“I’ve seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, some people sound better than all of us playing a cheap Squier Stratocaster”: Charlie Starr on guitar collecting, his vintage Juniors theory – and the time he was gifted a ’58 Les Paul

Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke performs onstage with a TV Yellow Gibson Les Paul Junior. He wears a brown leather jacket and dark sunglasses.

Charlie Starr is one of the world’s great electric guitar tone connoisseurs. You won’t find a bad one on a Blackberry Smoke record. And so, this month’s episode of Bought & Sold – the feature in which the great and the good of guitar talk all things gear – is sure to be a good one.

It is not without risk, of course, because to hear Starr talk about Les Paul Juniors, and what a P-90 pickup can do for us, is to plant the seed that maybe you do need one. Or maybe just a new guitar. Well, helpfully, he has some advice on how to buy one, too.