Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton owned a circa 1980 Fender Stratocaster 'The Strat,' which was donated by Jimmy Page, as verified by Christie's auction listing.

"When Clapton first began playing the SG, it was still fitted with the original Deluxe Vibrolo arm; Clapton simply fixed the mechanism in place with arm reversed. The vibrato bar was eventually removed and replaced with two other tailpieces: another Gibson tremolo with a flexible piece of metal instead of springs; and a non-tremolo trapeze-style unit. The tuners were changed from the factory-issue Klusons to Grovers." - Gibson.

At 1:20 you can see Clapton playing this infamous guitar.

He can be seen with the guitar throughout the Concert for George.

Eric Clapton was seen playing this guitar in the promotional video for Tears in Heaven, released as a single from the soundtrack album to the Lili Zanuck film Rush in 1991. In the video, Clapton is seen performing on the rehearsal set for the 1991 George Harrison Japan tour at Bray Studios. However, it is most recognisable from its appearance on MTV's Unplugged in January 1992, when Eric Clapton used it to play the opening number Signe as well as Tears in Heaven and Circus Left Town.

Clapton also used this guitar for the solo performance of Tears In Heaven at the end of a television special in 1992 featuring an exclusive interview with the British TV presenter Sue Lawley, filmed at his London home. This guitar was also used for performing Tears In Heaven, Circus Left Town and Signe during the 1992 UK Tour which incorporated the 12 show season at the Royal Albert Hall in February/March.

Eric Clapton said that he bought this guitar via his manager Roger Forrester, from a fan in Austin, Texas in c.1983. He has used it on stage and is photographed playing it during the ARMS concert at The Royal Albert Hall, London, September 21, 1983.

Eric Clapton has used the 1948 Gibson L-5-P CES as a backup to his main Gibson L-5 since the 1993 Blues Tour, as shown in the provided image.

Purchased by Eric Clapton in 1964, he has used this ES-335 throughout his career from The Yardbirds, with Cream, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Blind Faith, and throughout his solo career. Fellow Yardbird Chris Dreja was photographed playing Clapton's 335 more often than Clapton himself at that time. With Cream, Clapton was more frequently pictured with various Gibson Les Pauls, and the famous psychedelic Gibson SG, painted by The Fool. However, he appears to have started using this ES-335 alongside a Gibson Firebird I during Cream's farewell tour in the autumn of 1968, which culminated in two concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on November 26th, 1968. In the second concert of the day, Clapton played this ES-335 whilst he used the Firebird in the first concert. In December 1968, Clapton went on to cut Badge and other tracks with this guitar at IBC Studios in London, released later on the Goodbye album.

Clapton used this ES-335 extensively with Blind Faith in recording sessions at Morgan and Olympic Studios, and on stage during the Scandinavian and US Tours that followed. An inside cover photo of No Reason To Cry suggests that this ES-335 was present at the Shangri La Studio sessions in the spring of 1976. Clapton said in a 1989 interview that this guitar was also used on his 1989 rendition of Ray Charles' Hard Times released on the Journeyman album. According to Lee Dickson, this guitar was taken to practically all Clapton's recording sessions throughout his 25 year tenure with Clapton since 1979.

In the autumn of 1994, this Cherry Red ES-335 returned to the stage as one of the key guitars used on the Nothing But Blues Tour when Clapton played on it the Freddy King numbers Someday After A While, I'm Tore Down and Have You Ever Loved A Woman. Clapton can be seen playing this guitar at Filmore West on the 8th and 9th of November, 1994, in the footage of a documentary film of the Nothing But Blues Tour, directed by Martin Scorsese.

This ES-335 remained as a stage guitar, largely reserved for Freddy King numbers, until the summer of 1996. Again, it was captured in concert footage that year when Clapton used it on various TV shows, most notably the VH-1 Duets programme with Dr. John at Roseland, New York on the 9th May, 1996. It was used at the Prince's Trust concert in London's Hyde Park on the 29th June, 1996, subsequently released on video as Eric Clapton - Live in Hyde Park, where it features on the cover.

Eric Clapton commented that this guitar has "..a great sound.." and that he kept it as "...a dressing room guitar...". Lee Dickson recalled that Clapton had this guitar for a long time and that he took it to the dressing room at The Royal Albert Hall for Clapton during one of his seasons there in the 1990s.

This guitar resides in the London Hard Rock Cafè. It's one of the first of the HRC memorabilia collection.

Eric Clapton refers to his 1898 Martin O-18 as a "Home Guitar," as noted in the Christie's auction listing.

Eric Clapton kept this guitar at his country home for private use for a number of years, and has played this guitar frequently in the last five or six years.

This was the guitar that Eric Clapton used with Delaney & Bonnie. He gave it to Albert Lee as a gift.

