Most guitar players have had the experience of walking into a pawn shop, hoping to strike gold, only to find a limited selection of instruments that are far from inspiring. But sometimes with the right combination of luck, a great guitar can be found hanging on the wall of your local pawnbroker. Joe Bonamassa found one such gem, a 1961 Gibson® SG™ Special, at a pawn shop while on tour in 2010.

Not only was it a pristine example of a first-year SG Special, but it also had a set of pickups that marked the beginning of Joe’s love affair with P90s. After many years of recreating pickups from some of Joe’s favourite instruments, Seymour Duncan and Bonamassa have teamed up to replicate the soapbar P90 pickups from this very special guitar as the Joe Bonamassa “Pawn Shop Special” 1961 P90 Set – the Custom Shop’s first P90 collaboration with Joe.

Sonically, these vintage P90s sit somewhere between a single coil and a humbucker: articulate and responsive, but with plenty of bark, especially when overdriven. The pickups in this guitar exemplified the tone of his heroes who played these pickups in the ‘60s. Players like Pete Townshend, Carlos Santana, and Leslie West. When he heard the pickups in the Pawn Shop Special, he knew he had to share this exceptional sound, thus leading to the latest collaboration between Joe and the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop.

Sonically, these vintage P90s sit somewhere between a single coil and a humbucker: articulate and responsive, but with plenty of bark, especially when overdriven. The pickups in this guitar exemplified the tone of his heroes who played these pickups in the ‘60s. Players like Pete Townshend, Carlos Santana, and Leslie West. When he heard the pickups in the Pawn Shop Special, he knew he had to share this exceptional sound, thus leading to the latest collaboration between Joe and the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop.

The Pawn Shop Special occupies a unique place in Joe’s extensive guitar collection. As he began to log and inventory his instruments, this guitar was the very first instrument to be catalogued, thus garnering an inventory tag as item #001. To celebrate this, the first 610 sets will come with a Nerdville #001 inventory tag, similar to the ones Joe uses to catalogue his own instruments. Other features exclusive to the first 610 sets include a certificate of authenticity signed by Joe and Seymour W. Duncan, as well as limited edition packaging.