Unlike Slash, Dave Navarro, Zakk Wylde, John 5 and other more outwardly recognizable Los Angeles electric-guitar heroes, Joe Bonamassa can often walk through a bustling music store totally unnoticed.
I once watched him emerge from the vintage department at Guitar Center Hollywood while I was in the middle of judging a blues guitar contest in the main room. Even after he strolled straight through the proceedings to say hi to me for a minute, nobody else involved seemed to notice that there was a world-famous bluesman in their midst.
A better example of Bonamassa’s guitar-store stealth occurred in a Reno guitar shop some years back. Tempted by a pristine ’87 Marshall Silver Jubilee head (“I can’t have too many of those”), Bonamassa asked for the price.
“The guy at the counter said, ‘It’s $4,000,’” says Bonamassa. “I asked him why the price was so high, and he said, ‘Well, Slash used Jubilees for the Guns N’ Roses tone, and now this kid Joe Bonamassa is using them, so it’s $4,000.’”
Earlier this year, Bonamassa announced that he was putting the brakes on gear collecting. After amassing an enviable collection of more than 600 guitars — including numerous original Gibson Les Paul ’bursts, rare Fender Strats in original custom colors, Tommy Bolin’s 1960 “Bolin Burst” Les Paul and a mint 1958 Gibson Korina Flying V he purchased for more than $400,000 — Bonamassa says he’s reached “a saturation point.”
“I’d like to get to the stuff that I own and discover the sounds that I can get out of those pieces, before it just starts piling up and piling up and piling up.”
But throughout the years, one thing has been true about everything he’s bought: He plays it.
“I play what I own,” he explains. “There are no glass cases in my house, and I’m not a huge believer in hanging guitars by their necks. I wouldn’t want to be hung by the scruff of my neck on permanent display, and I think a guitar feels the same way—especially if it’s glued together, like an eight-pound Les Paul.”
According to Bonamassa, it doesn’t matter if you’re holding millions of dollars’ worth of guitars or just 800 bucks’ worth. “The trick with guitar collecting,” he says, “is to ask yourself, ‘If these were worth nothing at the end of the day, would I still love them and play them?’ If the answer is yes, you’re doing all right.
“If your dream guitar is a beat-up 1965 Harmony Rocket that’s been through a fire and a flood and looks like somebody took it into the backyard and shot holes into it with an old pistol, then that’s your dream guitar.”
