The artistry of Johnny A.
by Geoff Clarke

Growing up on Boston's North Shore, Johnny A. caught the music bug early. By the age of 9 he was earning his keep playing drums on the birthday party/bar mitzvah circuit, but with the onset of the British Invasion, Johnny knew that his place was in front of the band as a guitar player.

With supportive parents and a $49 starter guitar in hand, Johnny began the journey which would eventually lead to a career as a respected solo artist - and his own Gibson Signature model guitar. But he hit a road block almost immediately when he couldn't figure out how to tune the instrument. "I was tuning it to Do Re Mi, and finally a friend taught me the right way," he relates. With this first mystery solved, he began to work in earnest, figuring out melodies by ear as so many other players before (and since) have done. This process led to more revelations: "While performing in the kitchen for some of my mom's friends, they pointed out that I should be using ALL of the strings, not just the one I was playing the entire melody on - what a concept, huh?" he says with a laugh.

During high school, Johnny was immersed in the vibrant Boston music scene of the early '70s that produced bands like Aerosmith, Boston, the J. Geils Band, and the Cars, and for the next decade worked leading his own bands and scoring several regional hits, as well as opening slots on national tours with the likes of Aerosmith and Bob Seger. Finally his big break came in the form of ex-J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf.

"I, along with every other guitarist in Boston, auditioned for a one-off gig Peter had been booked for. I got the job, but after eight weeks of rehearsal, the gig was cancelled," Johnny recalls. "Peter booked a handful of shows just so he could pay us, which was nice." Somehow, those shows turned into several years on the road internationally and in the U.S., as well as a co-producer credit on Wolf's 1996 album Long Line. When Wolf stopped touring, Johnny decided to carry on as a solo artist focused on instrumental music.

1999's self-released Sometime Tuesday Morning was an instrumental tour de force which established him as a bona fide guitar hero, while keeping the listener's focus on songs with warm tones, an intimate and atmospheric vibe, and economic solos. "I had gotten to a point in my life where it was just about leaving something behind I could be proud of," he explains. "Although it is an instrumental guitar record, I wanted it to be about how the guitar served the song and not a platform in which the song was an excuse for me to solo endlessly." The album was also a celebration of the wide array of styles, from jazz, blues, pop/rock and country music, those forces that had played a role in the creation of his sophisticated and melodic style.

Regional airplay and touring helped Johnny to sell almost 10,000 copies of the album on his own, but he needed the distribution channels of a major record label. When a copy of the album found its way into guitar wizard-turned-record executive Steve Vai's hands, Vai immediately signed Johnny to his fledgling Favored Nations label. The album sold well and was critically heralded worldwide, prompting Vai to re-sign him to a multi-record deal. Favored Nations will release Get Inside, Johnny's much-anticipated second record, in February 2004.

After brief flirtations with other brands, Johnny A. has reacquainted himself with Gibson (his original guitar of choice) during the last 10 years and Gibson's Custom, Art & Historic division now offers the new Johnny A. Signature model.

"I got my first Gibson when I traded my old Gretsch drums and $90 for a new Les Paul Goldtop - which I still have - in 1969. I started using Gibsons again in '94 when I was with Peter Wolf," he explains. "Wolf is an R&B-based cat, and I started listening to records by the guys he was influenced by and came to the realization that a lot of that stuff was done on Gibsons. A lot of the early country guys were using Gibsons. It collided with the period of time I was OD'ing on Fender, and Gibson was making good guitars again."

For the recording of Sometime Tuesday Morning he mainly used Custom historic guitars including a 1959 Les Paul Reissue and ES-295 (both Bigsby-equipped), an ES-335, a Firebird VII, and an L-5 CES. It was the challenge of recreating the tones found on the album at his gigs that led to creation of his signature model. Feedback issues with the hollowbody ES-295 had forced Johnny to switch to the '59 Les Paul Reissue, but he missed the woody tone and size of the 295 and knew he needed to find a middle ground. A year's worth of research and development with Gibson Custom led to the uniquely shaped and constructed Johnny A. Signature model, a guitar that harkens back to Gibson's golden age of the '50s and '60s and which Johnny calls "a modern classic."

The double cutaway body shape (reminiscent of Gibson's Barney Kessel model from the 1960s) is longer, wider, and thinner than a Les Paul, while not as big as a 295. These dimensions make the guitar more comfortable for Johnny, who found that he was having back pain from leaning over the smaller-bodied Les Paul (he sits during his live shows).

The feedback problems he had experienced with the ES-295 were addressed with a unique combination of solutions. First, the back and rims are carved from one piece of wood (similar to the CS-336 and 356); then, instead of leaving it contoured to match the outer surface, the interior of the back is sanded flat. Johnny contends that these factors make the guitar resonate more like a flattop than a traditional hollowbody instrument, which not only squelches feedback - he plays with his monitors wide open and right in front of him - but also contributes to the guitar's bright, snappy response. The Johnny A. model also features an exclusive neck shape and a 25 " scale length which, in combination with the neck and headstock angles, give the guitar the smooth, loose feel that he prefers.

Although Johnny was more than willing to use innovative construction ideas to achieve his tonal goals, he also wanted his Signature model to reflect the ideas that have made Gibson the player's choice for over 100 years. As such, the guitar employs only solid woods (carved maple top, mahogany back/rims, ebony fingerboard), gold hardware, multi-ply binding, and pearl headstock and fingerboard inlays (albeit with a custom shape). An optional Bigsby tailpiece and '57 Classic humbuckers complete the vintage vibe that he wanted to achieve.

So, is the guitar everything Johnny expected it to be? "Sometimes when you have something in your head, it doesn't live up to your expectations. But in this case, the realization of this guitar has exceeded how I thought it would turn out. I'm quite happy with it, and it's all over my new record," he concludes.