“They all went to buy Strats after they saw me”: Buddy Guy on why the Strat is a blues guitar

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It is hard to believe it, but back in the ‘60s the Fender Stratocaster was not considered a great blues guitar.

Then along came Buddy Guy, switching his Guild semihollows for a solidbody that could be thrown around and take the abuse that comes with working with the greatest showman in the blues.

In this interview, he sits down with GW to talk about his signature Strat from the cover of the July 1991 issue, and explain just what makes the model great.

The Clapton Strat we hear on Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues – is that the same guitar that’s on the GW cover? If so, why did you choose it?

“Oh, I don’t know. I guess I woulda chosen this Stratocaster because I had used it on the record, and I liked the way it felt and sounded then. I probably just liked how it looked, and since I was using it a lot then, and it was before the polka dot Fender guitar, I went with that one.”

Can you tell me more about how your signature Strat came to be?

“The polka dots were something Fender said they couldn’t do in 1991. But finally, they got a guy who was able to do it, and I can’t remember the year, but after telling me the polka dots weren’t going to work, they figured out a way to stamp them right and finally made me one.”

Did you use the guitar on the GW cover for any other notable recordings after Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues?

“Yeah, I think I used it, but I can’t tell you which ones because back then, I was using a few different ones. Some of the things, you know, you’d have to give me a flashback, and I’d say, ‘Yeah, I used that.’”

Jeff Beck is on the cover with you. That must have been quite a shoot.

“Yeah, it was. When we did the cover, they said that back in 1965, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page didn’t think a Strat could play the blues. But then they all went to buy Strats after they saw me because, as a matter of fact, one of ’em told me I threw the guitar, and I caught it back in the right key.

“And I don’t even remember that, man, because I think somebody flashed a light, and I missed the damn guitar. But they surprised me because they thought back then that the Strat was for Texas, Tennessee and country/western; they were always playing those kinds of guitars.

“But I just liked the Strat. Even if it was busted up and had a few scratches on it, it played like somebody stole it.”

Do you still have the Strat from your ’91 GW cover shoot?

“Yeah, that cream-colored guitar we’re talking about, I still got it. My son Greg takes care of all my guitars, so he would know best, but actually, I still do play that guitar. I might have used it in January [2024] at my club [Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago].”

How did it feel and sound?

“It’s still got that tone, you know? It’s like an Edsel car from 1959. You get in there to drive, and it just feels a certain way. It’s like my old friend Junior Wells would say, ‘Man, you can pull your woman so close to you in the car that you could kill her headache,’ and with the guitar, it’s the same way.

“It’s still got that tone, but a lot of people forgot about the tone. And a lot of people ask me about that tone, and it’s still got it. But they start looking at the looks, and just like a car, the looks sell it more than the ride; it’s about how pretty it looks. But I don’t care how pretty it is; if it don’t run, I don’t want it.”

What does the Fender Strat mean to you?

“I’ve dedicated just about all my life to it. I started with the Guild, but I’ve been a Stratocaster man ever since. The first one I had, man, I had to play at this lady’s club until I paid her back for it. I can’t tell ya how much I was makin’, but it took me a long time to pay it back. [Laughs]

“But I kept it, and somebody broke into my apartment, and that one got scratched up; I intended to keep it the rest of my life, [but] they stole it. Then I finally was able to say I could go buy one, and all of a sudden I started getting my guitars [for] free, so that was a blessing.”