A 1980s Roger Giffin

Details

A 1980s Roger Giffin
in blue metallic finish, Strat 'style' body, maple neck with skunk-stripe routing, twenty-one fret fingerboard with dot inlays, three pickups, three rotary controls, selector switch, tremolo bridge/tailblock and white pickguard; and a black rectangular hardshell case with black plush lining and Lee Dickson's handwritten tie-on label R.Giffin Custom Blue Strat N.S.N. and adhesive paper label similarly inscribed

Roger Giffin is a British maker who produced hand-built guitars from the 1970s onwards.

Eric Clapton used this guitar for two slide numbers on the 1985 Behind The Sun Tour, the opening song Tulsa Time followed by Motherless Children.
Giffin,Roger/Blue

Literature

MARTEN, Neville Would You Buy A Used Guitar From This Man? Article in Guitarist, 15th Anniversary Special, Clapton Issue, June, 1999, p.70

Lot Essay

This guitar was apparently first seen being used for the opening slide number of the September 20, 1983 ARMS concert at the Royal Albert Hall - Everybody Oughta Change, which was filmed and released on video.
In a recent interview with Neville Marten for Guitarist, Lee Dickson confirmed "Eric used this guitar to open the show regularly in the 1970s and '80s. it would usually be in open tuning and he'd use if for 'Tulsa Time' and stuff like that..."

The stage-shot illustrated shows Clapton playing this guitar at The Civic Centre, Hartford, Connecticut, May 1, 1985. The concert was filmed and released on video by Channel 5 as Eric Clapton - Live 1985.

This guitar was photographed backstage at Yoyogi Olympic Pool, Tokyo beside a selection of his stage guitars during Clapton's 1985 Japanese Tour - see illustration pp.112-113.

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