Avid vintage gear collector and blues guitar extraordinaire Joe Bonamassa has revealed in an Instagram post that his beloved 1951 Fender Nocaster has been sent off to the Fender Custom Shop, where master builder Greg Fessler will make a replica signature model of it.
Only 100 Bonamassa signature Nocasters will be manufactured and will be available initially on Bonamassa’s website, with some possibly finding their way to select dealers across the globe.
In August, Bonamassa stated in an Instagram post that the Nocaster—a star of his famously enormous collection—is the “best” he owns. “It is as much a tool as it is a weapon. It is the most dynamic instrument I have ever played in my life,” the blues superstar said of the instrument.
Considering the amount of appreciation Bonamassa has heaped on his favorite Nocaster, he said the guitar “howls in all the right ways, and quite frankly, kills my ’59 Les Pauls on occasion.”
Bonamassa told Ernie Ball in 2015 that he purchased the Nocaster because the Gibson PAF humbucker in the neck area made it resemble the guitar of Keith Richard.
The Nocaster was introduced in 1951 when Fender was thinking of a new name for its Broadcaster after Gretsch protested it was too close to its Broadkaster kit.
