“If I want to own 150 tweed amps, it’s my business”: Joe Bonamassa on why people should chill about his gear collection
“There’s plenty of everything. I don’t think people realise how much shit Leo Fender and Ted McCarty and all those companies made between 1950 and 1965.”
Image: Gina Wetzler / Getty
If there’s one thing Joe Bonamassa loves as much as playing guitar, it’s collecting them. The blues artist is reported to own a mighty gear collection spanning over 1,000 items, all kept safely in his “Nerdville” museum.
His mighty collection has been met with criticism over the years, with some musicians arguing that it’s not fair for Bonamassa to hoard so many items of gear, but in his own words, “it’s my business”.
For Total Guitar’s new print issue, he explains, “I share my collection because it’s part of who I am. At the end of the day, I’m a collector. If you don’t understand why I need so many, then I would say you don’t understand what collecting is. Rory Gallagher is a great example. Everyone thought he just played that sunburst Strat and it was the only guitar he owned. But Rory had hundreds of guitars and a lot of amps. Donal [Rory’s brother] told me he had over 200.
“Anybody who gets into guitar and has a little extra money can always justify any purchase. It’s not a bad thing. If Slash wants to go out and corner the market on sunburst Les Pauls, it’s his right to do it because he earned the money. It’s his life’s work, you know? If I want to own 150 tweed amps, it’s my business and my life’s work. It doesn’t matter to anyone else.”
He adds, “There are plenty of tweed Champs and Deluxes for everyone. There’s plenty of everything. I don’t think people realise how much shit Leo Fender and Ted McCarty and all those companies made between 1950 and 1965. Slash and I have threatened to get together in LA. He’s been collecting since the early ‘90s.”
Bonamassa continues, “When he started making money with his band, he started calling up [Guitars R Us dealer] Albert Molinaro saying, ‘I want a sunburst, I want an Explorer, I want this and that’! And it was done, albeit they were much cheaper back then than they are now! And he’s still collecting. I think he bought one or two sunbursts last year, one of which came from England. I believe it was a ‘00’ 1960. He’s got some really great guitars.”
Bonamassa is to release a new live album this June, recorded at the Hollywood Bowl. Find out more over at his official website, where you can pre-order it now.