Features:
- Pewter finish
- White pickguard [Now has a mauve-mirrored pickguard]
- Maple neck.
- 22 frets.
- 3 Fender Golden Lace Sensor pickups.
- Custom paint job by Rene Castro. Mauve speckles, Skeleton wearing cowboy hat and a snake adorn the body of this guitar.
Use:
- Studio: Seen in a number of Hansa Ton Studio era photos, during the making of the Achtung Baby album.
Dallas Schoo mentioned this guitar during an interview just before the recording of the "Pop' album, so it may have seen some
use during those recording sessions.
- Live: The Edge used this Clapton Strat each night of the ZOOTV and Zooropa tours for playing 'The
Fly' and 'Desire'.
Details:
This is one of my favorite guitars of The Edge's, even though the only live use it seems to have seen was for 'Desire'
and 'The Fly' during the ZOOTV/Zooropa tours. There are a number of photo's of this guitar being used during the Hansa Ton
Studios sessions * - so it may be on various Achtung Baby tracks. It also is seen in the video footage for 'My Wild Irish
Rose'.
It seems that The Edge ended up with at least 3 Eric Clapton Stratocasters. Two were seen during the 1989/90 for
the Lovetown Tour and this one seems to have come to prominence soon after. (There may be a chance he had this one for the
Lovetown tour but I've yet to see any photos of it during that tour.) For a period of time it seems that the 'Clapton's' were
the Strat and Guitar de jour. Edge even bagan playing tunes that normally would feature a Gibson guitar with humbuckers, such
as 'I Will Follow' **, with his yellow Clapton Strat during the Lovetown Tour. And the yellow Clapton also replaced his Fender
'The Strat' w/EMG's for 'Where The Streets Have No Name' **.
This guitar has been seen with and without the white pickguard. It has subsequently had a mauve-ish mirrored pickguard
installed - as seen in the 'Pride In The Name Of Love: 2 Decades Of U2' exhibit at Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
[Exhibit ran: Feb 2003 to Feb 2004] One of the Clapton's great features is the 25db mid-boost.
Sources:
* Rolling Stone Magazine [Issue: 618. November 28, 1991] / Musician Magazine [March 1992]
** Footage from the 12.31.89/01.01.90 - Point Depot, Dublin, Ireland
