Guitars
Floyd Rose Black Prototype Ex Richie Sambora Bon Jovi
6.500 €
At Matt's Guitar Shop, we like to work closely with artists, discovering their live instruments and trying to unravel their unfathomable mysteries. After selling several instruments from Richie Sambora's collection, we continue to offer stage instruments designed for Richie and played on stage. Such is the case with this black Floyd Rose Prototype, a very special guitar made by Floyd Rose and played live by Richie on several occasions. Once again, a direct witness to his legendary guitar playing!
In addition to being an extremely talented guitarist, Richie Sambora is also a genius composer: he's the one who shaped the American band's greatest songs. As a demanding and passionate musician, he approached the major guitar brands to build his own models. After collaborating with Fender and Kramer, Richie Sambora commissioned Floyd Rose to build his own models.
This Floyd Rose guitar is a one-of-a-kind prototype that was made especially for Richie Sambora and is not part of series production. It is designed with very specific technical features that are unique to this guitar: a Floyd Rose Speedloader tremolo system, two humbucker pickups and a pearly pickguard unique to this guitar. Richie Sambora has truly shaped these guitars according to his own tastes and playing preferences. This guitar has been played extensively by Richie Sambora, as evidenced by the traces of wear on the back and sides that bear witness to its time in the guitarist's hands. Several photos show Richie Sambora with this guitar on stage. An exceptional piece with a remarkable provenance!
Other photos
Richie Sambora
(1959)
Band : Bon Jovi
Main guitar : Fender Stratocaster signature
Compulsory listening : Livin’ On A Prayer
Such is the history of rock: for every Mick Jagger, there is a Keith Richards. For every Steven Tyler, there is a Joe Perry. For every Robert Plant, a Jimmy Page. For every superstar that gets the crowd going, there is a moody, infinitely cool guitar player that has the singer’s back and only takes the front of stage for quick assaults of thirty seconds.
Richie Sambora joined the New Jersey band Bon Jovi in 1983, a few months after its creation. Right from the start, Sambora’s playing and personality perfectly matched the image of founding singer Jon Bon Jovi. Together, they created a songwriting duo that would come up with hard rock classics that remain mainstays of every radio station playlist. The true explosion happened in 1986 with the Slippery When Wet album, on which Sambora co-wrote nine out of ten songs, including mega-singles Livin’ On A Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name and Wanted Dead Or Alive. The guitar hero’s virtuosic, precise and energetic playing are in full force on that album. Sambora has integrated Van Halen’s influence to his style like any soloist of the time, but he added his personal twist to it. His talent for arranging can be head on the twelve-string parts of Wanted…, the pitch shifted solo to You Give Love A Bad Name or the talkbox for Livin’ On A Prayer.
After the release of the album, the band gets huge and starts touring around the world for sold-out crowds of entranced fans. Bon Jovi’s genius is that they achieved mainstream success at several points in their career, which makes them relevant to several generations of fans. They once again topped the charts with Always in 1994, then with It’s My Life (co-written by Sambora too) in 2000. That last song earned them a new audience that still follows them to this day.
A victim of his demons, Sambora had to quit the band in 2013 in the middle of one more world tour. Since then, he has launched the RSO band with his ex Orianthi. Over time, he seems more and more interested in the Telecaster and the Esquire, whereas he was the poster boy for superstrats in the glory days of Bon Jovi. Sambora’s musical future probably has a few great surprises in store.
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