Johnson JH-480N Hollywood

Dispite what i read from form other interviews read in the forum
about the finish on the johnson guitars not being very good i have to disagree ,it looks as good as the es 175 gibson of i have.
The bridge on this guitar is very nice , also very adjustable it is a floating bridge with adjustable harmonics .Im not sure of the wood the guitar is made of but it's very nice and has no flaws.
The tuners are ok but nothing to write home about

This guitar would be for certain sounds in any style of music that depends on the player.
I would say it's best suited for jazz,rockabilly,classic country, and western swing.
It has a great sound with an amp or unpluged ,it as alot of natral volume.
I do wish the bridge pickup had a little more balls.
I've been playing all styles of music for 25 years and pleased with the sound of this guitar.

Be ready to spend some money on a good setup.
for MY GUITAR IS WAS A MUST!, the neck needed adjustment,the intonation was off,pickup height needed adjusting,frets needed filing (all of them),some frets needed to be reset,and replace the factory strings,i also replaced the plastic nut with a pearl nut i did'nt have to replace the nut i just have pearl nuts put on all my guitars
The pickup switch is'nt very safe feeling.

I'll use this guitar live and already have been ,but i would have not atempted without the major setup work i had done on this guitar.
The finish is great.
As far as the finish or the gold wearing off the hardware that will happen to any guitar if you play enough.
This guitar only comes with one strap button, you will have to put one on the neck

I LOVE THIS GUITAR,BUT I WOULD PROBABLY BUY A LOWER LINE EPIPHONE GUITAR LIKE A WILD CAT OR DOT 335,JUST TO KEEP FROM HAVING TO DEAL WITH SETUP PROBLEMS.
THIS GUITAR PREFORMS AS GOOD AS ANY GUITAR I'VE OWNED ,BUT ONLY AFTER THE MAJOR SETUP I HAD DONE.

A very nice looking jazz box (single cutaway) made in China with a solid maple top and what appears to be mahagony back and sides with nato neck. The back and sides appear to be solid wood, but with only f holes to look through, it's hard to tell if it may be a laminate instead. Two humbuckers with gold soap dish covers, gold Grover look-a-like tuning keys (non-locking). Cannot tell the make of the Humbuckers... pretty generic and by no means SD's. Two volume and two tone knobs made of smoked, semi-transparent plastice. The tailpiece is inexpensive gold colored metal. The floating bridge appears to have a rosewood base with a gold Tune-O-Matic like top that makes it easy to adjust the hight and set the intonation. The fretboard has inexpensive inlays set in what appears to be rosewood. Frets are set very well in the fretboard. The neck is very comfortable and conducive to move up and down the fretboard. The finish is surprisingly excellent for the price of the guitar. I did not detect finish flaws and the bindings are good looking and layed in with excellent workmanship. The guitar came with a "free" cord (defective) and I paid only $23 for a very nice tweed, heavily padded, gig bag with accessory pouches. All in all an outstanding buy for a little over $250.

The sound is a real surprise. It sounds great acoustically as well as plugged in. I use a Fender Princeton Chorus Amp and get great sounds, including mellow jazz tone as well as fairly good rock distortion sounds. The guitar was shipped with a set of Martin Marqui bronze acoustic strings pre-strung on the guitar. I changed them to D'Addario flat wound jazz strings and the guitar sounds like a many of the jazz boxes I've tried at many times the price. I do not like the volume and tone controls. They are not linear... they jump from almost no additional volume or tune to instant full volume and tone about 3/4 rotation.

I had to spend a couple of hours adjusting the setup, including the intonation after I restrung the guitar with the flat wound strings. I lowered the action, and had to lower the saddle humbucker a bit as part of the setup. The action is superb!!!! It's really a joy to play. It stays tuned very well. One annoying feature is the lack of a strap button on top. I was forwarned by another's review of this guitar model. I bought a Gibson gold plated button and installed it in the middle of the flattest part of the neck that abuts the body of the guitar. It's a good position and does not interfere with playing the higher frets. The pickup selector is cheap and has too much play. I am considering installing a more definitive selector switch in the near future. The fit and finish is excellent and exceeded my expectations based upon the price I paid.

