This page is dedicated to Fender's Signature Stratocasters, particularly the ones using Lace Sensor pickups. Since this site deal a lot with Strat Plus and Ultra guitars, all of which use Lace Sensors pickups, I thought it good to highlight the signature guitars, which are in a way deviants of the more common sisters.

The whole idea of making a signature guitar started with Dan Smith, of the famous “1980s Smith Strats” Fender fame, and one of the men who wanted to turn Fender around to building quality guitars, had an idea about building guitars made for famous artists. He comments in A. R. Duchossoir, in his book called The Fender Stratocaster, the following:

"Our (Fender's) desire with the whole Signature series was to build guitars exactly the way the artists play them. We didn't just build something that everybody was going to buy and then the artist had to have his different."

The idea was not new to Fender or Gibson. For obvious reasons, guitars companies liked to get famous people to play their guitars. It all helps with sales. So when new models came out, often these "stars" were approached to see if they might like to try new models. Right as CBS Fender was getting sold to Bill Schultz and some investors, Bill wasted no time in trying to get famous guitar players to sign on with a signature guitar that was build to the exact same specs as the guitar the artist plays. Many times artists had custom additions and modifications on their guitars that were not seen on standard production models. In 1985 the old CBS Fullerton plant closed it doors and the new management moved to the new plant in Corona, California. During this times Bill approached James Burton about Fender making a signature Telecaster made just like the one he played. Remember, at this point the new Corona plate was not even in production yet!

Meanwhile, as Fender started production at the new Corona facility, the first guitars were some American Reissues and then the new American Standard Strats came out. They were remake of an old design. Cool new ideas were incorperated such as a 2-point bridge to help stabilize tuning, a TBX tone control, flat pole oieced on the pickups and a few other features. And since Fender, between February to October of 1985, did not build any guitars in the USA, relying instead on Fender Japan to help fill in the $$$$ gap. When the new American made Strats came out they were purposely named the "New American Standard Strat"! Thus making it clear that this was an American built guitar and not Japanese. And to top it off, they got Eric Johnson to endorse the new American Standard Strat! At the same time, Custom Shop was just getting fired up and the company also needed some new marketing ideas to help launch the new Fender ownership. So the next person approached to have a signature guitar was Eric Clapton. Here is what happened:

The Eric Clapton Signature Strat

Eric Clapton realized that his beloved "Blackie" Strat could not take another refretting. It was an old 1950s Strat. This created an opportunity for both Fender and Clapton to come up with a new guitar that felt and played just like his beloved "Blackie," but maybe with a few improvements. But Dan Smith, a long time Fender employee responsible for trying to help Fender's waining reputation under CBS ownership, approached Eric Clapton to discuss a plan to create a signature guitar which would be marketed under his name. The story is told that while Clapton was doing a gig in Dallas, Texas, Dan Smith managed to bring him two hard tail Stratocaster Elites. He knew Clapton liked to have the tremolo blocked off so a hartail was a good option. Maybe you remember those old Elites? Some were made from Walnut and they had push buttons on/off for each pickup and used an active pickup system.

At that time Eric told Dan Smith that he wanted them to custom built a Strat to his own specifications and asked that it be based on a copy of "Blackie,"" his favorite stage guitar. Clapton's personal preference for the neck shape was going to be a bit differnt using the soft "V" similar to the early Martins acoustics he owned. He played both; a 1939 Martin 000-42 and a 1966 Martin 000-28. He also wanted more “compress” sound, similar to a humbucker, so he could go from a Strat voices to a fatter humbucker type voice. As you can image, here was the beginnings of Fender actually creating a possible true Signature guitar!

To test the waters, Fender made up a neck and put it on an Elite Stratocaster body. They also built another prototype with a softer V neck. These were made by my friend George Blanda. Turned out that Clapton liked the prototype with the soft “V” the best. It came with 12dB MDX mid-boost circuit (developed and designed by Paul Gagon, Bob Eggler, Roger Cox, James Demeter and John Carruthers) which was added at Clapton requested. This was to give him that “compressed” tone, like a humbucker, which he was looking for. Today people call it that "woman" tone. Clapton liked the boost (a "compressor" is what the Fender guys called it!) and told Fender to keep that feature, but wanted it to have even more ”compression.”

