Johnson JD-17 Carolina Series I

Solid Engelmann Spruce Top
laminated East Indian Rosewood Back & Sides
Grained Ivoroid Binding
Rosewood Fretboard

it has an pretty good sound. i think it is the best sound for the price. i do not know why people are giving it tens though, it does not have the best sound in the world. you can get a way better sound on guitars 100 or 200 dollars more.

it is loud. thats good.

englemann spruce is slighlty warmer and less bright then spruce. it is no where nere as bright as cedar, more close to sticka spruce just a little more warm

this is pretty much the main reason why i bought this guitar.
before i purchased this i was playing a horrible takemine wich had a very uncomfortable neck and extremely high action.

this guitar is very easy to play. the neck and action are close to perfect. the tuning pegs are a bit hard to turn but it stays in tune fine

it seems prety durable. the strap button is sold and it seems to be dependible.

i would gig with it at small gigs

havnt used it

i have been playing for a while. this was my second acoustic guitar.
it is a good begginner to intermediate guitar.
also a good one to take out if you do not want to damage a much nicer one.

if it was lost or stolen i probobly wouldnt buy it again. it is very nice do not get me wrong but i would spend a little extra and get maybe a seagull

Previous people have this covered pretty well. The only thing worth noting is that mine is a the east Indian rosewood back and sides variety.

Good loud boomy sound. If you jam with other acoustice players and want to be heard, this would be ideal.

I don't have too much to add to the other reviews on this product except to say that I bought this guitar broken. The bridge saddle had pulled off the soundboard in the shop I got it (for a major discount.) After taking the bridge the rest of the way off, I determined that Johnson did a poor job gluing it on. (It had bonded to the body in only two spots.) It could also have pulled because of the alternative "pre war" bracing style Johnson designed this axe with. After gluing the bridge back on there is a definate bowl or hump behind the bridge, probably because of the alternative bracing. My only other complaint is the cheep tuners it came with. On a more positive note, I hope the bridge stays on for many years. Fixed, this thing sounds and plays great.

I gotta give it a 1 here. Sorry Johnson, but bridges shouldn't pull off of brand new guitars.

Bridge aside; the finish is real nice, the bone bridge and nut sound amazing, and it's a real comfertable player. The endpin it came with I ended up replacing with a screw-in variety. (I've seen too many unsuspecting people accidentally drop their guitar due to the endpin pulling out.) It didn't come with a second button, so I installed my own in the heel.

I confess. I'm not like 95% of the reviewers here because i've played for less than 45 years and have never played professionally. Sarcasm aside, I've played for 8 years, headed two bands, played with various worship groups, and find myself drawn more to the electric side of guitardom. With this one, I now own four guitars, two electrics (one of which I put together myself,) and two acoustics. This axe is my second adventure in the construction/repair of a guitar, and considering the price, was well worth it even if it doesn't last too long. If it were in perfect condition, I'd give it a ten. Since it was broken before anyone ever played it, I'll give it a five.

My JD 17 was built in 2006. You can read the specs here at the board.
For that price I paid I got a lot of a good guitar.

Very loud, full and balanced tone. You can exactly hear what you play, even the players errors... The tone is brilliant and after a short time you will love that full rich sound and will never miss it again.

In comparison to my Martin DX1 the JD17 is more balanced. The tone is not that crispy in the treble that my Ovation has, but the Ovation has less bass and less balance. I cant describe the sound very good, so you have to play it yourself - its a very good brilliant sound! Best for fingerpicking!

Rhythm players will like the good made neck, you can play in the higher part of the neck without needing a lot of pressure on the strings, so its more easy to play the guitar, especially for beginners who have not the strength in the left hand as we old players do ;-)

Uff, what can I say? I tested 4 different JD 17 before I bought this one. The problem of 2 other JD17 was a bowl at the bridge. This bowl is not at my guitar and I hope that my guitar lasts a long life without getting that bowl..

Interesting was that all the JD17s I tested are having a slightly different sound. So you should test the instruments! Normally I would give a rating of 9 but because of the bowl at some other JD 17 I will give a 6.

I do not know if my JD17 will stand a whole life (see above) but the sound is so good, that I would buy me another one if this guitar would be stolen or were broken. This guitar sounds better than my brandname guitars (what a shame for them...)

No comment possible

I play guitar for more than 30 years now, actual in 2 Bands. Have a lot of guitars and other equipment. I am a semi pro.

This is a 2005 21 fret non cutaway dreadnaught flattop with a solid Engelmann Spuce top. It has laminated african mahogany back and sides with a mahogany neck in a soft C shape. The finish is a poly gloss all over. It has a multi-ply bound body with scalloped braces. The rosette appears to be a decal. It has abalone inlaid in the headstock and the snowflake position markers. The guitar comes with a bone nut and saddle (!) and plastic bridge pins. There is a white cap at the base of the French heel. The scale seems to be 25 1/4".The unbound fretboard is Rosewood with a glossy finish.The frets are the classic T shape like on a old Martin. the pickguard is a very nice beveled Tortoise-style. The bridge appears to be rosewood. It has classic styled chrome butterbean tuners.It came with a locking hardshell caseand an extra set of Martin SP 80/20 strings.
The guitar was designed by Greg Rich who also designed the Blueridge line and built by contented Chinese.
I give the guitar a 10 in this category because it is really a lot of nice features for very little money.

The sound is very full and great for fingerpicking or rhythm playing. It is not a quiet guitar. Of course it matters how you attack the strings and what pick you use. I use a Fender Heavy for a more intimate sound and a Dunlop nylon 1MM for more aggressive picking. Most will be happy with it box stock but I couldn't leave it alone. I tried Tusq bridge pins and I settled so far on some brass pins that I found on eBay.iThe brass pins definitely gave the guitar more clarity throughout and increased the sustain. Rhythm players will not want more sustain.

