Sydney show write up - 31/3/10

While I was waiting for Joe to soundcheck I wandered to the back of the hall to find a man by the name of John Comacchio with a trio of beautiful custom guitars sitting with the cases open. Naturally I was intrigued, John is a luthier based in Sydney and his Comacchio Guitars are beautifully crafted with a really nice neck heel that I hadn’t seen anything like before and this is due to John’s background in furniture design before building guitars. I was lucky enough to play his Telecaster with its birdseye Maple fretboard and natural binding. I had a quick play unplugged and it felt very nice and well balanced. John later presented this guitar to Joe Bonamassa as a present, a pretty nice gesture considering the $6,300 pricetag! Joe was surprised and very grateful and to everyone’s surprise Joe used the guitar during the encore to play one of my favourite songs from his latest album Black Rock, Bird On A Wire. Joe later said to John while we were backstage that the Tele was “Ace” and warm and Joe’s guitar tech said he loved how articulate it was. Joe also said he was going to use it every show in Australia and indeed he did use it the following night in Melbourne.