[Brought to you by D'Addario XL Strings: https://www.daddario.com/XLRR]
Wild Customs Gyrock
This Wild Customs Gyrock guitar uses rotating pickup modules that can be spun around in place for different tone recipes. The body is chambered Honduran mahogany matched with a carved Canadian maple top, maple neck, and a Brazilian pau ferro fretboard.
Johnson has an ammo box full of different pickups that he can pop into his Gyrock as needed. It stays strung with GHS Strings—a Justin Johnson Signature Guitar Strings Standard set (.10–.50).
Furch Master's Choice 2019SB Dc-SR SPE
This Furch Master's Choice 2019SB Dc-SR SPE acoustic/electric with a cutaway features a Sitka spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides. The body is protected by Furch's proprietary Full-Pore High-Gloss Finish and it's got the company's CNR System—an adjustable truss rod inside a carbon casing—for improved neck stability. There's an LR Baggs Stagepro Element pickup system onboard, too.
Dobro Duolian
This vintage Dobro Duolian has a Lace low-profile acoustic pickup and is strung with Johnson's Slide signature set: (.11–.50.)
Early '30s Dobro
This mystery resonator—possibly an early '30s Dobro—had the finish stripped off years ago and has been updated with a 12-Bar Blues low-profile resonator humbucker.
Homegrown Strings 4-String Resonator
Here's a look inside Johnson's Homegrown Strings 4-string resonator made from a cigar box and found objects. The pickup is a small piezo hot-glued inside a bottle cap.
Fender 60th Anniversary Telecaster Limited Edition
Johnson's Fender 60th Anniversary Telecaster Limited Edition is strung through its ash body, with Johnson's Standard signature strings.
FireWild by Wild Customs
His FireWild by Wild Customs has a 6-way toggle and it coil-splits. It look a bit like a Firebird mixed with an Iceman, and has a mahogany body and neck, a pao ferro fretboard and a Bigsby. The neck and middle pickups are TV Jones Power'Trons and the bridge has a Power'Tron+.
Signature Whiskey Barrel Guitar Built by Big D Guitars
Johnson's No. 1 is his Signature Whiskey Barrel Guitar built by Big D Guitars. This chambered T-style is made from reclaimed whiskey barrel tops, paired with aged Tennessee barn wood, scatterwound pickups, a Bigsby, an aged maple neck, jumbo frets, and locking tuners. We meant to film this very cool instrument, but got lost in the frenzy of guitars and never got around to it. Dang!
Yes, he's also got a 3-string shovel guitar. It's got a custom-wound low-profile humbucker from 12-Bar Blues Pickups. The trippy artwork was painted by Grecian tattoo artist Santa Tinta and the matching strap was made by LeROCKSKIN. Strings are the A, D, and G from a Justin Johnson Signature Slide set.
Justin Johnson's Pedalboards
Johnson has several 'boards, so let's go with the signal flow. This Morton pedalboard has a modular mounting system that enables him to adjust the size and shape of the board as his layout changes. After hitting his XVive Audio U2 wireless, his signal enters a Mad Professor Loud 'N Proud fuzz, a J. Rockett Audio Archer Ikon, an Ibanez TS808, an ADV Systems #overdrive, a Danelectro Back Talk Reverse Delay, a Gamechanger Audio Plasma Pedal, an Ibanez DE7 Echo/Delay, a T-Rex Image Looper, a Gamechanger Audio Plus piano-style sustain pedal, an API Audio TranZformer …
… a Universal Audio UAFX Astra Modulation Machine Pedal, Starlight Echo Station, and Golden Reverberator …
… into a Live Wire Solutions ABY Box to send juice to his Fishman Aura Spectrum DI Imaging Pedal or a Hughes & Kettner amp—or both.
And that T-Rex Replicator shares real estate with a Gator GTR-PWR-12 power supply and a Big Joe Power Box Li2 lithium pedalboard battery.
Hughes & Kettner Triamp MKIII
As you'd expect, there's no shortage of amps in Johnson's arsenal. Here's his Hughes & Kettner Triamp MKIII 150-watt 3-channel programmable tube head.
Hughes & Kettner GrandMeister Deluxe 40
And here's his Hughes & Kettner GrandMeister Deluxe 40, which is switchable between 40, 20, 5, and 1 watts. He's got a 120-watt-rated 2x12 cab, also by H&K, to deliver his tones.
Fishman Loudbox Artist BT
This Fishman Loudbox Artist BT 120-watt 1x8" acoustic combo also has a tweeter and Bluetooth.
Fishman Loudbox Mini
Its compadre is a Fishman Loudbox Mini, which has a 6 1/2" speaker and a battery-power option. He also has a Mad Professor 51 RT Old School 51-watt tube head.
I don’t know why, but for some reason I’ve always been fascinated with guitars made out of big metal cans. The first can guitar probably started out when some mad scientist—or an African street musician—decided to make a guitar out of a gas can.
