Look, it’s the middle of the week. We all could use a lift, a power-up, a clean boost to the gain stage. How about a quick one-minute-and-change Instagram video of MusicRadar’s Best Blues Guitarist 2018, Joe Bonamassa, laying done some molten licks on an EVH Striped Series?
Oh, go on then.
Of couse we love Bonamassa for all kinds of reasons: his songwriting, for his phrasing, his rig choices, his indefatigable search for vintage gear and graciousness. All that stuff. But maybe it is his enthusiasm for the instrument that is chief of them all.
It’s that he too believes that playing a hot-rodded S-style with a Floyd Rose equipped with a D-Tuna on the low E through a loud valve amp might be as close to transcendence as we’ll get on this earth. Or that playing many notes, in whatever order instinct tells you to, is a lot of fun – whether you are on a 1950s Gold Top or a headless Steinberger of ‘80s pop video fame.
There is a lesson in that. The most important thing is to play. Sometimes it helps to be pointed in the right direction, though, and for that, check out these five tricks you can learn from Bomamassa’s playing.
Read our review of the EVH Striped Series here, too. It is a fun guitar.
