When Joanne Shaw Taylor arrived at Joe Bonamassa’s Nashville home to record The Blues Album, she brought one guitar. One. Bonamassa — a man who owns hundreds of vintage guitars and whose “Nerdville” house in Nashville is essentially a private guitar museum — had laid out a selection of Telecasters specifically for her. She couldn’t play any of them. “I tried to play them, but I just couldn’t,” she told Guitar Player. “He plays really heavy-gauge strings — .011s — and he has really high action.” Her strings are Ernie Ball Slinky Top/Heavy Bottom, she tunes to Eb, and her hands are what she describes as “tiny baby hands.” So she played “Junior.” Junior is a 1966 Fender Esquire that she bought on Denmark Street in London when she was fifteen years old. Bonamassa played it every night of the sessions. He got progressively more attached to it. “I realized it was time for me to leave and take Junior with me,” Taylor said. “I didn’t want a bidding war to break out.”
The story of a world-class guitarist arriving at Joe Bonamassa’s house for a recording session, bringing one guitar, and then watching Bonamassa develop an attachment to that guitar is the most perfect possible introduction to Joanne Shaw Taylor’s gear philosophy: she plays Junior, and Junior is enough. The 1966 Esquire — a modified single-pickup Telecaster, with a Jazz humbucker added to the neck position — is not a prestigious vintage instrument by the standards of the guitar collecting world (an Esquire is a stripped-down Telecaster, and a 1966 is CBS-era Gibson rather than the pre-CBS era that collectors prize). It is, instead, exactly the right guitar for her — the guitar that fits her “tiny baby hands,” that she has played for over twenty years, that sounds like herself. In the studio for The Blues Album, it ran into a ’62 Fender Deluxe and a Howard Dumble Overdrive Special, both cranked, with no pedals. “I’m also lazy and didn’t want to fuss around with pedals,” she told Vintage Guitar. “It’s one less bloody thing to worry about.”
Joanne Shaw Taylor was born on June 25, 1986, in Doeley, West Midlands — the Black Country, the industrial heartland of England between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. She defied her teachers to perform at the Marquee Club and Ronnie Scott’s at fourteen. Her demo found its way to Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics at a charity gig when she was sixteen, and Stewart immediately invited her to join his post-Eurythmics supergroup D.U.P. — making her, at sixteen, a professional musician touring with a major figure in British pop history. She went on to build one of the most consistently excellent careers in British blues-rock, recording nine studio albums, receiving accolades from Jimmy Cliff, Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, and Joe Bonamassa, and establishing herself as one of the most important British blues guitarists of her generation. She now lives in Nashville.
Background: Black Country Prodigy, Denmark Street, Dave Stewart, Bonamassa Connection
The Black Country — the densely industrial area of the West Midlands — has produced a specific strain of British guitar music that differs from London’s more cosmopolitan influence: harder-edged, more blues-rooted, shaped by the industrial working-class culture of an area whose economic history is embedded in metalwork, manufacturing, and the specific grimness of post-industrial decline. Black Sabbath came from Aston, Birmingham. Judas Priest came from Birmingham. The connection between industrial working-class culture and heavy, blues-derived rock is not accidental. Taylor grew up in this environment, and her playing — the “stinging, Albert Collins-inspired lead lines” that Guitar World identified as her signature — reflects the specific intensity of a guitarist who absorbed the blues as emotional truth rather than as historical artifact.
Her classical guitar training preceded her blues development — she studied classical guitar as a child and then discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan through a DVD. “Renowned for her stinging, Albert Collins-inspired lead lines and powerful vocal style,” Guitar World notes, the transition from classical to blues was mediated by SRV: she learned from the Vaughan DVD how to inject personality into playing that had previously been technically accomplished but emotionally contained. Albert Collins’s specific influence — particularly his method of playing the lower strings with his thumb — became the primary technical model for her lead approach. “Other than Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s my number one influence,” she has said of Collins.
