Joe Bonamassa has taken to social media to ask for the safe return of one of his signature Fender The Bludgeon '51 Nocasters, which went missing while in transit in Nashville.
The $8,500 guitar was on its way to Guitar World for review when it went MIA, raising the blues guitar star's suspicions of foul play. Noting that it was the first of his guitars, in his 31 years of collecting, that had ever been stolen, he said that the shipment had been labeled by FedEx as "missing without recourse nor hope of a solution."
“Dear FedEX, I would like my guitar back," Bonamassa wrote in an initial statement on Twitter this past Sunday, May 16. "It’s JB006 Fender Custom Nocaster that was on its way to Guitar World for review 10 days ago.
“You say it’s missing. I say it was stolen. Your own videos prove it was scanned into your distribution center in Nashville and never left.”
Dear @FedEx I would like my guitar back. It's JB006 @FenderCustom Nocaster that was on its way to @GuitarWorld for review 10 days ago. You say it's missing. I say it was stolen. Your own videos prove it was scanned into your distribution center in Nashville and never left. 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/SJMWRW6snDMay 16, 2021
“Just off the phone with the very nice representative from FedEX," Bonamassa wrote in a follow-up Instagram post. "So basically what they are saying is that my guitar is MIA within their system without recourse nor hope of solution.
“There is a video of it going on their truck from their facility on 3rd and Broadway Nashville, Tn. and scanned into the distribution center only a few miles away.
“I will try not to play detective here, but I would surmise that it was stolen probably by someone who had access to the truck or the distribution facility," he continued. "To be honest, a 23 pound guitar box does not just disappear that easily with or without a tracking number.
“If you see JB006 Fender Custom Shop Nocaster for sale or hanging around, it is stolen and I would like it returned. No questions asked, all I would like is the return of the test guitar that was on its way to Guitar World for review.”
This potential in-transit theft of a top-of-the-line signature guitar recalls an eerily similar situation from last October, when $95,000 worth of Gibson Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Customs were stolen from a Sweetwater truck at the Flying J Travel Center in Whiteland, Indiana.