The guitar should withstand live playing for a long time to come. I do have reservations about the gold hardware. My experience with cheaper instruments is that this colored metal tends to flake and chip. I am using the guitar for personal enjoyment and for a playing in a church contemporary music group that plays during Sunday Mass in our parish. Had great comments from members of the congregation and my musical group... not for my playing... but for the looks and sound of the guitar.

The company has been extremely responsible from time of order to delivery. Well packed with no damage. The guitar has a two year manufacturer's warranty serviced by another company, but Mandalay Music of Arizona has their own customer satisfaction policy and return policy. The only defective part sent to me was the free guitar amp chord. I emailed the company for return instructions for the defective chord. Hope to hear from them shortly.

I have been "playing with the guitar" for about 40 years. My two teenage sons actual "play" the guitar. They have tried the Johnson and love it. If it were stolen or lost and I had between 250-500 to replace the guitar, I would buy the same model. I compared the guitar to new and used jazz boxes from a variety of sources and felt that for $249 and all of the features the Johnson has, I could not go wrong with buying it. I am happy I did. I only wish it had slightly better pickups and much better volume and tone controls and pickup switch. Other than that I am quite happy and content with the instrument

a chinese archtop hollowbody featuring gold hardware, 20 frets, standard gibson-style vol/tone controls, two humbucking pickups, and so-so finishing procedures. all-in-all, not a bad guitar for the price ($249 from mandalay music). everything seems alright, some minor imperfections in the finish/binding, and everything needed a quick tightening before it all sat right, but again, pretty okay. the wood is not the prettiest thing, but for $249, what can you expect. there was only one strap pin, so i had to add another, and the intonation adjustment screw on the low E string was broken, but mandalay sent another out to me. i've had it for a little over a month and i've already noticed some of the "gold" wearing off of the pickups, but that's okay, i'm not a gold hardware guy anyway

well, too be honest, it sounds pretty good. alot of midrange when played acoustically, a warm sound when put through my 15watt practice amp. i have yet to plug it in to anything bigger, but feedback will probably ensue. the bridge pickup is (for me) too bright and the neck too muddy, but you can definitely manage to wrangle some nice sounds out of it. i had some flatwounds on it, ALOT of midrange, but i ended up going back to light top/heavy bottoms for the unwound third. a local university professor bought a 440, and he seems to like it, so it really can't be all bad.

the action was horrible when it arrived, as was the fit of some of the electronics, nothing a screwdriver and a wrench couldn't fix though. the finish was okay, like i said, minor imperfections, but overall okay. i took me a while to get the action okay, and i'm still taking it in for a complete set-up soon. the first fret is not completely seated, so that's an annoying little mess. since then i've not had any problems with it, so no complaints here.

it seems that this guitar, with proper care and maintenance, could stand up to the hardships of live playing. the "gold" hardware should soon turn to nickel with age and sweat though. i don't think i would use it without a backup, but that's only because i can't live without my strat.

it took mandalay music a bit to get that replacement bridge out to me, and i would call china in a heartbeat, so the 2 year warranty will likely go unused. screw it, take it to a local guitar guru and it'll be fine.

i've been playing the better part of 12 years, mostly on strats and other solidbodies, so the hollow thing is definitely new to me. i honestly have no complaints about this guitar, get it set-up and go. i was really just looking to see if i could get accustomed to this type of guitar before i sell my right leg to get a gretsch. now i think i'll just have a bigsby put on and ride out the next 10 years before to save up for the gretsch.

