Seymour Duncan recreates the P-90s in Joe Bonamassa’s prized pawnshop 1961 Gibson SG Special
Blues maestro Joe Bonamassa has teamed up with pickup powerhouse Seymour Duncan on a new set of Custom Shop P-90s.
Recreating the sound of the P-90s in his treasured 1961 Gibson SG Special – which made him fall in love with the sound of P=90s in the first place – the Joe Bonamassa “Pawn Shop Special” 1961 P90 Set utilises Alnico 4 magnets, a custom wind and “historically accurate components” to deliver “airy highs, expressive midrange and snarling overdrive”.
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Joe Bonamassa’s love affair with P-90s began in 2010, when he discovered his now-prized ‘61 Gibson SG Special at a pawn shop while on tour. Though dating back to the first year Gibson ever launched the now famous SG model, the guitar is said to have been a “pristine example of a first-year SG Special”.
As he remembers, he was alerted to the presence of the pawn shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana by a member of his crew.
“Very rarely do you find a special guitar in a pawn shop,” Bonamassa says. “Well, one day in 2010, I was playing the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne. It was the middle of winter, and I heard there was a pawn shop around the corner with an interesting SG from one of the crew guys.”
He continues: “I ended up bringing it back to the Embassy Theatre. I plugged it in, and these particular P-90s were the P-90s that I was searching for. Over the years, I always thought they were either too dark or too bright; not for me. But this was the beginning of my love affair with P-90s.”
Seymour Duncan has been tasked with recreating the pickups of some of Joe Bonamassa’s vintage guitars in the past, but this collaboration marks the first time the brand has made a custom Joe Bonamassa P-90 set.
The pickups are outfitted with historically accurate dimpled P-90 bottom plates, covers and other period-correct details, and come wax potted as per JoBo’s preferences for his live performances.
Owing to the special place that ‘61 “Pawn Shop Special” SG has in Bonamassa’s collection – it was the very first instrument he catalogued, marking it as inventory item #001 – the first 610 sets of the new pickups come with a Nerdville #001 inventory tag, plus a certificate of authenticity signed by both Joe and Seymour Duncan.
Nerdville, of course, refers to the two locations in LA and Nashville where Joe Bonamassa houses his vast collection of vintage instruments.
The Joe Bonamassa “Pawn Shop Special” pickups are available now, priced at $375 a set.
Learn more at Seymour Duncan.
Credit: Seymour Duncan
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