I spotted this baby on eBay about five years ago, made by Bohemian Guitars, a reliable maker. It had a humbucker in the bridge position and a Strat pickup in the neck. I ended up getting it for $160 including shipping. When I received it, it was unplayable. The action was really high and the neck had a large bow to it. The truss rod allowed me to eliminate the bow, but the action was still a little high, even with the bridge maxed out.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep it, so I emailed the seller with my concerns and offered a solution of a $30 partial refund to compensate me for my time and trouble of working on the guitar. Otherwise, I was happy to send it back. They PayPal’d me the $30 and I was happy.
Bottom Feeder Tip #189: If you receive a guitar that is different from the description, you can either send it back or ask for a partial refund. Sellers usually choose the partial refund to avoid problems with the next buyer.
Photo 2 — This close-up shows this oil-can guitar’s basic controls: a 3-way toggle with volume and tone pots.
I figured I could probably just shim the neck and that would solve the problem, but I was wrong. When I first opened it up, I saw three big bolts that I assumed were holding the neck on, but the neck was actually glued onto a wooden plank and the bolts were for securing the bridge to the guitar’s top from underneath.
Bottom Feeder Tip #201: Don’t be a dumbass. Make sure you know how to solve a problem before you sign off on a guitar.
Photo 3 — Simple machine, simple wiring—and the three large bolts hold the bridge in place. The neck is glued onto the center wood plank.
I ended up solving the action problem by simply removing the two thumb-adjustment screws from the bridge. Just that little bit of height reduction made it easy to play. In fact, after a few weeks the neck settled in and I ended up putting the thumb screws back in to raise the action, and that’s where it sits today. It’s still easy to play, too.
After I solved the playing issue and used the guitar for a few weeks, I started thinking about better pickups. The neck pickup was weak and weenie sounding, and the bridge humbucker was very microphonic and howled when the amp was turned up.
Photo 4 — A set of six screws holds the back plate in place, providing easy access to the electronics cavity, which is large enough to carry a couple sandwiches to the gig.
I searched my boxes of pickups and found an Epiphone humbucker and a G&L S-500 pickup that were perfect. I now have the guitar where I want it. It plays nice and sounds great.
So, is it a keeper? Yeah, I’d say it is. I’ve named it “Old Glory,” because I love the flag motif. It was definitely a journey worth taking. Metal-can guitars are pretty fun to play, and they have their own sound.
It’s no secret that I love to play cigar box guitars—known as CBGs to collectors. There’s just something earthy about playing music through a box that was originally designed to hold cigars. This CBG was made by a builder known to me as “Robert-C.” This particular build is crafted out of a box for Thomas Hinds Short Churchill EMS cigars, made in Nicaragua. What makes this cigar box guitar special is the look and sound. It sports nicely rounded edges on the two long sides, two old Silvertone single-coil pickups, and a very cool retro-looking headstock. I got it on eBay a while back, winning it with a bid of $100.15 including shipping.
The guitar came with a pair of vintage Silvertone single-coil pickups, which Will Ray describes as sounding like
“Strat pickups on steroids.”
When it arrived a week later and I unpacked it, I was blown away by the look. When I played it, however, I could tell there were some major problems I needed to address. The first was the intonation. For some strange reason, a lot of CBG builders don’t understand neck scale lengths and where to place the bridge. The builder placed the bridge about 3/4" shy of proper placement, causing terrible intonation.
Bottom Feeder Tip #381: When determining the exact placement of a bridge, all you have to do is measure the distance from the front of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret, then double that distance. That’s where to place the bridge. I could tell that this neck came off of a First Act guitar with a 25.5" scale.
The author added a top-loading Stratocaster replacement bridge, acquired online for $5, to cure the guitar’s intonation
and re-stringing problems.
The other problem I encountered was the bridge itself. It was a cheap, non-intonated, one-piece bridge that required stringing the guitar from inside the cigar box. That meant taking the neck and bridge completely off to get to the inside—crazy, especially if you break a string onstage. The solution? I went on eBay and found a black Strat bridge that could be top loaded—strung right behind the bridge instead of underneath it. I reinforced the box on the inside, right under where the new bridge would be installed, in order to make sure the string tension would not pull the bridge out. That little $5 bridge solved all my problems after I placed it in the right spot. The result? A great-playing guitar!
A decal from a different cigar brand keeps with the aromatic theme while adding a cool retro look to the headstock.
So how does it sound? You can listen to my MP3 online and hear for yourself. The older Silvertone pickups are surprisingly robust and meaty for single-coils. To my ears, they sound like Strat pickups on steroids. And because both pickups have mounting rings, I can adjust them to get as close to the strings as I want. That’s no small feat for these homemade builds. So is it a keeper? You bet. I’ve bought three or four more CBGs from Robert-C, because all of his guitars have a kind of musical personality that I like.