Joe Bonamassa is aware of a factor or two about what it takes to make a guitar sound good – however when he was creating pickups with Seymour Duncan they used a secret weapon to make sure that what they had been listening to was coming from the pups – a Squier guitar

Bonamassa has launched quite a few pickup units with the model, and for his 1950 Broadcaster duplicate set, they had been trialled throughout the physique of budget-friendly Squier. As Bonamassa says, “In case your Squier sounds nearly as good as that Broadcaster, then we’ve executed our job.”

Talking to Premier Guitar of his ventures as a “pickup archeologist”, Bonamassa explains why he selected to duplicate the pickups of his classic fashions quite than design one thing new.

“Some folks have signature pickups the place they need a sure winding that they wish to go right into a signature guitar, or another design they spec out,” he states. “I’m not that unique. I’ve an enormous guitar assortment, and every guitar is somewhat bit totally different. And it’s like, ‘Why do I play the Nocaster or why do I believe the Broadcaster is outstanding?’ It’s due to what’s in it: Not all flat poles and humbucking pickups are created equal.”

He goes on so as to add, “I’m not swapping pickups in my unique Broadcaster that’s price virtually a quarter-million {dollars}, so I all the time have a ‘donor’ guitar. I’ve a generic Customized Store Strat for the Stratocaster stuff, and I’ve received a template Les Paul. Within the case of the Broadcaster, Seymour Duncan truly purchased a Squier because the check guitar – and that’s the true check. In case your Squier sounds nearly as good as that Broadcaster, then we’ve executed our job.”

Other than the Seymour Duncan Squier check, the Blues Titan often chooses his pickups fastidiously, within the perception that they need to work synonymously with the remainder of the guitar: “Total, in the event you’re going to actually have a look at pickups, you’ve received to know what they do and don’t do.

“In the event you’re speaking a couple of P-90, what P-90 are you speaking about? One thing that might go right into a Les Paul Normal, a Junior? It might sound totally different in any context … There’s no placing a set of pickups in a guitar and considering, ‘Oh, the guitar now sounds magical.’ They’ve a symbiotic relationship with the wooden and with the strings. The good guitars are those the place you have got all of the mixtures going directly.”

You may store Joe Bonamassa’s pickup vary over at Seymour Duncan, or discover out the place he shall be touring in 2025.