(With apologies to the JB haters - Jake, keep on movin', nothing to see here... I'm not really a fan, but I do respect him.)

From a new Guitar Player interview:

You and Kevin [Shirley, producer] always deliver wonderfully dimensional guitar tones. What’s the process like when you two are dialing in a sound in the studio?

Kevin’s a guitar guy, which is great, but I drive him nuts, because sometimes I get addicted to my brownface spring reverb unit and print reverb right on the tracks...

Guitar sound is basically where it all starts and ends for me. You’ve got to have a good tone... Other times, it’d just be, “Give me a brownface Deluxe and that reverb tank, and we’ll get it done.”

I’ve got five of those brownface reverb tanks. I’m a brownface Fender collector. I’ve got the whole line—five Deluxes; five Princetons; three Vibroluxes; two Vibroverbs, which are hard to find; a couple of Concerts; a 2x10 Super Amp; and a Vibrasonic; all early ’60s, of course. Those are the most undervalued, underrated amps Fender ever made. Tweeds sound like tweeds, blackfaces like blackfaces, but brownfaces have this rich, complex overdrive that none of the other circuits had. I just turn them up to 7 or 8 and let the chips fall where they may.

Ivan
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Yeah, he's got the whole brownface line, except for the two best ones. A Showman and a Bandmaster.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

Is there some way we can contact Mr. Bonamassa and refer him to the gearaholics thread?

Last edited: Jan 15, 2015 19:15:02

IvanP wrote:

Surf_Skater wrote:

Is there some way we can contact Mr. Bonamassa and refer him to the gearaholics thread?

indeed. Eddie K has that beat by a mile!

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

JakeDobner wrote:

Oh fuck... our prices...

I don't hate him... I just don't understand who he is...

He's a very good guitar player and enthusiast whose hooked up with some very clever industry folks who knew how to milk a lot of cash out of his talent.

http://blueruins.bandcamp.com

He's a very good guitar player and enthusiast whose hooked up with some very clever industry folks who knew how to milk a lot of cash out of his talent.

I'm no expert, but I really don't think this is the case at all, or at least hasn't been for a while. If you read the full interview from which the above quotes come from, you'll see that Bonamassa and his manager run their entire enterprise, and have for years. Jake, Bonamassa is a guy that wanted to make a living - a good living - playing music. He's hooked up with a very shrewd business guy as his manager (think Col. Parker) about 25 years ago, and they've been doing what they need to in order to make this happen while playing blues-rock music, which is a hell of a trick to pull off these days. I've read an interview with his manager in a Classic Rock magazine a few years ago, and the guy said that he is utterly convinced that Joe and he will become millionaires. They're very ambitious and I think a lot of people are rubbed the wrong way by it, because it's not all about art and being pure. I personally have no problem with it, but I have to also say that I just can't get into Bonamassa's music. I listened to his new album on Spotify last night, and... meh. It does nothing for me. But hey, I wish the guy all the best...

Oh yeah Ivan, I guess I wasn't clear, but that's exactly what I meant. It's great that they're having good success in todays market, more power to them. Doesn't rock my world either but he's earning his money no doubt.

I saw Bonamassa perform before he got 'handled' and he was a completely different cat. I haven't read any articles, but I guessed that somebody(s) with some money, connections and know-how had seen an opportunity with the wonder kind and polished him up to be the arena legend he is today..genius really.

Lots of lessons to be learned from watching his career for those who aspire to such things as it was largely manufactured over a short time.

http://blueruins.bandcamp.com

Sonichris wrote:

Yeah, he's got the whole brownface line, except for the two best ones. A Showman and a Bandmaster.

He may be waiting until he can buy some in bulk.

JakeDobner wrote:

Oh fuck... our prices...

Jake, you might be right about this, though I think brownface combo prices have been pretty high for quite a while now - but as long as Bonamassa stays away from the piggybacks, we should be alright!

Check out this part of the above story, though:

A better example of Bonamassa’s guitar store stealth occurred in a Reno guitar shop a few years back. Tempted by a pristine ’87 Marshall Silver Jubilee head (“I can’t have too many of those”), Bonamassa asked for the price. “The guy at the counter said, ‘It’s $4,000,’” says Bonamassa. “I asked him why the price was so high, and he said, ‘Well, Slash used Jubilees for the Guns N’ Roses tone, and now this kid Joe Bonamassa is using them, so it’s $4,000.’”

blueruins wrote:

Oh yeah Ivan, I guess I wasn't clear, but that's exactly what I meant. > I saw Bonamassa perform before he got 'handled' and he was a completely different cat. I haven't read any articles, but I guessed that somebody(s) with some money, connections and know-how had seen an opportunity with the wonder kind and polished him up to be the arena legend he is today..genius really.

Hmm, maybe, though my impression is that it's really an equal partnership between him and his manager, and that his manager was not a music industry 'insider' when they started out. They've actually gone completely outside of the regular record industry with most of what they've done. They have their own label (distributed by a major, though, I think), they do their own bookings and promotion, etc. I also think that the manager stays out of Joe's music and 'image', that he only takes care of business stuff. It seems Bonamassa is his own man, for better or worse. Anyway, not 100% about all of this, but that's my impression.

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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Even Tremoluxes are pretty expensive. I think Bandmasters are the real steal. The only reason I can think is because nobody really big has ever consistently played one. The best the brownface Bandmaster gets is "Eddie Van Halen says it's the best sounding amp he ever played, and uses one at home when he's not cranking a Marshall"

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

Last edited: Jan 16, 2015 12:08:33

Yeah, "steals" in the sense that brownface's typical selling prices aren't as high as their scarcity relative to blackface amps would seem to indicate(at least from what I've seen). I think that piggybacks in general are under-priced compared to combos.

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