Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
  • Guitars
  • Amps
  • Pedals
  • Drums
  • Synths
  • Software
  • Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Recording
  • Buyer’s guides
  • Live
  • DJ
  • Advice
  • Acoustic
  • Bass
  • About us
  • More
    • Reviews
Magazines
  • Computer Music
  • Electronic Musician
  • Future Music
  • Keyboard Magazine
  • Guitarist
  • Guitar Techniques
  • Total Guitar
  • Bass Player
More
  • How to make an AI cover song
  • 84000+ free music samples
  • Foo Fighters' new drummer
  • Ken Scott on recording The Beatles
  • First EVH Jump synth recording

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. Home
  2. News

Musikmesse 2010: Clapton's Blackie and SRV's Lenny in pictures

By Chris Vinnicombe
published 24 March 2010

Not just any old vintage guitars...
The Burst Brothers with the legendary Stratocasters

Not just any old vintage guitars...

The Burst Brothers, Dave Belzer and Andrew Berlin, are celebrities in the world of vintage guitar collecting. Although famed for their love of 'bursts - 1958-60 sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standards to be precise - their presence at the International Vintage Show at Frankfurt Musikmesse 2010 is setting Stratocaster lovers' pulses racing.

Why? They've flown over to Germany two of the most valuable and famous electric guitars in the history of popular music: Stevie Ray Vaughan's Lenny and Eric Clapton's Blackie. Priceless? Nearly. Certainly the list of classic recordings on which these Fenders have featured is too long to list here.

MusicRadar was lucky enough to get inside the glass case in which the Strats are housed at the show and get up close and personal with two of the most important instruments in the history of electric blues, still strung with the original strings played by their former owners, battle-scarred and oozing vibe. What follows is vintage guitar porn of the most hardcore kind. Proceed with caution......

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Lenny
This Strat was a gift from SRV's wife in 1980. It went on to feature on the beautiful instrumental of the same name

Lenny

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Scratchplate detail
The stickers were added some time after 1986

Scratchplate detail

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Headstock
Cigarette burns: the mark of a workhorse blues guitar. Billy Gibbons donated this neck

Headstock

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Bridge inlay
The early 1900s-style mandolin body inlay was another distinctive mod

Bridge inlay

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Around the back
Yankees baseball great Mickey Mantle signed the guitar after a chance meeting in 1985

Around the back

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Blackie
Clapton's legendary 'bitsa' assembled from disparate parts defined his post-Cream sound

Blackie

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Fingerboard detail
Blimey, that's a high action. Even God needs a guitar tech sometimes

Fingerboard detail

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Headstock
Blues guitarists just have to smoke cigarettes. It's not clever, but it does look cool

Headstock

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Blackie's back
What the hell kind of trousers was Clapton wearing back in the day to need a belt with a buckle big enough to do that?!

Blackie's back

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
And then the glass case was locked...
Wait! Can't we just... just a little strum? Pretty please?

And then the glass case was locked...

To find out more about the Burst Brothers and their love for all things vintage, visit the official Burst Brothers website.

Stayed tuned to MusicRadar for more vintage guitar porn from the International Vintage Show at Frankfurt Musikmesse 2010.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Chris Vinnicombe
Social Links Navigation

Chris Vinnicombe worked with us here on the MusicRadar team from the site's initial launch way back in 2007, and also contributed to Guitarist magazine as Features Editor until 2014, as well as Total Guitar magazine, amongst others. These days he can be found at Gibson Guitars, where he is editor-in-chief.

More about guitars
PEDALS

What makes overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals different?

Joe Bonamassa

Joe Bonamassa tries Peter Green's Gretsch White Falcon: "You can play blues on anything"

Latest
ableton

Is this really the most overused music production technique of 2023?

See more latest ►
Most Popular
Klevgrand’s Richter is a ‘tectonic’, super-heavy compressor plugin that the company thinks is off the scale

By Ben Rogerson30 May 2023

New Van Halen documentary takes us back to the early ‘80s to tell the story of how Eddie built 5150 Studios as the band were coming apart

By Jonathan Horsley30 May 2023

The Jura’s out: Air Music releases new plugin emulation of Roland’s Juno-60 synth

By Ben Rogerson30 May 2023

The "first producer to be transformed into AI", Cosm Bot is an AI chatbot and music production expert trained on 1000 hours of online tutorials

By Matt Mullen30 May 2023

Dave Mustaine’s signature Vs from Epiphone and Kramer are officially released and they look mighty thrashable

By Jonathan Horsley30 May 2023

The plugin deals are heating up with 50% off in Native Instruments' Summer of Sound sale

By Daryl Robertson30 May 2023

The RX1200 plugin could be the closest you’ll get to having an E-MU SP-1200 sampler inside your DAW

By Ben Rogerson30 May 2023

Ibanez expands its Paul Gilbert signature series with the super classy, super shreddable PGM50 and PGM1000T

By Jonathan Horsley30 May 2023

Give the gift of great tone this Father's Day with these Positive Grid deals

By Matt McCracken29 May 2023

“Nebraska was cut on crap equipment…” How Bruce Springsteen made his most important album in his bedroom with just a Gibson J-200 and a TEAC 144

By Scott Rowley27 May 2023

Prince's While My Guitar Gently Weeps solo wasn't his only great performance at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony

By Ben Rogerson27 May 2023

  1. It looks like it’s from 1982, but you can also switch to a more modern interface
    1
    The Jura’s out: Air Music releases new plugin emulation of Roland’s Juno-60 synth
  2. 2
    Mick Hucknall on the 10 songs that changed his life: “The Beatles changed the way music sounded, but the Stones were the world’s greatest rock band”
  3. 3
    People are going crazy for Nopia, the MIDI chord generator prototype that’s racked up 2.6m video views in 8 days
  4. 4
    Learn these four essential guitar chord inversions and unlock new ideas
  5. 5
    “Nebraska was cut on crap equipment…” How Bruce Springsteen made his most important album in his bedroom with just a Gibson J-200 and a TEAC 144
  1. Get your fifths and ninths in order as we explore one of the most identifiable pad sounds around
    1
    How to create the 'perfect fifths' synth pad
  2. 2
    Mixing engineer Bob Clearmountain: “I shouldn’t say this, probably, but I think in a couple of years Dolby Atmos is going to go away”
  3. 3
    Mick Hucknall on the 10 songs that changed his life: “The Beatles changed the way music sounded, but the Stones were the world’s greatest rock band”
  4. 4
    “Nebraska was cut on crap equipment…” How Bruce Springsteen made his most important album in his bedroom with just a Gibson J-200 and a TEAC 144
  5. 5
    Give the gift of great tone this Father's Day with these Positive Grid deals

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.