One of our favorite things in the world is browsing Guitar Center's Vintage collection, whether online or at our flagship Hollywood store. So, the chance to attend an invitation-only special event at the Hollywood store's legendary Vintage Room was an opportunity too good to pass up. Intended to showcase 60 of the best, rarest and most unusual pieces in the collection, it would also be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and play some unique instruments.

An added attraction was that the event was to be hosted by Joe Bonamassa, whose reputation as a vintage gear collector and expert is easily on equal par with his status as a bonafide guitar hero and performer. So, leaving the checkbook at home to avoid temptation, we sallied forth.

Pictured: Vintage Fender Bass Guitars on Display at Guitar Center Hollywood

If you've never had the opportunity to visit the Hollywood Vintage Room, prepare to be awestruck at your first glance. If there is a vintage guitar heaven, this may well be it. On this occasion, in addition to many of the guitars being displayed on the iconic wall behind the stage, some of the rarest were displayed around the room in open cases. We talk about some of the rarest and most interesting guitars in another article, so we won't rehash those here, but there were plenty of instruments well worth drooling over. Several that especially caught our attention were a 1960 stacked-knob blonde Fender Jazz Bass, a mid-’60s Telecaster in Dakota Red—an especially rare finish for a Tele—and a beautiful Gibson Johnny Smith archtop.

As you might expect, the Vintage Room was packed with collectors and vintage aficionados for this event, so we were glad to have had the chance to get in a little early. Accompanied by Guitar Center Vintage Director Jack Hetherington, this gave us a chance to chat with Joe Bonamassa for a bit before the crowd showed up. Bonamassa has quite a history with Guitar Center vintage, going back a couple of decades. As he said, "Out of 650 guitars, I'd say at least 100, maybe more, come from here."

Pictured: Guests Exploring GC's Rare and Premium Vintage Finds

While talking about the list of his favorite Guitar Center finds, a number of his favorite guitars popped up: A matching sunburst pair of ’50s Fenders—an Esquire and a Tele, with the Esquire proudly displayed on stage; a beautiful 1939 Martin 000-42 that had walked into the Fort Worth store; the Cherry SG Custom that one of his signature Epiphone guitars was based on. As we talked about vintage guitars and collectability, Bonamassa made the point that the value of such things is dependent on so many different factors, including personal attachment to the instruments.

"Those guitars on that stage basically have zero value for me because I'm never going to get rid of them. There's nothing … I mean the Esquire goes with the set. I have a Sunburst Esquire and a Sunburst Telecaster, both of which I got from Guitar Center. The V is the V, and that's the best guitar safari of my life. The SG is now sentimental because we did a signature model. And then the Martin, I haven't even changed the strings on it because I like the way it sounds. Rick's [Rick Gould, Bonamassa’s guitar tech] like, ‘Let me change the strings.’ I tell him, ‘Don't touch it … it's just perfect the way it is.’ That's my daily driver. I sit and serenade the squirrels before a tour and sing my show all the way down.”

Pictured: Joe Bonamassa Playing His 1958 Gibson Flying V On-stage in the Vintage Room at Guitar Center Hollywood

Bonamassa also told the audience the guitar geek is a little closer to his regular life than the onstage persona, and he takes it very seriously.

“I can open up a case and tell you if the guitar is right or wrong without turning a screw—because I've done 1,200 guitar trips in my life. When you've bought that amount of stuff, your eyes are trained to go to the issues first. My girlfriends in the past have been very, very ... ‘You dwell on the negative.’ I'm trained to dwell on the negative. This helps me. The thing is, if the stuff comes from here [Guitar Center Vintage], it's already vetted. You can pull any of those custom color offsets off the wall—they're already vetted.”

Pictured: Guests Perusing the Guitar Wall in the Vintage Room at Guitar Center Hollywood

Eventually, we came to the topic of “the one that got away”—something all collectors seem to have. Bonamassa was fortunate enough to have a second chance at his.

“The one that got away ended up coming with me 13 years later. The Lowell George Dumble amp got away the first time. Then, the second time it came around, I had spears in both hands. For years, I was like, ‘Man, I should have just done it.’ It came down to 10—on a unicorn. I'll never argue over $10,000 again. It's like, ‘What's the other Lowell George Dumble?’—it's the one, the only. If you can swing it, don't walk away if you really want it. You're not going to remember that extra pain and suffering financially. You're going to have just the thing that you want.”

Left: Rickenbacker 331 "Light Show", Middle: Fender Zebrawood Telecaster Prototype, Right: Gibson Byrdland in Factory Walnut

Looking at the interactions around the room, with attendees gathering to discuss particular guitars, the sense of community that brings them together became evident. The obvious connection between seemingly disparate collectors flashed back to something Bonamassa had said earlier, “We all know each other—all the big collectors know each other. We all have text messages. It's like, you'll hit me up with a price check. I'll hit Jack up or Nick [Conte, one of our vintage experts] if I'm looking at something. ‘What do these things go for?’ It's invaluable to have that network. We share information because you can easily get spun up with emotion, but you have to make sure that you're protecting your investment. There is a monetary aspect to it. I think another thing is the learning curve of it.”

Or, as he reminded the audience at the end of his opening the show, “Remember to have fun with it.” And it's obvious that he does.

As nice as it was chatting with Bonamassa, the real stars of the afternoon were the guitars. Watching players and collectors brighten as they saw something that appealed to them was a common theme. It was fun watching someone tentatively approach a particular rarity, pick it up to examine, start playing and see a huge, satisfying grin spread over their face.

Left: Periphery's Misha Mansoor Playing a 1968 Paisley Fender Telecaster at GC Hollywood

A case in point was seeing Periphery/Bump guitarist Misha Mansoor sitting, totally absorbed, with a ’68 Paisley Tele and a gorgeous ES-330—not guitars you'd normally associate with the 8-string wizard. It was obvious that everyone there had taken Bonamassa's closing words to heart.