breathe the ZZ Top sound.

Blonde Pedal Board

Strangely one of the most difficult boards to build for me...

Now I am quite aware of my colour compulsion but let's take a look anyway...

Visual Sound "Route 66"  Compressor and Overdrive (V2).

Korg tuner off to the left corner.

There is a nice home made fuzz as well, a version of the Sodameiser Fuzz with Boost and Chaos switch - my basic needs are covered: Compressor, Overdrive and Fuzz...

The Vox Delay Lab is great, adding more options my tiny mind can't comprehend.

Green Pedal Board

I was working on this board for quite a while, I think I'm happy with it now.

In order to keep it light and compact, I just chose the basics I use the most:
A compressor, two tube screamer - like pedals, a fuzz, a wah and a delay - oh yeah and a tuner of course.

First in the chain there is the compressor pedal. It is on almost all the time but I turn it off when using the fuzz.

Next is the Big Muff Fuzz - using the bass version works great with guitar for me.
It also has two separate outputs which I use to split the signal for the overdrives and the wah pedal.

One line of the split signal out of the Muff Fuzz goes to the Morley Kiko Loureiro Wah - yes it's wah after fuzz for me in this case.
The pedal has a built in distortion option and also functions as a volume pedal by which I am able to silence one amp completely if so desired.

From the wah the signal goes out to amp 1.

By way of the direct output of the Big Muff the second line of the signal goes straight into the Nobels Overdrive - my first mild gain stage.

The Bad Monkey is used as second gain stage, both overdrives work on their own or stacked and can also be combined with the compressor pedal.

The Bad Monkey also has a second output which I use to connect the Korg Pitchblack tuner.

After the overdrives there's TC Electronic "The Prophet" delay just to enhance the sound slightly.
From here the signal goes out to amp 2.



So to recap:
I use two quite basic and yet very different sounding signal paths for my two amps -
one gets just (the compressor), fuzz and wah.
The other one gets the classic combination of compressor, overdrive(s) and delay.

Red Pedal Board

Another one finished - horses for courses of course...

Nothing super exotic here - wah, fuzz, overdrive + distortion, delay and a tuner.


Here's one of the best Morley pedals with beautiful otions:

And one of the best fuzz boxes from one of the most creative companies out there:

Overdrive and distortion in one neat box:

And finally a double delay that never got much appreciation:

A Korg tuner for sure...

Electro Harmonix Cock Fight Fuzz

I plan to use this one as a Wah - variant with an expression pedal.
While trying it out for the first time I actually found a great fuzz setting sans wah, so to remember before further tweaking, I post a pic.

The mini switches are set to "pre" and "cry".

Bakers Double Neck - Bass and Guitar for Practice

I bought this way back when, just as a freakish novelty, without thinking much...
But it held up over the years so I was compelled to come up with a useful application for it.

It's a four string bass and a six string guitar combined so I thought it would be fun for solo practice -
accompanying myself with a fitting bass line while strumming and noodeling.

Nothing high - end on this one, so I decided EMG HZ - pickups would be "sufficient".

Now the instrument has a single mono output with a blend knob between bass and guitar.
First I thought about converting it to stereo, maybe two separate output jacks?
In the end I decided to split the signal after it leaves the instrument.

Again I (ab)use a simple passive looper as an A/B switch.
I have to say I was extremely lucky to get away with this solution without humming or buzzing issues, otherwise I would have to use a proper A/B pedal instead.

The coily cable from the Instrument goes into the looper pedal.
One loop directs the signal to the upper Digitech Jam Man which allows me to record a bass line and play it back trough my bass amp.
Then I can switch over to the other Jam Man and record guitar parts, feeding just the guitar signal to my guitar amp.
(The little tuner is connected to the second loop of the pedal btw).

What else to say - it works for me and it's way more fun than to just play to generic backing tracks.

Johnson Guitar - Cosmetical Update

I liked this one very much - it was very flashy with all those bindings but not quite
coherent.

Had to do something about those black plastic parts.

It's close and almost there but I had to do something about the pickup rings.

That's better.

Knobs with abalone inlay just like the binding.

Guitar and Gear update

I think I will have to do individual posts for all the stuff to remember settings and combinations but at the moment I'm just happy about finishing another pedal board and of course the final conclusion of the neverending "Pelham Blue SG project".

Samick Valley Arts

The Korean giant Samick aquired Valley Arts guitars back in the 90's and this is one of the many variations of instruments that were built under that label.

Sadly it's quite difficult to find out the specs of those Samicks but I'll keep searching.

Scale length of 628mm oddly enough, considering the shape of the instrument.

I am quite impressed with the built quality of the guitar so putting in two DiMarzio pickups was the only upgrade I would decide upon.

I chose the DP172 "Twang King" for the neck and the DP184 "The Chopper" for the bridge position.

Richie Kotzen is a huge inspiration to me, so I tried to do a kind of tribute by choosing his pickup combination.

Of course there's no way to get his great tone by simply putting some pickups into a random guitar but I this wasn't my goal to begin with - I just wanted to be reminded of his great music whenever I grab the guitar and fool around with it.