Q: What was Clapton's first guitar?
A: His first guitar was an acoustic Spanish Hoya. His first electric guitar was a double cutaway Kay.

Q: Where did "Blackie" come from?
A: In 1970, Clapton bought a handful of Stratocasters, Telecasters, and various other Fenders for $100.00 each at the Sho-Bud shop in Nashville, Tennessee. He took them back to England and gave one to George Harrison, one to Steve Winwood, and one to Pete Townshend. Clapton disassembled the remaining three and constructed "Blackie" out of the best components from each of them.

Q: Where is "Blackie" now?
A: "Blackie" was retired in 1985 after 15 years of faithful service. According to Clapton: "It's at home. It's off the road completely. I play it at home occasionally, but it is too precious for me to take out for fear of loss or breakage or something like that."

Q: What is the Eric Clapton Signature Strat?
A: Dan Smith, the head of Fender guitars, approached Clapton to discuss a plan to create a guitar to Clapton's specifications and market it under his name. Clapton told them to make an exact copy of "Blackie" (his favorite Strat), especially the shape of the neck. Clapton's favorite neck was the "V" neck, like the early Martins. Fender made up a neck and put it on a Strat Elite guitar body for Clapton to try.  In the meantime, Fender made another prototype with a less V'ed neck that Clapton liked even more. Among the Elite's features was a "mid boost" control, which on the Elite was meant to mimic the output and sound of a Gibson Les Paul. Clapton loved the boost (which he calls a "compressor") and told Fender to keep it, but he wanted "more of the compressor". The original prototype had 14 db of boost but Clapton wanted more than that. So, they put the guitar together with Lace Sensor pick-ups and a circuit that had a 25 db boost in the midrange at around 500 Hz [Guitar World, Dec 1989]  The guitar can be seen in an interview with Lee Dickson that ran in a 1985 issue of Guitar Player magazine. It's a black Elite body with a different neck attached (quite easy to tell). The fact that Clapton's favorite guitar was a Fender, apparently had nothing to do with the fact that his signature guitar is marketed by that company. The original production guitar was available in three colors — charcoal gray, Torino red, and 7-Up green. Per Clapton's request, the color black was not offered initially, but was added as an option around 1991. Alpine white was also added about the time of the "Nothing But the Blues" tour.

Q: Where is Clapton's famous psychedelic SG guitar from his days with the band Cream?
A: . The design on Clapton's 1961 SG/Les Paul was done by The Fool, the Dutch group of artists (Simon and Marijke) that designed the album sleeve for the first pressing of the Beatles "Sgt. Peppers" album. Clapton first purchased this guitar in 1966/67, and was used on the first two Cream albums (Fresh Cream and Disraeli Gears), and on the Wheels of Fire live recordings.
The guitar is now in the collection of Todd Rundgren and the paint has been touched up.

Q: What kind of strings does Clapton use?
A: At least on his Strats, he uses Ernie Ball Regular Slinkies (.010) or Super Slinkies (.009).

Q: How did he do that?
A: Tabs of many of Clapton's songs are available at The Slowhand Blues World tab archive. The tone and feeling is up to you, but the notes are here! In printed form, Hal Leonard (check in your local music store) sells many Clapton songbooks and stylebooks — some even contain a CD for easy playing.

Q: Has Clapton always played Fender guitars?
A: No. From about June 1965 until around 1970, Clapton played Gibson electric guitars almost exclusively. His reputation as a guitarist (i.e. "Clapton is God") was developed with a Gibson guitar. In June 1965, when Clapton bought a second-hand, cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul guitar, little did anyone know that he was about to change the history of the electric guitar. Clapton created a new electric guitar sound and employed an overdriven Marshall amplifier that provided the distortion, feedback, and sustain he needed for his trademark sound. Although not the first to use these electrical "by-products" to his advantage, he refined their use and combined them with his virtuoso abilities and, most importantly, angst-driven passion. Clapton's blues solos during his days with John Mayall's Blues Breakers could send shivers down the spine while bringing tears to the eyes.

The Gibson Les Paul model guitar that Clapton played, however, was a discontinued model, having been produced from 1952-1960. He subsequently purchased several more, but his favorite one was stolen during early Cream rehearsals in the summer of 1966. Clapton's popularizing of the Les Paul model guitar affected the electric guitar world so much that Gibson decided to re-introduce and reissue the guitar in 1968.

If Clapton had not popularized the Gibson Les Paul guitar, it would have been consigned to the dust-bin of history. Today, vintage Gibson Les Paul sunburst guitars from the 1958-1960 are collector's items.

Q: How did Clapton get the famous "woman-tone" in Cream?
A: According to Clapton, the "woman-tone" is achieved by rolling the tone control all the way off on either the neck or the bridge pickup of a guitar with humbucking pickups and the volume all the way up. Heavy strings and a bassy-sounding amp at high volume also helps to achieve that wooing, whooshing tone. In fact, a lot of Clapton's "woman tone" was achieved this way [with a wah-wah pedal], with the pedal about three-quarters back from the forward position. (from Guitar Player magazine, Gear Guru, March 1993)

Q: What equipment set-up did Clapton use during [fill-in band name/date/tour here] ?
A: During his tenure with the Yardbirds, Clapton used a Vox AC-30 amplifier and a Fender Telecaster guitar.