The Denmark Street guitar purchase — Junior, the 1966 Esquire, bought secondhand at fifteen — was the key biographical gear event. Denmark Street in London (London’s “Tin Pan Alley,” the street of music shops and publishers that has supplied British rock musicians for decades) was where she found the guitar that would define her. She has played it ever since. She got it at fifteen; it fits her hands; it sounds like her. Twenty-plus years later, it’s still Junior.
Joe Bonamassa’s role in her career has been both practical and personal. He gifted her the Albert Collins signature Telecaster — “I flew to New York to see Joe for a few days. He was rehearsing for the first time with Black Country Communion. I went to Manny’s Music on West 48th Street and in there they had an Albert Collins signature model that was signed by Albert.” He produced The Blues Album (2022) and Blues from the Heart: Live (2022) on his Keeping the Blues Alive Records label. He let her use his Dumble Overdrive Special for the sessions. Their relationship is one of the most productive senior/junior partnerships in contemporary blues: Bonamassa recognizing genuine talent and providing the infrastructure to support it.
The Rig: Joanne Shaw Taylor’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
1966 Fender Esquire “Junior” (Primary Guitar, Career Centerpiece, Denmark Street Purchase at Age 15): The instrument that defines Joanne Shaw Taylor is a 1966 Fender Esquire nicknamed “Junior” — bought secondhand on Denmark Street in London when she was fifteen years old. The Esquire is a Telecaster with a single bridge pickup rather than two: the original 1950s Esquire design had only one pickup, making it the simplest possible solid-body electric guitar. Her specific 1966 model has been modified with the addition of a Fender Jazz humbucker in the neck position — the full-sized Jazz Bass pickup, known for its warm, thick character when used as a guitar pickup — giving her the standard two-pickup functionality (bridge single-coil for the cutting lead tone, neck humbucker for the warm, full rhythm sound) that the factory Esquire lacked.
“Tweed Fenders are my jam; I plug those into my Esquire, which I got when I was 15 and fits my tiny baby hands,” she told Vintage Guitar with characteristic directness. The phrase “tiny baby hands” is more than affectionate self-deprecation: her hand size is a genuine factor in the guitar’s appeal. The Esquire/Telecaster’s C-shape neck profile, its relatively conventional string-to-string spacing, and the specific playability of a guitar that has been worn into the specific shape of her hands over decades all contribute to why she plays this instrument and why she can’t play Bonamassa’s high-action .011-gauge alternatives. Junior has a specific feel that no other guitar replicates for her.
The 1966 vintage is CBS-era: Fender was acquired by CBS in January 1965, and the subsequent production changes — different neck profiles, different fret specifications, different finish techniques — have led guitar collectors to generally prefer the pre-CBS instruments. But Junior sounds like Junior, and Taylor has played it for over twenty years, and what matters is not the collector’s assessment of the vintage but the specific instrument’s specific character in her specific hands.
Albert Collins Signature Telecaster (Gift from Joe Bonamassa, Second Guitar): Taylor’s second guitar is a Fender Albert Collins Signature Telecaster, given to her by Joe Bonamassa at Manny’s Music on West 48th Street in New York during a visit in which Bonamassa was rehearsing Black Country Communion for the first time. The Albert Collins Signature Telecaster is based on Collins’s own playing instrument — with specific Albert Collins modifications: Collins played with a capo (often at third or fifth fret), in open minor tunings, with the guitar strung for the specific attack of his “iceman” playing style. The Signature preserves these characteristics alongside a standard Telecaster production template.
For Taylor, the Collins Telecaster carries both musical and biographical significance. Collins is “my number one influence” alongside SRV — the guitarist whose thumb-on-lower-strings technique is the direct source of her specific right-hand approach. Owning Collins’s signature model, given by Bonamassa (himself one of the most significant figures in contemporary blues), is a biographical connection to the tradition she works within: a chain of influences made tangible as a physical instrument.
