Eric Clapton’s Journeyman-era Strat-and-Soldano rig heads to auction

A complete Eric Clapton stage rig from 1989 to 1993 has surfaced through ANALOGr with an estimate of $2.5 million to $3 million. The package combines a 1988 Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster prototype with a Soldano SLO-100 head and matching silver-snakeskin 4x12 cabinets. The guitar served as Clapton’s main stage instrument from the summer of 1990 until March 1993.

The black Strat was built by Fender Custom Shop founder and Master Builder Mike Stevens and is described as the first officially sanctioned black Clapton Signature model. It carries three Lace Sensor single-coils and the active mid-boost circuit associated with the production signature guitar. Cigarette burns near the strings remain visible from its years in use, and the instrument has no conventional serial number; internal markings identify it as an early Custom Shop R&D build from February 1988.

Its documented stage history includes the Journeyman tour, Clapton’s 24 Nights run at the Royal Albert Hall, George Harrison’s 1991 Japan tour and Cream’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame performance. The Soldano SLO-100 was hand-built by Mike Soldano and comes with a certificate signed by the designer. Together, the head and two cabinets form the full-stack configuration associated with Clapton’s high-gain early-1990s live sound.

The Strat previously appeared in Christie’s 2004 Crossroads Guitar Auction, where it sold for $231,500. Reuniting it with the period Soldano stack turns the current offering into more than a single celebrity-owned instrument: it is a documented working system from one of Clapton’s most extensively recorded touring periods, with both guitar and amplification tied to major performances.