1956 FENDER STRATOCASTER

50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

known today as a Stratocaster player, but he was well into his career before he ever owned any version of the model. Clapton bought his first Strat secondhand at Sound City in London on May 7,. It was a 1956 model, serial number 12073, with a two-color sunburst finish on an alder body and a well-worn maple neck and fingerboard. Clapton loved the guitar and dubbed it Brownie, but it wasn’t suited to Cream, nor to his next band, Blind Faith. He finally found a fit for it in early 1970 when he joined Delaney & Bonnie and Friends on the road. “With Delaney and Bonnie, I used an old Stratocaster I’d acquired,” he told in 1970. “It’s really, really good — a great sound. It’s just right for the kind of bag I was playing with them.”