In John Mayall's Blues Breakers, Clapton used a 1960 model Les Paul Standard through a 45-watt, model-1962 Marshall 2-12 combo. The amp was stock except that the output tubes were replaced with KT66's (which have a more refined mid-range and clearer top end than either EL34s or 6L6s). The amp was almost always turned up full volume, even in the studio. When the engineer complained that Clapton's amp was too loud, Eric replied "That's the way I play." Clapton-fan and researcher, DeltaNick, has extensively researched the history of the Clapton Les Paul and contributed the following article, Clapton's Bluesbreakers 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard Guitar.

In Cream, Clapton switched to 100-watt Marshall heads (JTM 45) and 4-12 cabinets (two full stacks). He also used a Vox wah-wah and occasionally a fuzz. After his Blues Breakers-era Les Paul was stolen, Clapton had several more Les Paul model guitars (presumably 1960 models because the neck on the 1960 model was significantly thinner than on previous models). He used Les Paul guitars exclusively until 1967, having used at least three different Les Paul Standard model guitars in 1966 (the latter two — one of which was borrowed — with Cream). Sometime in 1967, Clapton started using the 1961 Gibson SG-style Les Paul (the famous psychedelic guitar). He switched to a single pick-up Gibson Firebird I during the Spring of 1968 and then switched between the Firebird and a Gibson ES-335 "block" guitar for the remainder of Cream and for Cream's farewell concert.

In Blind Faith, Clapton used a Gibson Firebird through either Fender Dual Showman or Marshall amps; and at the debut performance played a Fender Telecaster with a Stratocaster neck (supposedly Clapton didn't like the Tele neck). [Guitar World, Dec 1989]

During Derek and the Dominoes, Clapton switched to maple neck Fender Stratocasters and Fender tweed Champ amps for recording the "Layla" album.[Guitar Player January 1999]. On stage, he used either Marshalls or a Fender Showman.

From 1972 to 1987, Clapton used his famous "Blackie" guitar as his basic stage guitar.

In 1976, Clapton used a Gibson ES-335 for slide playing. It was strung with Ernie Ball Super Slinky's .009-.042 and an Isis medium slide. He utilized Modified Music Man amps (HD 130 Reverb) with the bias up all the way and special open-back cabinets. He also used a Leslie cabinet with JBL components and had a special foot switch with fast/slow and on/off positions so that the guitar could go either through the amp, through both the amp and the Leslie, or just through the Leslie at either fast or slow speeds (as in the song "Badge"). He also used a Cry Baby Wah-wah pedal.

On the Journeyman album, Clapton used the Eric Clapton Signature Strat and the Gibson ES-335 on "Hard Times".

On the song "Forever Man" from the Journeyman album, Clapton achieved that "fat" tone by using a different Strat with heavy strings and tuned the guitar down to "D" — not a "D" tuning, but down a whole step down from concert (normal) pitch.

On the Behind the Sun tour, Clapton used an effects board similiar to the one used by Jeff Pocaro. The effects board from right to left ; Jim Dunlop Cry baby re-issue, the Bradshaw foot controller, a Roland 700 synthesizer bank. The rack is controlled by a pedal board consisting of an Ibanez Harmonics/Delay, a DBX 160 compressor, a Roland SDE-3000 delay, a Tri Stereo CVhorus [Dyno-My-Piano], a Boss CE-1 chorus, and a Boss Heavy Metal pedal but actually only uses the one chorus and then a deeper chorus. Clapton switched from Music Man amps to Marshall 800 series heads (50 watts) during this time. The amp settings were: presence 3; bass and middle 1 o'clock; treble 8; and volume just under 9. The strings he used were Ernie Balls .010-.046. He used his usual array of Strats, including Blackie and Brownie. He also used a Dean Markely head— possibly a 130 with Marshall cabinets. Ernie Ball strings (.009), Picks: Ernie Ball heavys.

On the ARMS tour, Clapton used a '57 blonde Fender Twin, Blackie, a Gibson Explorer, a Martin acoustic, and other Fender Strats.

In recording the album From The Cradle, Clapton used approximately 50 guitars from his collection, including a dot-neck Gibson ES-335 (a tobacco sunburst model from the early 60s), and his famous cherry-red model from Cream. He also used his white Eric Clapton Model Strat from the Fender Custom Shop, several different Gibson L-5's, Byrdlands, and some Super 400's. He also played straight through a Soldano head. The acoustic guitars he used included several Martins, a Tony Zemaitis 12-string, and several Dobros in different tunings. He used an old Fender Twin with no effects and occasionally an old Fender Champ amp [Guitar World, Dec 1994], plus a Silverface Fender Deluxe and a Blonde Showman head.

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The Guitars

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THE GUITAR AUCTION

Q: How much did the guitars sell for at the Christie's auction that was held to raise money for Clapton's drug/alcohol rehabilitation clinic — The Crossroads Centre at Antigua?
A: See the chart below to see the final bid amounts.

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All of the files comprising the EC FAQ are © 2001 by  Steve Horowitz.
© 2001  by  Steve Horowitz
Revised: September 03, 2001
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