So why did Clapton pass on the tone, SGs & LPs that made him God?

[duane v 494]

I've never like Fender Strats, for sound or feel.... But if there is one player that made a strat sound great to my ears, it's David Gilmour.... To me, he combined lead playing and singing better than anyone.

[Canine 0]

I've never like Fender Strats' date=' for sound or feel.... But if there is one player that made a strat sound great to my ears, it's David Gilmour.... To me, he combined lead playing and singing better than anyone.[/quote']

 

The solo in "comfortably numb", who in here can say it sounds shallow or bad? What a great solo that is!

 

I think that every artist has a sound in mind, and they get the gear they think they need to achieve that sound. I hate Strats, but I love Hendrix, Clapton, Gilmour and other great players who have made the Strat their instrument of choice.

[Taylor Player 0]

You guys really should check out the Clapton Signature Strat. I own a 1995 model with the gold lace sensor pups and it is a great Strat. Probabaly the most versitle Strat available. With the TBX and mid boost circuits in the guitar, you really can get the humbucker growl when needed and the fender chime as well. The neck of the guitar is also nicer than any other Strat or Gibson neck I have played. It was designed after his beloved Martin 000-28 and feels awesome in my hands since I am mostly an acoustic guy anyway.

 

I think when designing his Strat with Fender, he wanted to make sure he could get the Gibson tone without having to switch up guitars during a performance or in the middle of a song.

[charlie brown 773]

Yeah, I have a buddy that has a Clapton Strat, and he loves it. I've played on it a bit, and it's great!

I think, for me...I like the differences...and so tend to play a Strat for certain songs, and then enjoy

changing guitars, for another song/set. I do try to arrange to play in "sets" before changing guitars...do that

with the Ric 12-string, too.

 

CB

[lostindesert 0]

 

The solo in "comfortably numb"' date=' who in here can say it sounds shallow or bad? What a great solo that is!

 

I think that every artist has a sound in mind, and they get the gear they think they need to achieve that sound. I hate Strats, but I love Hendrix, Clapton, Gilmour and other great players who have made the Strat their instrument of choice.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Why would you ''hate'' Stratocasters? Just say you don't like'm, or it's not your sound, scale lenght etc.

 

Peter, likes Fender Stratocasters/Teles and Gibson Les Pauls/SGs

 

WHY CAN'T I DELETE THIS POST, I MADE AN ERROR](*,)

[lostindesert 0]

 

The solo in "comfortably numb"' date=' who in here can say it sounds shallow or bad? What a great solo that is!

 

I think that every artist has a sound in mind, and they get the gear they think they need to achieve that sound. I hate Strats, but I love Hendrix, Clapton, Gilmour and other great players who have made the Strat their instrument of choice.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Why would you ''hate'' Stratocasters? Just say you don't like'm, or it's not your sound, scale lenght etc.

 

I like Fender Stratocasters/Teles and Gibson Les Pauls/SGs/ES335s.

 

Peter

[rodela 0]

I just got a Standard Mexican Stratocaster last Thursday, and I think every electric guitarist should have a Strat AND a Les Paul... Can't think of a pair that can get a wider range of sounds than that, unless you factor in tremendously expensive boutique axes or modeling guitars...

[Canine 0]

Maybe hate is too strong a word, maybe...

 

I never said Strats are crappy instruments or anything of that sort, I said "I" don't like them. It's a personal taste, but it would be really ridiculous for me to say Strats are bad guitars when they've proven themselves time and time again over the decades to become the most popular model of electric guitar ever built.

[Svet 43]

Why can't we all just get along!?!? I love Strats, Les Pauls, Teles, 335's big box jazz guitars Acoustics, anything! If it has strings on it I love it!

[lostindesert 0]

Canine thanks for explaining, hate is indeed a bit strong.

For example, i don't like Rics.

 

 

Peter

[Canine 0]

Well, I do own a SRV Strat and my first electric guitar was a strat-copy... so... I do love my Tele though...

