Joe Bonamassa’s guitar assortment is the stuff of legends – a lot in order that he’s received two ‘museum’ areas – Nerdville East and West in Nashville and LA, respectively – housing a whole bunch of classic guitars and items of drugs.

It won’t come as a shock, then, that he’s needed to undertake one thing of a poacher’s mentality to get his fingers on the guitars he needs – even competing towards one in every of his finest associates, fellow blues maestro Joanne Shaw Taylor.

As Taylor notes in an interview within the new situation of Guitarist journal, an Albert Collins signature Fender Telecaster she now proudly owns was as soon as poached by Bonamassa below the guise he’d assist her purchase it.

Of the guitar – which was finally gifted to her by JoBo round 15 years – she recounts the hilarious story of the way it ended up in her fingers.

“I flew to New York to see Joe for a couple of days,” Taylor recollects. “He was rehearsing for the primary time with Black Nation Communion. I went to, I feel it was, Manny’s, and in there that they had an Albert Collins signature mannequin and it was signed by Albert. Apart from Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s my primary affect.

Upon seeing the guitar’s $5,000 price ticket, Taylor consulted Bonamassa, informing him that she didn’t manage to pay for to purchase the guitar outright herself.

“He’s like, ‘Okay, effectively what do you have got?’ I mentioned I may most likely get collectively about 4. He’s like, ‘Alright, effectively come again with me. They’ll most likely desire a picture of me, however I may most likely get it for you for 4.’

“So we return to the guitar store, he performs the guitar, and he’s like, ‘How a lot?’ And the man goes, ‘Okay, 4 grand and an image of you shopping for it.’ So we did the deal… after which he stored the guitar for himself! [laughs]”

The guitar remained below the custodianship of Bonamassa for a few 12 months, Taylor says, till she knowledgeable his father Len, who then got down to make issues proper.

“A few 12 months or so later, I talked to his dad and talked about this, and Len was livid,” she says. “So Len will need to have phoned him and browse him the riot act as a result of I received a textual content the subsequent day saying, ‘Remind me of your deal with,’ after which this was delivered within the submit.”

Sam is the Affiliate Information Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Totally immersed in music tradition for almost all of his life, Sam has performed guitar for 20 years, studied music know-how and manufacturing at college, and likewise written for the likes of Guitar World, Complete Guitar, Metallic Hammer and MusicRadar.