The action was quite high and so I sanded the saddle down to a manageble level. I think that about any guitar is going to be setup similar from the factory.
The overall finish is good but there was a pit in the clear right above the third fret side marker that was irritating. I touched it with a black permanent marker and dabbed some clear Deft lacquer on the pit to fill it in.
The frets seem to be done very well and the inlays are generally excellent. A couple of the snowflake inlays on the first and third frets have some bleeding of the brown stain from the fretboard on the edges.

I have already played it live at church and it did well. While there were no beers thrown at it, I think that it would survive such an onslaught as well as any other guitar. The finish is not wimpy.
The tuner on the G string was a bit crunchy so I replaced all of the tuners with Klusons in the Gibson Deluxe style. this involved sanding out the hole to enlarge it for Gibson bushings.

Greg Rich posts on the Blueridge forum. He designed the guitar so you can't really go any farther up the ladder than that!
The warranty is five years.I doubt that I would pursue warranty work.

I have been a non-professional musician for about 13yrs. The guitar is frankly more than I expected.There were a lot of great things about this guitar from what I've read so I took a gamble and ordered this one and I am really happy with it. Blueridge excepted for the money it is the best deal out there. If it were stolen luckily it could be easily replaced and I would either get another or move up to the JD26-27.
I tried Blueridge,Gibson,Martin,Epiphone guitars. Epiphone does not have the sound that the Carolina does by a long shot. Martin does but they cost a lot more for something comparable and Gibson is worse.(I'm still a Gibson man though).
Blueridge sound and pricing is similar but I like the plainer look of the Carolina and the larger headstock.
I am confident that you will not find a better guitar w/case at even twice the price.Maybe equal but not better.

I'm adding this addendum to my review because the JD-17 I have has developed a troublesome bulge behind the bridge. The bridge has also rotated slightly toward the soundhole. This has not affected playability or intonation YET; however, it's probably just a matter of time. A number of first-run JD-16 and JD-17 models were braced out of spec, and this is the result. Apparently, the problem has been corrected, but we shall see...

Johnson has agreed to replace the guitar, but they are not paying for shipping. Also, they have not agreed to recall all the models in question despite the fact that they have a serious design flaw in them. While I appreciate thet Johnson is replacing the guitar, they are no being forthright about the problem with their customers.

The guitar still sounds and plays incredibly well. I have no qualms with it in those regards. Still, any customer should make sure the guitar they are thinking of buying does not have a noticable bulge behind the bridge or that the bridge has rotated at all. This is a sign of future serious problems. I'd advise anyone thinking of buying one of these guitars to moke sure you inspect it for flaws beforehand.

The Johnson JD-17 Carolina (Series I) is a solid-top engelmann spruce, laminated East Indian rosewood back/sides Dreadnaught. Other features include as follows:

? Fully Scalloped Forward-X Bracing
? Classic Butterbean Tuners
? Hand-cut Abalone/M.O.P. Detailing
? Dovetail Neck Joint
? Grained Ivoroid Binding
? Mahogany Neck
? Rosewood Fretboard
? Vintage-Style Beveled Pickguard
? Bone Nut & Compensated Bone Saddle
? Snowflake Position Markers
? 5-Year Warranty

There is also an African Mahogony B/S model (JD-16). There are no electronics on this guitar.

The Carolina series is a brand new line of guitars designed by Greg Rich, the man who designed the entire line of Blueridge guitars for Saga instruments. Greg left Saga for reasons unspecified, but probably due to Saga's intransigence regarding making a few changes to their guitars that customers had identified as shortcomings to a line of otherwise well-regarded instruments.

This guitar looks like a guitar that costs five times what I paid for it. It's visually striking.

This guitar is loud! It has a very Martin-like rosewood dreadnaught tone: lush, full, and balanced. It can handle all playing styles. I play mostly fingestyle and strumming, but this guitar can take a beating as well. The harder you play it, the louder it gets. The top is extremely responsive and has lots of sustain to it. It's the second-best guitar I've ever played (the first being a $2200 Martin HD-28 that was in a league all by itself).

The action on this guitar is absolutely perfect for me: nice and low. The neck is straight as an arrow and there is absolutely no fret buzz at all. All the seams are perfectly matched. The inside of the guitar shows no signs of glue at all. The guitar is gloss-finished. There is one very small defect in the finish where the neck meets the fretboard at the third fret, but you can only see it if you're looking very hard for something wrong. All the bindings on the guitar look incredible

This guitar is perfectly constructed. I'm confident it will last me a lifetime of heavy playing.

The guitar is brand new, so I haven't had to deal with any repairs. The warranty is five years, so I suspect it will hold up for a long time.

I've played my whole life off an on (35 years). I previously owned a Seagull S6 cedar that I loved. This Johnson is in another stratosphere from that fine instrument. My dad owns an Ovation that I use to play live. That guitar cannot keep up with this one in any way, shape, or form.

Greg Rich reads and posts at the Blueridge Guitar Forum. I knew everything I needed to know prior to purchasing.

If this guitar were stolen or lost, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. In fact, I may buy the mahogony model next year as well. It's that good.

I love the sound it makes when I strum it. I love the way the rosewood smells when I pull it out of the case. I love the way the neck feels in my hand. There's nothing, NOTHING, I would change about it. It compares favorably to every Martin dread I've ever played with the exception of the HD-28 listed above.

I thought about buying a Blueridge BR-160 or BG-160, but there were issues that always kept me from taking the plunge: the same issues that drove Greg to design the Carolina line

I could buy five of these for one Martin HD-28, and all of them would probably match the HD-28. I am completely satisfied. If you are looking for a rosewood dread, but are strapped for cash (even if you're rich!) buy this guitar immediately!