Dave Stewart Telecaster (1955 Telecaster Neck / Custom Shop Warmoth Body): Taylor’s documented collection includes a guitar known as the Dave Stewart Telecaster — built with a 1955 Telecaster neck mated to a custom Warmoth body. Dave Stewart — the Eurythmics guitarist who discovered Taylor at sixteen — is the connection to this instrument. The 1955 Telecaster neck carries the specific thin, shallow profile and the specific fret size of the earliest Fender production instruments, with the specific feel of fifty-plus-year-old vintage maple. Pairing it with a custom Warmoth body allows a modern, purpose-built body to take advantage of the vintage neck’s specific character without the cost and fragility of a complete vintage instrument.
“Mighty Mouse” Custom Telecaster (Lil Jeff Beck Stacked Humbucker): Guitar Girl Magazine documents Taylor’s “Mighty Mouse” custom-built Telecaster with a “Lil Jeff Beck” stacked humbucker at the bridge. Stacked humbuckers — two coils wound over each other rather than side-by-side — provide humcanceling in the physical footprint of a single-coil pickup, giving the character of a single-coil without the hum of a standard single-coil in electrically noisy environments. The “Lil Jeff Beck” designation references the specific voicing of the pickup rather than any direct Beck connection.
Gibson Les Paul Standard (1995 and 2005 Models, Unmodified): Taylor’s documentation includes both a 1995 and a 2005 Gibson Les Paul Standard — standard production Les Pauls kept entirely unmodified. The Les Paul’s mahogany body and humbucking pickups give a tonally different character from the Telecasters: warmer, thicker, with more sustained, compressed-feeling lead tone. For heavier passages and specific tonal contexts, the Les Paul provides the opposite of the Esquire’s cutting, single-coil brightness.
Fender Stratocaster (1997, Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot Pickups): A 1997 Fender Stratocaster with Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot pickups appears in her documented collection. Lindy Fralin’s Vintage Hot pickups are wound slightly hotter than standard vintage-spec single-coils, providing more output and a slightly warmer character while maintaining the Strat’s essential single-coil transparency. Taylor has noted using Stratocasters for rhythm guitar work, where the Strat’s specific three-pickup flexibility and lower output are useful in ensemble contexts.
Strings and Tuning: Taylor uses Ernie Ball Slinky Top/Heavy Bottom strings — a hybrid gauge with lighter treble strings (.009–.011) and heavier bass strings (.046–.052), providing easy bending on the treble strings while maintaining volume and fullness on the bass strings. She tunes to Eb (half-step down from standard) — “always,” according to Wikipedia’s documentation. The Eb tuning reduces string tension slightly for easier bending and gives her voice a lower register that suits her delivery.
Amps
Fender Bassman (Primary US Touring Amp, Tweed-Era Style): “In the U.S., I prefer a Bassman,” Taylor told Vintage Guitar. The Fender Bassman — originally designed in the 1950s as a bass amplifier and subsequently adopted by guitarists as one of the finest guitar amplifiers ever made — has a specific character in its tweed configuration (1959 5F6-A circuit): four 10-inch speakers, 45 watts through 6L6 power tubes, with the specific harmonic breakup that comes from pushing a tweed circuit into natural saturation. “Tweed Fenders are my jam,” she confirms. The Bassman is the foundational blues amplifier — it is the direct ancestor of the Marshall JTM45 (which Jim Marshall based on the Bassman circuit) and thus the indirect ancestor of essentially every rock amplifier that followed from British manufacturers. Taylor reaching back to the original rather than using the descendants reflects the same archival seriousness that defines her guitar choices.
Fender Super Reverb (UK Touring Amp): “In the U.K., I use a Super Reverb,” she said. The four-10-inch blackface Super Reverb is one of the most celebrated clean-to-breakup amplifiers in American music, providing the specific character of 1960s American guitar tone — clean, warm, with natural compression at moderate volumes and musical breakup when pushed. The geographic distinction — Bassman in the US, Super Reverb in the UK — reflects a practical touring reality: the specific amplifiers available for backline rental or shipping in each market.
