Fender Stratocaster - Custom Clapton Here it is! The Chauvet Clapton Start Price USD 65,000.00 Current Price USD 65,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, December 01, 2008 End Time Sunday, December 14, 2008 Location Chicago, Il See more about 'Fender Stratocaster - Custom Clapton' Description First the Disclaimers: This is NOT a Fender Master built instrument. But all parts are fully licensed by Fender. This instrument was custom built/assembled and reworked by Chauvet (pronounced Show-Vay - French). This instrument is designed to the Fender Clapton Strat specs with some custom exceptions. You will not find the Fender decals on the headstock. The head stock was destined for custom pearl or abalone inlays as its insignia before this sale came about. This instrument is NOT a piece of art. This is a working instrument built by a professional for professional use. This is a custom lead rocker. Would not recommend using a slide on this neck and nicking the frets beyond use. Use this for lead performance and it will last and carry forward many years. What this is: is a screaming hot Clapton Stratocaster that has no equal. The electronics designed by Fender combined with the light ash body and custom Warmoth neck combine to offer a totally workable instrument for the professional. By workable we mean: There is no one correct way for the action on this instrument to be setup. After designing and working this instrument we have found that the high quality of workmanship of the neck, combined with Fender's bridge design allows for many different styles for setup. The neck bow is so well controlled that you may bow the neck forward and avoid all buzz at the 1 thru 5 frets and lower the bridge to get the  low action needed between the 12th and 22nd frets. OR you may remove the bow in the neck completely allow some buzz/rattle at the 1 thru 5 frets and get an even lower buzz free action between the 12th and 22nd frets by raising the bridge higher. Depending on what your style and needs are this instrument is workable. We owe this to the incredible workmanship of Warmoth and their compound pro neck design. It takes a little practice and patience to alter your setup to meet what you want at that moment, but unlike some instruments, this one does it, well. The story behind how this instrument came to be: 3 years ago Chauvet, a born and raised in Chicago blues artist, virtually unknown except within the entertainment/recording industry, had never played a Fender strat. Playing all Gibson custom Les Pauls and SGs (except for a custom Fender 3/4 scale Mustang used for slide) electric instruments. Chauvet bought an off the shelf stock Fender Clapton Signature Strat at Guitar Center. The color did not suit him - Black. So he picked up an interest in the Custom Shop Mercedes Blue and Midnight Blue Claptons, but could not get his hands on one to try it. After a year of playing the stock Clapton everyday he had to return to Chicago to bury his mother. He borrowed his sister's car for 5 minutes to go to McDonalds and ended up at the Music Gallery in Highland Park, Illinois, about 60 miles away. He had a note to himself that they were one of the few stores in the US that had both a Mercedes Blue and a Midnight Blue Clapton in the shop, but when he got there both of them had been sold. The guys at the Music Gallery however did have one Clapton in Midnight Blue, a Todd Kruse Master built Clapton for about 7000.00. They allowed Chauvet to play it for about 3 hours to see the difference between a stock and a master built, something with a good custom flamed maple neck. Having played a stock everyday for a year the difference was easily felt and absorbed by the musician. So you don't take a Todd Kruse Master built Clapton spec'd instrument and hand it to a musician like Chauvet. But the instrument did not have the TBX or 25db Mid boost, things that Chauvet has come to like in the design. Being in Chicago for other reasons he passed on the deal. But this led to a commitment to get that great feeling instrument back with the preferred features and a design that would uniquely meet the goals and make it his own. So over the next year he designed a Clapton and procured the tools, parts, and experience to assemble a custom strat that delivered that top quality performance. There were two instruments made. The Chauvet Clapton is the premium of the two. It is unique. Over the next year this instrument has been played and reworked. In June of 2008 Steinway Pianos introduced Chauvet to Franz Mohr, the piano expert assigned to Vladimir Horowitz the great concert pianist. Franz discussed many features and properties of Vladimir’s concert Steinway, its action settings, history, character. In August, Steinway allowed Chauvet to play this great concert