Should you’ve ever questioned what it appears like when a guitarist goes all-in on classic gear, simply have a look at Joe Bonamassa. The blues legend and self-professed classic connoisseur’s house gear museum, Nerdville West, reportedly holds over 1,000 gadgets – together with at least 600 guitars.

Nonetheless, even a collector of Bonamassa’s caliber admits there’s a restrict. Throughout a latest chat on the No Cowl Cost podcast, the musician reveals he’s lastly hitting the brakes on new acquisitions, as there’s solely a lot gear an individual can meaningfully discover.

“So far as buying stuff, I’ve actually slowed down, as a result of there’s a saturation level,” he explains. “I’d prefer to get to the stuff that I personal, and uncover the sounds that I can get out of these items, earlier than it simply begins piling up and piling up and piling up.”

The guitarist says final yr’s Los Angeles wildfires helped put his obsession into perspective. Clearing out his assortment within the wake of the fires reminded him simply how overwhelming tons of of devices could be.

“You by no means need to go right into a state of affairs, I’ve performed this once I cleared out this place after the fires, the place you’re pulling out circumstances and don’t have any recollection of when, the place, or the way you acquired it. And it’s in all probability beginning to get to that time,” says Bonamassa.

“Clearly, you may’t evacuate all the things. So, it’s important to prioritise. And I considered it for years. I stated, ‘Properly, if we gotta go, right here’s what’s going.’ This being certainly one of them, – Mr Skinner [Bonamassa’s ‘Skinnerburst’ Les Paul] has to return alongside.”

Elsewhere within the chat, Bonamassa additionally reveals his tactical strategy to amassing uncommon gear.

“What I do is, I by no means telegraph something. You received’t know I’m till I’d be like, ‘I’ll take it,’ or, ‘I’ll lower you a test.’”

The guitarist says he tends to amass gear in batches, securing spares and matching pairs of key amps and devices: “Like, you discover there’s two [Marshall] JTM45s. There’s three in right here, and one in Nashville. So, I’m often ‘a pair and a spare,’ And also you have a look at the again wall, there’s a bunch of Blackface Fender amps, and Selmers behind you, and [Fender] Tweeds and all the things.”