Joe Bonamassa’s “The Blonde Dot” 1960 ES-335 humbucker set is a faithful recreation of the P.A.F. humbuckers from his 1960 dot-neck Gibson ES-335 with blonde finish.
The first 800 sets feature limited edition packaging and bottom plates that are signed by Bonamassa and Seymour W. Duncan himself.
Joe knows a thing or two about Gibson’s P.A.F. humbuckers – the earliest versions of Seth Lover’s milestone innovation in pickup design. Vintage Gibson ES-335s are known to be some of the finest semi-hollow instruments ever built – and the P.A.F. humbuckers they were originally equipped with are the vessel for the powerful sound and sustain that these guitars are known for.
When Seymour Duncan approached Bonamassa to recreate a set of humbuckers from one of his favorite ES-335s, he was quick to bring us one of the finest instruments in his collection – his rare 1960 dot-neck Gibson ES-335 with blonde finish, aptly named “The Blonde Dot”. Purchased from a friend who had an impressive collection of vintage dot neck 335s, Joe found that the pickups in the pristine Blonde Dot were some of the most balanced P.A.F.s in his collection.
Joe Bonamassa’s “The Blonde Dot” 1960 ES-335 Humbucker Set
Careful to keep the guitar in its immaculate condition – Seymour Duncan measured and recorded the original pickups to faithfully recreate them as “The Blonde Dot” 1960 ES-335 Humbucker Set. Joe describes the neck pickup as “stratty and clear” and the bridge pickup as “punchy and dark”, making a balanced set that he knew would sound good in any guitar. To capture these tones, this vintage set uses an Alnico 2 magnet in the neck, whereas a stronger Alnico 4 magnet was found to best deliver the qualities of the original bridge pickup. To match the like-new original Blonde Dot, the nickel covers are unaged and come with black pickup rings. The first 800 sets come in limited edition packaging and with bottom plates signed by Bonamassa and Seymour Duncan himself. After these limited edition sets are sold, ”The Blonde Dot” pickups will be available with standard Custom Shop cosmetic options to perfectly match your ES-335, Les Paul, or any guitar that demands great P.A.F. humbucker tone.
For more information, please visit seymourduncan.com.
Following a Grammy nom for his latest record, the blues great returns for his second Rundown.
Eric Gales is back again. Since last chatting with John Bohlinger in 2017, the blues maestro’s rig has transitioned to include more signature Raw Dawg gear pieces—including pedals, amps, and, of course, his signature Magneto guitars. Just last year, the lefty slinger released the Grammy-nominated, Crown, which features collabs with his pal Joe Bonamassa. Gales was touring in support of that record when he rolled through Nashville.
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Eric Gales' Guitars
For over a decade, Magneto Guitars has collaborated with Gales on his signature guitars, and he tours with a pair of them. This Magneto Sonnet RawDawg III features a basswood body, roasted maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, a righthanded Gotoh tremolo (flipped, naturally) and tuners. It’s loaded with a set of Magneto Metro-Poles EG1 pickups, and a gold-mirror pickguard keeps things flashy.
Gales’ Sonnet RawDawg II—one of his longtime standbys for both stage and studio—is outfitted with an alder body, maple neck and fingerboard, and Lollar S-style pickups. Gales strings both signature guitars with Dunlop .010–.046 strings.
Once again, Gales relies upon his signature gear for his amp needs. When he and DV Mark designed his Raw Dawg EG 250-watt head, they decided upon a one-channel design with a tube preamp and solid-state power amp to achieve a super-clean tone, which is delivered to a pair of DV Mark DV Gold 212V 2x12 Vertical cabinets.
Eric Gales' Pedalboard
After leaving his guitar, Gales’ signal hits a Shure GLXD6+ Digital Wireless and goes straight into a pair of expression-controlled pedals—a Dunlop Bob Bradshaw-designed CAE wah with a gold-plated enclosure and a DigiTech Whammy. Then, he heats things up with a host of drive units: an E.W.S. Eric Gales Signature Brute Drive, and MXR Eric Gales Signature Raw Dawg (which includes the image of Gales’ late pitbull), a Mojo Hand FX Colossus Fuzz, and an MXR Hendrix Octavio Fuzz. Those hit a lone always-on delay— a Tech 21 Boost DLA—and a groove-filled Boss Loop Station RC-5.
