Buddy Guy and his signature polka dots
Nobody can ignore the force of nature that is Buddy Guy. The last of the remaining original Chicago bluesmen started his career as a backup guitarist, but his fiery solos and unique stage presence made him a star in his own right as a vital voice to the emerging sound of blues rock. His love of electric guitars and distortion was legendary, inspiring everyone from Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Jeff Beck and Keith Richards.
At a certain point in his career, Guy’s guitars became as recognisable as he was. Over the years, Guy acquired an arsenal of polka dot guitars, mostly from his preferred model of Fender Stratocasters. It became Guy’s signature look, and the roots of the design came straight from his youth around Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“Back to about my mother and that Polka dot, I lied to her and I told her I’ma make double the money, I’ma send you some money, and I’ma drive back down here to Louisianna—I’m trying to make her feel good—in a Polka-dot Cadillac,” Guy claimed in a 2022 interview with Sweetwater. “And I knew I was lyin’ and I knew I didn’t never want to buy a Polka dot ’cause if you got famous, that polka dot would show up everywhere there where you went, you couldn’t rest ’cause sometime I try to go to dinner now in Brazil or Germany or wherever and if they recognize you, if you’re going to your mouth with a fork they’ll come grab your hand and say ‘will you sign this?’”
Despite his intentions to renegade on the promise, when Guy’s mother passed away before her son could record his own records, Guy began crafting a tribute. “So anyway, my mother passed away and I said ‘Oh man I didn’t get a chance to tell her I lied to her about that Polka-dot Cadillac,’” Guy added, “And I went to Fender and I said ‘I need something to remind me of that big lie I told my mom about that Polka-dot Cadillac.’ I said ‘I’d like to get a Polka-dot guitar made so I’d have that with me the rest of my life.”
Part tribute to his mother and a part reminder not to tell lies, Guy’s polka-dot Stratocaster has been with him for decades. Guy even got Fender to produce his own signature model of Stratocaster, complete with the polka dot design.
“She saw me with an acoustic guitar at home but she never saw me play after I left Louisiana and moved to Chicago,” Guy told Peter Hodgson in 2015. “As a matter of fact, she never saw me play in Louisiana either, because she had a stroke before I left and I had made no records yet until after I got to Chicago in 1957. So I finally got the guitar company, Fender, to make me a guitar with the polka dots, and they’ve made quite a few of them now.”
Check out Guy wielding the polka dot guitar down below.