Howard Dumble Overdrive Special (The Blues Album Sessions): For The Blues Album sessions at Bonamassa’s studio, Taylor used one of Bonamassa’s Howard Dumble Overdrive Special amplifiers alongside a ’62 Fender Deluxe. “Amps, I left it up to Joe. He knows more and has a vast collection. We set up a ’62 Deluxe and one of his Dumble Overdrives and plugged straight into my main guitar, which is a ’66 Esquire affectionately called Junior… two amps running at the same time, both pretty cranked.” The Dumble Overdrive Special — Howard Dumble’s custom-built masterwork, famous for its natural breakup character and its astronomical price (Bonamassa owns multiple examples) — is perhaps the most sought-after amplifier in blues and rock guitar. That Taylor played it without pedals, straight into Junior, both cranked, is the record’s entire signal chain.
Bletchley Belchfire 45 / 50-Watt with Marshall Cabinet (Heavier Sound): Taylor uses a Bletchley Belchfire amplifier (documented as 45W in some sources, 50W in others) through a Marshall cabinet for a heavier sound. The Bletchley Belchfire is a British boutique amplifier in the Marshall tradition — British-voiced, EL34-powered, with the specific gain structure and frequency response of British rock amplification. Running it through a Marshall cabinet gives the full British rock amplifier character that suits heavier material in her repertoire. Wikipedia documents her using “a Bletchley Belchfire 45 with a Marshall cabinet for a heavier sound, and a 1970s Fender Pro Reverb for a cleaner sound.”
Effects
Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer (Two Units, Baseline Grit and Lead Boost): Taylor’s primary effects are two Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamers — the specific reissue of the original green Tube Screamer circuit that preceded the TS9. “A pair of TS808 Tube Screamers. One provides the baseline grit and the other’s kept in reserve for an added lead boost,” as the Reverb interview documents. Running two Tube Screamers — one for a mild, always-on mid-push and one for an additional boost during solos — is a classic blues-rock approach that ensures consistent rhythm tone with a louder, more saturated lead tone available on demand. The TS808 is preferred over the TS9 by players who want a slightly rounder, less mid-aggressive character — the original circuit is warmer and less “honky” than the subsequent TS9 revision.
Minimalist Pedal Philosophy (Studio Preference for No Pedals): “I’m also lazy and didn’t want to fuss around with pedals. It’s one less bloody thing to worry about,” Taylor said of the studio approach for The Blues Album. This is a consistent attitude across her documented interviews: she uses pedals live as practical tools (the two TS808s primarily) but regards them as additions to the core tone rather than as its source. Her ideal signal chain — Junior into a tweed Fender, both cranked — requires no pedals because the amplifier’s natural breakup character provides the overdrive her blues playing requires.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Joanne Shaw Taylor’s playing is the most Albert Collins-influenced British guitar in the contemporary blues world. The Collins connection runs through everything: the thumb-on-lower-strings technique that Collins used for the specific physical attack of his bass-string lines, the specific stinging quality of the Telecaster’s bridge pickup pushed through a loud American amplifier, the emotional directness that is Collins’s most recognizable quality as a musician. She has acknowledged Collins’s influence repeatedly and specifically, and the influence is audible — her lead lines have the same snapping, cutting quality that Collins’s did, driven by the same physical technique.
The SRV influence provides the complementary dimension: Vaughan’s approach to the guitar as a full-body instrument, the specific weight of attack, the sustain and singing quality of his tone, the emotional generosity of his lead playing. Taylor absorbed Vaughan through a DVD, which suggests she taught herself the visual component of his approach alongside the sonic — the physical posture, the attacking right-hand motion, the specific way a Stratocaster or Telecaster needs to be held and struck to produce that specific tone at that specific volume.
