The guitar Buddy Guy thought was a “joke”
Few guitars are as intrinsically linked with rock music quite like the Fender Stratocaster. Perhaps the most famous guitar of all time, the Strat has continued its reign as a highly-coveted instrument throughout all genres of music. With famous users like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Strat’s place in history is assured.
One of the guitar’s most famous users is blues legend Buddy Guy. With most of his guitars adorned with his signature polka dot design, Guy has been welding a Stratocaster full-time since the late 1980s. He had played the instrument off and on in the years prior, but when Guy first spied the classic guitar in his earliest days, he wasn’t impressed with what he saw.
“The first time I saw a Strat, I thought it was a joke,” Guy told Guitar World. “So I had gone down to New Orleans and saw Guitar Slim playing a Strat, and I had no idea what to make of it. But I realized the hollow body guitars I was playing needed to be babied because of the weather.”
“God forbid one got wet; they’d swell up and break,” Guy explained. “Then I’d have to get them repaired, and they’d have all these nasty scars all over ’em like someone was chopping at them with an axe. So I turned to Strats because they didn’t get overwhelmed by the weather. And I’ve stayed with them ever since.”
As for Guy’s signature polka dots, those came along with a fib he told his mother when he first moved to Chicago. “My mother would have a stroke with worry whenever I’d go out into the world,” Guy explained. “At the time, I was working at LSU [Louisiana State University], making nothing. I knew I had to do something different. So I decided to go to Chicago, but my mother was sick over it. So before I left home, I lied to her and said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to Chicago. I can make more money there.'”
“Then I told her, ‘And when I make some money, I’m gonna drive back down to you in a big polka-dot Cadillac.’ That made her smile,” he recalled. “But I regretted it because I never got the chance to tell her that I lied to her before she passed away. So, I said, ‘You know what? I never did get that polka-dot Cadillac, but I can get a polka-dot guitar in her honor.'”
Check out Guy talking about his Fender Stratocasters down below.
