Johnson JT-800 Tele Copy

Mine was made in china wich i am happy about .The amount of frets is nothing for me to FRET about ie it is sufficiant.Mine is a maple fret board with a white/cream body;nice silky feeling neck and the frets feel good I believe this guitar is all solid wood.The tuners work. I dont need to change anything . I think it came with a guitar cord.It doesnt have the string through body setup.
Its a tele it has tele features

I think its a nice rock+ or roll guitar
with a nice sound and feel i wanna be clear here JOHNSON GUITARS RULE
bang for the buck champs of the world i just hope there arent people barley scraping buy on 2cents a day cuza them
the sound is like a tele in my experiance ,i think. Kinda a bare bones down to earth sound (hows that?.........) anyway

well the guitar was set up very well it plays beutifully my fave
part of getting this guitar was that i could pick it out and it was brand new i picked the color and the fretboard (maple and cream)
there was one minor "flaw'
the picup had a wire hanging out wich was a easy fix for me
plus the seller sent me 10$ when i told them about the "flaw"
they were great

well i am not REAL ruff with guitars ...YET so
mabey someone else should talk about this part
But i think this is better than fender squire espesh when you think of the $

they were fab

well i been "playing" for 13?
years I love this guitar its awsom and the best deal on ebay for a NEW guitar THAT I COULD PICK THE COLOR AND FRET BOARD OF
I new johnson guitars were very well amde thats why i got it
lessee if someone stole it.......I would try to get it back i spose
i play it through .....well i have four little amps rite now i been playi ng it through my MULTIVOX

Made in 2004. 22 frets, 3-piece solid Alder body, 1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way selctor switch, single coil lipstick pu at the neck, slanted single coil pu at the bridge. Comes with Johnson PUs. Passive electronics. Alder body, solid Maple neck and maple fretboard with Rosewood strip up the back. Glossy natural finish. Telecaster copy. String-thru bridge. Die-cast tuners. Beefy body and neck modeled after 1960's Telecaster. Came with a free gigbag.

To be honetst, I don't play well enough yet to appreciate the sound quality, but that's OK. I'm making some changes that will make a big difference later.

Don't know or care about the factory set-up. I'll be taking care of that on my own. I'm replacing the PUs with MIM Fender Telecaster PUs I got pretty cheap. I'm also replacing the strings with Ernie Ball Slinky's. The tuners were the first to go. Seemed OK, but I wanted better. Replaced them with 6-on-a-side Grover Mini's. I love the look of this guitar's finish! Beautiful gloss over natural wood finish. The wood grain shows through beautifully. The 3-piece alder body is striking. This is the main reason I bought this particular guitar, other than price. I felt I could make it be what I wanted, if I could get the basic guitar to build on. The one downside I found was a poorly finished 3-layer pickguard. Jagged edge around the neck. Easily cleaned up. I expected the pots and switch to be bad, but was surprised at how OK they are. I won't replace them for awhile yet.

I know nothing about live playing, but I upgraded the tuners and strings. I'll upgrade the pickups shortly. If I could play live I'd probably use it. I love the finish. Seems good quality. Strap buttons are tight and well placed. I was pleasantly surprised overall.

Don't know anything about Johnson or AXL (the parent company). 5 year warranty I've already ruined. The seller on Ebay was martinsguitar, a man named Marty Schiff. Nice guy, but very slow to respond the emails and no response to phone calls. Took 16 days after the auction to receive the guitar. Left neutral feedback.

I have been struggling on and off for more than 20 years to learn. I have no talent and no prayer of gaining any. I just love trying. Pick it up when I can. I'm a 40 year old SAH-dad with 5 kids, 3 in diapers. Very little time to practice. Hours on end to dream about it.If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy a new one right away. It's a beautiful guitar for the money and I can dress it any way I want and still be saving money off the real Mccoy. This is a guitar I'm proud of and happy to show off.

