“I buy them from Sweetwater”: Vintage obsessive Joe Bonamassa’s pedalboard consists entirely of “standard-issue” modern effects
He’s got one of the biggest vintage guitar collections in the world. A reputation for being a certified gearhead and tone obsessive. He also purchases standard-issue pedals straight from Sweetwater.
Yes, we’re talking about Joe Bonamassa, whose pedalboard is surprisingly no-frills for someone with access to nearly any piece of gear imaginable.
READ MORE: Joe Bonamassa has bought his own sunburst Fender Strat in preparation for his Rory Gallagher tribute gigs
Speaking on the new issue of Guitarist, Bonamassa reveals just how low-maintenance his effects setup actually is when asked if any of his pedals – like the MXR Micro Flanger, for instance – had been modded.
“Nope, standard issue – I buy them out of Sweetwater,” says the blues legend.
“There’s a Tube Screamer that is either an ‘80 or an ‘81. A Micro Pog and a Fuzz Face that goes through the Twins. Then the switcher and the wah and the Fulltone [Supa-] Trem and a Way Huge Conspiracy Theory.”
“The rest of it’s just junction boxes, you know: inputs for the amps, and a junction box, basically, to get to the switcher and out, and then there’s the two boxes that power everything.”
As with his pedalboard, Bonamassa prefers to keep his amplifiers simple as well.
Whether he’s sitting in for a night or flying in for a special appearance, the musician previously revealed that his priority is just to “bring something that’s appropriate” for the gig at hand.
“The older I get, the more I prioritise my general condition and the condition of my back,” he said. “If I’m in L.A., I have a lot of stairs. What goes down must come up.”
So when he’s just dropping in for a guest spot, Bonamassa keeps things light: “I just scale accordingly. It’s only one guitar, a gig bag, a protector case, and a cable.”
“If I’m just sitting in, I just prefer to play through whatever’s there,” he added.
“The only thing that will make me bring my own amp is if they go, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a Princeton Reverb’ and it’s a live band. Well, you can’t really move the needle there; it’s not loud enough. You’re just peaked.”
Meanwhile, Bonamassa is set to play a trio of Rory Gallagher tribute concerts in Cork next week – and in a move that perfectly sums up his guitar-obsessive spirit, he recently purchased a Fender Stratocaster from none other than Crowley’s Music Centre, the very shop that sold Gallagher his iconic 1963 Strat, in preparation.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
