Why Eric Clapton made the switch to Fender Stratocasters
For most of his career, Eric Clapton has been inseparable from the Fender Stratocaster. Since the early 1970s, Clapton has used a Strat on a nearly-exclusive basis. It’s the guitar he’s seen playing on the cover of albums like Backless and Just One Night, both of which feature his most iconic Fender, “Blackie”. From the slinky tone of the guitar to its easy playability, Clapton has used Strats for over 50 years and doesn’t appear to be stopping any time soon.
But it wasn’t always this way. As he was on the ascent during the early 1960s, Clapton favoured a Fender Telecaster during his time in The Yardbirds. After jumping ship to The Bluesbreakers, Clapton shifted over to a Gibson Les Paul, although his famous “Beano” guitar was stolen after recording his sole album with The Bluesbreakers. He again favoured Gibsons with Cream, playing “The Fool” Gibson SG and an ES-335. Clapton had so many Gibsons that he even gifted a red Les Paul to George Harrison, which Clapton later played on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.
“Making the transition from one guitar to the next can come from any direction,” Clapton told The Daily Mail in 2014. “It can be triggered by a need to hear another sound, or I’ve seen or heard somebody playing a guitar that I want to emulate. Or I’m listening to a song and think, ‘I want one of them; I like the way that it sounds on the record.’”
“The musical side coupled with the image governs it,” Clapton added. “The image is always a big part, even if it’s a period in time. Often, I will start out with a really broad view of what I’m looking for and then narrow it down to the one I think will be the most useful to me or the one I’m most comfortable with.”
His love of Gibsons and their rich history contributed to his desire to play them during the 1960s. “I’ve a pretty good eye for guitars,” Clapton said. “I want to research things I have a passion for, such as painting or music. If I become interested in Gibson guitars I want to know everything about the peak of their production – in which period they were being made the best and what the company’s philosophy was at that time.”
However, by the start of the 1970s, Clapton was looking for something different. Inspired by the work of Jimi Hendrix and the favoured guitar of his Blind Faith bandmate Steve Winwood, Clapton began to search for his own Fender Stratocaster. While on tour in 1970, he didn’t just find one Strat, but six that he wanted to buy.
“The guitar I chose for my return to recording was one I had built myself. When I was on tour with the Dominos, I went into Sho-Bud in Nashville, which had a stack of second-hand Strats in the back of the shop. I felt like I’d stepped into a gold mine,” Clapton explained. “When I got home, I gave one to Steve Winwood, one to Pete Townshend, another to George Harrison and kept the rest. I took the best components from the remaining four guitars and put them into one.”
“That’s what became Blackie. Something is magical about that guitar. I get seriously attached to an instrument; I felt Blackie had become part of me,” Clapton claimed. “A guitar like Blackie comes along maybe once in a lifetime. I played it for 12 years non-stop on the road.”
Check out “Blackie” in action on ‘Layla’ from Live Aid down below.
