I finally found the Stratocaster I really want at a local Guitar Center. I played the Clapton signature and loved everything about it except the color. To be honest, I don't even really care if it has Clapton's signature on it, but I want that EXACT guitar in sunburst. I've found a couple of stock guitars that come close but either the frets or the radius or the tailpiece is slightly differenet. Can Fender make me a Strat exactly like the Clapton signature only in sunburst with NO other changes ?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

BTW: Guitar Center has a new one for $1,599 and that's about all I'm willing to part with.

Go to the " Ask Mike Eldred " section of this forum and ask Mike...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

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That's the T-Mobile Guitar. Lots prettier from a foot away, though. Don't have my book at hand right now, but I don't think it's signed other than by Eric for the auction. The rules are if it doesn't conform to the authorized finishes, it doesn't get a signature. You could probably have a guitar built to Clapton specs in any finish as long as you don't mind not having his signature on it. With respect to this top, would they let Krause do another one like it? It was a one-off and sold for a nice piece of change at auction.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Doc, I need some important facts concerning the sunburst Strat Eric used in late 2004/early 2005 at the Chiddingfold and Hootenanny shows.

Though I know it's not a Brownie replica (Brownie has a nice relic job, IMO), I believe this guitar was without doubt a CS 56 Strat NOS with regular passive circuit.

Slowhand used a similar hardtailed guitar during the Shea Stadium gig with the Rolling Stones almost 2 decades ago.

It's possible to order a CS "Brownie" Strat built to EC's exacting specs in Tobacco Sunburst EVEN WITHOUT having his own consentment? Yet his personal stage guitars didn't carry his signature on their headstocks since 1996 and Tobacco Sunburst is NOT an authorized colour!

So we absolutely need his approval to make a "signature" Brownie guitar.

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"Another day in paradise!"

I don't know if 'Brownie' has ever been spec'd out so to speak such that you could have a a replica built. I would think that Fender might have explored that avenue with Paul Allen, the owner. Paul might not have been of like mind for a project of that sort otherwise I expect we'd have seen it by now.

For a like guitar of that vintage I'd have gone with the Fullerton LTD no longer in production. My '57VHR SB2 is my nod to that era, and the neck sits between the Clapton and the generic soft-v with respect to feel. The VHR's were released not long after the Blackie project ended and I always suspected that they might have used that neck carve on the '57 VHR, it being unique to that guitar only. I don't know that the current signature neck duplicates anything from the past. I used to do business w/a GC manager who had the opportunity to handle the real Blackie and he told me that the neck on that guitar was different from the signature series neck. I've never had a Blackie replica in my hands nor an opinion from anyone who had and had also handled the'57 VHR. That would be an interesting bit of Fender trivia gravy to sop up with a good piece of bread.

When you see the Brownie up close and personal it's a bit discouraging. Photos [ like the postcard you can purchase at the EMP] don't reveal how badly beaten that guitar looks. Not that it's been mistreated. It looks like a careworn guitar. Not as damaged in the finish as, let's say, a roadworn. I came upon one such piece, quite by accident, in a Guitar Center Platinum Room in Carle Place NY one year. It was a heavily relicked SB that TK did. Everything about the guitar, sans signature was the EC model.

I happen to be writing from the Seattle area presently. I don't know if time will spare me a few hours to get over to EMP. Haven't been there for several years now and I can't say what the display status of the guitar is presently. From the talk around here today we may be driving to Vancouver BC this weekend.

More later.

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"Another day in paradise!"

I've noticed that Dave Swift (Jools' bassist) used a TRB6PII for the Hootenanny show.



I saw him using a '76 Jazz Bass in 2000 (with Bobby Whitlock) and a Marcus Miller 5-string signature model in 2010 (with Smokey Robinson).

The TRB6PII is not dissimilar to Nathan East's original polar white TRB6P.

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As a post script, I suppose we can assume from these, that it is, indeed, the T-Mobile guitar he's got in his hands in that photo. If memory serves, that guitar went for around $18K US at the auction. Not a bad deal for that baby. I was up for that one and the TK Custom Shop version of that acoustic you can just see peeking out from the RH corner. A beautifully finished piece, too. Went for around $14K. Spare cash wasn't my suit this year. Still fitting out that FL property.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Are you sure it's that guitar shown in the above photo?

The sunburst Strat he played at Chiddingfold in late 2004 is a traditional '56 with a worn-out 21-fret neck and regular pickups & electronics.

Perhaps the 21-fret neck was exchanged for a 22-fret flamed soft V neck and the original pickups/circuitry replaced with the active stuff found on his personal guitars? Surely not !

The T-Mobile sunburst Strat has a nice flamed maple top while the '56 NOS LTD is plain sunburst without the flame maple quilting on the top.

You may be correct. However something about the sunburst pattern led me to think so. They're very similar. The detail in the wood grain doesn't quite come through on the video.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Speaking of the acoustic prototype, I guess it's supposedly a "one-off" specially commissioned for the 2004 world tours or somethin' else. However, Eric never used this guitar onstage.

There was another prototype featuring a Roland GK2A synthesizer pickup. I found this Roland-Ready signature prototype very interesting because Clapton played a Roland G-505 synthesizer guitar circa 1984/85.

Despite these mods, EC apparently preferred staying away from his guitar synthesizer days and had no use of that guitar.

Somebody's got themselves an interesting piece of memorablia not withstanding. He signed every piece.

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"Another day in paradise!"