Description
The Epiphone Joe Bonamassa ES-355 Ebony is Epiphone’s sixth Signature model with GRAMMY® nominated blues legend and expert vintage collector Joe Bonamassa. Featuring the classic ES-355 semi-hollowbody archtop profile with an Ebony finish, gold hardware, ProBuckerTM humbuckers, Mallory Capacitors, a Bigsby™ B70 Vibrato and Vibramate® String Spoiler, Custom Hard Case, and Hand-Signed Certificate of Authenticity.
For nearly a decade, Epiphone and Joe Bonamassa have worked together to make stunning recreations of Joe’s favorite rare vintage guitars that anyone can afford. The new Ltd. Ed. Joe Bonamassa ES-355 Standard Outfit is modeled after Joe’s “3 Kings Tour” semi-hollowbody archtop that was originally honored by the Gibson Custom Shop.
“I have always loved the look and sound of black 355 guitars,” said Bonamassa. “Epiphone once again has masterfully re-created a guitar initially built for me by the Gibson Custom shop that I used on my Live at The Greek Theater DVD at a price point that is totally affordable for players and collectors of great ES guitars. Thank you once again it is an honor as always.”
The new Epiphone Joe Bonamassa ES-355 Ebony has a 3-ply Maple/Poplar/Maple top and body with a beautiful Ebony finish adorned with multi-layer white & black binding on the top, back, and on the Sloped Dovewing headstock. The Mahogany neck has 24.75” scale with a SlimTaper™-D profile with 22 medium jumbo frets. The Ebony fingerboard has pearloid block inlays and a 1.68” Graphtech® Nubone™ nut that is as hard as a traditional bone nut but longer lasting. The headstock has the “Epiphone” logo in Pearloid and the back of the headstock has a “Joe Bonamassa” signature reproduced in gold silkprint along with a “2018” Limited Edition logo. The tortoise shell-inspired pickguard has multi-layer binding and a metal “E” logo.
Gold ProBuckerTM Humbuckers
The Ltd. Ed. Joe Bonamassa ES-355 Standard Outfit is powered by critically acclaimed ProBuckerTM humbuckers with gold covers and Alnico II magnets, the same pickups Joe chose for his Ltd. Ed. “Amos” Korina Flying “V” Outfit. The neck position has a ProBucker 2™ and the bridge position has a ProBucker 3™ that is slightly overwound to emulate the tone of 1950s-era hand wound “PAF style” humbuckers. Controls for each pickup’s Volume and Tone come with Black “Top Hat” knobs with metal pointers and include world-class Mallory 150 Capacitors along with a Switchcraft® 3-Way Pickup Selector with an Amber Toggle Cap.
Epiphone Hardware
Like all Epiphones, Joe Bonamassa’s Signature Ltd. Ed. ES-355 features rock solid hardware including a gold ABR-1 LockTone™ Tune-o-matic bridge and a Bigsby™ B70 Vibrato tailpiece with a Vibramate® String Spoiler for quick string changes. Tuning is fast and accurate with Grover® Rotomatic machine heads with an 18:1 tuning ratio. A stylish vintage-inspired hard case is included with Bonamassa’s logo and Nerdville, CA in classic Army-style typeface along with a hand-signed Certificate of Authenticity.
JOE BONAMASSA
Joe Bonamassa (Joseph Leonard) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter born in New Hartford, New York. When he was only 12 years old, Bonamassa opened for B.B. King. In the last 13 years Bonamassa has put out 15 solo albums through his independent record label J&R Adventures, of which 11 have reached number 1 on the Billboard Blues charts. Bonamassa has played alongside such artists as Stephen Stills, Eric Clapton, Blondie Chaplin, Foreigner, Buddy Guy, Steve Winwood, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks among others. His career highlights include performances at the Royal Albert Hall and a Grammy Award nomination in 2013. In addition to his music career, Joe Bonamassa runs a nonprofit organization called the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation. The mission is to further music education by funding scholarships and providing music education resources to schools in need.
ABOUT EPIPHONE:
Epiphone is one of American’s oldest and most revered instrument makers. Since 1873, Epiphone has made instruments for every style of popular music and celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2013. The story of Epiphone begins in the mountains of Greece and threads its way to Turkey, across the Atlantic to the immigrant gateway of Ellis Island, and into the nightclubs, recording studios, and coast-to-coast radio broadcasts of Manhattan in the 1920s and 30s. www.epiphone.com
