Johnson JG-610-N

Made in China. All laminate. Dreadnought style with natural top and dark sides and top.

My daughter bought this guitar as her first guitar when she was 12. She found out it took practice and patience to learn and gave up learning to play the guitar. It's been sitting around my house for the past five years and I pick it up and play it every day. It has a really sweet sound and is very easy to play. It's not particularly loud, which makes it good for messing around. It's a great guitar that I can pick up and play whenever the mood strikes. It stays in tune also. I have other guitars for performing, but this is the one I pick up almost every day.

Very nice setup. Low action and no fret buzz. The neck is straight and it is very easy to play. The setup is probably good because I bought it from a small local guitar shop. I'm sure the setup from the factory probably wasn't as good as what I have.

This a very reliable instrument. I wouldn't use it for performing or recording, but it's a great "beater" guitar that sits out for anyone to pick up and play whenever the mood strikes. It plays great and has a nice sweet tone.

n/a

I have been playing for 25 years, but only seriously (performing in public) for the past 2 years. I have a 1980's era Sigma DM3 and an Alvarez AD60CK accoustic electric for performing and recording.

See the other reviews for details. The neck is a little too narrow at the neck for me, more so than my tele or my hollow body jazz guitars; a little narrower than my Martin. Not good for finger picking if you have medium to large fingers.

On acoustic, I play bluegrass, finger-picking blues, etc. It sounds good. Nice and bright but with balanced sound. Way better than I expected. Once I set it up right, the intonation was very good. An A chord at the 5th fret was in tune as well as the open D chord...try it on your guitar...

The guitar had a very basic setup. I lowered the bridge, adjusted the truss rod, filed the very sharp fret edges. I lowered the nut grooves to the right height. The wood and finish is kind of a laugh, but not important to me. The spruce laminate top (?) has very uneven grain. The finish is shiny. The sides and back look stained almost black, no obvious wood look to them. The binding on the neck has chips, but I bought it slightly used so can't really say what that is from. Once I set it up, it played very well. Once again, the drawback for me is the narrow neck at the nut.

Live playing? I don't understand this question. As far as I know, music is either live or recorded, so I don't think you can play a guitar not live. I can't comment on the durability, as I've only had this for about 8 months.

I have been playing guitar for 43 years in professional bluegrass, country, blues, and jazz bands. NOTE: Always look at this rating first! Comments from players who do not list their years of experience or have little experience really cannot be taken seriously. I bought this guitar on eBay because I was looking for the cheapest acoustic I could find, at the time only having 5 electrics and a bass. It cost $50.00 total to my door. Now here's the problem...total rating...for the price/sound/playability quotient, it gets a 10. However, if the best guitar money can be gets a 10, then? However, considering the way ratings go here related to price, I will give it a 9.

No date mentioned, but it was made in China. 20 frets on a black fingerboard/pearl inlays. Simple but elegant looks. I guess you'd say it's a laminate top, it's shiny as all get out... looks very nice all over except for the couple of pre-owner abuses. Top has a nice subdued grain in it. Back and sides have a really dark reddish-brown and beautiful color. Grain there is almost like a stormy cloud cover, but dark reddish brown. The pickguard is plain black. Standard dreadnaught size and shape as far as I can tell. Standard peg bridge. Pegs have nice black dot on white peg body for effect. Bridge is black. Tuners are nice chrome color. They have a good low turn ratio- not too sensitive. The neck is not too fat, almost like my electric in a way. It's also a narrow neck compared with other acoustics I've played. More like an electric with the string spacing. I got this as a Christmas gift from my girlfriend in 2003 (thanks baby!). She got it from a pawn shop and the couple of marred places are not that bad and not in a conspicuous area, especially when playing. The guitar is surprisingly light. Especially considering the broad loud sound it gives. I've played many other heavy acoustics that didn't sound nearly as good as this one. They might have better action and playability, but not usually better sound. I would also say that a top strap lock on the body would have been nice, but it's not such a big deal to put the strap adapter behind the nut.

