James Bay sits down at Dawsons on Denmark Street to showcase his guitar collection, revealing, “These brown spots between the pickups? I can guarantee you were blood.”
Bay highlights his Gibson ES-335 Luther Dickinson signature model, which features both whimsical stickers and genuine bloodstains, making it arguably the cutest yet most battle-worn guitar we’ve encountered. This P-90-, Bigsby-equipped semi-hollow guitar appears on the cover of his new album, Changes All The Time. According to Bay, the pickguard showcases stickers his daughter selected.
“I haven’t recorded with it much,” he notes, “but it’s on the album cover because I love how it looks, and honestly, my daughter decorated it with some fantastic bus and dinosaur stickers.”
However, he can’t overlook the brown spots between the pickups. “I can guarantee those are blood,” he asserts. “The adrenaline was absolutely raging when I first performed in front of thousands of people who wanted to see me. I felt incredible but terrified, and I had to channel all that energy somewhere. So, yes, there’s blood on this guitar too.”
Bay is not concerned about keeping his guitars pristine. “I’m not interested in cleaning it. I don’t want to be overly careful with guitars. They are precious and expensive, yes; they’re beautiful works of art, but I live with them, I fight with them, and I get emotional with them. I’m fine with them getting a bit banged up if that’s how it happens.”
He also showcases his National Reso-Phonic Style O resonator guitar, which he admits he purchased on a whim, along with his Gibson SJ-200 acoustic, the instrument he’s become known for.
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