Seeing Eric Johnson tonight

[Luthierwnc]

I leave in about 10 minutes. Expect full reports. Skip

[Luthierwnc]

Fun show. Some pretty amazing riffage and Roscoe Beck is a force of nature. Eric played a sunburst strat almost the whole gig except for a black maple neck strat at the encore. I couldn't get close enough to see the pedals but the main amp was a Marshall full stack -- plexi I think but could have been a metal front. I was told there was a DR next to it but there were a lot of tall people in front of it too.

sh

[908ssp]

I saw EJ in Detroit last spring. I don't think he had a good night. His playing was great as usually but his gear fetish has gotten him over loaded and dependent on everything working perfect and the sound man having to compensate for the building and stuff. I wish he would simplify his rig. He had a Marshall stack and a couple of Fender twins, a mixing board, a rack and his pedal board. He was pedal dancing and looking at his feet all night. He just didn't look like he wanted to be there.

My biggest complaint was that the Fenders are so bright and loud that the Marshall just sounded like mush. He would play the beginning of most songs with the clean Fender tone and switch to the Marshall for the solos which wouldn't cut through. He should get rid of the Fenders all together.

I was watching his Austin City Limits DVD the other night and a few times he would duck behind his stack and tweak something. Later you can clearly see his Dumble siting on a rack sideways there. It is clear that he is playing it there at the end because he makes an adjustment and plays few chords to check the sound before proceeding. I am pretty sure it was Steel String Special.