Her tone philosophy is the simplest possible: “Tweed Fenders are my jam.” A vintage Fender amplifier, a vintage Fender guitar, tuned down a half step, played hard. The natural breakup of the tweed circuit under hard playing is the overdrive; the spring reverb is the ambience; the guitar’s specific character is the voice. The two TS808s manage the transition between rhythm and lead volumes and add the specific mid-push that the Tube Screamer provides without fundamentally changing the character of the core tone. The philosophy is authentic and clear: find the sounds that serve the emotion, and don’t add anything that doesn’t serve it.
How to Sound Like Joanne Shaw Taylor
Guitar: A Fender Telecaster or Esquire is the authentic starting point. A vintage-spec Telecaster with a standard bridge single-coil pickup and a Jazz Bass humbucker in the neck position replicates Junior’s specific configuration. For accessible alternatives: the Fender Telecaster American Original 60s, or any quality Telecaster with the standard two-pickup configuration. Tune down to Eb — the half-step drop changes both the feel and the sound in ways that are significant to her approach.
Amp: A tweed Fender combo — Bassman reissue, Deluxe, or any tweed-circuit amplifier — pushed toward the edge of natural breakup. The natural saturation of a tweed circuit at moderate-to-high volume is the primary overdrive; everything else is management. If a vintage tweed isn’t available, the Fender Blues Junior with the tone control adjusted for warmth approaches the character.
Amp Settings (Tweed Fender / Clean-to-Breakup Tube Amp):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | 6–8 | Pushed — tweed breakup is the overdrive |
| Bass | 4–5 | Controlled — Telecaster single-coil doesn’t need bass boost |
| Treble | 5–6 | Natural Tele brightness — cutting but not harsh |
| Reverb | 2–4 | Modest — natural room character, not effects-processed |
Effects: Two TS808 Tube Screamers — one always-on for mild grit, one in reserve for lead boost. The first TS808: volume roughly unity, drive at 9–10 o’clock for minimal grit. The second TS808: volume slightly boosted, drive at 11–12 o’clock for more output and saturation. Keep everything else minimal: this is a guitar, an amp, and two green pedals.
Influence & Legacy
Joanne Shaw Taylor’s position in British blues guitar is as the primary female figure in a generation that also includes her contemporaries Samantha Fish (Series 2 #133), Marcus King (Series 2 #132), and Joanna Connor (Series 2 #138). Her reception from the blues establishment — Bonamassa producing her work on his own label, Stevie Wonder expressing admiration, Jimmy Cliff’s recognition, Annie Lennox’s respect — reflects the breadth of her appeal across genre boundaries.
The Dave Stewart connection — being discovered at sixteen by a member of one of the most commercially successful British acts of the 1980s — placed her in the professional music world before she had fully developed as an artist, and the subsequent twenty-year career has been the story of an artist developing from prodigy to mature musician in public view. The Blues Album (2022) represents the mature statement: “100 percent passion, blues, fierce guitar, and soul,” as Vintage Guitar described it — a record that makes no concessions to commercial trends and serves only the tradition she has spent her life inside.
Her connection to Paul Kossoff (Series 2 #5) — the Free guitarist cited alongside Collins as one of the two “pillars of her inspiration” in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown description — connects her British blues heritage to the foundational generation of British blues-rock, the same tradition that connects her to the Clapton/Green/Beck/Page generation that preceded her by fifty years. The Kossoff reference is specifically British: a musician whose emotional vulnerability and sustain-driven lead playing represents a specifically British way of relating to the American blues tradition that Taylor has continued in her own specifically British way.
Internal Links:
- Samantha Fish, Taylor’s contemporary in the new generation of female blues guitar at #133
- Marcus King, Taylor’s contemporary in the new generation of American blues guitar at #132
- Paul Kossoff, cited as one of the two pillars of Taylor’s guitar inspiration alongside Albert Collins (Series 2 #5)
- Joe Bonamassa, who gifted Taylor the Albert Collins Telecaster, produced The Blues Album, and shared his Dumble with her (Series 1)
Frequently Asked Questions: Joanne Shaw Taylor Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Joanne Shaw Taylor play?