What can I say but this guitar sounds fantastic. I've read what seems like some folks get a model now and then that isn't so great. But this guitar really sounds awesome. A nice full sound. Bright, not muffled. But with good bass response too on the lower strings. Good projected tone. Sounds good whether pounding out loud rhythms or some slow jams. I play this guitar mostly in church. For that I use a Lawrence soundhole pickup (pefect). The sound often makes me wanna take a step back when I play live. It's just an all around great sound. Luckily it also sounds good strolling out in the fields and turnrows by the woods and creek.

As far as I can tell the only thing wrong with how this guitar is made is the action is way too high. Guitar tech had to adjust the truss rod to make it fun to play, but even that isn't really enough. I need to have the nut and saddle filed down I think. As far as rattle- none. The guitar is rock solid. When you sit it down and get close you can see and feel that the frets are pretty jagged on many edges. If you were TRYING TO, you could cut yourself, but it doesn't even cause a problem when playing. You'd never know.

I've been playing this guitar for over a year. It's spent many a hot summer day in my trunk in the case while I wait for work to get through so I can jam with my buddies (something I was very worried about at first). Case vinyl came apart where it's glued on, but guitar hasn't been phased. It is extremely dependable so long as you let it adjust to a new room temperature before you check tuning. Once there, it stays though. Performs great live. Strap button is solid. No slip-ups or slip-offs. The finish seems permanent to me. No wear in that area. All the hardwear seems good quality. Tuners have a smooth response. I have no complaints in that department. Seeing that it is my only performing acoustic, I have no backup. But with this guitar, I don't really need one.

No clue. I got it as a gift from the pawn shop.

I've been playing for about 10 years. I've heard lots of guitars and I'm a control FREAK when it comes to tone. I know good sound when I hear it. And for whatever reason of coincidences God let happen, my guitar is great. I'd buy another one for sure if sounds as good. I want to actually play one of their electrics to see if is has the surprising sound as well. I love the sound and the simple but elegant looks but don't like the high action.

pretty basic, there are two knot-holes (imperfections) in the wood grain finish on the top, biggest problem is in that the tuning machines rattle when played, tried to tighten but the screws are stripped out on the g string tuner (temporarily fixed by securing with capo).

OEM strings sounded horrible, replaced with a set of Elixers and sounds a lot better now. Buzzes from the loose tuning machine, my frined commented that it sounded comparible to my high end Fender acoustic

pretty high action, I will have my luthier reset the bridge

as good as it gets at the $75 price range

none

Great starter guitar, cheap and decent sounding so its good for taking to the beach so you don't have to worry about tearing it up

Cheap , laminate , Chinese dreadnaught in a natural finish. Nice enough to look at , smells strongly of glue.

Bassy and a little boomy with a distinct top. No harmonics to speak of . Not a bad sound for a starter guitar. Muddy when fingerpicked.Better than I thought it would be though.

I was pleased with the action . I wish cheap guitars had been this good when I started . Some flaws in the finish but acceptable for this price. Nut does bind but it will tune up. Cheap frets and tuners but good enough.

I bought this guitar for a friend who is just beginning and had an $80.00 budget. I think the guitar may last a year or two with steady home use which is all I would ask of it.

N/A

I have been playing on and off for 30 + years and have owned my share of guitars , cheap and not so cheap. I bought this for a friend to learn on and feel it is a good first acoustic. It is playable with acceptable looks and sound. For this I would recommend it.

For 75$ I bought it around summer 2000 with the cool bag and the shoulder strap. I liked the strings from the start; it has high quality martin strings. I found a review that said that this model is not worth buying because it is all glued together poorly but I went ahead anyway and bought it. All went well for about a year until I lowered the action because it was outrageously high (almost a centimenter off the fretboard where the base meets the neck). I noticed this when I found out how easy my friends guitar was to play. I noticed the entire neck was breaking off the base. It turns out that the guitar is like the blue ribbon ghost story where the husband takes off the blue ribbon around her neck and her head falls off :). I don't know if the action was too high for too long or if I just got bad quality wood, but it was a good first guitar for me to start off until I want to purchase a more expensive guitar 2003. Nevertheless, it would have been alot easier to have less action when was starting up. The actual metal fret bars are too high too. P.S. watch for poor deals on this, today I saw this guitar selling for from 70$-150$ so don't get ripped off.

after I purchased the guitar from

I've been playing since I've had my guitar in 2000 so I'm no expert but the neck breaking off I'll have to give it a low score.

