Product: Johnson JD-10-CCE
Price Paid: 280 (Euro)
Submitted
09/27/2003
at
04:31pm
by
Norbert Block
Email: webmaster<at>paleochora-kreta dot de
Features
:
7
Made in China. Drednaught with Cut. 20 Frets. Laminated Mahogany all over. B-Band transducer. Mahogany neck. Glossy finish. No-name tuners. Surprisingly fat neck. No binding at all.
Sound
:
8
The last time I appeared on this site I was talking about the JD-30CEE. Compared to the JD-10CEE it is nice, but forget about it. The sound of the JD-10CCE is balanced but maybe a bit bright. But if you use to play a Mahogany Gibson J 100 its nice to change to the Johnson to get wild. It sounds crispy and is really loud (If you dump the "Martin" strings on it and put on some 012 Elixir). No chance for me to sing while playing this instrument, but it's really fun to beat it. I normally play this old folky Hippie stuff (www.hagelberger.com) but love to change to Latin or what ever else. Most of the time I improvise as a kind of meditation....And this thing is vibrating through and through....
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
7
The set-up was terrible again. Had to work on the bridge because the slot wasn't flat enough to let the B-Band deliver all frequencies. Filing the saddle is normal if you buy a Johnson. The nut was ok, but in a slot going from high to low, so I had to file it too to get the lower strings down, because there was no way too get it off (Don't know with what glue made in hell they put it on). But after these works it was lying in my hands like a piece of my body. Especially the fat neck is really nice. As I mentioned before, I love to work on Guitars, so the rating is ok for me. Maybe for a customer not so familiar with working on sounding wood it would be a 3.
Reliability/Durability
:
9
Well, I was wondering which guitar is the one I should take to Crete. As former travels to that Island showed, guitars get better there. So I took the better ones of the two Johnsons with me (The JD-10). I was worried about the really small neck-block and the temperatur-shock in the plane, the fast changing humidity and so on. I was astonished. The guitar didn't move a bit, it even stayed in tune, but on a lower level because I went from 20 Degrees Celsius to almost 40. I didn't have to adjust the neck or something like that, like I had to when I travelled with a Stanford. One day it fell from a chair, smashed on the marble floor. Nothing happened, so I think you could use it on any live gig you want.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Don't need it.
Overall Rating
:
8
Play over 35 years now. Would buy it again. Think I will sell the Stanfords and the JD-30CEE and stick to my Gibson and the JD-10CEE, because the necks are similar and I can easily change from a rich sound to a wild one. The only thing I miss on this Guitar is the second strap-button. OK, I can fix it myself but for this I would like a bigger neck-block
