On The Record: Joe Bonamassa on his 550 vintage guitars

Joe Bonamassa discusses the release of his new record, Blues Deluxe Volume 2, which marks the 20th anniversary of the first volume. He explains that the decision to create a second volume was driven by a desire to do more than just remaster the original record. Bonamassa also discusses his gear, including vintage guitars and amps, and offers advice for buying vintage instruments. He emphasizes the importance of taking time to research and handle authentic guitars and warns about the pitfalls of the vintage guitar market. Despite having a large collection of guitars, Bonamassa enjoys the hunt and the satisfaction of finding rare instruments. He also shares that his first guitar was a 63 Stratocaster. Success is what whatever you defined it for yourself. Okay, you never look at another artist and go I want that But you know, I should have what they have and there's a lot of people look at me I should have what Joe has that's the wrong way to look at it. Are you happy? Are you fulfilled? Hi, this is Joe Bonamassa and you're watching listening to on the record with ultimate guitar All right now, well, thank you so much for being here You got a new record coming out Blues deluxe volume 2 what made you decide it's time for volume 2 We're creeping up on a couple decades since the first one. Well, it is the 20th anniversary The first and first of all when we did the first one, there was no guarantee. There was a volume 2 There was no violence. It was just blues a lot. That was the last shot we had To stay in business, so I wanted to do something that was More I want to do something that was more than just remastering a record for the sake of doing it and We didn't have any bonus tracks from 20 years ago. So I was like we got to do another volume So I asked Josh Smith if you wanted to do it and and there we go All right, and how'd you settle on the songs for this one? Are they songs that maybe didn't make the first volume? The first volume was basically the live show with a couple of originals thrown in with Basically the last $10,000 that my manager of now 33 years and myself had okay There was no master plan in 2000 with three it was survival. It was we are going out of business. There was there is no business There is no opportunity for anything. There's there's no there's there's no tours. There's no sessions There's no nothing We did two albums one with a major label one with another album label and and it didn't work out radio didn't want to play anything that I was involved in and we were basically nowhere, so There was no like well, I'm going to keep these for the 20th anniversary No, there was none of that thought going on. This was a truly a new Group of songs because I didn't think I was going to do a record like this again But I just said, you know, we got to do something for the 20th anniversaries. It's still like blues. I like still one of the biggest Selling Pieces in our catalog and it's it it still resonates with people I want to do something else and just ask myself the question like better worse, you know, push bet, you know from 20 years ago So we're deer nerds, of course It's nice to be talking to a fellow gear nerd What what sort of gear we hearing on that record as far as guitars and amps and effects as any? well, I'm lucky now in 2023 like when we go well, I want something like the blues breakers Let's get the right kit. So when you like songs like done got over it That sounds like the blues breaker tone, it's a JTM 45 from 1966 and a 59 less ball Everything from three three five strats old strats There was a dumbbell involved It was an ultra phonics modded fiberlux that I have You know tweed twin, I think there was a high-powered tree twin cuz I blew up the low-powered one and Yeah, so it's all it's really just season to taste there's a flying V on the Albuquerque song 1967 You know, I mean I Have all the right kit I don't know if you're familiar with me at all, but I'm one of the bigger guitar collectors in the world So I'm lucky enough to have access to all of this and I use it. I don't just you know, stick it behind glass Right. I've always appreciated that about you and you're 59 Can you give us a little background on your your favorite guitar that's 59 that you use, you know, I got 15 of them So which one are you asking about in particular? Your favorite one the one that you is it the Skinner burst. Is that your number one? No, we're getting somewhere Skinner burst. Yes the Skinner burst is My favorite it was my second and I still have the first one the Jellin And I called it a jolly cuz I took it around the world the Skinner burst my favorite it's my that's my desert island guitar Oddly enough did not use it on Did not use it on blues deluxe volume 2 for some reason I used this thing that I bought in Clearwater, Florida from the original owner and was the albosco guitar and It just sounded good. And plus I hadn't been playing it. So I was like I gotta get it out You know and and see if it still works So, you know, it just depends on on the song It just depends on the mood like I'm about to make a record with Mike Zito and I'm gonna bring some guitars I haven't seen the light of day in years just because I want to get them working again, you know, and it's you know It's important that it's important that you do that You know, you just don't want to sit around because they do break, you know, they like you plug them in You know, that's that's what's also the sign that they're old, you know and cranky like me And I always look for you For advice on buying vintage guitars. So when you're in the market for a vintage guitar, what's the first thing you look at? What are some maybe warning signs for people out there looking into buying vintage gear the vintage guitar market is a public pool filled with bull sharks and If you're not careful You'll be consumed Lockstock and Barrow by said bull sharks Here's the thing when you're when you decide you want to start a collection Take your time like this this whole thing didn't happen overnight it is you you methodically