In 1967, Richard Head bought his dream guitar for $350 and went on a decades-long musical journey with his prized possession. Now, he’s selling it to raise money for injured veterans.
In Joe Bonamassa’s latest Rig Rundown, filmed in early 2022, Bonamassa showed us a beautiful, faded sunburst 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard with a history. This guitar was slated to be sold for charity, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that builds specially adapted custom homes and donates them to severely injured post-9/11 veterans. (HFOT has built 350 homes to date, with another 71 projects underway nationwide.)
I forgot about the guitar and the auction until 11 months later, when I emceed Joe Robinson’s Rig Rundown. Robinson had the same Les Paul. Yesterday, when I returned to the Ryman for a Rundown with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, I saw this special burst again, as Shepherd planned to play it during his set. As I was leaving the venue, I met Richard Head, the owner and donor of this amazing guitar. It occurred to me that my column was due tomorrow, so maybe I could Tom Sawyer him into writing it for me. Luckily, Richard fell for it and sent me the story of the Blessing Burst.
“My higher self knows that you don’t own your favorite possessions—they own you. Essentially, it’s been my burden to buy, repair, protect, and worry about this wire and wood that I’m so obsessed with.”
In 1967, Head, an aspiring musician in Northern Ohio, found a 1960 Les Paul “Burst” Serial #01945 at Elyria Music in Elyria, Ohio. Its cherry sunburst finish had already faded from being displayed in store windows, and it had a repaired neck break. But it was all original with PAF humbuckers and a slim, comfortable 1960s neck profile. Best of all, Richard could afford the purchase price of $350, so he pulled the trigger and never looked back.
This burst, which he nicknamed Blessing, was Richard’s main electric guitar from then on. Blessing was with him during hundreds of hours of gigs, to an audition for Edgar Winter in New York in 1969, then to Criteria Studios in Miami when his band landed a record deal in the ’70s, then more gigs as Richard and Blessing played the club circuit. In 1991, Richard took a job at Gibson where he worked as the marketing director for the electric guitar division. When Gibson created the Custom Shop Historic Collection, Richard loaned his burst Les Paul to Gibson for the purpose of measuring and comparing all of its attributes to ensure that the 1960 Les Paul Reissue, offered as part of the Historic Collection, would be as true to the original as possible. Blessing was featured in the Gibson Historic Collection catalog of 1994, emphasizing the validity of the 1960 Les Paul Reissue model.
Joe Bonamassa took the 1960 Blessing burst on a worldwide tour.
Photo by Rick Gould
In 2020, Richard turned 70 and decided he wanted his Blessing Burst to be a blessing to others by providing mortgage-free homes to extremely injured veterans. Richard contacted his old friend and coworker at Gibson, Walter Carter of Carter Vintage Guitars, who put him in touch with Bonamassa. Bonamassa was happy to help the cause and took the Blessing Burst on tour, spreading awareness about HFOT’s mission.
After a year of touring that took Blessing to the Royal Albert Hall, Red Rocks, and beyond, the guitar is now located at Nashville’s Carter Vintage, where it’s been played by Marcus King, Tommy Emmanuel, John Osborne, Joe Robinson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and more. Updates will be posted on the Carter Vintage website as well as Blessing’s Instagram page @Blessingburst.
I just finished a painful, runaway-budget remodel at my home, essentially to accommodate my gluttonous gear consumption. During the process, I found guitars that I’ve not seen in years. I moved piles of old amplifiers that I’ve been lugging around for decades; schlepping them endlessly from my different homes to gigs ad nauseam. I felt like Scrooge’s partner, Marley, who was doomed to drag the chains of his treasure for all eternity.
My higher self knows that you don’t own your favorite possessions—they own you. Essentially, it’s been my burden to buy, repair, protect, and worry about this wire and wood that I’m so obsessed with. It’s a bit of a curse to be owned by your obsessions. It occurred to me that Richard Head is onto something. He found his dream guitar. This Les Paul was with him for a musical odyssey that lasted over half a century. Now the guitar will join another player on their own musical odyssey and the profits from the sale will house people that gave a lot and now need help: Truly that is a blessing. That being said, if I had the dough re mi, I would definitely buy this Blessing Burst and drag it around for the rest of my life and, if possible, I would happily take it with me after I die and lug it through eternity.