Fender Custom Shop Mojo Amp Ex Richie Sambora Bon Jovi

Richie Sambora
(1959)

Band: Bon Jovi
Main guitar: Fender Stratocaster Signature
Must-listen track: Livin’ On A Prayer

The history of rock goes like this: for every Mick Jagger, there’s a Keith Richards. For every Steven Tyler, there’s a Joe Perry. For every Robert Plant, there’s a Jimmy Page. For every superstar singer igniting the crowds, there’s a moody and endlessly cool guitarist holding the line, stepping into the spotlight only for brief, explosive 30-second bursts.

Richie Sambora joined New Jersey’s Bon Jovi in 1983, just a few months after the band was formed. From the very start, Sambora’s playing and personality perfectly complemented lead singer Jon Bon Jovi’s image. Together, they formed a songwriting duo responsible for countless hard rock radio classics. The real breakthrough came in 1986 with the album Slippery When Wet, on which Sambora co-wrote nine out of ten tracks, including the three mega-hits Livin’ On A Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name, and Wanted Dead Or Alive. His playing is fast, precise, energetic, and inventive—clearly influenced by Van Halen like most guitarists of the time, but with a signature touch all his own. His mastery of arrangement is evident in the use of a twelve-string on Wanted…, the pitch shifter on the solo in You Give Love A Bad Name, and the talkbox in Livin’ On A Prayer.

From then on, the band became massive, touring the world and performing to ecstatic crowds. Bon Jovi’s genius was in its ability to reconnect with success across decades, capturing multiple generations of fans. They returned to the top of the charts in 1994 with Always, and again in 2000 with It’s My Life (also co-written by Sambora), winning over a new audience that remains loyal to this day.

Plagued by personal demons, Sambora was forced to leave the band in 2013 in the middle of yet another world tour. Since then, he has launched the band RSO with his former partner Orianthi and seems increasingly drawn to the Telecaster and Esquire, moving away from the superstrats he was known for during his Bon Jovi years. Richie Sambora’s musical future may still hold many great surprises.