Since then, Bonamassa hasn\u2019t slowed down his touring schedule and keeps finding new ways to make his shows unique\u2014whether it\u2019s a tribute concert to Muddy Waters and Howlin\u2019 Wolf, a tour honoring the Three Kings of Blues, or the British Blues Boom. He also records albums with singer Beth Hart and plays in bands like Black Country Communion (alongside bassist-singer Glenn Hughes) and Rock Candy Funk Party. At the same time, the gear obsession of someone born into guitars (his father ran a guitar shop) has only intensified to the point where he owns about ten Bursts, two Korina Flying Vs, and a mind-blowing number of rare instruments. That said, these guitars aren\u2019t kept in storage\u2014they hit the road with Joe. After all, that\u2019s what they were made for.<\/p>\n
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At first glance, it looks like the result of a secret affair between a Les Paul and a Skylark lap steel. In fact, this is a one-of-a-kind model built by the Gibson Custom Shop for Joe Bonamassa in 2008, and it could well have become a production model, as suggested by the word \u201cPrototype\u201d stamped on the back of the headstock instead of a serial number. But Gibson ultimately decided otherwise, leaving this brilliant and completely wild design as a true one-off.<\/strong><\/p>\n To create it, Bonamassa turned to his collection of 20 Skylark lap steels and retained the Korina body, the chrome headstock logo inspired by the original Flying V, as well as the numbered fretboard markers. The two single-coil pickups mounted on a metal plate are controlled by a blend knob, allowing for extremely precise mixing between the two pickups. Finally, in a detail that says a lot about the guitar\u2019s purpose, Joe added a magnet to the back of the headstock to hold a metal bottleneck slide in place between uses.<\/p>\n As its appearance clearly suggests, the Skylark was designed for slide playing, and it was used extensively on many of Joe\u2019s recordings between 2008 and 2016. It can notably be seen on his performance of Burning Hell at the Borderline in the Tour De Force DVD, as well as on Nowhere In Particular from One Of These Days. In short, this guitar is both a unique curiosity and an outstanding highly specialized instrument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[353],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16750","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-sold","7":"pa_artiste-joe-bonamassa-en","8":"pa_disponibilite-sold","9":"pa_marque-gibson-en","11":"first","12":"outofstock","13":"shipping-taxable","14":"product-type-simple"},"yoast_head":"\n