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DARK SECRETS: Joe bonamassa | Rare Historical Photos

“Sometimes you’ve gotta use popsicle sticks and put it on some low-budget scaffolding to get it to work”: Joe Bonamassa on how best to set up P-90s – and what sets them apart from humbuckers

Bonamassa has explained the difference between humbuckers and P-90s, as more big names are drawn towards the “best of both worlds” option

Guitar World

“Time is of the essence”: Joe Bonamassa issues public plea to help session player Mason Stoops recover his stolen vintage guitars

Stoops' 1965 Fender Jazzmaster and 1961 Gretsch Corvette were stolen in the Highland Park neighborhood in Los Angeles

Guitar World

“A friend of mine called me up and said, ‘I’ve got a couple of guitars you might be interested in…’” Joe Bonamassa’s storied Lazarus Les Paul, which was once brought back from the dead, has been bought by a pop-punk guitar hero

Lazarus was reissued as a Bonamassa signature Epiphone a few years ago – now it has a new owner

Guitar World

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“I can't walk away, so I've come back to do the thing I know how to do best, which is play”: Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival announces 2026 lineup

Now in its seventh edition, the festival is set to take place in Austin, Texas – and features Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, and John Mayer, while Trey Anastasio, Tommy Emmanuel, Julian Lage and Pete Townshend are all making their Crossroads debut

Guitar World

“When we did the tribute to my brother, we had B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy. And just to watch B.B. playing close up was amazing”: Jimmie Vaughan was a garbage man listening to B.B. King. Then he wound up touring with his hero

He once snuck into a B.B. King show aged 13. Now Jimmie Vaughan is part of Joe Bonamassa's all-star tribute to the King of the Blues – he explains how he approached tackling his hero's licks and what he learned from the master

Guitar World

Hotel bombings, car crashes, conspiracy theories, towering infernos and more: The A to Z of B.B. King

Introduction written by Joe Bonamassa

Louder

“With the solo, my mindset is that we’re at the start of a musical journey, and it’s my mission to tell a story”: Jared James Nichols on his melodic soloing ideas every guitar player can take from Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa and SRV

In his latest Guitar World column, the blues powerhouse channels Slowhand (and uses his own track Threw Me to the Wolves) for a lesson in lyrical leads

Guitar World

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“It sounds way bigger than it is”: Joe Bonamassa names his go-to studio amp – which he bought from Steven Seagal

The 1950s combo “roars” in the studio despite its compact size

Guitar World

“I’d never met B.B. and thought he’d look at me like, ‘Who the hell are you?’ So I just froze”: Warren Haynes remembers B.B. King – from being in awe to playing with him

Haynes was one of the many guitar greats whose lives have been changed by B.B. King, and thanks to Joe Bonamassa, he got to pay tribute to him on the song he would have chosen himself

Guitar World

“I just wasn’t ready to spend $250,000 on a guitar at that stage in my life and my career”: Butch Walker turned down the opportunity to buy the Greeny Les Paul before Kirk Hammett bought it

The singer-songwriter has since come to regret the decision, even if his bank balance thanks him for it

Guitar World

“I was 28 or something and he was 80. He’s like, ‘Here, son, this is how you do it.’ How sad is that?” Joe Bonamassa on the time BB King taught him how to use an iPod (and what made him blues guitar’s GOAT)

Bonamassa pays tribute to the undisputed king of the blues as a road dog who "knew everything" and was pretty handy with newfangled technologies, too

MusicRadar

“Joe said, ‘Check this out.’ It just so happened to be a quarter-of-a-million-dollar guitar that got the job done”: How Eric Gales enlisted Buddy Guy, Kingfish, Joe Bonamassa (and his guitar collection) to pay tribute to his brother

With a little help from Bonamassa and Josh Smith, Eric Gales put together one of the great 21st-century blues albums to honor his brother Little Jimmy King

