Joe Bonamassa

Featured on Bonamassa's official Rainger FX artist page.

Featured in this April 29, 2019 Facebook post.

Broke out the Dean Markley K-20 circa 1980 for the backstage warm up. Best 30 dollar (euro) amp you can buy. 🤷‍♂️😎👍

Joe Bonamassa owns a vintage reissue of the Fender '63 Reverb Unit. This is evident from the brown leather handle, as seen in the Pinterest post authored by Bonamassa himself.

I ended up using two Deluxes. I had one Deluxe Reverb and one brown Deluxe," says Joe. We wonder if Joe was referring to a reissue Deluxe Reverb that might have happened to be at the studio, or one of his rare closet classics. He immediately snaps, "Think about that critically and ask yourself again, 'Who are you talking to?'" Point taken, Joe! /.../ "When I was a kid, I had a black [panel] Deluxe Reverb. I think this is probably one of the ones that I had for 25 years," he clarifies. "The black and brown circuits are totally different, so you get that kind of sweet/salt mix. The brown Deluxe does the real thick midrange stuff and the black does the low and the high. That's kind of always been my M.O. It's never just one amp. You're mid-stacking with amps that don't necessarily do the same thing. The bigger, thicker tones you hear on the solo, that's the high-powered Twin. The more jangly stuff was the Deluxes."

In this Instagram post, Joe Bonamassa says:

One piece of gear I cannot play the gig without.. The ultimate in tonal equalization... The Jax-240 Acoustic EQ. 😎👍

At the launch event for the Marshall Class 5 Combo, Joe Bonamassa showcases the amplifier, as featured in a video by Marshall Amplification on YouTube.

In the Ernie Ball: String Theory video featuring Joe Bonamassa, at 3:24, a scalloped fretboard can be seen on a Maple-neck Fender Stratocaster with a yellow/aged-white finish resting on a workbench. The presence of this guitar suggests Bonamassa's interest in or use of scalloped fretboards, although it's uncertain if this is a new model or a customized piece, possibly inspired by the Yngwie Malmsteen signature series.

At 4:55 in the video it says Joe plays these strings.

Joe Bonamassa plays Gibson Theodore in this video.

Bonamassa mentioned this pedal in a January 2023 Guitar World issue.

At 41:46 of this "Rig Rundown: Joe Bonamassa 2022" with Premier Guitar, we can see Joe’s pedalboard with this guitar effects pedal on it.

Playing Epiphone Joe Bonamassa 1963 SG Custom in this video.

In this video, Joe Bonamassa tells Jake Andrews at 12:37:

Here's one that's my secret weapon in the studio. Do you know what this is? 1956 Forrest White amp. It's a White. Forrest White was one of the founding fathers of Fender, along with Don Randall. In '55 and '56, Leo [Fender], was nice enough and made Forrest White an off-brand, so there's these White amps. What this is is nothing but a Fender Princeton. It's got an eight-inch speaker and a slightly wider box, volume, tone, and a different aesthetic. It's a Fender amp.

And the thing about this amp, I bring it to the studio and I was doing a track for Canned Heat about a year ago with Jimmy Vivino and my guy Rick Gould was like "Why are you bringing that?" And I said "Trust me." There's something about a healthy tweed amp, and some of them have an extra 5%, an extra bottom-end push. Maybe it's the condition of the tubes or something. Not all of them have it. I find that especially with amps with eight inch speakers, if you get the right one, they are devastatingly effective in the studio and they just fit in the track.

In this video, Joe Bonamassa discusses his TrueFire course Jam Session Playbook.

“My favourite BOSS dirt pedal – and I know this is going to sound really fucking strange – is the [MT-2] Metal Zone,” reveals Bonamassa. “Being a child of the ’80s, I really dug the Metal Zone. I was a Metal Zone guy. I thought you could get some cool midrange things out of it with a clean amp. Just because it’s called the Metal Zone, that doesn’t mean you need to run the gain all the way up.”

In this video, Joe Bonamassa demonstrates his signature Klon-inspired Deep State overdrive from Way Huge.

He says:

How did the Deep State come about? I was using a Conspiracy Theory and Jeorge [Tripps] discovered a secret cache of secret secret diodes and capacitors and they opened up Area 51 and Jeorge was one of the first guys in there and helped himself to some parts. And he built this Deep State because he had help from the deep state to get these parts.

In this Rig Rundown video from 2009, Joe Bonamassa is seen touring with a Bogner Ecstasy 101B Amp Head in black. He explains the amp starting at 1:52 into the video.

In an Instagram post by Joe Bonamassa, he shares his rig for the 2025 European tour, where the Way Huge Smalls Conspiracy Theory Professional Overdrive is visible on the pedalboard.

In this video, Joe Bonamassa explains his amplifier rig and points out the Buddha Superdrive 80 Series II Head and its 30-watt version beginning at 0:21. He blends the amp with his Marshall Silver Jubilee.

In this video, Joe Bonamassa discusses the Seymour Duncan "Bolin Burst" Humbucker pickups, based on pickups from a Les Paul owned by Tommy Bolin. Bonamassa says:

The interesting quality of these, not all PAFs are created equal. Turns out, which is almost diametrically opposed to what you would think, is the cleaner clearer sound in the front pickup, is actually slightly hotter....

And the bridge pickup is actually lower in output. And this has a nice bite to it, but it's not too bright, and it's nice and thick in the bottom end. And they feedback nice.

It really is a special set of pickups, and I didn't really realize how much they varied from other Les Pauls of mine until we actually looked at them here at Seymour Duncan. And that's not really indicative of late 60's Les Pauls, it just happens to be indicative of that particular late 60 Tommy Bolin Les Paul.

In this video, Joe Bonamassa introduces the Epiphone 59' Les Paul Custom reissue based on his original '59.

In this Youtube video (https://youtu.be/pqoUo3OJQ1Y) of Oz Noy and Joe Bonamassa's 2025 residency at The Bitter End NYC, Bonamassa is seen throughout the video playing a Fuchs Overdrive Supreme Combo with a vintage Gibson Les Paul.

In this video, at the 0:59 mark, Joe Bonamassa confirms using the Martin 1941 000-45.

When you play it you're like oh man the whole body resonates you know why it's like there's a there's a difference.

In an interview with Guitar World, Joe Bonamassa confirms using the Martin D-18 Mahogany Dreadnought in the studio.

In this interview, Joe Bonamassa confirms using the Martin 000-18 acoustic guitar in the studio.

In this interview, Joe Bonamassa confirms using the Martin 00-42 acoustic guitar in the studio.