grand and record with Vladimir's concert piano. This Chauvet Clapton was used in 2008 to record the guitar leads over this piano recording which will appear in an upcoming full feautre movie as a soundtrack piece. Clapton could buy it -  try it out, then give it out to auction for charity and both help Chauvet out and help charity out and still recoup the investment. Somewhere out there is someone who could grab the opportunity to take this item. You've got no idea how much soul this axe carries with it. Between the neck and the body there have been many men who make instruments who have contributed to this final assembly. Fender's builders were critical to this guitar becoming what it is. Todd, our deep respects. This instrument was never designed to be sold. It is being offered for sale here due to an extreme IRS action against Chauvet. Folks with wealth that have to handle large amounts of money understand about the IRS. A parting gift for Chauvet from the outgoing administration - "burn it all, leave nothing and no one behind". No need to go into it. So sorry guys this is not the type of instrument that you just walk into Guitar Center and buy off the shelf. This is being offered at this price in order to meet the IRS extreme demands. If we can't clear out the IRS ruling then we don’t want to sell this rocker. You know any of us would love to have it. Only certain type of buyers can actually afford to buy this type of item. In Chicago Chauvet asked "Who can buy a guitar for this much money?, Who comes in and buys these things?" the answer was "doctors and lawyers who buy them and put them up on the wall". I dont' think doctors and lawyers can afford to buy this one. Only certian types of wealthy people can snag an item like this. For instance a good buyer would be a Las Vegas gambler. The gambler could buy it as an investment for this price and then offer it up in a game against 100k or 200k to "Call".  The Las Vegas types would accept it because of the unique collector's nature of the item. Its a good investment. Another good type of buyer would be a professional guitar player/collector. Someone like Buddy Miller or T-Bone Burnett. Susan Tedeschi should buy this as a Christmas present for her husband Derek Trucks, he would get good use out of this axe (No slide on these frets! Just lead). Keanu Reeves, Mel Gibson, Shia LaBeouf somebody that can afford to do this. Sharon Stone could buy this and give it to her boyfriend or offer it at auction for her Aids Association. Somebody out there bail Chauvet out, buy this and get this great collector's axe and Chauvet will owe you one. Plus you will get the satisfaction that holding this baby and having her at your command gives you. Plug this into a great Marshall or Fender head, crank it up, top up the gain, and just let her wale.  Why does someone buy a Mercedes McLaren for that kind of a price? It’s not the lesser model, its performance and quality is the best. That what this instrument is, its a high quality best performer. Not every one can have one because there aren’t that many around. Nobody makes these. They have to be custom assembled. Item Specifics: Custom Built Stratocaster. All licensed Fender parts except the Schaller mini tuners. This instrument was designed per the Clapton Signature Strat with all Fender Electronics. 25db midboost, TBX control, Fender noiseless pickups in signature white. Fender vintage blocked bridge. This is the true vintage blocked bridge not the Clapton bigger block. Bridge is currently blocked by a wood block same as the Fender artist series, except this bridge is much easier to unblock and use. Comes with the white tipped tremolo arm. All electronics, dials, pick and back guard, bridge are new Fender parts. The Schaller tuners are brand new. The neck was taken from a Stratocaster purchased just to get the neck and matched with a light body. Even if you order a flamed maple neck, you may never get a neck with the top quality flamed markings as seen on this instrument. This has a AAAAA flamed maple one piece neck. This is a Warmoth made compound 22 fret neck but the fret ends were so sharp when procured that it could cut your fingers as you worked down the neck. And the action on the guitar that the neck was taken from was too high for any viable enjoyable use. The neck was refinished by Chauvet. There was extensive wear to the finish on the fret fingerboard board and it was dirty. Where this is desirable to some, the goal was a perfect new board with perfect even feel. The neck finish was removed, the frets were hand rolled for a professional play, and the neck was refinished in a Polyurethane satin. The frets were then stripped of the finish and pro polished. There is something else about this neck. This is NOT a Clapton V shaped neck. This is