Eric Clapton's distinctive legendary psychedelic Gibson 1964 SG named "The Fool" guitar. Below is a clip of Eric Clapton talking about the volume and tone knobs etc.
I also found a good article about the guitar from an old "Guitarist Magazine" here it is....
PLAYING THE FOOL
There can be few more evocative guitars than the multicoloured Gibson SG used by Eric Clapton in Cream. And when it was teamed with a brace of 100-watt Marshallstacks, the results were ear boggling...
Words Neville Marten
As if Gibson's twin-horned SG wasn't striking enough to look at, in 1967 Eric Clapton decided that the one he had needed a bit of visual enhancement. This was the summer of love, of psychedelia and of mind-expanding drugs. What's more, a new kid had arrived on Eric's block, in the shape of a skinny black guy from Seattle who wore women's blouses and played mean guitar himself. Clapton, still basking in the glory of his 'God' tag, wasn't going to be outdone on any front (although in hindsight his ensuing Afro hairdo may well have been a style statement too far).
Almost certainly a cherry model - only a very few were made in other colours at that time - Eric gave his SG to The Beatles' Dutch artist friends, Simon Posthuma and Marijka Koger, part of a collective known as The Fool. Together they decorated the instrument in rainbow colours, with a naked nymph, clouds, moons and stars gracing the front. The back was a simpler affair, a glowing sun and rippling echoes of the SG's horns making their way up to the headstock.
All in all it was an impressive feat and strangley suited the style of the guitar - especially where the rainbow curls into the guitar's top horn. The colours look quite muted today, although early photos show a bright and vibrant guitar.
Eric's SG was a 1964 model, still very much in the vein of the earlier 'Les Paul' SGs but with an extra scratchplate screw and the long Deluxe Vibrola system replacing the earlier model's unsatisfactory sideways operated vibrato. Clapton retained the Vibrola, but after the paint job its faceplate was never replaced and Eric kept the arm out of harm's way, pointing backwards.
Pickups were patent number humbuckers, the legendary PAF or 'patent applied for' units having given way to these around 1962. The tuners, which would originally have been plastic buttoned Klusons, were replaced with Grover 'kidney bean' types, deemed more accurate and reliable.
Eric recorded with this instrument from Cream's highly regarded Disraeli Gears album onwards, and on live shows until the group disbanded in 1968. It had a sweeter, more open sound than the Les Pauls he'd favoured until Cream's early days, and it was on this guitar that he famously demonstrated how to achieve his then trademark 'woman' tone, with the volume control full up and the tone backed right off. Check out Disraeli Gears tracks SWLABR and We're Going Wrong to hear this sound played on this guitar.
After Cream folded, and while doing a session for George Harrison's Apple signing Jackie Lomax, Eric lent the guitar to the singer and never saw it again. Lomax later sold it to guitarist, and producer of Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell album, Todd Rundgren.
The famous guitar is now owned by Hard Rock Cafe and has been spotted in seven of the company;s burger joints around the USA. An inauspicious end for one of rock's greatest ever musical icons, perhaps, but let's thank God that its sounds are preserved on some of the most influential recordings of all time.
source: Guitarist
Magazine Issue 263 May 2005
Heres another good link I found on the Fool guitar and Eric Clapton's Gear check out
LegendaryTone.com
And heres the clip.... enjoy
Posts
