“I bought it for £300. I showed it to the then-CEO of Epiphone, and said, ‘These guys over in the UK are having a lot of fun. I want in’”: Joe Bonamassa reveals how a cheap knockoff Les Paul kickstarted his partnership with Epiphone

Joe Bonamassa has recalled the origins of his relationship with Epiphone, saying their partnership first started “out of complete and utter spite”.

The prestigious bluesman and guitar nerd has been working with Epiphone for over a decade and has just dropped his 12th Epi signature guitar in the form of a Copper Iridescent 1955 Les Paul Standard. Now he’s lifted the lid on how their fruitful partnership came to be.

The pair’s previous collaborations have included the ‘Lazarus’ 1959 Les Paul Standard and a 1962 ES-335, with Bonamassa eager to bring more affordable vintage-inspired guitars to the market.

“I was in the UK at a guitar shop, which is standard behavior for myself, and I noticed that there was an import model called Vintage,” he told Gibson Gear Guide host Dinesh Lekhraj in a new video. “They do knockoff Les Pauls, and they had two of them: one that clearly had the pickup turned around and it was a Peter Green clone, and they called it something clever.

“And they had a jazz and blues model, which was gold, and it had mismatched knobs,” he continues. “I bought it. It was £300. I stuck it in a gig bag and I brought it to this location [in Nashville] and showed it to the then-CEO of Epiphone, Jim Rosenberg. I said, ‘These guys over in the UK are having a lot of fun, and I want in.’”

The rest, as they say, is history, with the collaboration quickly producing a Goldtop Les Paul in 2013. A raft of eye-catching builds, including a 1963 SG Custom, have since followed.

Their latest creation sees the return of a highly obscure Gibson colorway. It’s also the first of their builds to feature P-90s.

Joe Bonamassa Announces TWO New Guitars – 1955 Les Paul & “Amos” Flying V – YouTube

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Bonamassa says the pickup choice was “long overdue”, after he made a strong case for fitting P-90s into Les Pauls last year.

For the uninitiated, British luthier Vintage started in 1995 in the North of England with an ethos of making classic instruments “for the working musician”.

Bonamassa clearly saw an opening for some Epiphone-driven heritage hat tipping and has since become a tour-de-force in bringing vintage icons to lower price points.

Speaking to Total Guitar earlier this year, he furthered the viability of affordable alternatives by saying “some of the greatest sounds were created on junk!”