Johnson estimated in 1992 that he had built 60 violins, in the process working with such distinguished players as Jack Glatzner and Leonie Darby (one of Johnson's closest friends). He gave her a violin in 1985 after her own one was smashed by burglars. She later wrote that it was "the most magnificent violin I have ever played or seen", and played it with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Salzburg Festival of Music and the Leningrad and Finnish State orchestras.

John Godschall Johnson, Violin maker, 1912-2003
obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald