Online auctioneer Iconic Auctions has listed the electric guitar, which is identified as a Custom Shop Strat that was assembled under the technical guidance of Slowhand himself before being used extensively over the course of two years.
Also another Eric Clapton’s 1954 Fender Stratocaster is hitting the auction block for a cool one million. The rare non-tremolo Sunburst model was Clapton’s main stage slide guitar from 1979-1985
Back in 2004, Eric Clapton’s coveted black Fender Strat electric guitar, "Blackie," sold at Christies at a then-record-breaking price of $959,500. (Guitarworld)
Now another historic Clapton-owned and -played Strat is up for auction, and this one looks set to go for a pretty penny as well.
Auction house Gotta Have Rock and Roll is offering up Clapton’s 1954 Sunburst Fender Strat, heavily used by the guitar great between 1979 and 1985.
Clapton acquired the Strat, a hardtail/non-tremolo model, in 1978 or ’79, and for the next five years it became his main slide guitar on stage and in the studio.
According to Gotta Have Rock and Roll, Clapton first used the Strat to play the opening numbers Tulsa Time and Early in the Morning in the set list for his 1979 tour. The guitar was tuned in open G, “one of his favorite tunings for playing slide”.
Features on the Strat include a maple neck with skunk stripe routing, 21-fret fingerboard with dot inlay, three pickups, three rotary controls, five-way selector switch, tailpiece with adjustable saddles and white pickguard and, of course, a Sunburst finish.
The neck-butt sports the letters “TG,” the initials of Tadeo Garcia, a Fender employee who was responsible for shaping the neck, as well as the digits 9-54, indicating the month and the year (September, 1954) the neck was completed.
The guitar comes with a tweed rectangular hardshell case with red plush lining and Clapton guitar tech Lee Dickson’s handwritten adhesive paper label reading “ ’54 S/Burst Fender Strat #7431.” The case also includes a strap.
