Joe Bonamassa - tin hats on....

shaunm

Not a popular subject round here i know.....

But he really has improved his tone immeasurably. Today I had the Royal Albert Hall gig on and I could not believe how stuffy and strangled his tone sounded (even though at the time I liked it). I then put on the Muddy Wolf album and it’s night and day different. Clear and powerful.

His playing is great as it was at the RAH (you might disagree) but it goes to show the power of plugging straight into an amp rather than a large board into 4 very different amps. 

beed84

I'm surprised this thread hasn't been closed already.

richardhomer

When I was considering speaker options for my amp, I came across a video where he said how much he liked EVM12Ls - because they were ‘dark and expressive’ (I think that was the quote).

He then demo’d them through his four amp rig - he had a really dark and compressed tone.

While I’m not a fan, I agree he sounds a lot clearer (and better) on more recent stuff.

boogieman

He can play, he has all the chops, he knows his gear inside out. My problem with him is he's a chameleon music-wise, so he's got nothing immediately identifiable as Joe Bonamassa. Plays a ZZ Top number, sounds like Billy G. Plays with BCC, sounds like Jimmy Page. Plays blues, sounds like Clapton. His own material is only so so too, its pleasant enough but nothing you'd want to hear more than a few times. I've got a couple of his albums but can't honestly remember the last time I played them. 

fields5069

I'm still struck by how little swing he was able to put into Mr Big, that time that he played Paul Kossoff's Les Paul.

EricTheWeary

I saw him live a couple of times and sounded great to me, the problem was the strangulated tone he'd get on albums. I have listened to a couple of tracks of the Muddy Wolf stuff and found it to be just bloody awful with no feel for the original music at all, can't really remember the tone. 
There is a range of stuff he is good at but his attempts to go outside that ( the very dull live acoustic album, the funk stuff, Black Country Communion, Muddy Wolf) just seem to illustrate that he only really understands that blues boom era and that technical competence isn't everything. If he wants to expand his horizons all well and good but I'm not going to dip into my pocket for it. 

crunchman

shaunm said:

Not a popular subject round here i know.....

But he really has improved his tone immeasurably. Today I had the Royal Albert Hall gig on and I could not believe how stuffy and strangled his tone sounded (even though at the time I liked it). I then put on the Muddy Wolf album and it’s night and day different. Clear and powerful.

His playing is great as it was at the RAH (you might disagree) but it goes to show the power of plugging straight into an amp rather than a large board into 4 very different amps. 

The RAH gig sounded good if you were there.  The guitar did anyway.  The problem with Joe B is his vocals (and maybe his songs).

RandallFlagg

I think he sounds terrific here, guitar and singing. Just not so sure on the Agent Smith look:

Octahedron

His tone on the new BCC album is way better than on previous BCC albums, that's for sure...

peteri

Agree with lots of the comments on here - whenever I see him talking guitars, I think he's great, engaging and I'd love to share a pint with him.

The Live at the Greek Theatre album I think is great, and the guitar sound is just absolutely amazing - thick and sustaining but clear and articulate - and made me realise how Gary Moore missed the mark (assuming that was sound he was after on the blues stuff).

But, with a few notable exceptions, his self penned stuff is not my taste - and I've tried every BCC album and the whole thing is just too derivative for me - it's like a 70's tribute band, I'm assuming Hughes writes a lot of the lyrics - it certainly sounds like that.

For me, there are very few albums that have 'Kevin Shirley' written on them I like, frankly I can't see how he's made his money - the Maiden stuff I don't like, same with Bonamassa etc.

But someone's buying them, so what do I know?

impmann

Surely the Dumble sounded best, as they cost the most/have most Mojo/rarer etc.

</sarcasm>

Tbh, since he started playing with the HP twins, his tone improved dramatically imho.

Jalapeno

Don't dislike his personality, or his playing (agree a bit meh overall, BCC left me cold)

It's the best guitarist evah nonsense from his marketing team , and endorso-whore behaviour that winds me up (a tad).

