Mark Johnson custom guitars

[Elwood]

I just came across Mark's site...he has some interesting
instruments -

http://mjguitars.com/customshop.php

[louis cyfer]

some cool stuff.

[Aetrox]

Loooooong ago, think 1985, I lived in Rhonert park ca. I worked in Petaluma ca. between the two is a town called Cotati. In Cotati, there was a music shop run by a guy named, Frank Hayhurst it was called Zone music. At this time the house luthier was a guy named Mark Johnson. He had a couple of guitars that he had built for sale there, and they were AWESOME! I have a couple of regrets in my life, one of them is not buying one of his Hegira guitars that was for sale there. I was young and stupid, and I found a 1962 fender jazzmaster with a factory black finish and clay dot fret markers I wanted more, so I bought it. $189.00 in Santa Rosa. As fantastic as that guitar was, I made the wrong decision, and I regret it. I do not know anything else about the MJ guitars, even thought at the time he had switched from the Alembic style of construction to his current style, and the newer stuff was fantastic. If the quality of build is the same, and I can not help but believe so, these should be wonderful guitars. Also 1985 was a great time to live in that area, across the street from my work place was Mobile fidelity sound labs next door to them was Mesa Boogie. Up the road in Santa Rosa was Alembic and EMG. Taku Sakashta was in Rhonert park, not mention the guys who came through that area as well as recorded there, Tom Waits for one. It was great to be 19 back then. Here is a link to some of his earlier work.

http://alembic.com/club/messages/393/13 ... 1353710091

[Elwood]

Also 1985 was a great time to live in that area, across the street from my work place was Mobile fidelity sound labs next door to them was Mesa Boogie. Up the road in Santa Rosa was Alembic and EMG. Taku Sakashta was in Rhonert park, not mention the guys who came through that area as well as recorded there, Tom Waits for one.

No doubt,
I think I was stuck in cowtown USA (pullman wa) in '85 , I was also 19 .
To know what we do now, eh ?

elwood

[suave eddie]

Loooooong ago, think 1985, I lived in Rhonert park ca. I worked in Petaluma ca. between the two is a town called Cotati. In Cotati, there was a music shop run by a guy named, Frank Hayhurst it was called Zone music. At this time the house luthier was a guy named Mark Johnson. He had a couple of guitars that he had built for sale there, and they were AWESOME! I have a couple of regrets in my life, one of them is not buying one of his Hegira guitars that was for sale there. I was young and stupid, and I found a 1962 fender jazzmaster with a factory black finish and clay dot fret markers I wanted more, so I bought it. $189.00 in Santa Rosa. As fantastic as that guitar was, I made the wrong decision, and I regret it. I do not know anything else about the MJ guitars, even thought at the time he had switched from the Alembic style of construction to his current style, and the newer stuff was fantastic. If the quality of build is the same, and I can not help but believe so, these should be wonderful guitars. Also 1985 was a great time to live in that area, across the street from my work place was Mobile fidelity sound labs next door to them was Mesa Boogie. Up the road in Santa Rosa was Alembic and EMG. Taku Sakashta was in Rhonert park, not mention the guys who came through that area as well as recorded there, Tom Waits for one. It was great to be 19 back then. Here is a link to some of his earlier work.

I was in Santa Rosa from 1978 to 2007. I bought my Mesa Subway Blues and Pacific Woodworks Thiele cab from Frank at Zone Music. I still have both. (Pacific Woodworks was an ex-Mesa employee).

My son still has a Mark Johnson bass from his early days in Cotati.

Mark wasn't the only Alembic alumni to work in Sonoma County. Do you remember Michael Dolan? He started at Alembic also. He was the tech at Andress Sound for a while until he opened his own luthiery and repair shop. He did a lot of work for me over the years. He is responsible for all the mods on the SC-1 in my avatar. Apparently he has moved to Lake County.

