It’s been another bumper year for gear releases , but for Joe Bonamassa and Joe Perry, only two releases truly stand out.
In the retro corner, Gibson has reissued Jimmy Page's iconic EDS-1275 "Stairway to Heaven" double-neck and revived a forgotten '80s relic.
More forward-thinking releases have seen Fender offer trailblazing new designs for a number of its flagship electric guitars via the American Ultra II series. In addition, PRS has released its first-ever semihollow guitar, and John Mayer and Ernie Ball have teamed up for an unusual string set.
But for the two Joes, the latter camp holds the greater appeal.
Bonamassa says he’s kept returning to his Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale reverb pedal. In addition to emulating the spring reverb and tremolo effects of ‘60s Fender combo amps , the pedal re-creates the tube and output transformer saturation of those builds.
“It does a great job in front of any amp,” Bonamassa tells Guitar World. “It adds a killer authentic spring — there’s spring inside it — and a believable brown-amp circa ’62 Fender-style vibrato.”
The “hypnotic and mesmerizing” all-analog, real-spring reverb and tremolo pedal is actually a reprised version of a pedal the Greek pedal company first released several years beforehand. Key tweaks to its circuit have helped it shine second time around.
For Bonasmassa, it’s become a go-to pedal in the studio. “I’ve used it on many sessions and it has become a quiet MVP in the studio,” says Bonamassa.
Away from the studio, the bluesman has unveiled what he believes to be “the world’s most expensive three-channel live rig”. While it includes several of his recently purchased Dumble amps, he's left Lowell George’s Dumble Overdrive Special, which he bought back in the summer, at home.
Perry, meanwhile, has fallen in love with his Silktone Micronaut. The company, which started off producing guitar cables, is a relative newcomer to amp-building and introduced its eponymous debut model in 2019.
“They’re great amps to use with pedals," Perry says of his Micronaut, "meaning you can get them relatively clean to get the most out of your pedals. You can get it to crunch just by putting it to 10. I run mine at 2 o’clock."
Perry is so pleased he's recommending Silktone amps to other guitarists. “If you can get your hands on a Silktone, it’s a great piece for your arsenal," he says. "I did some recording with mine, and for what I was going for, it worked great.”
Perry, who is back in the studio after Aerosmith retired from touring, professes to be a stone-cold Gibson man but says the guitar that got away from him was a Fender Stratocaster, having revealed that much of Aerosmith's early recordings saw him playing Strats in the studio, preferring the variety it gave against Brad Whitford's Les Paul.
In the theme of lifting the lid on some of the band's best-kept recording secrets, he's also discussed the unusual technique that he used on 1980’s Let The Music Do The Talking, which essentially saw him concocting a make-shift seven-string guitar.
It’s currently unclear as to what guise Perry’s new recordings will take if/when they are released, but it's a safe bet another Bonamassa solo record is just around the corner. Either way, both guitarists have benefitted from giving new gear a chance – and it has paid them dividends.
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