Made in China 2004 - solid alder body with wonderful high gloss natural finish and shows excellent grain on front and back ? chrome hardware - maple neck with rosewood fingerboard ? 22 frets - covered and sealed Johnson-tuners ? 3-saddle top-load bridge , no string through body ? 2 EMG designed single-coils - guitar cable and allen wrenches included

I mainly play blues and bluesrock and I had 9 guitars ( Gibson LP, 6 Fender Strats, 2 Fender Teles) bevor the Johnson came to me, so I can compare the Jonson with my MIM Tele and my US Tele ? and I was more than astonished about the cheap Johnson. The clean sound is unbeatable, bluesy on the neck and twangy or acoustic-like on the bridge position. Much better than my MIM Tele and as good as my US Tele. At high gain the EMGs are a little bit weaker than the US-Standards but the sound is ok. Sustain isn?t as good as my other Teles, so on the second day after purchasing I put my drill and brought the six holes into the body and the original bridge, fixed the string-ferrules (from Rockinger) and installed Goldo brass harmony-saddles together with Fender strings. The result of the strings-through-body is a dramatic increase of sustain ? sustain until the doctor has to come ? and a much better sound overall. The singl-coil hum is very silently in neck/ rear position and of course there?s no hum in middle position. Bevor my modification I give the sound a 8, now it?s a 10+.

The body and its finish is excellent without any flaws, much better than I?ve seen on my 1000 Euro US-Tele. The neck feels fine, only the frets are not very good polished, so spent about an half an hour with 0000 grade steel wool smoothing down the neck and fretboard, and polishing the frets. Perfect now and playing it just makes me happy!
The set-up out of the box was fine, but not the optimum. The strings were cheap ones and so I put a set of Fender?s 10/46 on it. The controls are ok and run very smooth. Tuners are ok and they look absolutly like the ones on my MIM-Tele, only stamped with Johnson instead of Fender.

The body is built like a tank and seems like it will last forever (as the most solid Tele-bodies). All of the hardware seems fine to me. I only changed the strap buttons to Schaller strap-locks as I allways do. So what can break a Tele ? a 38to truck ?

The guitar came with a 2 year warranty, the dealer is very reliable and obliging, but I have not dealt with the company. I think the support can't be much worser than the Fender-support here in Germany (3-4 months delievery for spare parts - horrible)

Now I have ten guitars ? 9 expensive guitars and this very cheap Johnson (90 Euros + 40 Euros for my modification). I have bought it just of the look of this wonderful body, but what I didn? have expected ? this guitar makes really fun to play, the sound is good and if you look on the price it is unbeatable. The Johnson my cheapest guitar but really not my worst one, so I love to play it. I would definitely replace it if it got stolen/lost. This is a terrific value for the money!
Put a little work on it and this guitar sounds, plays and feels like or better than much more expensive brand-names.
I love this Johnson Tele !!!!!!

Year made: 2003/2004?--Made in China (what isn't?)--22 frets--solid alder body--1 volume, 1 tone knob, 3-way switch--generic pickups which sound very good to me in any position--the bridge pickup is clean and tele-twangy; the neck pickup can produce acoustic-like sounds; and the middle position can rock out for lead or rhythm playing--maple neck with maple fingerboard--fast, smooth, easy to play, not a thin neck, but easy to play--frets finished smoothly--alder body is natural, and the color is correct, a beautiful golden color (not yellow, or tan, or mustard), which shows excellent grain on the front and the back of the body, all covered in a high gloss (varnish? polyurethane?) finish--3 ply pickguard (W/B/W)--tuners are no-name, but hold tuning--however, I strongly urge you replace the factory strings (I think they are 9s) with a slightly heavier gauge--I used Ernie Ball 10/46--the difference in sound and playability increased dramatically (and it was very good right out of the box)--ash tray, tele bridge--but not a string through body--nevertheless the sustain is amazing--10 foot guitar cable was included--am rating the features on this guitar at "7," because a tele, obviously, has limited features (that simplicity is its main charm for me)