Laminated Top and Back. Hardwood Neck (Nato I think).
'Hand Crafted In China'. 'Natural' finish. Dreadnaught body style. All standard features of a Dreadnaught - which makes it pretty cool for a 1st guitar. I give it a 6 in the features category for this. Came with Allen Key! Oh, don't forget the Martin Strings.

Haven't heard a lot of guitars so I can't be very objective in this category. It sounds pretty good I guess - I read one reviewer who said the sound out of the box made him cringe, I thought it sounded okay. Sounds a lot like my buddy's $250 Yamaha

Well, the guitar was out of tune when it arrived...just kidding. The action was pretty high but not unplayable. Finish was pretty decent. Tuning machins aren't the greatest.

They guitar might withstand live playing - but I wouldn't so I don't know. Hardware seems pretty long lasting. Haven't had any problems with the finish.

Hah?

I've been playing for a 3 months now and this was my first guitar. If it were stolen - well, I have a policy of not replacing my stuff with exact replica's - but this guitar is the only one I could find that works for $80. I chose this guitar solely for the price - but it has performed well. I wish it had a second strap button. If you want to learn how to play and don't know if you'll stick with it - get this guitar. If you have more than $200 in the bank, get something else.

It has 20 frets and it's a laminated top. It looks nice for the price

It fits my music style in which I play soft rock. DMB, RHCP, Creed, anything by them can be expected to come out of my soundhole haha. Its sound isn't as bad as you think it would be for the price. It's a great beginner guitar.

Action is extremely high. I thought about lowering the saddle but never went to a music store. The finish is nice like i said for the price.

Great durability. I play in college and im always slamming it in to my dorm walls for some reason. I am playing and i turn around and smack! It's holding up well though.

???

20 frets,solid top, no controls, plywood i think.. dont know much
about it. dreadnough

I am mostly interested in heavy music, I use this acoustic for
the rare acoustic intros etc in those songs (eg metallica, iron maiden,pink floyd) Its pretty good for me.

no flaws that I could find.. This is my first acoustic so I
dont think I know them too well yet. But I am happy with it for now..
Might keep it for a long time.

probably not for gigs..

did not need one.

I have no clue when it was made, it has 20 frets, solid-top. it has no controls nor pickups.I have no clue what kind of wood its made from.Its a dreadnnought.It has a peg bridge.steel tuners normal neck. thats it

Does not suit my style in any way, I thrash the strings with all my might i get hardly any sound.

I think my guitar is a defect

it is very durable

Made in China, 1999(?). The neck has a rounded fingerboard with 20 thin frets. The body and neck are mahogony with a Chinese spruce solid-top with natural finish. It's a dreadnaught body with what looks like straight-bracing (I'm not too familiar with acoustic guitar building, so that's what I'm guessing it is). It has a fixed bridge with compensating saddle. The tuners are Kluson-style gears. It has your generic single-ply teardrop pickguard.

I'm told the strings are Martin, and it has a nice tone. It covers the range of round lows up to bright highs. I was very impressed with the range it could get, and even more so, the volume. This thing is LOUD when you hammer on it. I bought it for practice and learning, and I didn't expect much. But it has a nice sound - I might even be willing to play it in public!

Here's the downside. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the neck and the frets. There's a huge scar starting after the second fret along the edge of the neck going all the way up the fingerboard. A few of the frets on that side have dried glue showing. The opposite edge seems OK, but the frets have sharp edges. Playing it doesn't cut your hand, but if you grabbed the neck hard and pulled your hand down it, you'd come up with a bloody palm. There was a loose dollop of glue on the end of the headstock, but I've managed to scrape that (mostly) off without compromising the finish. The dots on the fingerboard "bleed" color. Then there's the nut, which hardly seems to be cut. And since the strings were loosey-goosey when I unboxed it, the truss rod isn't set right which has the action raised very high (but not unplayably so). I need to adjust that still. OTHER than all that, it looks beautiful sitting in the corner. The natural finish on the top really shows off the grain and the black finish on the rest is flawless.

