C lapton wanted a Strat, so in 1970 he bought the entire stock from Sho-Bud in N ashville. He gave away thre e to George Harrison, Pete Townshend and Steve Win wood, leaving himself with thre e. He liked the black body on t he ’56 but preferred the ’57’ s V-profile neck. He put the m together with the elec trics from guitar three, whi ch had two 50s pickups and one from 1970. The resu lting guitar was magic, sing lehandedly ending Clap ton’s Gibson phase. In 200 4, like Gilmour's Black Stra t, Blackie was auctioned off, fetching a cool $959,000 for charity.