Tag Archives: cream

Expensive guitar cases

Written by Jamorama on August 23, 2009 — Leave a Comment

ecgp0601c Expensive guitar cases

If you can remember the 70`s then you`ll remember a time when Eric Clapton used to wear faded jeans and black waistcoat. He was still smoking, drinking and crashing the odd Ferrari – but in one biography I read he claimed to be given an envelope of cash for wages at the end of each week. Well those were the days…

rothmans blue Expensive guitar cases

Here`s Eric’s croc skin $100,000 dollar case for his signature Martin 00028 EC acoustic guitar with a rich matte-finish croc skin adorning the exterior of the case. The shell of the case is made from poplar wood source from Nazareth, Pennsylvania and is completed with a blue silk velvet liner. Estimates for the case’s cost are tabulated at approximately $100,000. The guitar is only $4349.00.

eric clapton hermes custom crocodile guitar case Expensive guitar cases

GUITAR SPECIFICATIONS.

000 size body, rosewood back & sides, sitka spruce top with vintage toner, scalloped braces, ebony bridge, maple bridge plate, herringbone trim & rosette, ivoroid binding, 24.9″ scale, 1-3/4″ nut width, V-shaped neck with adjustable truss rod, open vintage style tuners, ebony fretboard with diamond & square inlays, EC’s pearl signature at 19th fret, standard saddle (not long), 2-1/4″ string spacing. Vintage “Geib” style archtop wooden case.

If youve a little less to spend but still desire the quality and protection of a case that can tough it out at the airport or on the road then have alook at ROCK HARD CASES.

Well, That`s all folks,
Cheers…

Jake Edwards

Posted in gear | Tagged crocodile, eric clapton, guitar case, guitars cases, those were the days

Sound like Clapton- updated

Written by Jamorama on July 7, 2009 — 3 Comments

What I really wanted to focus upon today was the great offering of idiosyncratic guitars over at DiPinto`s Vintage Inventory, and boy have they got some sure-fire stuff for your guitar playing delectation, as well as some fantastic amplification and keyboards from the days of yore.

eric clapton sg Sound like Clapton updated

What`s especially great amongst this set of old gems is the (SG shaped) 1961 Gibson Les Paul seen here. If you want to sound like Eric snap this baby up pronto!

Yes, that`s right, in 1960, Gibson experienced a decline in electric guitar sales due to their high prices and strong competition from Fender’s comparable but much lighter double-cutaway design: the stratocaster.

61LP11 Sound like Clapton updated

In response, Gibson changed the Les Paul line. The 1961 issue Les Paul guitar was thinner and much lighter than the earlier models, with two sharply pointed cut-aways, a vibrato system and looking like what was to become an SG rather than the traditional 57 Gold Top single cutaway design. Because of the redesign Les Paul left Gibson and it wasn`t until 1963 that the guitar’s name was finally changed to SG standing for Solid Guitar.

On an even more interesting note my friend Lee over at Rare Star Guitars has some interesting information regarding Clapton`s choice of Les Paul for that classic “woman-tone”, Cream-era, psychedelic sound – that`s right – E.C. likes his Paul’s fresh from the `62 vintage. Here`s Eric talking “woman tone” plus an interview featuring the unmistakably wry loitering of drummer Ginger Baker, a lucid, talkative and obviously highly amused Clapton and some rather finely dressed German journalists.

Clapton interview `68	Clapton Woman Tone painted SG

Beatles, Hendrix, Floyd, Zappa, Buddy, Otis, B.B. !!

Good on ya Eric!
Here’s a taste of Eric’s more luminescent and florid period playing with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in Cream – some very, very bluesy licks soaked in lysergic acid and heavy rock afro-polyrhythmic jazz goodness!

FAR OUT Maan.

Cream pioneered the American blues – British psychedelia crossover but with a pendulum like swing from the highs to the lows of the great Anglo-American acid wave and you can almost see the high tide mark and feel the dichotomy in the music. Both Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire are records that distill this fervent mixture of poetry, lyricism, one-upmanship, blues power guitar licks, psychedelia and weirdness. Of course just after Disraeli Gears, The Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was released….so…….Wheels of Fire…

Click continue reading below if you`d like to see some of the great guitars from DiPinto Vintage.

Posted in amplifiers / pickups | Tagged clapton, gibson, ginger baker, interview, Les Paul, play like eric, sg, sound like eric, woman tone

Money and Cigarettes

Written by Jamorama on June 2, 2009 — 1 Comment

stax 1010 300x297 Money and Cigarettes

Are you feeling the fluidity inherent in a particular view of the universe? Or the united states of consciousness? I am.

Back in 1983 Eric Clapton released the Album Money and Cigarettes supported by the stellar backing band of Ry Cooder, Albert Lee, Donald Duck Dunn, and Roger Hawkins. Duck Dunn`s contribution to popular music beginning with Booker T and M.G`s and the Stax label in around 1965 is absolutely phenomenal and he must be one of the greatest unsung heroes of the popular music cannon. Here is his discography.

Anyway I digress, it`s a great record, and I managed to get my hands on an A1 hardboard copy of the cover album art which features a very heavily modded stratocaster appearing to melt in Dali-esque fashion from a table.

clapton 300x298 Money and Cigarettes

What a fantastic guitar to own – a bit of a dog to play unless you`re built like a paralellogram though - Salvador Dali meets Eric Clapton for a cup of rhythm and blues. It`s a tight band- no shadow of a doubt – on this album, but, Clapton`s efforts songwriting in the Stax genre just don`t compare to his earlier 461 Ocean Boulevard efforts or the subsequent Behind The Sun album where the guitar playing re-enters the limelight and Clapton`s songwriting takes a backseat. It`s interesting to note that the absolutely stellar drumming of Jamie Oldaker appears on both 461 and Behind The Sun.

It might even be pertinent to suggest that Clapton`s career fluctuates heavily between his role as songwriter and all round musical explorer and that of guitar hero and blues pioneer. What you like about E.C. will determine exactly where on this spectrum your favour will fall, but it is perhaps healthier to consider the length of Clapton`s career and the broad depth of his contributions to music.

clapton2 295x300 Money and Cigarettes

From the groundbreaking sounds of the Bluesbreakers, Cream, and The Dominos together with prescient cover choices such as JJ Cale and Bob Marley , Dylan and Martyn etcetera through to his highly emotional songwriting capabilities evidenced on such great songs as Layla, Bell Bottom Blues, Let it Rain, Easy Now, Presence of the Lord together with tour de force guitar pieces such as Blues Power, Double Trouble, Slunky, Crossroads….and the rest Clapton proves again and again that he`s got the mettle, the daring and the skills to pay the bills on all fronts.

Anyway the fact of the matter is YOU CAN own a dali stratocaster courtesy of the wild mind of Brian Eastwood guitars. Brian makes a series of highly unique and visually surreal but playable guitars in the form of his Bender series. Check them out here.