[tulsaslim 1]

 

Really..... He must have been really drunk' date=' because I've heard Duane Allman do much better slide work.... [/quote']

 

The stories about the heroin flowing freely during those sessions have been circulating for years. Even Clapton says so.

[charlie brown 773]

Yeah, there was a special on PBS (I think?)...about producer/engineer Tom Dowd, and he was at the board, showing the different parts, making up the whole of "Layla," and when he got to Duane's Slide work, it sounded pretty thin and "bleak" for lack of a better word...nothing like you were used to hearing. Certainly not like one was used to hearing from the Allman Brother's recordings, much less "live!"

 

I think the program was called "Tom Dowd, The Language Of Music!" Just in case any are interested.

 

CB

[Steven Lister 5]

I suspect that he felt he'd taken that sound / style as far as he could when Cream split.

Which was such a HUGE miscalculation...' date='

...and the very point I was raising by asking this question.

Said another way, when I (a much lesser player than Clapton) can find new and interesting frontiers in the "woman tone" then I have to conclude that EC left a gold mine untouched.

 

Look no further than the solo on "Sunshine of Your Love." Complete and terrific, yet begging for new interpretations that take it in a thousand different, and equally interesting directions. But, my purpose was not to beat up EC (too much). Every artist needs room to experiment/grow. That said, he has had 40 years now to grow with a strat but everything since "Layla" sounds alike to me. Where is any growth there? (BTW, I do play a strat and acknowledge there is a place for its qualities also.)

 

Maybe this leaves us to ponder: Does the greater $$/glamour in pop music (and that is where Clapton's been for a long time now) allow an artist to just leave their troubled souls behind?

(Well maybe so now that I think about it, exhibit A = Elton John.)

And a soul-less player is what I hear that is different in the before/after Clapton. To me EC lost his way instead of finding new ground.

 

So maybe we should just be grateful -- grab up our LPs and Sgs, find the woman tone and tear off another new chunk of enduring and soulful blues-rock gold y'all.

 

Hit every BLUE NOTE baaaby..., I'm going to play on:-"

[MarxBros 0]

It's pretty obvious. Even though Clapton is a guitar player, he let himself become a pop musician and the guitar took a back seat. I wonder if he even gave a second thought about how his guitar sounded in all the post Cream releases. He probably went with a strat because they are lighter and easy to tolerate. All a matter of convenience.

 

Not that he can't play, I've seen him even recently tear it up live(although his tone sucked), but those types of showings are few and far between and hardly found on any of his newer recordings. His heyday was over right after it begun.

[charlie brown 773]

Hmmmm...Well, Steven...I guess I don't hear that, in EC's playing. I've seen him many times "live," and he's always sounded and played pretty "soulful" to me. As I had mentioned, earlier...there are nights when he's less brilliant than others, and other nights when he's just amazing! Everyone has "off" nights...but he's never been "bad," just maybe not as "into it," or focused, as other times.

I think he is pretty intrenched in "The Blues," even within his "Pop" stuff. It's his real love, and foundation, so he never really strays that far away. Recorded Clapton is only one take, maybe of many...but where the overall was what everyone wanted (at least in the early days), before mega multi-tracking, etc...where you can now construct the perfect song, even note by note. He'll never do "Crossroads" like "Wheels of Fire," or his early Mayall stuff, like that...but, that's ok! Now...one thing I will agree on, is that I love his early Mayall/Cream era LP (Gibson)/Marshall sounds, both "woman tone," and just the normal gritty overdrive, for which that combination is (now) famous for. So, I'm not at all sure, it's EC...as much as the old EC/Gibson/Marshall combination, we're missing? LOL! But, who knows? It might be just a personal preference thing with people, too?

 

CB

[zombywoof 225]

First time I saw Clapton was at Cream's RKO Theater, NYC gig back in '67 and he was playing the painted SG while sporting an Afro.