The Gold Lace Sensor pickups were just coming to fruition between Fender and Don Lace Sr. and it was decided to give those a try instead of the "Elite" pickups. Then Fender followed through with bumping up the "Compressor" from 12db to 21db. They then added a bypass mini-switch to activate the 21db boost. Clapton signed on in May of 1987 and the Custom Shop released some of the very first Clapton signature Strats.

To the left you will see one the very first Clapton Strats to be released by Fender's fledging Custom Shop under the guidance of John Page. This is called the Version 1 Eric Clapton Strat. It has the older Custom Shop logo stamped on the back of the headstock and in the necksocket of the body. This one is own by a friend of mine in Florida. Note the maple neck has 21 frets like a vintage Strat, a small mini-switch to activate or bypass the 21db boost, and very early Lace Sensor pickups. (Also see picts below). The guitar shown is pretty rare as very few Version 1s were sold. The electronics on these was a bit troublesome as the mini-switch really did not work the way it should have and if left in an "on" position when stored, would drain the battery dead. Paul Gagon, one of the designers for the Clapton boost mentioned that this mini-switch was added after he left Fender, as he worked there from 1978 to 1984. He was also the mastermind behind the design of Fender’s TBX potentiometer, so he played a big role in the early designs that were added to the Clapton Strats. Ok, there are some gain-sayers that think Fender's Custom Shop never produced any Clapton guitars till 2004. Well obviously, they did!

Three prototype signature models sporting the new Gold Lace Sensor pickups were built by George Blanda for Clapton—one was finished in Torino Red (like the example of the one above) and the other two in Pewter Grey Metallic. These protos were used by Clapton in the "Prince Trust Live Aid," "Live in Montreux," and "Eric Clapton and friends Live 1986" DVDs. A couple years later the two Pewter guitars were refitted with 22-fret necks made from birds-eye and flame maple, built by the famous Texas luthier Michael Stevens. The flame neck was installed in February 1988; the birds-eye neck went on the other guitar in early September of that same year. The body of the latter was refinished in Candy Green (7-Up Green) in 1989. These first models awere all Version 1 Clapton Signature Strats.

Ok, now on to something a bit funny — below you will see and advertisement for the newly released "Version 1" Clapton Signature Strat in 7-Up Green found in a 1990 sales brochure. Also note that this is a Clapton "Version 1" Strat with 21 frets. Also note the mini-switch to activate and deactivate the 21db boost. The funny thing is, when you read this add, you see how it is referring to this guitar being built to Eric's exact specifications. It then states "But not Eric. He wouldn't change a thing." But after that advertisment came out he did change things! In fact he was going to change several things. In retrospect it is kind of funny. I am not sure what came first - the V1 Strat or the advertisement, but a small number of the V1s were made, and as I have shown, the first being built in Fender's Custom Shop, like the red example above. Here are a few changes Eric made: He went from 21 frets to 22 frets on the neck which was now using a bi-flex truss rod. He asked that the boost — "compression" be bumped up even more. Fender upped it from 21db to 25dB. We will talk more changes in a bit. Also note the neat advertisement for the new Custom Shop! that's kind of cool.

When standard production models finally came out it was   the "Version 2." fender and Eric finalized on these features: 22 fret, soft-V, Maple neck and an updated MDX circuit that had been tweaked up to 25dB boost in the midrange at around 500 Hz. They dumped the mini-switch and opted for a jack-plug activation for the "compression" boost! These standard production models came in, not including Custom Shop models, Candy Apple Green (aka 7-Up Green), Torino Red, Pewter, Vintage White, and of course, Black for those "Blackies"!  Below you will see a couple examples of some of my "Version 2" production models:

The top is a 89-90 Eric Clapton Signature Strat in Pewter which is in mint condition. Other features on the production models were the vintage type tuners and of course, Clapton's signature on the headstock. Fender used a water slide decal for the Fender logo and "Stratocaster" on top of the finish on these, which I find odd. Not uncommon to see these chip or sratched, with part of the water slide missing. But they did finish over Clapton's signature! Ummmm... The next is a 1997 7-Up Green Clapton. You can see how the body has a special route for the 25dB circuit board. Last, but not least, is a New old stock Vintage White Clapton. Love this color with the Maple fretboard! 

