New Ernie Ball for Joe Bonnamassa

[Spudman]

Turns out Musicman is making a new double neck Ball Family Reserve guitar just for Joe Bonamassa. He's pretty much playing Ernie Ball guitars now. He's got a 25th Silo, a JP6, a Morse Y2D and then this custom double neck. There is talk of a signature model as well.

From Sterling Ball:

Here is the latest creation for Joe B. Less than a month ago Derek went to see him and he asked if we could make a double neck based on the Y2D...he wanted it cherry sunburst and one neck a baritone and the other a regular guitar. We asked Steve Morse for his blessings and here is the guitar. Props to all to get this done from idea to reality in a very short time. He will have it in time for his sold out show at London's Royal Albert Hall gig. Enjoy!

 

[hubberjub]

Wow. Not a guitar I would have guessed he used. Musicman makes great guitars but I've always seen Joe with vintage guitars. From the Strats he played with Bloodline to the Les Pauls more recently. I guess he can play whatever he wants.

 

[Spudman]

Turns out he doesn't have an exclusive with anyone.

 

[markb]

Ry Cooder can do this with just the one neck

Danny Ferrington:
In "Little Village", Ry uses a custom built unfinished (plain wood) electric with split frets made by Danny Ferrington. This guitar was made for Ry by Danny Ferrington who lives very near to Ry in Santa Monica. In all I think Ry owns about five of his guitars. One is a custom built acoustic long scale baritone (sunburst)with a scale length based on one of Rys favourite strats. He uses it to simulate the sort of sound that Leadbelly used to get from his long scale Stella 12 string. An electric was used on "Dont Think about him when you're tryin to drive" shown on BBC2's "Little Village item of 3 numbers on "The Late Show". The guitar has its two bass strings built to a longer scale with wider frets and stepped back bridge.(i.e. again a baritone guitar). The other four strings are conventially fretted to a normal scale length. Ry uses his "own" tuning on it. Danny doesn't know what it is.

 

[Jimi75]

When I first saw Joe playing the EBM, I knew there was something going on. It was the same years ago with John Petrucci. The EBM definitely fit his style although the Gibbies look way cooler. It is like so often a marketing question.

 

[duhvoodooman]

He's pretty much playing Ernie Ball guitars now.

FYI, when I saw him in late Feb. in Syracuse at the start of his current world tour, other than the EB-MM baritone he used on John Henry, it was ALL Les Pauls for his electrics. I counted at least 5 different ones.

 

[Spudman]

That was February. He's in Europe now and I haven't seen any pictures of him with anything but EBMM now. Interesting change. It says a lot about their guitars if someone of his caliber or John Fogerty is switching.

 

[Jimi75]

That was February. He's in Europe now and I haven't seen any pictures of him with anything but EBMM now. Interesting change. It says a lot about their guitars if someone of his caliber or John Fogerty is switching.

??? Check the vids on the tube, Hamburg, Wolverhampton for e.g., Europe is mostly Bonamassa Gibbie territory. He uses the EBM only for the Balld Of John Henry. But nontheless, I could imagine Joe getting serious appetite for the EBMs.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Hmmm, don't know what to tell you Spuds. Here's a couple of links to photos taken at the Wolverhampton UK show last Thursday 4/23, and it's the same collection of guitars I saw in Syracuse. The only EB-MM I see is that same brown-burst baritone. And I forgot one Gibson he played besides the LP's--a Flying V he used on Just Got Paid.

Wolverhampton Photos

Wolverhampton Slideshow

** EDIT**

Incidentally, that first photo link has some incredible closeups of Joe that allow you to see a level of detail in his playing that you rarely come across. The photos are available on the Flickr site in their original resolution of 4288x2848--12 megapixels! Heck, you can actually read his volume & tone pot settings in some of them! Check 'em out....

 

[Spudman]

Like I said he isn't exclusive.

From Monday in Glasgow. 20th Anniversary

Also from Monday a JP6 BFR