 

Never really thought of Clapton as a "Guitar God" though - not when compared to guys I was also going to see around the same time like Mike Bloomfield and Albert King (who could write a whole volume with just four notes).

[charlie brown 773]

Yeah, Bloomfield was amazing, too! And, the "Kings" (Albert, Freddy and BB) all that talent!

Glad BB's still with us, but wish Albert and Freddy were, too.

 

"God" was just enthusiastic fan worship. EC enjoyed the acknowledgement (for a short time, at first),

but never took it seriously.

 

CB

[pohatu771 6]

I've always associated Clapton with a Strat - in my mind, it's a classic black with white model, but that Caribbean-painted model he plays recently is a looker.

 

He plays a Les Paul on the While My Guitar Gently Weeps video with George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Paul Simon, Jeff Lynne, etc., which was recorded in 1987, I believe. Of course, George is playing a Strat - maybe they didn't want to double up.

[djroge1 51]

Never under estimate the power of a contract in the hands of a big time record company who basically owns everything you are allowed to do in the studio.

 

My guess would be that the record companies had a part to play in developing EC's song choice and probably even studio solos.

[larkin38 0]

I still think Clapton has been playing the same blues cliche riffs over and over. Changing guitars has changed his overall sound. But I really enjoy his singing more than his playing.

I have been going to see Leslie West since his days in The Vagrants. He used to be associated with Les Paul juniors. But over the years he has played other brands. A Dean, Steinberger, some models I have no clue what they are. Never a Fender. But he still has the same sound he had way back from the 1960`s on. And with a whole different assortment of amps. From Sunn, Stramp, Randall, Marshall and Mesa Boogie, and some I couldn`t tell. But he still sounded the same.

Just like you can tell Carlos Santana. Same analogy.

[generation zero 0]

I still think Clapton has been playing the same blues cliche riffs over and over. Changing guitars has changed his overall sound. But I really enjoy his singing more than his playing.

I have been going to see Leslie West since his days in The Vagrants. He used to be associated with Les Paul juniors. But over the years he has played other brands. A Dean' date=' Steinberger, some models I have no clue what they are. Never a Fender. But he still has the same sound he had way back from the 1960`s on. And with a whole different assortment of amps. From Sunn, Stramp, Randall, Marshall and Mesa Boogie, and some I couldn`t tell. But he still sounded the same.

Just like you can tell Carlos Santana. Same analogy.[/quote']

 

There's truth in that. I sound just as bad on a Strat as I do on a Les Paul... but the Mesa makes me sound much better than my old Behringer rig did. Sometimes, the tone IS in the gear, LOL!

[axegrinder1281734111 0]

Steven Lister..... you said it:-

 

albeit while making money hand-over-fist

 

And he never sold or gave away the fingers or his soul - which is where it comes from' date=' not the tools.[/quote'] Exactly right ! Good gear is important to tone , but if it's not in your fingers and your soul , you'll never have it .

[layboomo 0]

Much of this discussion is just plain silly IMHO. Clapton has never abandoned his blues roots but simply expanded his musical horizon. Now whether or not you like the directions he has taken is a personal taste thing and can be argued either way effectively. The point is the guy can still rip it up old school blues style...and he continues to do so every time he straps on a guitar and plays "Have You Ever Loved A Woman".......there's no question in my mind that EC is one of the best. If that ain't soul and tone I don't know what is!

[lostindesert 0]

Much of this discussion is just plain silly IMHO. Clapton has never abandoned his blues roots but simply expanded his musical horizon. Now whether or not you like the directions he has taken is a personal taste thing and can be argued either way effectively. The point is the guy can still rip it up old school blues style...and he continues to do so every time he straps on a guitar and plays "Have You Ever Loved A Woman".......there's no question in my mind that EC is one of the best. If that ain't soul and tone I don't know what is!

 

+1 Peter