{"id":932567,"date":"2026-09-07T13:18:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/i-thought-id-died-and-gone-to-heaven-it-was-like-seeing-an-instrument-from-outer-space-i-said-to-myself-thats-the-future-thats-what-i-want\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:18:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:18:41","slug":"i-thought-id-died-and-gone-to-heaven-it-was-like-seeing-an-instrument-from-outer-space-i-said-to-myself-thats-the-future-thats-what-i-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/i-thought-id-died-and-gone-to-heaven-it-was-like-seeing-an-instrument-from-outer-space-i-said-to-myself-thats-the-future-thats-what-i-want\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI thought I\u2019d died and gone to heaven. It was like seeing an instrument from outer space. I said to myself, \u2018That\u2019s the future \u2013 that\u2019s what I want\u2019”: The story of Eric Clapton\u2019s Cream guitars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\"Cream\n<\/picture>
(Image credit: Susie Macdonald\/Redferns)<\/span>
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When Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce<\/a> and Eric Clapton<\/a> were putting together Cream<\/a> in summer 1966, Eric had with him his Les Paul<\/a>. This was the guitar that we now know as the \u2018Beano\u2019 \u2019Burst.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d bought it the previous year when he was a member of John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers, but now he plugged it in for Cream\u2019s early rehearsals at a church hall in north-west London.<\/p>\n

However, before he\u2019d had a chance to play it in public or in the studio with his new band, it was stolen from the hall. Infamously, the \u2018Beano\u2019 \u2019Burst\u2019s whereabouts remain a mystery to this day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eric began to seek a replacement, at first borrowing a few guitars. He used Keith Richards<\/a>\u2019 Bigsby-loaded \u2019Burst in July for Cream\u2019s debut at a festival in Windsor (and a try-out in Manchester the night before). In a London club in August he played a cherry double\u2011cut Les Paul<\/a> Special borrowed from support group The Clayton Squares.<\/p>\n

Eventually, probably in August \u201966, he bought a \u2019Burst from Andy Summers<\/a>, the Summersburst that recently emerged thanks to Matt\u2019s Guitar Shop in Paris<\/a>. In the early months of the following year, Eric dismissed that guitar when it was the victim of an unsympathetic repair.<\/p>\n

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\"Eric\n<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Michael Putland\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A New Psychedelic Fool<\/h2>\n

Perhaps he started to wonder if Les Pauls were jinxed for him, and he settled on a circa-1964 cherry-finish SG Standard \u2013 a different style, for sure, but with familiar humbuckers<\/a> and control layout. Within a short time he took it to a pair of Dutch pop artists newly arrived in London, Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma, who later started an art collective \u2013 and, briefly, a band \u2013 that they named The Fool.<\/p>\n

Marijke and Simon painted colourful scenes and swirls all over the guitar, which Cream fans know as \u2018The Fool\u2019 guitar. Eric later called it a \u201cpsychedelic fantasy\u201d and he played it as his main stage guitar throughout 1967 and into the summer of \u201968, recording with it extensively, too, notably on much of Disraeli Gears<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\"Eric\n<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Future\/Joby Sessions)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On tour in America in spring \u201967, Eric scooped up a few more guitars: a three-pickup 1958 Les Paul Custom, a Fender XII and a Danelectro<\/a> Standard 3021. Again, he\u2019d record some of Disraeli Gears<\/em> with the Custom, and played the XII on Dance The Night Away<\/em>. On a few occasions he played the Custom and the Dano on stage, but none of the three would count among his most favoured instruments.<\/p>\n

A significant purchase came along in May \u201967 when he went to Sound City in London and bought a secondhand 1956 Stratocaster, the one that later became known as \u2018Brownie\u2019. He got it just days before Cream travelled to New York City to record Disraeli Gears<\/em>, heard at least on Tales Of Brave Ulysses<\/em>, with its Strat-like tones and aggressive wah-wah sounding like an homage to the current king of the Strat, one James Marshall Hendrix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Eric\n<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Jeff Hochberg\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aside from sporadic uses in Cream, this Fender would later feature on stage regularly with Eric when he began touring with Delaney & Bonnie toward the end of 1969, and it was also prevalent in the studio during 1970 for his first solo album and the Layla<\/em> sessions.<\/p>\n

In his autobiography, he recalled how at age 12 he\u2019d first seen a Strat, in the hands of Buddy Holly on a TV show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019d died and gone to heaven,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt was like seeing an instrument from outer space, and I said to myself: \u2018That\u2019s the future \u2013 that\u2019s what I want.\u2019 Suddenly, I realised I was in a village that was never going to change, yet there on TV was something out of the future. And I wanted to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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