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.
"Blackie" composite Stratocaster
Fender
Eric Clapton British
Not on view
“Blackie” was Eric Clapton’s main recording and performance guitar in the 1970s and 1980s, and has become his most famous instrument. Clapton’s guitar tech Ted Newman-Jones assembled it from three late-1950s Stratocasters: it has a 1956 body, a 1957 neck, and 1950s pickups. He purchased the instruments from Sho-Bud Steel Guitar Company in Nashville in 1970, at a time when the model had largely fallen out of fashion. (He bought three other Stratocasters at the store, giving one each to George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and Steve Winwood.) Clapton first played “Blackie” live at London’s Rainbow Theatre at a 1973 concert organized by Pete Townshend.
Technical Description:
Contoured ash body, one-piece maple neck with walnut “skunk stripe”; 25½ in. scale; black finish; bolt-on neck with black plastic dot inlays; gold “spaghetti” Fender logo decal on headstock; three single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch, one volume and two tone controls; chrome “synchronized tremolo” vibrato bridge, and recessed input jack, nickel tuners, white plastic pickguard, knobs, and vibrato routing cover; assembled from 1956 Strat body, 1957 neck, and 1950s pickups, vibrato converted to fixed bridge
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.jpg "Courtesy of Guitar Center, Inc.")
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