I play everything, badly, but, hey, it's only rock and roll--I have played classic rock and blues on this guitar--it handles both well--I play through a Crate GT212, with no effects but a touch of echo sometimes--also, the neck pickup can produce acoustic-like tones, and I now use this guitar for finger-picking instead of my wonderful, old Guild acoustics, because I LOVE the neck on this Johnson and the fact that I can go from an acoustic sound using the neck pickup (it's close enough for me) to a rock sound (middle position on the 3 way switch) to a country sound (bridge pickup)--I get no pickup noise of any kind at any volume through my Crate GT212 (I've had it up to 9 on the Crate, and the neighbors' ears wewre bleeding)--how these Chinese no-name pickups play with no hum/noise, so silently, is a mystery to me, but it's true--I really think a playr can get virtually any sound he wants out of this guitar--I am amazed at the range of sounds a $100 guitar can produce (or, maybe it's my incredible technique...)--clear, clean sounds in every pickup position and combination, which can be distorted using pedals and other techniques if those styles is your taste

Because I had read eharmony and other reviews of this guitar, I asked the store to check the intonation for me (I never learned how to do that properly)--I took the guitar out of the box, tuned it, and it played perfectly--everything on the guitar was screwed down and tightened correctly--the bolt-on neck fit very tightly--the natural finish was beautiful--I was shocked at the look of the guitar, because it is truly stunning--I had looked at Fender American Standards, Fender MIM, Squiers, and several tele copies sold on the internet--the finish and look of this Johnson natural finish tele is truly the most beautiful of any tele model, at any price, that I have seen, right off the shelf--when I took the guitar out of the box, I was stunned at the look of it--I could not believe the guitar cost only $100--the only flaw I found was a tiny, shallow dent (maybe 1/8 of an inch in diameter) on the front of the body--you can only see it if the guitar is held against the light at a certain angle, so who cares?

How could anyone predict how well the hardware will last?--all of the hardware seems fine to me--although I have not used this guitar live on a live job, I have no doubt that it would work fine--I have played the guitar 5 hours straight at a sitting, and I feel confident it would handle live playing (how can you "break" a tele?)--frankly, I find the guitar hard to put down--I love the look of the damn thing, and playing it just makes me happy--I have a 1969 Gibson SG that I have been playing for 27 years, but the Gibson has been retired--the strap buttons seem fine to me, but I would have to use the guitar on a job to really test the strap buttons--I would gig without a backup, because the guitar feels dependable to me (and I have been playing the hell out of it for the past 3 weeks since it arrived), but, if it broke, I would just pick up another one (I was so pleased with this guitar that I bought a second JT800 in natural, plus another in sunburst, with a rosewood neck)

The guitar came with a 2 year warranty, but I have not dealt with the company--if anything broke, I would not bother with the warranty--I would just replace the broken part (it's a tele, so how hard are they to repair?)--besides, I now have 3 Johnsons, so I am certain that at least 1 of my Johnsons will always be playable

I've been playing (badly) since 1963--my other electric is a 1969 Gibson SG on which I have been playing for 27 years--that Gibson SG is a wonderful guitar, but I honestly prefer this Johnson JT 800 (call me a fool, but remember that music and playing and sound and rock and roll is awfully subjective)--I also have a 1978 Guild D-25M, which I dearly love, but, again, I have put it aside for this Johnson tele (love the neck on that Johnson!)--if this Johnson tele were lost or stolen, I would be upset, but I still have 2 more JT 800s left in the closet.

CLOSING THOUGHT: have your seller check/adjust the set-up and intonation if you (like me) don't know how to do it--replace the factory strings with, at minimum, 10s--if you really want to bring this guitar up to its best, replace the tuners with Grover Mini-Rotomatics for $30 (and these Roto-Minis perfectly replace the Chinese factory tuners, not, as I noted above, that I had any problems with the factory tuners)--as you can tell, I am truly smitten by this guitar--maybe I just got lucky, but this guitar's look and playability are amazing at any price (and I played teles right up to the $1200-1500 range while looking for a tele to buy)--I hope you get a Johnson as good as mine! Good luck!

2003, China, 22 med. jumbo smooth frets, solid alder body cream color, white pkgd., 2 crome knobs, vol. & tone, 3-way top hat switch, lipstick neck pickup and slant flat ple pieces bridge pu. Natural maple neck with seperate maple fretboard. Tele style body with nicer Johnson headstock. Old style 3-saddle ashtray bridge, decent tuners, plastic nut, 2- string Ts all chrome. 25" scale. Free shpg., w/ nice gigbag, allen wrench, stand, and cheap strap.

