There are two 7-Up Strats in the auction, one which he used quite a lot and the other a prototype with an active-passive switch added. I said I didn't think Eric would take to that... and he didn't.

"There are two clapton models in Mercedes Black Green. He'd got this new car and he said, 'It'd be great if we had a guitar the same colour as the car'. So I called up Fender and they called up Mercedes in Beverly Hills to see if they had this paint in stock. You can look at this guitar in different light and although it's supposed to be green, you'd swear it was blue. There is a blue one in the sale, but it's not to be confused with these.

"First there was one grey one, then he said, 'Let's get a couple of black ones' and we used those for quite a while. Then Eric fancied some white ones. He played white Strats for a while and that's the two that are in the auction: well played, well documented.

"Then, after years of burning the headstocks on his Strats, Eric decided he didn't want to do that any more. We spoke to Fender to see if we could get some kind of cigarette holder fitted.

John Page and Jay Black at the Custom Shop came up with a great idea, which slotted in in front of the machineheads. It was a brass cylinder drilled into the side of the head and they even got a packet of Rothmans, to check the filter was the same size. That guitar caused hilarity wherever it went, and then Eric gave up smoking. The joke was that people would go into a store and say, 'I'd like a Clapton strat please'- 'Okay, sit, what colour?' 'Black, please'. 'Will that be smoking or non-smoking?' There was only one of those made, so that a truly unique piece. When we did the tour in Japan with George Harrison, I was looking after George and he said, 'Yeah, that's very nice Eric, but I'm going to get one with a little lunch box built into the back ......

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