This is a basic Gibson ES-175 clone, maybe L-5, who knows. Made in China..but read on...they're making good guitars over there. It has twin humbuckers, typical volume/tone controls for each, cast tuners, rosewood based, roller bridge, body is about 3" thick, single cutaway archtop, and rosewood fretboard...I think. Body wood is unknown, but the clear finish coat shows a nicely figured curly maple appearance. I wouldn't bet on the actual source of the wood though. This guitar is also available in a cherry sunburst finish, with probably identical components. I bought a tweed soft case with it, that is VERY nice, padded and appears quite durable. It has an outside accessories pocket for charts, cords and such. The guitar comes with a cord, but nothing else. It's nicely packed and arrived with no damage.

I just LOOOVE the tone! For a cheap, import guitar, it's remarkably sweet sounding. Has the typical fat, somewhat thuddy, jazz box tone that I personally find appealing. It's dead quiet, no buzzes or hums. It's a little bit low on midrange punch, but I think more work on the setup and a decent set of strings will improve that. It can go from twangy, to totally dry and bassy, but the tone controls are pretty weak. They seem to have a non-linear response, so getting the desired tone can be a challenge. The pickup select switch is pretty crappy, and needed to be wiggled around quite a bit to get it to work. I plan to swap it out for a high quality switch ASAP. The pickups needed height adjustment in a big way, but the adjustment screws worked nicely with no binding.

It needed major intonation and action work, but it was easily done. It took maybe an hour to tweak the intonation, string height, and pickup height. All adjustments work smoothly and it stays in tune. The neck is razor straight and the frets are nicely seated and dressed. A bit tall they are, but not excessive. They're just new. I can not go sharp on pitch by pressing hard at any fret position. The bridge was knocked out of position during shipment, as far as I can tell, but the saddle contour matches the archtip perfectly and it's easy to position it once the strings are loosened. The fit and finish is very good, the entire guitar is clearcoated with only a few flaws around the binding. I didn't buy it for show, I bought it for go! It's a fine guitar for the money, and the only thing needed is a strap button on the front of the body (there is one on the tailpiece), and a decent pickup select switch. Once the strings were lowered, it plays like butter. No high frets, no buzzes, and a nicely shaped neck that is not too thick nor too thin. It balances well, and seems lighter in weight than comparable mega-buck guitars of Gibson/Epiphone lineage. No doubt due to the who-knows-what-the-hell-it-is wood and metal hardware. The pickups are OK, but a set of SD's would surely improve the overall performance of the axe. I probably won't go this route though, I bought it to save money, and I accomplished that. It's absolutely a killer deal on a sweet guitar.

I'm not gigging, so it won't get any road abuse. Seems to be built plenty tough, so I would not worry about it for club or studio work. I'd use it without backup on a gig. I just got it, so long term wear is an unknown right now. We'll see in the coming months. Hardware is OK, but the gold colored plating will no doubt chip/flake off with hard use. No biggee.

I bought it online from a vendor in Arizona. I got exactly what I ordered, and it arrived in THREE DAYS. No kidding. I would definitely do business with this company again. I think it has a one year warranty from the factory. (Hah! Yeah, like I'd try calling China.) The seller has a very clear warranty and return policy so I feel they will stand behind the product.

I've been playing 26 years, and own a Yamaha Strat copy, a Kaman cutaway classical with bridge pickup, a '74 fretless Fender Jazz bass, and a 1940's era Kay upright bass. Yeah, quite a combination of axes! If this thing was stolen, I'd get another one...pronto. Although, I just noted the Mandalaymusic website has removed it from their catalog! The cherryburst "Vegas" model is there, but the Hollywood isn't. Whew! I got it just in time. I'm not a fan of the sunburst finish. Too cheesy. I already SOUND cheesy, why look the same way? I find this guitar tunes, stays tuned and feels better than my Yamaha. After only a few hours of playing it, I find it fits me perfectly, sounds nice and full, and has stirred my motivation to practice more. Bottom line: it's a tremendous value, and looks dazzling. It even got my wife's attention...."wow, it's pretty!". I'm very pleased with it, and am totally tickled that the Chinese are putting out such a quality instrument. You no longer have to mortgage the house or sell off your first male born to own a jazz box!