I play rock/metal/blues. Sounds best through either my G40V (6L6) w/1x12, Crate MX120, or Laney AOR Protube (EL34) half stack. Use a fuzz/wah and flanger (and occassionally more). Neck sounds smooth and bluesy, bridge jangly and bright. The bridge had to be adjusted, but still gives a lower response to the high E. Noise is the slight static of most single coils. With both pu's on, it rocks good.

The set-up was fine except the bridge pu. Low action, just right. Fast neck. Finish was good, no flaws. Everything tight. The frets were smooth edged, but at a dealer they were rough.

I think it would make it just fine.

N/A

30 yrs. tons of gear. It was such a deal and is good enough that I would probably replace it if destroyed or stolen. I never liked the Fender tele because of the "weak chin" headstock, and no whammy. I grew out of having to have a whammy on every guitar, and always wanted the cream/maple combo. I'll either adjust the bridge pu for better high E, or replace it. Feels great to play, and puts out a nicer blues tone than the strat, and a brighter bridge tone. Together they give an almost humbucker rockin' crunch. Nice buttery neck on mine.

I bought this guitar cause i need a really cheap back up... im starting a band i'd like like my roomate's johnson base... the tele sound lends it self to my unorthodox style of playin... also cause the late great joe strummer played one, so dose keith richards, im crap but i like the style. i'd paid 140 + case for 70...eh case smells like pot but who cares...

Well its your standard tele setup, it apears to be solid alder its pretty nice.. not string thru body but makes a nice raquet, beauitful infact... not as much sustian a peavey generation but adequet...sold saddles great neck solid as brick... a tribute to chinnese forced labor... its far beter then any squire and who can beat the price. 2 knobs And switch who can ask for more. Cheapy tuners but they'll work... 22 nice frets

This thing kicks it like rock death... its seems built for speeds with alot metalic twang... i love it.. it kills on by crush 10 amp by Orange

Well there's a slight rattling by the head nuthing serious really ill get it look at though... dosen't realy need a intoannation- nuthin major proably dosen't even need it, but ill do it any ways... great finish beter then my peavey. strings could be lowered a bit just slight bit.

Seems like a big black hard as rock johnson... its the best thing to come outa china since gun powder and general tso's chicken

dunno

Ill deffennitly pay for the up keep... just needs tunners eventually other then that aces

Typical tele set up
alder body maple neck rosewood fretboard

it was ok but always seemed weak...found some fender tele pickups online swapped em out. Turns out the poles on the magnets only had a single copper band around them..not wound like a pick up should be.

This was all great...fast neck, beautiful finish. Transparent blue finish and here is what really nice...no extra routing like fender et. al. So i was able to take off the white pcik gaurd and made a clear one so you can really see the the color and finish

never had to deal with them

been playing 18 years. Have a Strat, Epi, Ovation, Arbor, Telestar (funky japense from the 60's) and the Johnson. have a few pedals two fender amps, a vintage randall...not the new junk and a generic amp that i wanted cause it was cool looking

Bought in August 2003. Made in China. 22 frets. Solid alder. Cream paint with white pickguard. Maple neck/maple fretboard. Hardware features are standard Tele...two single-coil pickups, 3 position switch, single volume, single tone control.

The bridge is the vintage style - 3 saddles, each holding a pair of strings. The strings feed in through the end of the bridge, NOT string-through-body.

The tuners are non-name, non-locking, die-cast tuners. They're...adequate, not exceptionally smooth tuning action, but they'll do.

I bought this through MusicBrokers.com for $119. Free shipping. Came with a gig back, strap, signal cable, and allen wrenches to adjust the neck and bridge.

Both pickups are a little weak; nothing disastrous.
The bridge pickup is classic Tele - razor sharp, twangy, jangly.
Both pickups together (middle switch position) gives a really nice sound for rhythm work - still nice and jangly, but not as sharp and sparkly as the bridge pickup alone. Run it through a distortion box to get JUST A LITTLE crunch (this aint a heavy metal axe!) and you've got instant bar room rock and roll!
The neck pickup isn't quite as appealing - my biggest complaint is it lacks high end defninition.

This is a tough category to answer.

