John Bendy was born in Brooklyn, New York October, 5 1980. He started playing guitar at age 10 and his first gig was a school talent show at age 12 after just 2 years of playing. Since then there have been hundreds upon hundreds of gigs and late night jams.

Early in the 2000s John was taken under the wing of blues masters Bill Perry and Popa Chubby. He also shared the stage with the Bendy Pastorius Group of which he was a founding member along with his brother Mike Bendy on bass and Julius Pastorius on the drums since 2007.

John played guitar on Chrissie O’Dell’s 2010 release “If I Had a Dime” which charted extremely well on blues music charts around the nation. Also in 2010 John started playing with the Hipster Assassins featuring Felix Pastorius and Mike Bendy on bass, Chris Ward on saxophone, Michael Purcell on piano and Kenny Growhowski on drums. The band would go on to have a two year Monday night residency at New York City’s Zinc Bar where John was able to share the stage with such luminaries Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band) and Roy Hargrove.

2013 found John in Felix Pastorius’ The Social Experiment (1313) as well as the group Bendy Effect which he leads with his brother Mike.

Here’s a short YouTube playlist where you can hear some of John’s inventive guitar work. We’ve had him perform in our booth at NAMM, Brooklyn Guitar Show and have had the pleasure of catching him live numerous times at the 55 Bar and the Zinc Bar.

The story continues in 2014 and beyond. If you get a chance go see John play live.

John uses the Ana Echo, Hustle Drive, Ninety Orange, and Trelicopter, from the Mooer micro series.