Fender Eric Clapton Signature Strat

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Fender Eric Clapton,

Jeff Beck & Rory

Gallagher Strats

£1,799, £1,799 & £2,699

This trio of Custom Shop models pays tribute to

some of our ﬁ nest guitarists. Three Strat players;

three very different Strats by Neville Marten

110 JUNE 2005

PHOTOGRAPHY SIMON LEES & KATHARINE LANE-SIMS

ender has been making instruments

based on the ideas of its players for

years. Clapton’s original Signature

Strat emerged in the eighties and the

ﬁ rst Jeff Beck model followed not long

after. Recently Fender has added a

Custom Shop version of each, more

akin to the guitars that Eric and Jeff

play on stage, and it’s these instruments

we’re appraising here.

It’s 10 years since Rory Gallagher

passed away, and now the Custom Shop

has released a remarkable-looking

Tribute model based on his famous

beaten-up guitar. As each of these

guitars is imbued with its own unique

characteristics, this should make for

an interesting test…

FENDER ERIC CLAPTON, JEFF BECK & RORY GALLAGHER STRATS £1,799, £1,799 & £2,699

ELECTRICS

GIT264.fender 110GIT264.fender 110 29/4/05 5:24:36 pm29/4/05 5:24:36 pm

Summary of content (5 pages)

PAGE 1
FENDER ERIC CLAPTON, JEFF BECK & RORY GALLAGHER STRATS £1,799, £1,799 & £2,699 ELECTRICS Fender Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Rory Gallagher Strats £1,799, £1,799 & £2,699 This trio of Custom Shop models pays tribute to some of our finest guitarists. Three Strat players; three very different Strats by Neville Marten F PHOTOGRAPHY SIMON LEES & KATHARINE LANE-SIMS ender has been making instruments based on the ideas of its players for years.
PAGE 2
In the case of the Clapton and Beck models, their Custom Shop heritage means they’re that much closer to the instruments used by these great players JUNE 2005 GIT264.
PAGE 3
FENDER ERIC CLAPTON, JEFF BECK & RORY GALLAGHER STRATS £1,799, £1,799 & £2,699 ELECTRICS FENDER ERIC CLAPTON STRAT PRICE: £1,799 (inc hard case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Offset doublecutaway solidbody electric BODY: Alder NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5-inch) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/ 42mm FINGERBOARD: Integral maple with black plastic dots and 241mm (9.
PAGE 4
What a great neck. The Beck’s thick rosewood board, 9.5-inch radius and meaty frets make for blues-rock heaven JEFF BECK STRAT Build quality Playability Sound Value for money TEST RESULTS ■ WE LIKED Delicious and usable vibrato system; playable neck; build quality ■ WE DISLIKED Expensive compared to regular Artist model people did find the original Beck model to their liking, and others struggled with it because they wanted to be like their hero; but the general consensus was that it was a lump too far.
PAGE 5
FENDER ERIC CLAPTON, JEFF BECK & RORY GALLAGHER STRATS £1,799, £1,799 & £2,699 ELECTRICS The Gallagher ﬁts like an old glove, and feels like you’ve been playing it for 40 years RORY GALLAGHER TRIBUTE STRAT As Clapton except… PRICE: £2,699 (inc hard case) BODY: Alder with heavily aged nitro-cellulose finish FINGERBOARD: Rosewood with white clay dots (one mis-matched plastic dot at 12th fret) and 241mm (9.