Rig Rundown: Eric Clapton

At age 76, Eric Clapton remains a major presence in guitar. He’s touring again rather than simply resting on nearly six decades of laurels, and with Slowhand’s blessing, Dan Dearnley—the legend’s tech for a dozen years—showed us his boss’ setup before a September 21 concert at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Three Signature Strats, Martins, and not much else. Dig in!

00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Fender Stratocasters
05:55 - Martin Acoustics
09:41 - Dumble Fenders
10:25 - Pedals

#rigrundown #ericclapton #clapton

[jasondeli]

Love Clapton, this guy explains Clapton's gear like he's nervous someone's going to find out how easy his job is haha.

[FoxHound-chyy]

Eric has laid the foundation of his tone with almost nothing except his fingers and good quality strats and amps. 95% of the pedals and gear you can buy now wasn't even around when he first started out. The fact that he doesn't even use an overdrive pedal on stage is just awesome. just push the amp far enough to break up the signal to your liking and there's your master blues tone =P

[american_psycho]

This man might have the best job on earth. Gets to hang out with Clapton all day, all guitars are stock, amps all set to 7 and no pedals. All he worries about is changing strings

[adiohead]

I love the simple setup, but would also love to see Clapton with an SG and a Marshall stack again.

[Ones_Complement]

Only thing better than Clapton's guitar playing is his integrity and balls to call out bullshit for what it is. Forever a legend.

[valentino]

He has written some of the best music I’ve ever heard in my life. I can’t imagine my life without some of the songs Clapton wrote. Thank you for all the great music through the years.

[SPMinerva]

That Strat in Aston Martin green is beautiful

[AMPMReviews]

Clapton doesn’t need monitors or a plug-in acoustic, or huge a pedal board. He is just an OG master.

[Smittefar]

Most boring rig rundown ever: One strat, a wah and an amp - and an acoustic - any kid can do that - And I absolutely LOVE it

[Bldyiii]

This guitar tech is a grandmaster. It’s never as simple as it looks.

[brianjhutto]

So you can, in fact, play a bar gig without a pedal board. Amazing.

[marshallnmoonshine]

That’s such a trip because so many of his old great sounds were in the in-between positions. That was really surprising to learn.

[traderjoe]

Mr Clapton has the touch and talent that doesn’t need any special gear.. thanks for showing that one of the best in the world just has what almost everyone has access to. It’s about practice and learning theory and more practice.

[chrisfur]

Im 43 and I’m a seasoned musician. Been a session bassist for a while now and used to be in a traveling and out of high school. My teenage son is now playing guitar and is constantly wanting the new pedal that’s coming out. I get it. I do. But I keep telling him, the mass majority of tone is found in your fingers! I strongly believe this. Sure some other things helps some. Kenny Vaughn is one of my favorite pickers and he mainly just uses a tele, amp and tuner lol. Eric Clapton has tone for days with his simple setup

[bcolinranken]

How refreshing, just goes to show, you can have all the gizmos in the world but when it all comes down ya just need to know how to play… just gotta love Éric..

[godwinmanuel]

12:18: "Massive talent, very little gear." The secret to greatness on guitar!

[zenmaestro]

Man, I saw him the night of this show. The whole band sounded great and Eric is still on his game. We should all take a cue from the master... a well made instrument into a properly built amp is all you need!!

[guitardave]

I would love to have seen a rig rundown from his 90’s Soldano SLO (24 Nights) era - loved that tone!

[rick]

I'm a big fan of Clapton since the 60, s . I'm 71 now. Still his biggest fan. Thanks for your rundown. Awesome. I got to get me a Clapton signature strat of any kind.John I'm your biggest fan now also. Thanks brother.

[unclerudy]

I sold Clapton a 1955 Fender Low Power Twin years back. He used to use it all the time... His rig has become very simplified amp wise over the years.