Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton's gear history is effectively a history of the electric guitar itself. He popularized the Gibson Les Paul in the Bluesbreakers, pioneered the so-called woman tone on a Gibson SG with Cream by rolling the tone knob to zero through cranked Marshall stacks, then switched to a Fender Stratocaster in the 1970s and never looked back. His Blackie Stratocaster — assembled from parts of three different 1950s Strats bought at a Nashville guitar shop — became one of the most famous instruments in rock before being auctioned for nearly a million dollars. His signature Fender Stratocaster is the best-selling artist model guitar in history. From Robert Johnson through Muddy Waters to his own blues records, Clapton's tone has always been defined by simplicity: guitar into amp, volume up, and let the fingers do the rest.