This guitar was used at the Music For Montserrat concert at the Royal Albert Hall, 15th September, 1997 for a solo acoustic rendition of Brokenhearted, a song that was later included on the Pilgrim album. It was also featured in a photo session in 1998 which produced the cover photograph for The Times magazine and the cover for the c.d. single Pilgrim.

This is one of the few Strats. in Eric Clapton's collection with a neck variation i.e. rosewood, rather than maple. It's a composite guitar.

Lee Dickson recalled that this guitar was one of Clapton's two favourite acoustics before the development of his custom signature Martin in 1995. The Longworth has been regularly used by Eric Clapton on recordings, and the phrase 'Get me the Longworth' has been a regular request to Lee in the studio over the years.

Eric Clapton acquired this customised 1966 Martin 000-28 in Nashville in November 1970 whilst he was on his US Tour with the Dominos. He'd stopped there for filming the Johnny Cash show with Carl Perkins as his fellow guest. He used the guitar for recording sessions at Criteria Studios in Miami in the spring of 1974, which produced the album 461 Ocean Boulevard. Clapton was photographed playing the guitar in front of the house he'd rented at that address whilst he was recording that album, and the photo was used as the back cover of the record.

When Clapton went on tour to promote the album later that year, he used this guitar on stage to open the concerts in Scandinavia and the US with Charlie Chaplin's Smile, Let It Grow from 461 Ocean Boulevard and Easy Now from his first solo album. The guitar travelled with Clapton on his first tour of Japan in November 1974, and was used for the opening segment of concerts which consisted of Better Make It Through Today from the album There's One In Every Crowd in addition to Smile and Let It Grow.

This guitar seemed to have remained Clapton's main acoustic guitar throughout 1975/1976 until the 'Rodeo Man' 000-28 took its place on the 1976 tour. It made a brief appearance on stage again during the ARMS tour in the autumn of 1983 for the encore number Good Night Irene with Ronnie Lane. Nine years later, it was played by Andy Fairweather Low during the session for the MTV Unplugged at Bray Studios in 1992. It subsequently made a stage comeback when Clapton used it during the acoustic section of the Blues season at the Royal Albert Hall in 1993 alongside the vintage 000-42 [Lot 19] he used for the Unplugged session. From that point on, 'The Longworth' was regularly used for acoustic numbers on stage throughout the From The Cradle Tour until November 1995.

Serial No. 1587-91, printed maker's label to interior CW Kaman II / 1587-91 / 1687-8, in blue finish, black Lyrachord deep bowl body with gold sparkles, scrolled acanthus leaf motif headstock, mahogany neck, twenty-four fret walnut fingerboard with maple triangular motif inlays, fibronic-graphite top, thirteen-piece exotic wood inlays around twenty-two multiple epaulet soundholes, carved acanthus leaf walnut bridge, Perspex® pickguard, two wooden rotary controls on the side and two jack outputs; and brown Ovation hardshell contour case with brown plush lining and brown vinyl cover with zip fastening, containing photocopied sheet music for Streamline Woman, by McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters) and a lead, with handwritten label inscribed with various details including ADAMAS OVATION....GRAPE SOUNDHOLE

This Dobro was used by Eric Clapton at the Concert of the Century at the White House, 23rd October 1999 for the opening number, his rendition of Robert Johnson's Rambling On My Mind; and for the same Johnson song during the last leg of the Pilgrim Tour in Japan, November/December 1999. It has also been used on various recording sessions in the last three to five years, although no specific recordings have been identified.

Eric Clapton has expressed appreciation for the design and concept of the Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean but mentioned that it doesn't align with his preferred sound. Despite this, a 1958 Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean was featured in a Christie's auction, indicating its connection to him.

Eric Clapton said that he bought this guitar "...for nostalgic reasons..." wanting "... to recreate the same experience as the psychedelic guitar ..." he'd used with Cream [see illustration]. He thinks that this model is ..."an incredible design.." but found that he couldn't switch back into using it having got so accustomed to Fenders. Lee Dickson recalls that Clapton disliked the tremolo [vibrato] on this particular model.

Eric Clapton experimented with the 1980s Fender Stratocaster Elite model, as documented by Christie's.

Freddy Tavares and John Page of Fender presented this guitar to Eric Clapton in 1982 after a show in the States.

In an interview with Dan Forte for Guitar Player magazine in 1985, Clapton commented: "Strings & Things from Memphis tried to get me interested in a fairly revolutionary-looking guitar, the St. Blues. I tried it, and I liked it, and I played it on stage liked, it a lot. But, while I was doing that, I was thinking, "Well, Blackie's back there. If I get into this new guitar too deeply, it's tricky, because then I won't be able to go back to Blackie. And what will happen to that?" This all happens in my head while I'm actually playing [laughs]. I can be miles away thinking about this stuff, and suddenly I shut down and say, "This is enough. No more. Nice new guitar. Sorry. You're very nice, but ..."