I think that if you feel a dreadnaught will survive live, then this one will, too. The strap button at the base is metal. It actually was a bit loose, causing it to twist, but a quick adjustment with a Phillips-head screwdriver took care of that. It feels as solid as any acoustic I've picked up. And for what I paid, it wouldn't be too bad a loss if it got trashed, and I could easily pick up another without breaking the bank!

I don't think I even know where to find those guys. It has a three-year warranty, though. I guess I need to find the paperwork it came with!

As a raw novice, I bought this thing to pound on and not feel too bad when it wore out. Hopefully by the time that happens, I'll be ready to use a better quality instrument and will buy accordingly. But if you need something to leave lying around to practice or compose on, you can't go wrong with a Johnson. If you need a spare acoustic to knock around on, why pay more? Just don't expect a Martin D-28 for $79!

Acoustic six string dreadnaught with Nato laminate back and sides and probably a Nato neck; the fretboard is rosewood. The N at the end of the model number indicates a natural Spruce laminate soundboard. These also come in Black and Blueburst (which generally go for a little more money). It has enclosed tuners, and a teardrop shape pickguard. Mine came with Gibson strings, which sounded nice.

The guitar has a very bright sound, especially for a Dreadnaught. This could be, in part, due to the Gibson strings which I am told are bright to begin with. I also am wondering about the soundboard, because it does not look like any Spruce soundboard I've seen; it looks like Ash (Very light with a wide grain). This guitar is almost exactly like my Fender DG-9 (Nato w/Spruce top). When I compared them side to side, I thought the Johnson sounded better. I must say the strings on my Fender were ~2 months old and the Johnson had new Gibsons.

The guitar was setup quite well, with action as low as I've seen on an acoustic. It is very easy to play. Even after I paid $40 to have a luthier replace a broken nut and lower the action on my $190 Fender, it still was not as playable as this Johnson.

Seems as durable as any other acoustic guitar. The covered tuners seem sturdy. I don't know what else could go wrong.

It came with a two year manufacturer's warranty. Thats about all I know.

I bought this guitar for a friend. I felt confident buying the Johnson because I already owned a Johnson Telecaster Copy (JT-100), which I was very impressed with (read my review). I can tell you I was not disappointed. Johnson has long been a maker of dobros and resinator guitars, and they seem to be expanding into the foreign made guitar arena. They are doing it right. I am now anxious to checkout their Strat knockoff (JS-100). They also have an electric/acoustic bass that looks interesting.

6-string dreadnaught with fully adjustable neck.
This is a very nice-sounding guitar, good for playing many different kinds of music at the beginner level. My only complaint would be that the strings are quite close together, which makes fingerpicking somewhat tricky. (It might make chord fingerings hard, too, but I'm a mandolin player with small fingers, so I'm used to that.)

I play with three other guys--an Ovation and two Martins. When we play acoustics, we do not use amps. We play everything from folk (acoustic Dylan, Fairport Convention, etc.) to rock (Oasis, U2, Stones) on acoustics. The Johnson does not sound -quite- as good as the Martins, but then again I probably paid less than a third the price of those instruments, too.
Anyone with experience who has heard my guitar is amazed at the fullness of the sound coming out of it. It does not sound like a guitar someone paid $60 for on Ebay. The bass notes are particularly full.

In addition to the minor complaint I have about the nearness of the strings to one another, I would add that one or two of the tuning pegs were slightly loose.

I have no idea how long this guitar will last--I bought it thinking that I'd use it to practice, moving to better models by the time this one wore out. (But I've come to love the sound so much that I'm hoping to hang onto it for quite a while...)

Came with a 2-year warranty. Never needed to use it.

I'm a mandolin player who needed a cheap guitar I could play when I'm alone. But I've started playing guitar more in our informal weekly jam sessions simply because I love to play this guitar.
Its sound definitely holds its own with models costing three times as much. If I lost this guitar, I'd replace it in a heartbeat, and I have recommended it to anyone who was interested in getting started. (A friend of mine is an audiophile and a fairly accomplished electric guitarist in a local band--he has never heard an acoustic he likes better, and he's getting one for himself.)
Bottom line: this model gives you great sound for not alot of money.