This is a 2006 ‘Blackie’ re-creation Stratocaster, also signed by Clapton. The Fender Custom Shop team – led by Todd Krause on this project – re-created the instrument in association with Guitar Center (current owners of the now priceless original) replicating each detail of the legendary guitar.

Eric played Blackie almost exclusively from the early seventies until Fender built the first Clapton signature models in the mid- 1980s. According to Lee Dickson, Eric’s guitar technician at the time, it eventually had to be retired due to issues with the neck after so many refrets.

A composite of three different 1950s Stratocasters, the original Blackie sold for $959,500 in the 2004 Crossroads auction. Accompanying this equally stunning remake is a replica of Blackie’s original flight case bearing the ‘Duck Brothers’ stencil.

“In terms of the ‘touched by Eric’ factor,” says Saiichi, “this was the guitar that we used for the sale’s promotional shots for Bonhams. I had the idea of re-creating the Music Man poster that featured Eric standing in front of a wall of the amps. For that shot he was playing a Gibson Explorer, but I suggested that the Blackie guitar would be perfect, because it more closely fitted in with what he was using at the time. So Eric agreed and posed in front of the Music Man amps that we also have in the auction.”