Right out of the box the setup was unplayable. That's not a big complaint - the instrument was shipped from the factory in China to the store in Arizone to me in Connecticut, in the middle of a humid August. I expected the neck and intonation to be out to lunch! A little bit of time adjusting these items and it sounds/plays wonderfully. I'd give it an 8 for action.

The fit/finish on the body (cream paint, white pickguard, chrome hardware) are absolutely gorgeous!!! 9 or 10 for fit/finish on the body.

The neck (maple neck/maple fretboard) needed some work. The finish was a little rough. There were some spots of finish (polyurethane?) on the frets. I took the neck off and spent about an hour with 0000 grade steel wool smoothing down the neck and fretboard, and polishing the frets. Now it feels like silk!!! As-shipped, I'd give it a 4 for fit/finish on the neck.

Having owned this guitar for less than a week, I can't speak to its durability. It certainly feels solid...the construction of ANY Tele is pretty simple and nearly indestructible.

I have a policy that I NEVER gig without a backup, but I haven't seen where this guitar would be likely to fail mid-performance.

MusicBrokers.com, where I ordered this were VERY helpful. Their website didn't really go into a lot of detail about the various color options available. So I called them. They were very accomodating and easy to work with. The order shipped when they said it would; and it arrived when they said it would.

I really haven't worked with the Johnson folks at all.

I've been playing for 35 years. I own a few other guitars (Les Paul, MIM Strat, Epiphone hollow-body). I've never had a burning desire to own a Tele (or a copy). But I saw this for $119, and decided it was at least worth a try.

I'm an inveterate tinker-er. For me, 50% of the fun of a guitar like this is tweaking it into shape.

I think for $119, the guitar I got was a fantastic value!!! With these caveats:

- Right out of the box it was unplayable. Aside from the neck adjustment, action, and intonation, which I EXPECTED to need work, the neck finish was not all that great. So I probably wouldn't recommend this as a first guitar for someone unless they had a resource who could help them get it into playable shape.
- With the proper amount of tweaking, this was easily turned into a very very nice guitar! Now, if I wanted to go a little further, I'd replace the pickups and the tuners and it would be a truly sweet guitar...for a lot less than a brand-name Fender Tele.

I would definitely replace it if it got stolen/lost.

Bottom line - if you don't mind putting in a little work, this guitar can easily be made to sound / play / feel like it cost more like $500 than the $119 I paid. This is a terrific value for the money!

This is a Telecaster copy, with everything a Tele has, in various degrees of imitation.

I bought two Johnson nearly identical Tele's by accident on Ebay from two different sellers (bidding on two different auctions, figured I'd lose at least one ... Doh!). But that gave me a chance for an at-home taste test.

They're new, made in China, both natural wood finish and maple necks. Appears to be a couple pieces of alder, pretty much seamlessly put together, with a heavy gloss finish. And it weighs the same as a Tele -- not some lightweight thing, whether you like that or not. One guitar had some kind of knothole partially visible halfway under the control plate. Whatever. I like the barnyard look.

Strings are toploading. Tuners are good. Maple neck is fine -- I read they are "fat," but I thought it was normal and easy with pretty good frets.

So what you get is something that looks and weighs exactly the same as a Telecaster at the music shop. If you know how to do a little soldering and wood finishing, you're on your way to a primo guitar (not that it isn't pretty good to begin with). So here's what I did:

My friend is a big Stones fan, so I took one guitar and changed the pickguard and wired in a humbucker. Warning! The standard Tele pickguard is just a little bit different, so I had to shave it off 1/8 here and there around the neck and control plate. The screw holes weren't quite in right place, but I made it work. The pickguard that came with it was a standard boring white. So now it has a black one with humbucker and sounds very cool.

The jack on these things is some kind of brittle crap, so for good measure I changed it. Why not. I gave the guitar to him and he loves it. Looks like Keith Richard's "Mikawber" and for us hobbyists, does the trick.

With the other guitar, I set about stripping the gloss finish and making a sort of retro beater Tele. With a little sanding, I discovered that there may be very thin laminates on top and bottom, but probably just for appearance. I don't know. I changed out both pickups for alnico Mighty Mites off Ebay. The neck pickup now works great, but I actually almost miss the twang of the original bridge pickup!

