Guitar Greats - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton bought blues rock style guitar to the masses. He helped sell the blues back to the USA and help get some recognition for the original artists that made the music back in the day in the cotton fields and due to many reasons, had little recognition for. A guitarist, singer and songwriter, Clapton was a 'journeyman' who has managed to be a consistent artist and guitarist, successfully selling albums throughout his long career since the 1960s.

He is the only artist to have 3 inductions into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, for his work as a solo artist, in Cream and The Yardbirds. His style is blues rock based, melodic and very accessible and this is part of the reason of his popularity.

Clapton has mainly used a Fender Stratocaster since the early 1970s and has been one of the major exponent's of this guitar. In Cream and Yardbirds he used Gibsons, a 335, SG and a Les Paul. I saw him at the Royal Albert Hall back in 2006 and he invited various younger players up to play the show with him. I saw Derek Trucks and Duane Doyle on the night that I went.

The above guitar is a 1991/ 92 Fender Stratocaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups. Similar to Clapton's late 80s, early 90s signature model. I owned this guitar for a short while, but sold it to buy a G&L Legacy.