Of course, before we rap-up this short segment on Eric Clapton Strats, we need to show you a "Blackie." This is a 2000 in mint condition. When I picked this up it still had the plastic on the trem cover and pickguard. 

The Version 3 Clapton Strats came out in 2001 with 3 Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. I am not going to discuss the V2 models as my focus is on the Lace Sensor driven guitars. On my Strat Plus page I mentioned that the first two versions of the Clapton Strats came with Gold Lace Sensors, which they used from 1988 till 2001 when the Vintage Noiseless were introduced on this model. I believe Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton models were the last two signature guitars to convert from the Lace Sensors. But why?

There is an interesting story behind the change of the Clapton Strats from Lace Sensors to the new Noiseless Vintage pickups in the year 2001. I did an interview with Jeff Lace, son of Don Lace, the inventor of the Lace pickups. He told me that when Lace's (AGI) exclusive contract with Fender ended in 1996, there was a push to get the signature models guitars, which were using the Laces pickups, to move to Fender's newly designed Noiseless pickups. I simply think there was some turf protecting going on, so Fender decided to keep the pickups "in-house" with their own pickups and stopped promoting Lace pickups anymore (a secondary vendor) on Fender's top line guitars (AKA: Custom Shop, Strat Plus Series, Ultra, and Signature series). So it was just a matter of time before Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton Signature guitars moved over to use Fender's new Noiseless pickups. In fact, Lee Dickson, Clapton's guitar tech insisted on it for some reason and he said Clapton needed to make the change.

The question I have, is why would Lee Dickson insist on it? What was going on with that? Personally, and this is just my own preference, the Fender noiseless pickups are just too glassy and bright for me. I owned a 2000 DX Strat (replacement for the Strat Plus DX/Ultra guitars) and kept it like 2 weeks and then sold it. I tried to liked them but just gave up. There are a lot of other pickups I like, such as DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, etc.. which you will see me using these on custom builds on this website, but just have not been sold on the Fender Noiseless or the Vintage Noiseless—and I have had both.

Eric Clapton Signature Strats with ROSEWOOD Fret boards!

Rosewood fretboard on a Clapton Strat???  NO WAY.....  Also if you read what I wrote above, Clapton would not change a thing—the advertiement said! This was another thing that changed, and it is a change that makes sense to me. well, If you have ever have watched Eric Clapton play, you know when it comes to Fender Stratocasters, his fretboard of choice is Maple. And as I shared at the start of this section on Eric Clapton Signatures guitars, his long standing favorite Strats was his renowned "Blackie." So it only makes sense that when he agreed to have his famous Blackie turned into a Signature guitar by Fender he was going to specifically request a Maple fretboard! In 1992 Eric gave Fender permission to do the unthinkable—and that was to produce a run of his signature guitars with rare Brazilian Rosewood fretboard. Well take a look at one of them BELOW!

There is very little information out there on these guitars, but the story goes that "they started production and on that very day Clapton or his agent, called Fender and told them to stop!" It makes sense as a Signature guitar should reflect the instrument of the player and Clapton did not play Rosewood on his Strats! It was said that only "94 production models were made." I have not been able to validate that story, and I have asked a lot of the old timers from Fender who worked that at the time. No one seems to rememeber the back-story. But I do know the history of this particular guitar and can tell you the guitar above was one of the production models—and it is super rare. The only other Clapton I have seen with a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard is a one-off Custom Shop model I own in Surf Green made in 1990 (see below!). The Surf Green is most likely the rarest production Clapton Strat on the planet! But back to this Blackie, it is not only rare, it is near mint. The guitar has no scratches, cracks or pick marks on the pickguard. The guitar has the bridge "blocked" just the way Eric specified. It has the original hang tags, paperwork, strap, chord and tremolo bar. I keep digging around to find more info on these and so far, this is the ONLY one I have ever seen!

