No matter how good at guitar a player may be, no one is immune to string breaks. It just so happened that when Joe Bonamassa snapped a string on stage recently – something that rarely happens to him these days – it was on a massive stage, surrounded by guitar legends.
The occasion was Buddy Guy’s all-star 90th birthday bash. The polka dot Strat veteran is still going strong despite closing in on a century, and celebrated his birthday alongside the likes of John Mayer, Derek Trucks, and Billy Gibbons.
“There’s videos of me playing five strings on this guitar because I broke a string in the first bend,” he tells Guitar World of the show.
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Suffice to say, he and the white Strat he grabbed for the performance styled it out. There’s even a video on YouTube from the gig entitled “Joe Bonamassa killer guitar solo.” The fact he pulled it off with a major handicap is a real flex.
JoBo stepped in to play Many of Many Words before tackling Baby What You Want Me to Do with his good friend and fierce south paw, Eric Gales. Watching footage from the show, there is no obvious moment where the string breaks, and he does exceptionally well not to let any panic he will have been feeling in that moment show on his face. Fair play.
His Guitar World interview coincides with the launch of his latest Fender signature, and first-ever digital amp, the Tone Master take on his beloved ‘59 Twin. This, after he revealed he’s warming to amp modeling.
“I’m not the guy to go like, ‘Well, hey, I’m just I’m tired of dragging stuff around at gigs,’ because I don’t have to,” he explains of his decision to go digital.
“But today [for his interview with GW], there’s no entourage. I showed up myself, and I put that [Tone Master amp] in the Uber, and it was cool.
“I notice it cuts through, and it’s got plenty of power, but it’s not offensive,” he adds. “It’s not too bright. It does what a high power twin does. It’s nice and crisp on the you know clean side, but roars and has plenty of gain to solo.”
Bonamassa has also joined the secret supergroup that used to play clubs in the ‘90s, and his soulful playing was a highlight of the 2026 edition of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads.
Head over to the Guitar World YouTube channel to watch the full interview with Joe Bonamassa.