I bought a replacement bridge that allowed for strings-though-body, got out the electric drill, and voila! Pretty much a Tele now. Oh, and replaced the pickguard with a funky Bakersfield tortoise-shell one. Same story. Pickguard needed a little shaving to make it fit.

After stripping the varnish and giving it a Danish oil finish and wax, it looks very cool. The electronics are fine, but they use those teeny-tiny pots, which means if you want to upgrade to regular pots, you need to get a control plate with big enough holes for the larger shafts.

Well, by the end of it, looks like I've got as close as you can get to a real Telecaster without spending the money. And for good measure, I sanded the name off the headstock, replaced it with a big Fender-style "F" followed by a squiggly line. Then I laid in its new name with scratch off letters: "Dogcaster." A couple coats of polyurethane later and it looks like some kind of designer thing.

This guitar sounds great to me. The original neck pickup is an anemic stand-in until you get something better, but the bridge PU is full of classic twang.

I use a couple tiny tube amps, a 60's Harmony tube amp, a little Marshall and so on. I never owned an actual Tele, but I've had enough other guitars to know this one sounds good or better. No buzz or hum.

What kind of sounds? Twangy, barroom, Folsom Prison sounds, man. Except for that neck pickup. Before I switched to better ones, I pretty much just kept the selecter locked down to the bridge pickup.

Setup? Well, crappy strings, as usual, but no matter -- those are just for show anyway. Everything else seemed nailed down firmly on both my Johnsons. Tuners were tight, wood was good, finish was good (if you like a lot of gloss on a natural finish), just that one knothole and some bargain-cut woodgrain, but good enough for the price. Everything else was straight and true. I had a setup done and no problems at all.

I don't know anything about live playing, because I balk at the notion of anyone else hearing my sounds. BUT ... yeah, this is a big slab of wood with a couple things screwed onto it, so I can't see how I could damage it, even with a plan to do so. Solid.

They included a tag with the guitar, but I've mutilated these guitars beyond the point of anything like a warranty. Actually, unless there were an unfixable structural flaw, like a big crack running lengthwise down the neck, I can't see the point in support on this guitar. Even then, I'd have it fixed for less before they could respond.

I've been playing maybe 15 years as a hobby and annoyance to my wife and neighbors. I own a whole slew of Teisco guitars, Jay Turser, Danelectro, no-name and other "vintage" guitars, including a bunch I've bought and sold.

Nothing I wished I had asked before I bought this.

If stolen or lost, I'd buy another and treat it to the same modifications. A very good deal.

I love the way this guitar sounds, and how easy it is to work on. I'm not so keen on the shape of the headstock, but oh well.

This is a great Tele copy for the money -- at least the ones I got. And it's so easy to make it better. No plywood, no warped neck, crappy tuners -- it's all pretty much there. I have to give it a "9" because I just might find something better that's worth a "10", and then I'd have to turn everything up to "11".

Definitely worth the money! You won't regret this purchase.

This is a 2003 Copy of the Standard Fender telecaster. It has a solid body and maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. It has the single bridge pickup and the lipstick pickup near the neck. The one I got is black with a white pickguard. It has a volume and tone contol and a three way switch. It has the fender type head with crome tuners. It has the tele style crome bridge only with two string per holder and not thru the neck.

I'll tell you what, for the cost of this little jewel I was extremely suprised. The sound is very nice. I have a Les Paul and I think I really like the sound of this better. Maybe it's more the sound that I like or maybe it's just really better. I hate to say that about a hundred dollar guitar, but it's true.

Everything seemed to be about right as far as fit and adjustment. Everything fits well. It was set up with a nice low action and works fine. The strings suck! But for a hundred bucks what do you expect. I wasn'r expecting it to be quite so nice for the price. It exceeds my hopes.. I was figuring I would have to nearly rebuild it after reaing some other reviews but the adjustments were minimal.

This seems like a heavy duty performer. We'll see I guess, but for what you pay if it last anytime it will pay for itself.

I can't find anything on the warranty or any customer support but if it goes south, just get another one I guess.

I own a Les Paul, and a Martin D-18. This plays as well as the Les Paul, when you get it set up with some good strings. I like the sound and the price. Of course nothing matches the Martin.. But for a kick around toy or something to learn on it fits the bill.