Joe Bonamassa owns more than 600 guitars, including some of the world’s most coveted vintage instruments. But when asked to name one of his favorites, the blues star didn’t reach for a pristine six-figure Les Paul or rare Fender.
Instead, he picked a heavily modified 1968 Fender Telecaster.
Speaking to Guitar Center, Bonamassa explained that the guitar’s appeal has little to do with originality or collector value. In fact, its previous owner permanently altered it by routing the body to accommodate a pair of Gibson PAF humbuckers — one of the most sought-after pickups ever made.
Bonamassa isn’t the first guitarist to embrace the combination. Eddie Van Halen famously loaded Gibson PAF humbuckers into his legendary Frankenstein.
“I bought this guitar from a guy in Daytona Beach, Florida about 15 years ago. It wasn’t a lot of money,” Bonamassa says. “I plugged it in, and it was magic.”
“It’s basically a Gibson Les Paul jammed into a Fender Telecaster,” he continues. “But the difference is you have a maple neck and an ash body. And they sound great. Sometimes a hybrid can turn out to be the best.”
That recipe gives the guitar a distinctly different voice from a traditional Les Paul, whose mahogany body and neck produce a warmer, thicker sound. Bonamassa says the Telecaster’s ash body and maple neck bring extra clarity and bite to the vintage Gibson pickups.
“That’s the beauty of a Fender Telecaster,” he says. “You can pretty much do anything to it. The ash body does something cool with the humbucking pickups.”
He also points to the electric guitar’s 500k potentiometers, which help brighten the PAFs and tighten their high end, creating a remarkably versatile instrument.
“Now, do I suggest going out there and buying a very expensive vintage Telecaster, taking a pin router to it and jamming a whole bunch of pickups in there? No,” he says. “If they’re already modified, then that’s the beauty of it. You can save yourself some money and have literally just a utility plank that can play anything.”
That’s exactly how Bonamassa uses it.
“I’ve used this guitar for jazz fusion gigs; I’ve used it for rock gigs. I’ve used it for everything, because it has so much flexibility.”
He laughs that audiences often underestimate the instrument before hearing it in action.
“This is one of my favorite secret weapons,” he says. “When I bring it out, people discount it. Then they hear it.”
The guitar now bears plenty of battle scars—many of them Bonamassa’s own—after years of regular use.
Its status as one of the most-played guitars in his collection is especially notable given Bonamassa’s changing attitude toward collecting. After the devastating Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year, the blues guitarist said he has begun curtailing his relentless pursuit of vintage gear, placing greater value on the instruments he already owns.
For Bonamassa, this modified Telecaster is proof that a guitar doesn’t have to be museum-grade to earn a permanent place in the rotation. Sometimes the best instrument is simply the one that makes you want to keep playing.