Guitar World

“I was asked to sit in with Buddy Guy. John handed me his 1930s National and smiled while I struggled to get anything out of it”: Joe Bonamassa leads tributes for musical troubadour John Hammond, who has died aged 83

The prolific blues great once had Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton both sit in with his band

Guitar World

“Six highly collectible amplifiers valued at more than most homes are worth”: Looking for the holy grail tube tones of Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Carlos Santana and Robben Ford? IK Multimedia just put $300,000 of Dumble mojo into a Tonex One mini pedal

The Tonex One Double Special is a limited edition pedal preloaded with 20 models from two über-rare Dumbles – and the bundled software presents sounds from six Overdrive Specials

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Guitar World

“There was a big snowstorm. The governor asked him to postpone the show. He wouldn’t do it. He goes, ‘I told them I’m going to be here and I’m here’”: Joe Bonamassa on his friendship with the ultimate bluesman, B.B. King – and paying the ultimate tribute

B.B. King would have celebrated his 100th birthday in September last year. But when Joe Bonamassa discovered that the centenary was going almost unnoticed, he swung into action

Guitar World

“You never want to pull out cases and have no recollection of when, where or how you acquired it”: Joe Bonamassa is cutting back on his gear collecting habit

Bonamassa was forced to rethink his collection following the LA wildfires last year

Guitar World

“I’ve had great luck doing the exact opposite of what the internet tells me”: Joe Bonamassa on the ‘unorthodox’ Marshall hack he nicked from Zakk Wylde

The bluesman turned to the former Ozzy guitarist to get the most out of his Marshalls

Guitar World

“More than anything, I wanted to go, but I just froze”: Warren Haynes on the time he missed the chance to play with B.B. King

Haynes had witnessed the King play live years earlier – but when he first got the chance to jam with the blues icon, nerves got the better of him

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Guitar World

“There’s nothing they did for me that other amps hadn’t done before”: Eric Gales says he doesn’t understand all the fuss about Dumble amps

Yes, they sound great, says Gales, but they're not the only amp in the world to give you great tone

Guitar World

“Every modern guitarist from Joe Bonamassa to Jared James Nichols gets the same haters who say, ‘Everything you play is pentatonic’”: Meet Eric Steckel, the high-gain firebrand painting a new shade of blues guitar

The Knaggs signature artist has grown an international profile by importing heavy distortion into the blues and bending it to his will

Guitar World

“I’ve gone after three Soldanos. Eric Clapton’s, Mark Knopfler’s... and finally Gary’s came up”: Joe Bonamassa test drives Gary Moore’s iconic Soldano amp – which has been unplayed for 20 years

Bonamassa bought the historic amp head at auction last year

Guitar World

“I met him in 1990 when I was 13 years old. We became lifelong friends”: Joe Bonamassa pays tribute to B.B. King – and shows us why blues starts and ends with the King

Bonamassa says King was the kind of player who could say it all with one note – “Just one stinging vibrato and you know it can only be him”

Guitar World

“The night he died, I was at Buddy Guy’s club waiting for Buddy, Stevie and Clapton. Then we were told they’d all gone down”: Larry McCray on rubbing shoulders with blues royalty and playing through Joe Bonamassa’s epic rig

Living blues legend Larry McCray is keeping on keeping on and keeping the blues alive, and on his latest LP, Heartbreak City, he's taking his guitar to places his voice can't reach

Guitar World

“Does this young lady get it or what?” Joe Bonamassa and Slash team up for blues classics in New York – but did their young special guests steal the show?

The two guitar greats played a host of blues classics for charity, but two next-gen stars have made startling impressions

Guitar World

“Sometimes simplicity wins the day. Our namesake song, Black Country, was written by accident”: Joe Bonamassa on the art of writing a heavy guitar riff

In his latest GW video lesson, the blues-rock superstar recalls how some of his heaviest riffs came together, and to your shock – and maybe even horror – they were written in standard tuning

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