But now back to the subject of ROSEWOOD Fretboard Eric Clapton Strats, let me show you one that might be "the most rare prodution Clapton Strat on the planet"!! Below is a ONE-OFF 1990 CUSTOM SHOP CLAPTON STRAT WITH REAL BRAZILLIAN ROSEWOOD IN SURF GREEN.

OK, OK, Surf Green? That’s a Jeff Beck color! Right! And with a real Brazilian Rosewood fretboard? I have been told only about 94 production models were made with Brazilian Rosewood before Clapton had his manager call Fender to put a stop on production! And only a few were made in Custom Shop and only ONE was made like this. So this one being a CUSTOM SHOP, one-off, is mostly likely the ONLY Surf Green Clapton Strat with REAL Brazilian Rosewood ever made! I was told Eric Clapton was not too happy about it either. It was purchased in 1994 by a friend of mine. He sold it to me because he said, If anyone should have this guitar, it is you Xhefri!" All the electronics are original, untouched. Guitar is light weight (7 lbs), in mint condition and plays beautifully.

J.W. Black, who was with John Page in the very early Custom Shop days, verified he worked on this and stated that it is his writing inside the body, and confirmed that Art Esparza (Art’s code 278 AE) made the body. Art Esparza, has also confirmed by email it is his code and sequence number. J.W. Black has confirmed he made the Brazilian rosewood neck which was finished by Hector Montez. This research was coordinated by John Page, and both he and JW Black were the first managers of the Custom Shop say this guitar is ‘legit’ and is a ‘one-off’ from back in the wild and woolly days of the early Custom Shop! VERY RARE!!! And very valuable.

The Jeff Beck Signature Strat

A. R. Duchossoir, in his book called The Fender Stratocaster, shares about how the Jeff beck Signature Strat came into being:

"A few months earlier (before March, 1987), JEFF BECK had asked Fender to make him a `62 Vintage model painted in the same yellow color as the souped-up Ford truck featured in the movie American Graffiti. The company obliged but seized the opportunity to talk Jeff into having a namesake Stratocaster model. The STRAT PLUS prototype was therefore put together with Jeff beck in mind, hence its yellow finish christened Graffiti Yellow. But Beck (temporarily) turned down Fender's proposal and the first Stratocaster with Sensors came out as the STRAT PLUS."

While Duchossoir might have known his Strats, he did not know his trucks, or in this case, a car. Anyone who has watched the famous classic from 1973 entitled American Graffiti knows the yellow vehicle in question was not a truck but a 1932 Ford chopped deuce coupe. In fact Beck has a replica of this 1932 Ford coupe. Anyhow, getting back to Strat Plus'—the funny thing is, some people get a Graffiti Yellow Strat Plus and think it is a Jeff Beck prototype! There was never a Jeff Beck prototype on the market

FAT NECKS - AKA BASS BALL NECK PROFILES!

The interesting feature on these guitars are the necks and the 4- Gold Lace Sensor pickups with a kill button for one of the Gold Laces in the Dually bridge pickup. The necks are referred to as the "base-ball-bat" necks as their profiles are huge. Speaking of neck profiles, a friend of mine was recently talking with the manager at Fender's Custom Shop who told him they had a sheet on the wall that gave the various transitions of the Beck necks over the years. And these too varied due to the finisher standing at a belt sander and maybe sometimes took off a little more or sometimes a little less! Here is basically what the paper in Custom Shop said:

The first year was the biggest neck:

1991 it was .950 1st fret to .990 12th fret - nocastor dimensions - deep U close to Gatton

1992 it was .900 1st to .990 12th

1994 it was .900 1st to .960 12th

It stayed the same to .990

Then the Jeff Beck Strats 1991 -1993 went from Wilkinson split nuts to full nuts and then mid-1993 went over to the LSR roller. Sperzel locking tuners were used pretty much on the JB's from '91 through '94 and then went over to Schaller locking tuners.