Any of you Rock historians know if Clapton ever used Fenders, live or on record, during his time with Cream? Or did he pretty much stick to SG's?

he only used SG's and then a Gibson ES-335. He used the SG from Cream til Blind Faith. He picked up Brownie when he did The Dominoes

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I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk...

To my knowledge, with Cream he started by using several Les Pauls and switched to the SG in 1967.
In 1968 he also used a Firebird I, as well as the ES-335 he played previously with the Yardbirds (when he also played a Tele, a Jazzmaster and a DC Gretsch 6120).
In Blind Faith he used a variety of guitars, the ES-335, but also a Custom Tele mutant, fitted with Brownie's neck.
He made the switch to the Strat in 1969.

There is a picture of him sitting beside B.B. King, must have been from the 60's, I think liner notes from "riding with the King".

Both are sitting on identical fenders.

...but of course those are amps and nothing to do with the op.

I recall from his book he bought 3 strats in the US while on tour, some time after cream, and made 1 good one out of the 3.

AFAIk it was 6 at $100 each. One went to steve winwood, one to pete townsend, and the other i don't know - george harrison?, then from the remain 3 he built black. all 55 - 57s as far as i recall

The good one was Blackie.
He actually bought 6 Strats and gave 3 away, to George Harrison, Steve Winwood and Pete Townshend. He paid like one hundred dollars for each of them (ouch!).
Brownie is now on display at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle (Hendrix's white Woodstock Strat and Les Paul Custom are there too); Blackie was bought by Guitar Center.

Oops, posted right in time with Sonicsamurai, cheers!
Yes, Blackie is a 56/57 Strat and he called it a "mongrel".

Wasnt the SG a LesPaul variant? (yes I know it sounds a braindead question).

I'm sure it was actualy titled a Les Paul Solid Guitar. SG still meaning solid guitar, ES meaning electric spanish.

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No no and no

Clapton used a Fender electric XII on Disraeli Gears I believe one track he used it on was Dance The Night Away.I saw an interview with him talking about the album in the past year,he still has that guitar and he played riffs from the songs he used it on.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

The SG was originally called Les Paul but Les Paul himself hated it and wanted his name removed from it so Gibson obliged in late 62 or early 63.Ironically enough there's a picture of Les cradling a 62 SG bodied Les Paul Custom on the front cover of the Nov. Guitar Player.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

The reason it was renamed from "Les Paul" to "SG" was because Les Paul, himself, hated the new 1961 version and did not want his name on it. So the Les Paul was re-named to "SG" (ie, Solid-body Guitar). However, Gibson had a large number of plates with "Les Paul" on it, so it stayed a Les Paul through 1962 so Gibson could use up those plates. The true Les Paul as we know it was re-introduced in 1968 due to the popularity of the 1959 & 1960 models which were becoming very highly prized and being used by the likes of Clapton, Beck, Page, Joe Walsh, et al. Thus, Gibson did not make "real" Les Pauls between 1961-1967.

Anyway, that is how I understand it ...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Its amazing that the les paul was so drastically changed, whats more amazing is that Les Paul (single cut normal style) were dwindling so much that they had to try something like the SG to boost sales.

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-Fender 92' Telecaster unknown
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AFAIK another reason for not wanting his name on the SG was because Les was going through his divorce with Mary FOrd at the time and she would have been entitled to somne of the royalties as well as part of the divorce settlement.

The les paul was discontinued mostly because people complained it was far too heavy i think