Clapton visited Strings & Things in Memphis and purchased this and its companion in Lot 55 on 19 February 1983, on which occasion a discussion took place about building an Eric Clapton model. Clapton took with him the guitar in Lot 55 but left this guitar with the company to be modified and shipped to him at a later date. When the guitar was shipped, the personalized neckplate was added. After some correspondence with Clapton discussing the specs of the Eric Clapton model, in which Clapton's idea of three pickups was replaced with two pickups. Two prototypes of the Eric Clapton model were completed and shipped to him in England in April 1983. According to Charles Lawing's statement: "[Eric] called and said he loved the guitars and how great they were... We got geared up to promote the Eric Clapton guitar at the next trade show when we received a letter from Eric's manager Roger Forrester letting us know that Eric was going to sign with The Fender Guitar Company... We were told that Clapton wanted us to keep one of his Eric Clapton prototype model guitars and sent back to us serial #00002...."

The returned prototype pictured in the advertisement is currently exhibited at the Smithsonian Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis.

Clapton used a Danelectro 59 DC during Blind Faith. It was handpainted in a very psychedelic way.

This guitar was the main instrument for Eric Clapton's MTV Unplugged appearance, one of the pivotal moments in his career. The picture of Clapton playing this guitar which appeared on the c.d. cover for the multi-million seller Unplugged album, has became one of the most enduring images of recent music history. Clapton used it to play the acoustic version of: Layla, Before You Accuse Me and Old Love, as well as early versions of My Father's Eyes and Lonely Stranger.

The guitar first appeared on stage at the first of the Blues only seasons at the Royal Albert Hall in February/March 1993, used in the opening acoustic segments of the show for pre-war Blues covers such as Alabama Women, How Long Blues and Four Until Late. It went on to serve as Clapton's main stage acoustic guitar between 1993 and 1995, mostly used in the opening acoustic segments of the Blues concerts for numbers such as Malted Milk.

When Martin was developing its first Eric Clapton signature model 000-42EC, Eric Clapton requested that the construction of that guitar should be based on the structure of this pre-war 000-42. A Martin publicity photograph at the time shows Clapton holding this guitar in one hand, and the new signature model in the other.

Although Clapton Signature Martin guitars with built-in pickups began to be used for larger concert venues from 1996 onwards, this guitar remained as the main stage acoustic guitar through the 1997 Far Eastern Tour and the first leg of the Pilgrim US Tour in 1998.

Eric Clapton acquired this guitar for collecting purposes and has played it now and then.

Eric Clapton is associated with a 1970s Gibson Les Paul Custom, as documented by Christie's. He appreciated the guitar's aesthetics but noted it was quite heavy to play.

Eric Clapton used this guitar on MTV's Unplugged for the songs 'Alberta' and 'San Fransico Bay Blues' and he hasn't sold it yet in the public eye.

One was used with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, while another one from 1999 was auctioned via Christie's on June 23, 1999.

Details

A 1999 Gibson Les Paul Standard

Serial No. 9 9272, in sunburst finish, mahogany body, with single cutaway maple top, mahogany neck, twenty-two fret bound rosewood fingerboard with crown inlays, headstock face with Les Paul MODEL, two humbucking pickups, four rotary controls, selector switch, metal bridge, stud tailpiece and cream pickguard; and a black hardshell contour case Gibson Les Paul Standard/Sunburst

Literature

FORTE, Dan, interview Out From Behind The Sun Interview in Guitar Player, GPI Publications, July, 1985 and Tribute To Slowhand Interview in Guitar World, Harris Publications Inc., December, 1989

(...) Lot Essay

In an interview with Dan Forte in 1985, Clapton remembers: "The best Les Paul that I ever had was stolen during rehearsals for Cream's first gig. It was the one I had with John Mayall, just a regular sunburst Les Paul that I bought in one of the shops in London right after I'd seen Freddie King's album cover of 'Let's Hide Away And Dance Away', where he's playing a gold top. It had humbuckers and was almost brand new - original case with that lovely purple velvet lining. Just magnificent. I never really found one as good as that. I do miss that one. And in the 1989 interview, Clapton reiterates: "All during Cream, I never really had a favourite guitar because I never really replaced the Les Paul and I was constantly looking for something to come up to scratch - I'd play the ES-335 or the SG or the Firebird. I don't think I had a Fender - I think it was only Gibsons - but I may have toyed with it..."

The stage-shot illustrated shows Eric Clapton playing a Les Paul Standard with Cream at The Marquee, London, September 27, 1966.

This guitar was bought for collecting purposes, and has also been used for playing at home.

Eric Clapton's Gibson L-5P Premiere, circa 1948, has been utilized in the studio since the mid-1990s, primarily by Andy Fairweather Low on several blues albums. This information is documented by Christie's.