How Joe Bonamassa Solved A 50-Year-Old Family Mystery

Now THIS is what the internet is all about. SO DAMN COOL.

People hate on Joe for acquiring too many vintage instruments but no one can deny he TRULY cares a lot about the provenance of these historic instruments and views himself as a temporary steward and not the ultimate owner. He only wants to buy from original person with a good story and pay them an ethical amount of money for it. Really cool story and glad the guitar is home.

Joe is a stand up guy. I’m glad you’re reunited with a family member. And by the way, I’m not crying…I’m chopping onions.

The House of Guitars in Rochester NY is legendary. I bought a 1992 Les Paul Cherry burst from there that was literally buried in a bin of about 200 other Les Paul guitars. Back then, HOG merchandized their guitars in bins that were about 4 or 5 feet deep and the guitars were all in upright, leaning against one another. So, you had to be quite careful when sifting through the guitars and especially when taking them out of the bin. On this particular trip, I was looking for Les Paul and I wanted a Cherry Burst. After about an hour of searching, I found one, played it, loved it, bought it and still have it. The interesting aspect of this guitar is it quality of construction and materials, which are unusually good for a run-of-the-mill, off the shelf Les Paul Standard. So, I counted myself fortunate to have found the "diamond in the rough", so to speak. Then, when I brought the guitar to my uncle, who was a Luthier and used to work for Gibson back in the late 60's and 70's, he picked it up, looked it over, felt the neck up and down and strummed a couple chords and said, "if I didn't know any better, I would swear someone was trying to replicate a 1959 or 60 LP Standard". When he put it on the bench to set it up, intonate etc, he decided to remove the neck pickup and see how Gibson was marking their guitars. He not only saw a date and initials, he saw a long neck tenon. A long neck tenon in a Standard that came off the general assembly line was like finding the holy grail. Gibson only used long neck tenons after 1968 in Custom made instruments that were specifically requested such as "signature" models. Otherwise, the last time Gibson used a long neck tenon in the Les Paul Standard was before they stopped making them in 1960. When Gibson started making the Les Paul Standard again in 1968, a short neck tenon was used. In October, 1993, Gibson Opened their Custom Shop. At some point long after that, I read about the history of Gibson's Custom Shop between 1986 and 1993. Quick and dirty, in 1986, the new owners hand selected the best craftsmen and set them up in their own part of the factory. Their only mission was to study Gibson's most iconic and historic models from the 50's and 60's, reverse engineer them and begin remaking them. Their first choice was the 57' Junior. However, between 1986 and 1993, these craftsmen were practicing the old crafting techniques used in the 1950's and 60's. Some of their work was marketed as "Reissues" such as the 57' Junior. Others weren't promoted as "reissues" for whatever reason; and were released into the wild with the guitars that came off the general assembly line. Apparently, this is one of those guitars. And I found this guitar at The House of Guitars.

Jeneane is one of my good friends. We met when we worked at a small consulting company in Atlanta back in the 90s and she was my boss. She’s such a wonderful person and she always talked about how she was 100% sure that was her dad’s bass. I know how devastated she was when he died and how much that’s gonna mean to her to have that little piece of him back. Fate is amazing when it’s kind.

This hit home. Years ago my dad bought a 1940s Gibson LG banner acoustic at auction. It had some issues but no cracks. It had a Baldwin pickup and an old plastic cased/Bakelite? Supro 6 x 9 amp. When dad left the auction, he was approached by a young college girl in tears. It was her Grandpa's guitar...still living Grandpa. Dad gave her his number and said she could have it for what he paid. She explained she was broke. Her family was consoling her. Dad told them to take it back immediately but family could not agree. Some time went by and we didn't hear from them so we brought it into luthier. Top needed to come off, slowly flatten, reglue braces, neck set. It needed a lot but never cracked. What came out of this was a truly magical guitar even though we were into it for about max value at the time. A week into restore, family called dad. They would pay the money back. Now dad had to explain that the guitar was being minimalist restored to make it playable and straight. Family would have to pay the luthier fee, another 900 bucks. They agreed to. Dad and I got the guitar back. I played it for a few days. It was truly a special instrument. We seup a time to meet at my home. I played it for them. We packed it up and talked for a while. They thanked us, paid, and left. Weeks later dad got an email with pics of Granpa playing guitar. It sounded better than new he said. It was a well written thank you. We felt good about it but we poured a lot of planning into that special guitar. Last year I lost dad. As I was cleaning out things I found the email. We did the right thing. Life is so precious. Cheers!