Boromedic

fields5069 said:

I'm still struck by how little swing he was able to put into Mr Big, that time that he played Paul Kossoff's Les Paul.

Yeah it was a bit stiff that, although Kossoffs guitar sounded lovely. That raspy top end. Also the drummer annoyed me on that clip, Simon Kirke is a very tight drummer and I love his playing, nothing too flash, why add in extra bass drum and fills you knob....

stickyfiddle

Talk of tin hats... 

http://www.musicradar.com/news/joe-bonamassa-using-pedals-that-make-you-sound-like-everything-but-your-guitar-is-fking-lazy

“I’ve really gotten over pedals. I can’t keep up with this craze of boutique pedals that make you sound like everything but your guitar. I can’t get my head around it. So you don’t want to play a guitar [properly] so you buy a box that makes it sound like an algorithm, like you just fired up your computer and you can spend the night staring at your fuckin’ shoes? C’mon man…

“I know I’ll get shit for saying this, but it’s fucking lazy. It’s insulting to people who spent 35 years playing and learning, like a lot of players. And we continue to work at it! These guys can barely play a chord but call themselves soundscapists. Get the fuck outta here! It’s bullshit. There’s so much masking and spin going on there. Can we get real for a minute? What do you actually play? Pick up an acoustic guitar… try that!”

He's a brave/stupid man... I guess his fanbase is the LP-into-5e3-plus-Klon crowd, so I'm not bothered, and I'm sure he doesn't literally mean every single use of FX is pointless, but for a man who has spent a career playing other people's blues licks boringly it seems a little shortsighted at best...

AlexC

I was surprised when I joined this forum to find that there was strong anti-JB feelings from many. I don't get it. He's a guy who plays the guitar well in (mostly) the modern blues idiom. He's good at it. He's a versatile player. His singing is as good as a lot of other recording artists (and mostly superior to most pub band vocalists). He's not very original, true. But why the dismissive attitude to him? He's as good as and better than a lot of players people seem to venerate.
Personally I prefer JB to any stunt shredders or 80s hair rock squealing with top hats.

axisus

I have no problem with JB at all, other than the fact that he doesn't excite me like my fave blues players. 

stickyfiddle

AlexC said:

I was surprised when I joined this forum to find that there was strong anti-JB feelings from many. I don't get it. He's a guy who plays the guitar well in (mostly) the modern blues idiom. He's good at it. He's a versatile player. His singing is as good as a lot of other recording artists (and mostly superior to most pub band vocalists). He's not very original, true. But why the dismissive attitude to him? He's as good as and better than a lot of players people seem to venerate.
Personally I prefer JB to any stunt shredders or 80s hair rock squealing with top hats.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me it's because I want to listen to songs, not guitar playing for its own sake. Within a great song I like guitar playing that serves a purpose and makes that song better. But good guitar playing in a shitty song is pointless.

With JB it always feels like the song exists so he can solo in it - he's a famous guitar player, not a famous singer/songwriter. Wikipedia agrees "[JB] is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter.". They say the same about Clapton. I don't like him that much either.

equalsql

I've warmed to the guy alot over the past few years especially after seeing many interviews with him. His stage persona is very much the opposite of who he is in person. He's a real old fashioned guitar nerd, in a good way and always makes time to chew the fat on amps etc. He's stripped his rig down to the real basics over the past year or so and his tone has improved considerably. Still not a fan of much of his music but I'd buy him a pint.

Boromedic

Yeah I don't hate him either, I think he is a great guitarist tbh and I own a few of his albums. I really like his interviews and the nerdy insight he gives like equalsql said above.

I think the fx quote is a tad shortsighted but he is entitled to his opinion about it as he has earned his stripes. Some of his Youtube interviews are great, theres one with Mick Taylor from That Pedal Show where he is in a dressing room with a champ in the bog, really liked that one, his playing was awesome.

AlexC

@stickyfiddle I take your point. Songwriting is the million dollar skill (often literally). And it's the one thing that say 15 out of 100 artists have. 

Dominic

Not my kind of music but I like him and respect his playing and a smashing character ,always very polite