[Aetrox]

Eddie, I wish I could say that I was familiar with Dolan's work, but I guess I just missed it. I checked out his current web site and there was some really pretty stuff there. This brings up a subject that I have pondered for a while, wouldn't it be neat if some one was able to write a book on all the guys who went through the Alembic shop? I suspect that if one were to look in to it perhaps the forgotten or unnoticed legacy of Alembic is all the talent that left there. Not to mention that most of the guys do not really talk about that experience very much, makes me wonder whether of not Wickersham is just a hard guy to work for or not. Oh well. But no I never met Dolan, wish I had. Thanks for the post.

[Aetrox]

Elwood, you are so right about knowing what we know now!!!!!!! As much fun as it was I missed out on a few opportunities due to family loyalty, I was working for an uncle at the time. Oh well as they say, nothing ventured nothing gained, life happens when you are making other plans.

[GDub]

Nice little piece of Sonoma County history here on the good ol' G&LDP. Zone music closed a couple of years ago (Frank is still around but I haven't seen him gig in a while), but there's a new music store in the space called "Loud and Clear Audio Visual." Blair Hardman still operates Zone Recording in the same space. My friend has owned the building for years.

http://www.lncav.com/

I've lived in the area since 1976 (Cotati from '76 - '78 and again from '91 - '94--now in Petaluma). My band just played the Cotati Accordion Festival for the 8th time this past weekend. Lotta history here, and lots of GREAT musicians lit up the stages at the long gone Inn of The Beginning and Cotati Cabaret back in the day.

--GDub

[Elwood]

That sounds like a blast GDub!

Not to mention that most of the guys do not really talk about that experience very much, makes me wonder whether of not Wickersham is just a hard guy to work for or not. Oh well. But no I never met Dolan, wish I had. Thanks for the post.

An Alembic employee book would be cool. there were some interesting projects going on in the off hours.

I can only guess being fastidious about quality control would be the biggest thing,
having a light hearted genius for a boss would a joy .
This pic reminds me of some of Einstein's funnier photos.

[GDub]

That sounds like a blast GDub!

There's always a good time to be had in Cotati! We usually spend a total of about 24 hours at the Cotati Accordion Festival, playing a 45 minute set somewhere in the lineup during the weekend, running a booth for independent artists, and hanging with the homies. It's one of those "everyone knows everybody" kind of events.

Here's an article about the music scene at the Inn of The Beginning over the years:

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonom ... -9846.html

I saw a LOT of great bands (and had a LOT of fun!) at the Inn of The Beginning back in the day. Some nights were EPIC!

--GDub

[suave eddie]

That sounds like a blast GDub!

There's always a good time to be had in Cotati! We usually spend a total of about 24 hours at the Cotati Accordion Festival, playing a 45 minute set somewhere in the lineup during the weekend, running a booth for independent artists, and hanging with the homies. It's one of those "everyone knows everybody" kind of events.

Here's an article about the music scene at the Inn of The Beginning over the years:

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonom ... -9846.html

I saw a LOT of great bands (and had a LOT of fun!) at the Inn of The Beginning back in the day. Some nights were EPIC!

--GDub

I can say the same for the old Cotati Caberet.

[tparkergl]

I lived in Petaluma for a long time and around 87 or maybe 88 I decided I wanted a Guitar that was modeled after Steve Vai's Carvin. This guitar was a "super strat" and would eventually be what the Ibanez Jem would be. I lost the article and went in to Zone music and talked to someone at Mark Johnson's small shop, not sure if it was Mark or not. I described what I wanted. 24 fret, neck throught the body (different from Vai's model), Rececced Floyd Rose that was dig out in the rear (very hard to explaine at the time), enlarged horns (I didn't convey this well enough), scaloped horns like an SG, a thunder bolt for the 12th fret marker, a velvet blue color, JB humbucker in bridge and hot rail in neck, no finish on the neck. That guitar cost me $900 or so back then. I loved it. I still have it and the neck feels like home every time I play it. Like a good pair of shoes or Jeans or what have you. The only regret I had is that I sold my Fender I bought at Zone Music to help with the cost.

The weird thing, I found this other dude with what looks like the same guitar I had custom built. I have no idea what that story is.