Before exploring other paths, Eric Clapton was a guitarist loyal to Gibson guitars. And it’s not that we want to throw flowers at each other (well, yes, when you can, you can…), but several of the most important pages of his career and, why not, of the very history of rock, were written by God – as that prayer famously painted – with a Gibson six-string in his hands. That they have never really been as slow as their famous nickname suggested…
From Bluesbreakers to Blind Faith to Cream, Clapton’s impact on the international music scene is still felt today. Those were the years of his ascent to the Olympus of guitar heroes, and his particular contribution to the revolution that the Brit Invasion meant. Then he would walk and retrace paths, he would find himself, he would get lost and he would find himself again on several occasions, and he would sign as many records and songs no less important than those of those last years of the 60s. It was a five-year period, basically, marked for the sound of some Gibson guitars that today are almost as legendary as Clapton himself.
1964 Gibson Les Paul SG – “The Fool”
Faced with the disappearance of his Beano Burst, Clapton tried using other Les Pauls (one bought from Andy Summers of The Police, for example). However, the link he had with the disappeared woman was not repeated. Until he got his hands on a ’64 SG. Just before Cream’s first US show, all of the band’s instruments were repainted in a psychedelic motif by an art collective called The Fool. The SG would become known from then on precisely as The Fool Guitar, and Clapton would end up giving it to his good friend George Harrison (and he wouldn’t be the only one…). The last time this SG was seen, it was in the hands of a private collector who bought it for almost half a million dollars…