Joe Bonamassa's Bonnie signature Strat pickups with Seymour Duncan revealed

GEAR 2021: Joe Bonamassa and Seymour Duncan are a bankable pairing when it comes to tone authority as their previous three collaborations have proved. Now the new limited run Bonnie Strat pickup set aims to bring their high level of expertise to the aftermarket guitar pickups world. And Joe's muse for this is a very special one indeed.

His '55 Hardtail Strat is one of his favourite guitars – and with the collection Joe has, that means a lot. Setmour Duncan has recreated its pickups for the Bonnie set with era-accurate cloth; pushback lead wires; black Forbon flatwork; Alnico IV rod magnets; and a uniform 5.96K rating. 

  • NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.

Seymour Duncan

(Image credit: Seymour Duncan)

If that hasn't got us tonehounds salivating, how about vintage-correct, accurately aged plastic covers that replicate Joe’s originals? It's all about the details when it comes to the experts. And they went even further than that…

SD's “accurate recreation” ethos with this project extends to the the custom-made Chicklet "Phone Book" .1uF/150V capacitor and Joe’s preferred 5-way selector switch to Bonnie’s modern switch tip and mini skirt control knobs.

Seymour Duncan

(Image credit: Seymour Duncan)

The loaded pickguard set option also features a trio of 250K high-quality CTS potentiometers  

The Bonnie set is handmade in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop in Santa Barbara, CA and only available in a very limited run of 550 sets ($335) and 100 loaded pickguards $550. At the time of writing the loaded option were out of stock. We suggest moving fast on the sets at the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop

Rob Laing
Reviews Editor, GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars

Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of his waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear while making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing anything with a Floyd Rose.