“I didn’t do a ton of exploration on the f-hole idea. If I had to do it again, I might do it completely differently”: Eric Johnson broke new ground with his first semi-hollow Fender Strat – but he’d take inspiration from Gibson if he ever made another

Eric Johnson playing his Fender Thinline Stratocaster.

When Fender unveiled the Eric Johnson Thinline Stratocaster back in 2018, it made history as the firm’s first-ever semi-hollow Strat to feature a custom-chambered design with traditional arm and body contours – but despite its game-changing nature, it turns out not a whole lot of thought went into its creation.

At least, there wasn’t from Johnson himself, who admits in the new issue of Guitarist that his history-making signature guitar was the result of some rather cursory experimentation with the f-hole idea.