I've an Eric Clapton Strat, 6 months old, started getting erratic output from the guitar over a period of three or four days. Tried three different amps, many different known good cords, but basically there's no electrical output from the guitar. Yes, the volume is turned up, I've tried other positions on the pickup selector switch, messed with the tone controls. I'm a beginner when it comes to electrics, assume something has failed in the internal electronics, but wondered if there was something obvious I'm missing. It will go into the shop tomorrow, but I figured maybe there's something obvious I'd missed and easy to fix before doing that.

If it's under warranty you could check with Fender to let them take care of the problem. For the money you paid, that guitar should be flawless.

Did you change the battery?

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

Ah, my first thought. The symptoms would seem battery related, but does this thing have a battery? Checked the manual, 9 volt battery, off with the back plate, replace. For some reason Balmer's 'The Fender Stratocaster Handbook' doesn't seem to mention batteries, but logic and scrambling to find the manual made it fairly explicit: unplug the cable when you've finished playing otherwise it shortens battery life. Still, six months of daily playing before it died, I can live with that. Thanks much bill948 for helping this idiot out.

TTSC - If I had to do it over I would have gone with the standard Strat or Telecaster and spent the time necessary to develop my ear and a preference for the sound I wanted to make before I chose something like one of the custom Strats. The Clapton though is very nice. No complaints, even for the price.

Dude...first off, welcome to The Forums. Second off....stop thinking of yourself as a ditz. You're in possession of likely the most awesome Stratocaster Fender builds today and there's a monster majority of Clapton owners surrounding you who will support me on that, particulaly those of us who own the first issue guitars. Third 0ff...any vendor who sells a customer a Clapton without going over the fine details is a moron, and we are no strangers to those kinds of situations. So if you want to play it as it was designed, don't float the trem, keep the bridge flat to the top and the wood block between the vibrato's mass block and the body, Take the cord out of the guitar when not in use, and keep a record of your battery changes. If you gig with this guitar, put a fresh battery in, and enjoying blowing the doors down.

Doc

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"Another day in paradise!"

My friend you have made the best choice of guitar you will ever make. I bought my EC Strat in 2001 and I love it. I ordered mine in Candy Green so the factory had to build mine personally for me.

These guitars look great, sound awesome and have a killer neck.

Shortly after I received my EC Strat Fender changed the pick ups from Lace Sensors to the Fender Noisless. What are they like?

I hope the sound problem goes away with a battery change.

Paris

I have two....2009 which was new old stock. And a 2004 which was played alot....but babied. Im SCHOCKED how warm the 2004 is, over the 09. Yes the pickgaurd is warped, brown, and the neck is darker....but the difference between the two is pretty dramatic. Anyway....love-em. Very versatile, comfortable neck, great satin finish.....really not too flashy. Also my style.Bold pickups without the hum. Really decent sustain, and the 25 db's is pretty amazing. Holds its tune as good or better than any of the rest. Not too heavy. Not everyone likes the noiseless p/ups....but I think they rock. So, change the battery and dont be afraid to admit.... your learning. Arent we all? Every one of us crawled before we walked....and so on. I tell my friends Im in a "effer-vescent-state-of-sucking when it comes to guitar. And the reason is...Im constantly pushing myself to learn new material. Its endless. Therefore Im always in the the crawling stage of playing it seems. Challenging and growing and not afraid to show it or admit it. There will always be someone better than me. ALWAYS. Away from the ego-centric b.s. of stage hungry, attention hoarding, and spot lights.....its just you and your guitar. Note by note. Spending months if not years by yourself, in a room....learning. No one really talks about this. Its the honesty/awareness bout this process that also frees you up to share your knowledge with others and exchange what you know....for maybe, what they know.
Its the coolest, simplest, honest, and pleasurable moments like this...that make us musicians. Rock on my friend and congratulations on your new guitar.

Change your battery and don,t keep the guitar cord pluged in when your not playing it.

I'll third what Doc said. Unplug the cord from the guitar when not using it. Or it constantly drains the battery.
I get about 18 months out of a 9volt. My EMG'd guitar has never needed a battery change in three years.

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No no and no

1st off, congrats on the Clapton, I've had mine for 16 years now.

I had a similar problem, turned out that battery had corroded, and subsequently
that affected the wiring. Cost 50 bucks to fix, no problems since.

But that baby should be under warranty still, so bring it back to the point of purchase.

Good luck!

Seriously Niki? 3 years? That's half the shelf life of an unused battery!

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Yeah it draws nothing. All it's doing is powering the eq shaping built into the pickups. No outboard (from the pickup) gizmo's going on. I had it wired 18v for a while, and then I put the clapton circuit in it. Then I thought 'for metal (all the guitar is for) the clapton circuit is too soft sounding'. So I ditched it.
It will be returning to the fore in my current band soon. Cos I'm kind of a keyboards on guitar role in this outfit and the whole emg/floyd setup works well for the octave/pitchshifted stuff.

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No no and no

+1 to all the Clapton Strat love. Just got mine and I'm literally blown away by this thing. Just freaking incredible and I only got an artist series. I can't even imagine a CS let alone masterbuilts. My next guitar will be another Clapton for sure. It just feels right.

One question though: I was under the impression that a dead battery would only render the midboost inoperable seeing as the pickups are still passive? Am I misinformed? Dead battery = dead gitfiddle? Thanks, all!

In my experience, it rolls off the gain, as you go from 0-10 on the TBX pot, w/a dead battery. That's what cued the problem.

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"Another day in paradise!"