Joanne Shaw Taylor’s primary guitar is a 1966 Fender Esquire nicknamed “Junior” — bought secondhand on Denmark Street in London when she was fifteen years old. The Esquire has been modified with a Fender Jazz humbucker in the neck position (the original Esquire has only one pickup, the bridge single-coil). She also plays a Fender Albert Collins Signature Telecaster gifted by Joe Bonamassa, a Dave Stewart Telecaster (1955 neck / custom Warmoth body), a “Mighty Mouse” custom Telecaster with stacked humbucker, and Gibson Les Paul Standards (1995 and 2005, unmodified). She uses Ernie Ball Slinky Top/Heavy Bottom strings and tunes to Eb.
What is the story of “Junior”?
Junior is Taylor’s 1966 Fender Esquire, bought on Denmark Street in London when she was fifteen. She has played it as her primary guitar ever since. It has been modified with a Jazz humbucker in the neck position. “It fits my tiny baby hands,” she has said. When she recorded The Blues Album at Joe Bonamassa’s Nashville studio, she brought only Junior — refusing the collection of Telecasters Bonamassa had selected for her because she couldn’t play his heavy .011-gauge strings. Bonamassa played Junior every night of the sessions and grew so attached to it that Taylor had to leave with the guitar to avoid a “bidding war.”
What amplifier does Joanne Shaw Taylor use?
Taylor is primarily a tweed Fender player. In the US she uses a Fender Bassman; in the UK she uses a Fender Super Reverb. “Tweed Fenders are my jam,” she has said. For The Blues Album sessions she used Bonamassa’s ’62 Fender Deluxe and Howard Dumble Overdrive Special, both cranked simultaneously with no pedals. For heavier live sounds she uses a Bletchley Belchfire 45/50-watt through a Marshall cabinet, alongside a 1970s Fender Pro Reverb for cleaner sounds.
How was Joanne Shaw Taylor discovered by Dave Stewart?
Taylor’s demo found its way to Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics through a charity gig when she was sixteen. After witnessing her guitar playing, Stewart immediately invited her to join his post-Eurythmics supergroup D.U.P. (Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys successor project). The connection gave her professional exposure at an age when most musicians are still developing. She had already been defying her teachers to perform at the Marquee Club and Ronnie Scott’s at fourteen.
What is Taylor’s connection to Albert Collins?
Albert Collins is Taylor’s primary guitar influence alongside Stevie Ray Vaughan. Collins’s specific technique — playing the lower strings with his thumb, the specific stinging Telecaster attack of his “iceman” style — is directly audible in Taylor’s playing. She uses the Albert Collins Signature Telecaster given to her by Bonamassa as her second guitar. “Other than Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s my number one influence,” she has said. The specific high-register, cutting, single-coil-through-loud-amp character of her lead playing derives from Collins’s approach.
What effects does Joanne Shaw Taylor use?
Taylor’s core effects are two Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamers: one always-on for baseline grit, one in reserve for lead boost. Beyond these, she keeps her pedalboard minimal — “I’m also lazy and didn’t want to fuss around with pedals. It’s one less bloody thing to worry about.” For studio recording (specifically The Blues Album), she played with no pedals at all — straight into two cranked amplifiers. Additional documented pedals across different periods include the TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb and Fulltone OCD.
What is The Blues Album and why is it important?
The Blues Album (2022), produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith at Bonamassa’s Nashville studio, is Taylor’s most blues-pure studio recording — a deliberate decision to strip away everything but the core blues tradition and make “the most-authentic way of doing it for blues.” The production philosophy: one guitar (Junior), two cranked amplifiers (the ’62 Fender Deluxe and a Dumble Overdrive Special), no pedals, specific mic placement. The album was released on Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive Records label and received as Taylor’s definitive blues statement.
