On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

000-42 (serial no. 73234)

C. F. Martin & Co.
Eric Clapton British

Not on view

Eric Clapton played this guitar in a landmark 1992 appearance on MTV Unplugged. It featured an acoustic set of traditional blues songs and reworked versions of his own classic compositions such as “Layla,” which he transformed from a lustful rock song into a tender ballad. The performance reflected a cultural shift in rock and roll, ushering in a new era of acoustic rock and roots music and reviving interest in the less common Martin 000-style guitars.

Technical Description:

Flat top with round sound hole; spruce top, rosewood back and sides, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard; 24 3/4 in. scale; natural finish with ivory binding and abalone borders around edges of body, fingerboard, and sound hole; set neck with ivory binding and abalone “snowflake” inlays to fingerboard; headstock with rosewood veneer and gold C.F. Martin logo; ebony bridge with inlaid ivory pegs, silver closed-back Grover tuners, celluloid tortoiseshell pickguard; One tuner replaced with open-back Waverly tuner

000-42 (serial no. 73234), C. F. Martin & Co., Spruce, rosewood, mahogany, ebony, ivory, abalone, silver, celluloid plastic

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.