Joe Bonamassa and Epiphone have reunited for their annual signature guitar drop with the release of a new electric guitar inspired by the blues rock heavyweight’s own 1955 Les Paul Standard.
Bonamassa’s 12th signature Epi to date, the guitar is also notably his first Artist Series Epiphone to feature a pair of P-90s, with previous examples – such as the 1959 'Lazarus' Les Paul, Black Beauty Custom and 1962 ES-335 – all favoring humbuckers.
Unorthodox pickup choices aside, there’s perhaps a bigger selling point with this particular model: it features an especially rare oddball colorway that you’ll struggle to find anywhere else.
As Bonamassa explains in a video on the Gibson Gear Guide, the Copper Iridescent finish that his new model offers was a standardized option, with Epiphone noting it was first created for display at the 1955 NAMM Show.
However, it is exceedingly rare: only three 1955 Les Paul Standards with this finish are known to exist – and Bonamassa owns two of them. Not only that, Epiphone had to track down the original paint color to revive it.
And what a finish it is: similar to the flip-flopping hues of more contemporary sheens, Copper Iridescent has a very subtle metallic vibe, which seems to change the guitar’s appearance depending on the light.
In some cases, it looks deep black. In others, it has a neat light brown shade to it. Dare we say this is the nicest finish of any Bonamassa Epiphone we’ve seen over the past decade?
“This is based on two 1955 Copper Iridescent Les Pauls that I own,” Bonamassa explains. “It was a standardized color, there just weren’t many of them.
“I was talking to Mat Koehler, and I said, ‘We’ve never done a P-90 guitar.’ I’m known as a humbucker player, but the P-90s are always great. That little spark on top, the humbucking pickup doesn’t do that.
In fact, Bonamassa is so impressed with his new model, he admits, “I can already tell you this sounds better than one of my original ’55s” – owing to the fact that one of his 1955 models still has the factory strings on.
The guitar is a standard Epi at heart with some signature twists, featuring a bound maple-topped mahogany body, Custom ’59 Rounded C mahogany neck, and bound laurel fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets.
Other notable specs that hark back to the source material include Pearloid Trapezoid inlays, a Long Tenon set neck glued in neck joint, and those Epiphone P-90 PRO Soapbar P-90s.
As for hardware, there are Epiphone Deluxe tuners, a LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge / Stop Bar tailpiece combo, and color-matched Copper Iridescent Speed control knobs.
“I’m happy we’ve done a P-90 guitar because it was long overdue. We’ve done Flying Vs, 335s we did the SG last year… I’ve lost track of how many we’ve done,” says Bonamassa.
Bonamassa’s latest signature Les Paul is available now for $849.
Visit Epiphone to find out more.
