Why Joe Bonamassa Won't Play Some Of His Most Prized Guitars: 'It’s Only Mint Once'

“I have over 800 guitars,” begins guitar aficionado Joe Bonamassa when quizzed on his favourite weapon of choice.

It’s not easy narrowing down his favourites, especially when said collection is split into two categories: the tools with which he creates his music and tours, and those locked away and kept in mint condition, with Bonamassa effectively housing enough rare, awe-inspiring masterpieces that he could open his own museum and charge entry.

“My favourite guitars tend to be the ones I can play every day - the ones I collect are perfect, mint condition and in some cases one-of-a-kind, factory one-offs,” he tells. “I don’t play the mint stuff, but I collect it heavily; I just feel, as a custodian of all this stuff, I don’t feel that I need to beat up mint stuff. I just won’t do it.

“My responsibility as a collector outweighs my necessity to play things. I know some people who are happy to use a mint amp or mint guitar on stage and they own the guitar and that’s fine, but it’s only mint once, and you, as a collector, have a responsibly to the history and that’s what I believe in.”

He’s still in the process of narrowing down what gear he’ll bring to Australia with him, but it sounds like he’s been thinking about it quite a bit as the tour approaches.

“I’ll probably bring a ’59 or a ‘60s Les Paul, I haven’t decided yet,” he tells. “There’ll be a ‘61 335 dot neck, a ‘62 335 block neck, both in cherry red. There’ll be a couple of ‘55 Strats, there’ll be a ‘51 Nocaster with a humbucker in front, there’ll be probably Terry Reid’s ’52 Tele, also with a humbucker in the neck position, a Medallion Firebird, a couple of one-off Custom Shop reissues that Gibson just made for me. Those are my go-to road guitars at the moment.

“There’ll be two Dumble amps, two Dumble single 12 combos, both made in 1980 - they’re both overdrive specials. I’ll be using two Joe Bonamassa Re-Issue High-powered Tweed Twin [combos].”

As for what setlist he’ll be bringing to Australia, don’t expect to hear any unreleased material. “Unfortunately now, you get a very high-quality DVD shot with an iPhone, and immediately it’s up on YouTube and it kind of takes the wind out of the sails of the record,” he says.

“I came up in an era where we didn’t make DVDs every night, but now it’s almost like you have to assume that every song from every night is going to be put on YouTube in some way, shape or form.”

With that said, he’s not totally opposed to people having phones at gigs or the benefits they provide to a lot of other artists, including “promotion and awareness”.

He also doesn’t agree with banning them at shows, which is what artists like Jack White and others have begun doing, while performers such as Bob Dylan have been quite vocal about the issue in recent years.

“As long as you’re not disrupting other people during the show, I’m cool,” he tells.

“If they want to spend the entire night videotaping the whole show and go to the doctor the next day and be treated for carpal tunnel and some sort of nerve damage, then that’s up to them.

“I’m all about people having fun at the show, there shouldn’t be this ‘us and them’; I don’t really buy into that. There’s a happy medium, and as long as someone isn’t disrupting other people's experience of the show, I am totally fine with whatever they want to do.”

The good news is, he’s been working on new material and is expected to enter the studio in the not-too-distant future. “It would have been done [in July], but our drummer broke his foot, so we had to postpone our record at Abbey Road to January, which is good – it gives us some extra time,” he reveals.

“It’s unfortunate that Anton [Fig] broke his foot, but at the end of the day, he’s going to get better and I want him to play on the record, so we’ll wait.

Fans of Bonamassa will know his records capture his formidable live presence well, and that’s likely to do with his mentality when recording.

“I don’t sonically experiment with amps, especially in the studio, I’d rather get a good take,” he explains.

“I never DI or re-amp, nothing. The sound in the studio is a snapshot of the moment and time. I’d rather get a good energy than do another take to get a better tone.”

Joe Bonamassa tours from 18 Sep.