Bought & Sold
Joanne reveals how going shopping with Joe Bonamassa can sometimes work out in your favour…
What was the first guitar you bought with your own money?
“The first guitar I bought myself was a red American Stratocaster from a guitar shop I was working in called Fair Deal Music in Birmingham. I’d been working there Saturdays and Sundays, plus I was gigging, so I probably earned more money as a 15 year old than I do now as a 35 year old.
“My grandmother, bless her, had said,‘Because you’re working so hard, whatever money you earn I will match,’ because she knew I wanted a nice proper American guitar. So, yes, a red American Strat that I guess would have been about the year 1997, because it had been there for a few years.”
What was the last guitar you bought and why?
“I just bought a little Fender acoustic three days ago. I can’t remember the model, but the main thing for me is a small neck and a parlour sort of body, being a tiny-fingered female – makes things easier than the big jumbos. It was because I was gifted a 1960s Gibson acoustic for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, but couldn’t get a case in time to fly it over for this tour. So
I had to panic and go into a guitar shop in Brighton and buy a little £350 Fender jobbie.
“I don’t not enjoy playing acoustic, I just think it’s almost its own instrument. You know, everyone assumes because you play electric… I mean, the amount of times I get, ‘Can you do this gig? But we can’t fly your band in, so can you just do the whole thing acoustic?’ It’s like, ‘Yes, I’ll just redo everything I’ve ever done and make it a completely different genre.’ I don’t like doing things if I don’t do them well.”
What’s your best guitar-buying tip?
“Firstly, my advice would be to go to America, because everything’s far cheaper there than it is when you add on the import tax over here… No, I think for me, I don’t really worry about what it is or how much it costs; I’m not looking for something boutique, you know? If a guitar feels good to you and it sounds good and you can play it well, I think that’s the only thing that matters. Sometimes people seem to be more concerned with whether rosewood’s better or maple’s better, if Gibson’s better than Epiphone… If it feels good and you play it well, it’s fair game.”
What’s been your most incredible guitar find?
“Probably the Albert Collins Signature Tele. That was the next guitar I wanted, being a huge Albert Collins nut. I found one in New York that was signed by Albert, and I think it was up for about $5,000, which I couldn’t afford. I was there with Joe Bonamassa. He was like, ‘I’ll come with you, because you might be able to get some money knocked off.’And he did, he got it knocked down to $3,000, which I could afford… but he kept it. So I told his dad. I don’t think Joe was being mean, I think it was the excitement of buying it, because he’s such an avid collector. But his dad had a go at him, and the next thing I know I got a text going,‘What’s your address?’ and he sent it to me. So that was probably my best buy, because it was one of my dream guitars, and all I had to do was moan to Joe that he was a crap friend for a few weeks.”
“I lived in Houston, Texas, for a while, so going to secondhand shops – thrift shops – where they sell guitars and guns, basically. There were a few things like Teles, homemade jobbies that I kind of thought,‘$600 for an American Tele – great,’ and then you get it home and it’s like, ‘No, this is a piece of crap.’ So there’s a few of those that I’ve kind of ditched along the way.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever sold any guitars, but I have gifted some – I don’t like guitars not being
What’s your worst case of buyer’s remorse?
Have you ever regretted selling a guitar?
“There’s a couple. I don’t think I’ve ever sold any guitars, but I have gifted some, because I don’t like guitars not being played. I gifted one of those weird hybrid guitars Fender made with a Tele neck and a Strat body that they sold really cheap because they were Squiers. They were about $100, but people were buying them and modding them out, so then Fender stopped making them and redid them and charged a ridiculous amount of money for them. I gave one of those away, which I wish I hadn’t, but it was to a 12-year-old girl that wanted to learn. So good karma points, I guess.”
Are there any design features on electric guitars that are an instant turn-off for you?
“Anything that’s too heavy. You don’t realise how bad standing with a guitar is for your posture. You know, it’s all the weight on one side – my pelvis has moved in a direction it shouldn’t be in because of longterm playing. Heavy Les Pauls are a thing of the past for me.”
Would you rather have a great guitar and a cheap amp, or a cheap guitar and a pricey amp?
“I’m probably going to say cheap amp, because I tend to like the vintage stuff as well, when it comes to guitars, because it’s well worn in and grips better and just feels and sounds better. It’s hard to get vintage cheap nowadays.”
If you could only use humbuckers or single coils, which would you choose and why?
“I’m going to say single coils, because I like a very bright sound. Also, I realised I only ever play Telecasters that have a humbucker at the neck, but I also never play the neck pickup. I realised recently I will play a whole show on the bridge pickup. So I’m going single coil. Twangy.”
What’s your favourite guitar shop and why?
“Reverb.com [laughs]. Actually, I will go with my favourite music shop ever, which is The Berkley Music Company in Michigan, where I live. I live in Royal Oaks, so [Berkley] is the next town over. They have great consignment stuff, so I’ve actually bought quite a few amps from there. I bought a Fender Vibro-King from there recently. But they’re great guys and they always have nice stuff. They don’t have much stuff, but they have nice stuff, and it’s always reasonably priced. It’s one of those places you can go in and there’s always some local guitar player in there, like Jackson Smith, who’s Patti Smith’s son and plays for Elton John. He was in there the other day and we ended up jamming and stuff. So it’s kind of a nice creative place, too.”
When was the last time you stopped to stare in a guitar shop window and what were you looking at?
“I actually went today. Vintage ‘n’ Rare [in Bath]. That’s just a beautiful guitar shop. Bath is obviously a beautiful city, so that was a kind of Dickensian experience. I was like a little kid in the shop, but I very much doubt there’s anything in there I can afford, but they’ve got some beautiful stuff. So yes, that was a nice windowshopping experience.” [DM]
Joanne’s latest EP, Reckless Blues, is out now via the Silvertone label. Discover more by visiting: www.joanneshawtaylor.com