This one hit home. Almost 30 years ago I lost my husband, a guitar player to Leukemia. I had two young kids. Thankfully, his most precicous guitars are still here. My son has the ES-335, my daughter his handmade in Quebec Norman acoustic, and I have his late 60's Strat (currently at my daughters.) Both of my now adult kids play. It would have been a blow to loose those guitars. So happy that the family has that bass back!

This is just beautiful! Hats off to Joe. He proved what he was saying for years: you buy the story, the instrument comes for free. Great to see that the bass is back in the family. All the best to all of you!

My dad was a drummer and I started playing his Kit at 5 or so. He passed away when I was 8 and the Kit vanished. When I was around 11 I asked if I could take violin lessons and my Mom said “What about drums?” I answered an ad in the paper and they came over in a van, opened the door and there was my dads Kit. I bought it instantly. Congrats Rick 💜

"The bass just arrived" and so did my tears. What a fantastic story that involves a couple of the coolest people on the planet! Thank you Rick and cousin Genine for experiencing and telling the story! Thank you Joe Bonamasa for your amazing spirit and willingness to be such a positive part of this story!

These videos about locating long lost instruments are my favourite. Peter Frampton getting back his Les Paul after a place crash in South America, Randy Bachman being reunited with his vintage stolen Gretsch, all amazing, and this story is just as meaningful. PS…I think the general social media public are warming up to Joe B. Much more so than a few years ago when most posts hated on him. He’s a genuine guy, super guitar nerd, and a phenomenal player. Nothing wrong with that.

I was touched by your story as they can be quite conincidental. My dad was an amazing guitarist, but his career was cut short by a drunk driver on the way home from a gig with my mom & cousin in the car, leaving him semi-paralyzed, never to play again. In the chaos that ensued my dad's KAY ESS-335 copy went missing, never to be found again. My dad loved that guitar and reminisced about it until he passed away a few years ago. I tried to find it, or at least find one like it, to return it to him. He had suffered brain damage and may not have recognized it as his, but I wanted to at least see him reunited with the instrument he loved. So this story touched me as I was happy to see your uncle's instrument back in the family !!

This is such a wholesome story and just goes to show that JB isn’t just “hoarding” the vintage stuff but he genuinely loves the stories behind. So happy for you

One of the BEST stories from one of the BEST STORYTELLERs of all time. :)

My husband had a ‘74 Fender stack amp since the late ‘70s. He passed in 2019 and I needed to sell some equipment. I “ran into a guy” in SC in 2022 and he bought it saying he too had one from the same year. The two amps ended up being only one digit off in sequence of serial number and came off the production line one behind the other. 🤯

That smile on Rick’s face after he plays the bass is proof that he made the right decision in buying it and bringing it home 👍

Great decision to bring it back to the family. My parents were also from Rochester NY and my maternal grandfather and great-grandfather owned a baby shoe factory after the turn of the 20th century. For my mom's 90th birthday I was fortunate to find a genuine pair of Newcomb-Anderson baby shoes in the original box on eBay. It had a picture of a baby on the box, and it turns out that my mom was the model for the baby picture! She was confused and delighted how I managed to produce this strange nostalgic gift. She passed a couple of years ago at age 92, and now we are trying to figure out the best future home for this legacy so that it can pass down for another 90+ years. Hope your family manages to do the same with that wonderful bass!

Are you kidding me! What a cool story. Props to Joe B. for getting the bass back to your family. Life has a funny way of providing unexpected, but great surprises.

Quite a story. Happy to hear you got it back. Family heirlooms are a magical thing. Have a similar story with my father's stereo amplifier. Its a 1972 technics integrated amp. It was his first ever real amplifier. Long story short. He sold it to my uncle when he upgraded a couple years later in 74. My uncle passed in 2019. When cleaning out his apartment. I came across an old amp. Sent a picture to my father. To his surprise it was his original amplifier. Took it out to a guy in Rochester that fixes up gear. Cleaned it. Re-capped it. Runs like new. It's now something that will stay with me until I'm dead and buried with it.

Life's tapestry is so intricately woven, as is evident here. What a profound turn of events that reunited this unique guitar with your family. It's more than an instrument. It's a piece of the patchwork that makes up your families tapestry. Awesomely inspiring story. Thank you for sharing!