research things and Not only do you want to methodically research things? You want to handle as many? Authentic guitars as you possibly can Because the books are not absolutions, you know, because I always say There's a lot of great books out there that have specific information That may or may not align with guitars that were owned by the person who owned who wrote the books so The more that you see and the more time that you take, you know, it's not a flex It's not a it's not a situation where you want to let go Well, you know, I really need to get all of this in the next year. I want to get my 59 I want to get my that's what you're gonna that's when you're gonna find out how many bull sharks there are in the public pool and You can make huge mistakes Really quickly by thinking you're getting a deal and it's not a deal. It's actually a fake or something with some incredibly something wrong with it and you want to make sure that a first and foremost you Like the instrument because it could it could zero out over the next 20 years It could be worth nothing could be worth one US dollar. Okay, or a euro or a pound and If it's worth a pound Then to be honest with you, you still have to love it Like if the Skinner burst was worth nothing like like like less than a gallon of gasoline Or or this 20 ounce diet coke? Okay, I'd still love the damn thing and I'd still keep it for the rest of my life. It has no value Okay I the only time that guitar will have a monetary value put on it is when I'm dead and gone and at that point I don't care, you know because I'm gonna keep it forever And I'm lucky enough to have been in a position where I could do that so when you get into when you get involved in the guitar market, just just be careful and And You want to buy from trusted sources and even if you have to pay more buy from trusted sources because it's again You know, there's no car fax on these damn things You know, you got you're in charge of making these these these you're in charge of going Well, this is this is right. This is wrong You know Nobody's going to come out and tell you unless they're like super honest and they do that But but some people do and some people don't It's a tough market to be into and I would imagine you run into a lot of the bull sharks as you would as you Say it makes me curious, you know, we talked about the mojo of vintage instruments What is it about those vintage instruments that keeps you coming back and having to deal with these bull sharks to get these this amazing? Gear that's such a part of our history. I know the bull sharks. I'm friends with the bull shark. I still buy from the bull shark Okay, no everybody It's a small world I Don't need a guitar. I have 550 of them. I don't just I could play one a year for the next half Half a millennium. Okay, so I don't need a guitar. I enjoy guitar collecting I Enjoy stuff. I enjoy it's the fine. It's the hunt. It's finding it finding it under a bed finding in Places you don't you never realize, you know filling in some gaps and in the collection going, you know Yeah, that'll be really cool. If we you know find it, you know triple-o Martin or something like that, you know from the early 40s You know, it's those are the kind of things that you just wait around, you know I'm not actively pounding the pavement going. I gotta get this today, you know It's like if it comes along, you know, and I know there's a lot of Competition now and everybody flexes on Instagram. Look what I found before you doesn't matter, you know Yeah, do I have enough kit to? Ten lifetimes. Absolutely, you know, I don't need anything. So I I roll when I can and And if I see something rare, I have the I have the I'm blessed and cursed with the good eye I can tell you the rare thing I can tell you why and I and my eyes go right to the to the mint thing You know, whatever it is, you know something that you don't see all the time, you know Cuz I I'm around it all the time And if you if you you know Even in 2023 if you don't see something, you know, especially with the Internet and everything else, that's rare You know, there's rare and rare, you know, like a sunburst strap from the 1950s is not exactly rare They made tens of thousands, you know, they're old But they're not rare in the in the sense that that there's not many to be had I read somewhere that your first guitar was a 63 Strat. Is that correct? I understand you folks had a music shop So I'm sure you had kind of your your pick of the litter when it came to guitars Why'd you land on the strap? My first guitar was a was an Erlenwein Chiquita. Oh That was three-quarter scale that Santa Claus bought me brought me when I was five years old My first full-scale guitar was a was an import Strat called a JB player and I liked it because it had my initials on it My first real vintage guitar was a 54 Strat that I bought when I was 13 and my great-grandmother Inherited some money from my great-grandmother some US Treasury bonds that have matured and My mom and dad were nice enough to let me buy a 54 Strat which was the grand sum of $4,000 at the time and That was my first real vintage guitar shortly thereafter. I got a 63 at a guitar show in Philadelphia that that I still have but I always had Stuff like when I had four guitars, I thought I had like the biggest collection in the world Four guitars same but no, they my very first electric my very first guitar. It was it was an Erlenwein Chiquita they still make them. It's a little three-quarter scale What were some of the first songs that you tried to learn and I would assume you learned by ear Did you use tabs? Did you have the books? back in my day, we had cassettes and and vinyl and first the very first song I learned was voodoo child slight return and You know, I was about seven when I just was like kind of got you know I had my first communion so I bought a wah, you know Cuz the Italian kids in upstate New York when they get their first communion you clean up you get like okay, like a couple hundred bucks and I Convinced my mother and my mom and dad to let me spend it on $65 for a Dunlop private. I don't