GEAR 2021: Joe Bonamassa and Seymour Duncan are a bankable pairing when it comes to tone authority as their previous three collaborations have proved. Now the new limited run Bonnie Strat pickup set aims to bring their high level of expertise to the aftermarket guitar pickups world. And Joe's muse for this is a very special one indeed.
His '55 Hardtail Strat is one of his favourite guitars – and with the collection Joe has, that means a lot. Setmour Duncan has recreated its pickups for the Bonnie set with era-accurate cloth; pushback lead wires; black Forbon flatwork; Alnico IV rod magnets; and a uniform 5.96K rating.
- NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.
If that hasn't got us tonehounds salivating, how about vintage-correct, accurately aged plastic covers that replicate Joe’s originals? It's all about the details when it comes to the experts. And they went even further than that…
SD's “accurate recreation” ethos with this project extends to the the custom-made Chicklet "Phone Book" .1uF/150V capacitor and Joe’s preferred 5-way selector switch to Bonnie’s modern switch tip and mini skirt control knobs.
The loaded pickguard set option also features a trio of 250K high-quality CTS potentiometers
The Bonnie set is handmade in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop in Santa Barbara, CA and only available in a very limited run of 550 sets ($335) and 100 loaded pickguards $550. At the time of writing the loaded option were out of stock. We suggest moving fast on the sets at the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop.
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I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.
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