a standard C shape with what appears to be medium jumbo frets instead of vintage frets, but the fret height is nice and low. This means the neck is thinner than a standard Clapton spec V neck. Something happened - the neck vibrates much more when you are playing it and the tone that comes out of it is altogether different from the Fender made V shape neck. Currently strung with D'Addario light gauge .009 strings that we can get by the 10 pack or case (and this means the action is setup now for .009 light gauge strings). But this instrument is definitely a Clapton Strat, nothing like a Amer Deluxe, ect..., and belongs in the hands of a Clapton strat enthuiast Note that the plastic cover is still on the Fender pick guard and back plate. You can see the edge of the plastic peeling. This is a cherry guitar and set for the buyer. The body is light ash. Not sure about the ash, but it is so much lighter then the Clapton maple off the shelf stock from Fender. Can forward pictures of the body stripped down to the bare wood if you can peg the wood type from the woood grain to verify it is ash. It does NOT have the Fender Clapton routing for the battery or the electronics circuit. The 9 volt battery rests in the middle of the tremolo springs. One of the five tremolo springs was removed to position the battery. Being that the tremolo is blocked this does not interfere. The electronics circuit is positioned under the volume and tone controls and custom fit into that routing. In order to do this the TBS tone control is the bottom tone control and the 25db MidBoost tone control is in the middle between the top Volume control and the bottom TBX control. This is the opposite positions for these control knobs from the standard Fender setup. The removed spring is included along with all parts and tools (hex wrenches, pliers, ect...) used to adjust the trusss rod, bridge, cut the strings, ect... The Chauvet Clapton is NOT a "thin skinned Nitro finish. It is what you would call a thick skinned finish. Chauvet likes the guitars finished "as new" not beat out and worn away. The preference is for a thicker paint and clear coat job so the instrument is smooth and slippery.  A thicker finish stands up and cleans up better to the sweat that covers the instrument during use. A finish like this responds better to rubbing compounds and polymer enhancers to clean up scratches and lines. A higher and thicker quality finish resists weather cracks and lines better/longer. The argument is that think skin vibrates more. This light body has no problem. It has a good finish designed for hard use of the instrument.  The color is Mercedes Digenite only found on the 1/2 million dollar Mercedes McLaren SLR sport coupe. Chauvet consulted Mercedes and their paint service company before picking the color/finish for the guitar. Moving away from a black color was one the goals. This is not a black color. Digenite is a Blue. It is not Mercedes Blue and it is not Midnight Blue. It is "Digenite" And it is the only one of its kind, "The Chauvet Clapton in Digenite"  - the only one on this planet. A unique collector's item. The color is like a woman, it changes its mood. The metallics are smaller and much tighter than what is found on the Fender "Midnight Blue".  It looks Black, then it seems to have a red/purple hue, then it looks like a deep solid blue, but then when the spotlight or direct sunlight hits it -  its not a solid color at all, its a high quality fine metallic blue that gets lighter the brighter the light gets. When you sit and play it in daylight the color that the player experiences is a real upper, an inspiration. What a fine instrument this is to have and play. Comes with a new Gator red plush tweed case, strap, Korg tuner, and a Fender users manual that will describe how to adjust your truss rod and bridge for adjustments and intonation. It is setup now and ready to rock in a minimum buzz at lowest possible 12th to 22nd fret action with a neck bow toward the bridge. This ensures the least buzz at the 1 thru 5th frets If you have never played a Warmoth compound neck get ready for something special. There are some pinpoint pops in the finish visible if you look close at an angle. We choose NOT to remove these by rubbing (with compound – Meguiar’s) the finish. We left the new glass quality finish. These tiny surface air pops will remove in time as you use and then polish the instrument. Just leave them alone and they will smooth themselves out and you won’t be messing with the finish. It’s your belt buckle that you need to worry about. The thicker finish will help you, not “if” but “when” you get buckle scratches in the finish on the back.  You can treat the finish just like you would on the McLaren sports car. Use the same products, except the wax.   Place a Bid!