have the wah. I don't know what happened I have a signature wah now, so it goes all the way back to my first communion So we often think of guitars as tools But the guitars can also be an inspiration for us and kind of inspire some of the songs that we write Are there some pieces of gear that you've been finding really inspirational lately? Well, you certain guitars have songs in them certain guitars. You don't want to play certain guitars are so preserved they're just This is crazy. It's like new condition. And then there's some beat up thing that you know You don't think it's worth a lot or whatever. And next thing, you know, you write ten songs on it. I'm like, okay, that's it It's a binary thing people people are are absolutely Drawn to that, you know certain players just they have their thing but have their you know Alvarez or you know Gibson acoustic that just turns out the tunes So you've had such a career How do you define success at this stage in your career? Success is what whatever you defined it for yourself Okay, you never look at another artist and go I want that But you know, I should have what they have and there's a lot of people look at me I should have what Joe has that's the wrong way to look at it. Are you happy? Are you fulfilled? You know? Is your lifetime? You know these are these are You know before you get to the happy and fulfilled a lot a lot of artists struggle with keeping a lifetime And it's a hard business to monetize. It's a hard It's a very hard business to be in you know, and people's like well, I think the music business in 2023 is impossible It's not impossible. It's very difficult winning. The lottery is not impossible either by the way There are odds and people do win the lottery so the reality of Getting involved and Making music you have to have this barometer going If I like it, and I'm passionate about it, and I believe in it. That's all you need because if you don't believe in yourself, how would you expect to get others to believe in you and That's a very That's the only way to look at it these days You know and success comes slowly, and it doesn't hit you in the back of the head you you know one day you wake up, you know like wow we're doing pretty good here and Because you just took nine million steps to get there Was it like you step you did one step, and then you were you were just launched out of a rocket ship You know it happens to some people but again people do win the lottery It's very rare, but there's a lot of sweat even even artists that come out and quote nowhere If you look at their past if you deep dive into their past There's a lot of sweat equity involved. They just did they're not flutes. You know Chris Stapleton's not a flute. He's been around hey You know and it's undeniable once-in-a-generation talent that that comes out like well. Where's he been well? He he was kicking around Nashville writing songs Sitting in with Mike Anderson at the Bluebird singing blues. It's not overnight and He put the sweat equity in he stayed in the game and then next thing you know he's he's Chris Stapleton one of the greatest of all time So I had another gear question for you. What are your thoughts on the amp modelers and stuff? Would you ever consider using those or do you prefer to stick with the the tried-and-true to them I? At this at this stage of my life I I'm not I'm not actively searching a digital solution to problems Does it work for some people absolutely is is there merit to it all Absolutely, do I think it sounds better? No Do I think it sounds close enough? Yes? Do I think guitar players should own it yes It's like it's like you know if you're at you know so what's what you're ready off. I got a fractal no No, just own it Just own it. That's great. I got a I got a this just on it You know if it's getting the sound that you want in your head, then there's no right or wrong I find that the getting the digital tweaked To where it sounds close to an amp. There's a lot more steps in it than just Plugging an amp in in a cable, but sticking a mic in front of them You know There's a lot more you have to be a lot more you have to read the manual. You know a tweed deluxe or a Princeton or a twin is like six knobs You know I think it's weed the lights. I got three. You know like there's not many options here It's like turn it on turn it up and go you know Twins got seven It's got presence in mid-range and bass and treble and to my it's not not not a lot of Not a lot of options there some of them ever even Before we go is is there anything you'd like to say to that kid who just got his first guitar He's on ultimate guitar looking up some tabs to learn his favorite bomb off the song and giving advice to that kid just start now Learn it don't learn it to the point where it sounds exactly the same always put your own spin on it You know I never learned anything note for note I didn't I didn't I didn't see the reason why and I still don't you know I mean yeah If I was tasked to play the solo from Hotel, California with Don Felder you bet your ass I'm gonna learn it correctly because it's a very specific thing But if you're just learning licks off of records from your favorite players Okay, learn the gist of it Maybe learn the whole thing, but then don't just go this don't play it verbatim always try to put a spin on it because All your favorite players that have their own styles Generally did the exact same thing But then put their own spin on it and next thing you know they have their own stuff and people learning from them So that's a that's a good. That's a good way to look at you know and the other thing about guitar And I know this is like you know Controversial statements is is have fun it's supposed to be fun all this arguing and nitpicking other people and and Competition my favorites like oh So it's better than you you're better than none of it supposed to be fun Just play and enjoy and and and say to yourself. Hey listen I Am who I am no nothing better nothing worse Thank you so much for your time, and thank you for the new record it's awesome. Thanks for doing this I appreciate it You