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One and Done
Clapton has owned some of the most sought-after guitars ever built, but these days he tours with just three of his Fender Custom Shop signature models. Dearnley explains that he usually plays only this guitar, his current favorite, onstage all night long. All of Clapton's signature Strats have Fender's Blocked American Vintage Synchronized Tremolo, Vintage Noiseless Single-Coil Strat pickups, and a TBX active tone circuit, with a middle tone knob to roll off treble, plus a mid-boost. The only difference between these three and what you would buy in a music store is that Clapton swapped in an old-school 3-way switch. They're all strung with Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.010–.046). Since Clapton is a car enthusiast, he went with classic sports car colors for his trio of 6-string hot rods. No. 1 has a dark blue finish you'd find on a Porsche.
The Other Signature
Fender Custom Shop master builder Todd Krause built all three of Clapton's touring Strats and signed their headstocks.
Mr. Bond, Your Guitar Is Ready
The main spare is an E.C. signature that was one of five made in 2019 to celebrate Slowhand's five-night stand at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan arena. It is decked out in a head-turning metallic almond green that was exclusively used by British car maker Aston Martin.
A Rare, Modern Martin
Currently Clapton's favorite acoustic is his Martin 000-42K Goro Custom Tribute model, which was part of a run built to celebrate the life of Japanese designer and craftsman Goro Takahashi. This guitar has no electronics. For the show, Clapton used two DPA 4011TL cardiod microphones mounted on a single stand.
Clapton's Goro Martin has a remarkable flamed koa back.
A Class Act
In a flourish that recalls the subtle elegance of Takahashi's own designs, the bridge of this Martin is adorned with a bit of golden flare.
Elemental Binding
The Martin Goro's Italian alpine spruce top is set off by beautiful, sea-water turquoise binding.
E.C.’s Acoustic John Hancocks
Of course, Clapton's cache of acoustics also includes his own Martin 000-28EC signature model. This East Indian rosewood guitar has an undersaddle pickup, but he prefers the instrument's natural acoustic sound miked up.
Clapton Close-Up
Here's a detailed shot of E.C.'s signature at the 12th fret and a peek inside the soundhole where you can see another Clapton autograph on the inside label above C.F. Martin IV's.
In the Presence of the Lord’s Pedal
For pedals, Clapton—who, along with Hendrix, immortalized the wah-wah—is a minimalist. His guitar plugs into a switch pedal made by Mike Hill, which splits the signal. It divides into a Dunlop Cry Baby GCB95F Wah and to his amp. When the wah is engaged, that signal also goes to a Hammond Leslie 122XB rotary speaker for a supercool swirling effect.
Amped Up Amps
Clapton tours with two Fender '57 Bandmaster custom series amps, but these have a twist. They were built by Alexander Dumble specifically for him. The guitar hero runs one and keeps the second as a miked-and-ready spare. Both combos are blasting into a Audio-Technica AT4047/sv, while the main Bandmaster has an additional Audix i5 Cardioid Dynamic on one of its speakers.
Lucky Number
Clapton asked Dumble to make the amp's sweet spot come alive when all the controls are set to 7.
Name: Tony Houston
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Guitar: 1972 Fender Stratocaster
After years of reading about other readers’ guitars, I decided to write about my original 1972 black Fender Stratocaster. Attached is a picture of my Strat and original warranty card, and myself.
I was 21 years old back in 1971 when I first started to learn guitar. I was already a fan of Jimi Hendrix, as was a co-worker who played guitar. We were talking about Jimi and I mentioned that I would love to learn guitar, but at that time couldn’t afford it. It turned out that he had an original Sears Silvertone guitar/amp in the case that he gave me. It was almost impossible to play, but I loved it.
By 1972, I was in much better shape financially (well, somewhat) to buy a “real” guitar. For over a year I would stop in Bernie’s Music here in Dayton and look at guitars. I was mesmerized by the white Strat that Jimi played at Woodstock. They had one in the store, but when I went in to buy it, it was gone. They had a black Strat, and I was told that I could trade it back when another white Strat was in stock … they never got another one.
Fast-forward to the late ’70s. I’d read enough about guitars to mod my Strat, so over a few years I installed a brass bridge, replaced the stock bridge pickup with a DiMarzio Fat Strat, and did various re-wirings of the pickup switch. Also the stock pickups weren’t wax-potted properly and would squeal like a pig! I re-potted the pickups by dipping them in melted beeswax.
Here’s Tony Houston playing his black Strat in 1980 with his band BLACKMALE, getting awesome feedback at around 2:38.
I gigged with it until 1988, when it was almost stolen at a show. I decided then to retire it, as I had brought a couple more Strats. In the mid-90s, I decided to restore it to factory specs. I’d kept the original bridge pickup and the original bridge. While testing the bridge pickup with a multimeter, I found it had a short. I sent it to Lindy Fralin and had it wound to original spec.
Since being in quarantine, I have it tuned to Eb now, and, at 70 years old, decided that I was going to properly learn to play Jimi’s “Little Wing.”
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