The Fool - Eric Clapton's Gibson SG

Cream: Meet Me in the Bottom | Tales of Brave Ulysses | The Fool Gibson SG | Wheels of Fire 1968

The first picture-painted guitar in rock and roll (Oxman 2011)

Cream miming World of Pain, from the Dutch film Det var en lørdag aften (February 1968). Featuring The Fool Gibson SG, Gibson Bass and drum head, YouTube, duration: 2.16 minutes. Possibly filmed in London during March - April 1967.

1. The Fool

Any fan of the rock group Cream will be familiar with their landmark LP Disraeli Gears, recorded at Atlantic Studios, New York, over two sessions in April and May 1967 and released the following November to widespread acclaim. The cover artwork by Clapton's friend Martin Sharp, an Australian artist and author of the lyrics to Tales of Brave Ulysses, was a definitive psychedelic representation of the power and warmth of the band's music. Ulysses was the B side of the first single from the then unreleased album, issued on 5 June 1967, though it was Clapton's first choice for an A side. The Australian photographer Robert Whitaker also assisted Sharp in the Disraeli Gears artwork. In regard to the music on the LP, at the time Clapton was playing a 1964 Gibson SG Standard which he had acquired by the middle of March 1967. During that month it was painted by two Dutch artists known as The Fool - Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma (Rosen 2008). The Fool art collective also worked closely with The Beatles around this time, painting a wide variety of material for them, ranging from a building facade to an upright piano. However, perhaps their most famous work is the aforementioned guitar used by Clapton for the Disraeli Gears recording and subsequent live performances from late March 1967 through to April 1968 on the f inal US tour. It is now known simply as The Fool guitar.

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2. Chronology of the guitar

Based on the information cited within this article, a brief history of The Fool SG looks something like this:

* circa 1964-5 : George Harrison acquirers a 1964 Gibson SG Standard guitar in cherry (reddish brown) finish. He may have had more than one of these, as an identical guitar was gifted by Harrison in 1969 to Peter Ham of Badfinger and sold at auction in 2015 for US$570,000. The picture below shows Harrison with an SG similar to The Fool, if not the actual guitar. Harrison uses the guitar/s in the studio and for live performances with The Beatles.

* late 1965 / middle 1966 : after leaving the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton purchases a 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul (known as a 'Burst) and plays it until he joins Cream in May 1966. The guitar features on the John Mayall Bluesbreakers LP and becomes known as the Beano 'Burst.

* July 1966 : The Beano 'Burst is stolen in July 1966 during Cream rehearsals. Clapton replaces it temporarily with a 'Burst borrowed from Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. He then purchases one for £200 from Andy Summers, later of The Police. He uses this through to March 1967.

Paris, December 1966.

* 6 - 8 March : Gigs in Denmark and at the Lordensberg Cirkus, Gothenberg, Sweden. Clapton is still using the former Andy Summers 1960 Les Paul with twin black humbuckers. By this stage it had headstock damage. Clapton would therefore have been looking for a replacement upon his return to England. 'Bursts were very rare at the time.

Gothenberg, Sweden, 8 March 1967.

* 9 March 1967 : Cream return to England.

* 10 - 16 March 1967 : Likely around this time Clapton is lent a Gibson SG by his friend George Harrison. He may have used the unpainted SG at a couple of gigs, including the Wellington Club, East Dereham, on 12th; for the 'Lost Studio Sessions' in London; at at a gig in Essex. He also may have continued to use the damaged Les Paul while the SG was being painted.

* c.17 March 1967 : Cream's manager Robert Stigwood commissions The Fool collective to paint the SG. They sanded it back to wood before applying a white primer, removing the original cherry finish. The artwork was largely designed and painted by Koger over a two week period, with Posthuma responsible for the rear rings and possibly the neck. The design was as follows:

A winged wood sprite with curls of fire sat astride a cotton candy cloud. His left hand grasped a triangle while his right hand held a spoon-shaped beater about to strike it. The arch of his right foot balanced gently atop a tone control, while the toes on his left pointed delicately downwards towards a pickup’s toggle switch. Yellow six-sided stars sprinkled against a sky of azure and aqua orbited him. Swirls, flames and gradient shades of blues, greens, and yellows danced across the instrument’s body. An orange orb dipped behind a burnt sienna mountain range that floated across the pick guard. After applying their artwork, they did not apply any protective lacquer or sealant. As a result, the paint wore when Clapton began using it, especially in the area of the rear of the neck and the back of the body.

When the artwork was completed, a series of colour photographs were taken in London by Karl Ferris, a member of The Fool collective. Apart from the guitars and bass drum head, the band members are also wearing stage costumes for their upcoming US tour.

Karl Ferris, Cream, March 1967. Source: San Francisco Art Exchange.

* March 21 : gig at the Marquee.

* March 22 : Cream fly to the United States. It is possible the SG was freighted separately to the US at this point.

* 25 March 1967 : Clapton apparently debuts the guitar during a gig at the RKO theater on 58th Street, Manhattan, New York. This is the first of the tour. Unfortunately, a photograph from that gig shows him playing a black Les Paul with a white fingerboard. He is wearing the stage clothes seen in the Karl Ferris photograph taken the previous week. Jack Bruce is playing The Fool bass guitar at this gig. It is also possible that Clapton used both a Les Paul and the SG, though the author has not seen a photograph to confirm this.

Cream 1st Us concert, 25 March 1967.

- March 1967 - March 1968 : Clapton uses the Fool guitar on stage and in the studio through to early 1968, around the time of the breakup of Cream and the recording with Harrison of the song Badge.

- 4 - 7 April and 8 - 16 May : Clapton uses the guitar for the Disraeli Gears sessions, Atlantic Studios, New York. Producer - Felix Pappalardi. 

Clapton with Felix Pappalardi, May 1967. Source: Michael Ochs Archive.

Eric Clapton in the studio with The Fool SG, recording Disraeli Gears, April & May 1967.

- April 1968 : The Fool is used during the final US tour.

- June - August 1968 : Clapton and Harrison work on a recording with singer Jackie Lomax for Apple. Clapton returns the guitar to Harrison, who eventually (?November) - and perhaps after Paul Kossof of Free had briefly made use of it - passes it on to Lomax. 

The last sighting of Clapton with the guitar is in a studio during June 1968, as seen in the photograph below.

Jackie Lomax and George Harrison, with Eric Clapton in the background playing the SG, June 1968. Source: John Roe, Facebook, 17 May 2021.

- 1969 : Jackie Lomax moves to Woodstock and takes the SG with him. At the time it had two, non-original, gold control knobs.

The Fool SG circa 1971.

- 1972 : Todd Rundgren acquires the SG from Lomax for US$500. The body is sealed, the paint touched up and headstock replaced, plus new knobs, strap locks, fixed-stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge are added. Rundgren went on to play the guitar throughout the 1970s.

Original headstock for The Fool guitar.

Eric Clapton 1967, Todd Rundgren 1973.

- 1980s : The body is resealed and paint once again touched up. Rundgren also has a copy (?copies) made which he calls Sunny and uses on stage and in the studio.

- 1995 : Rundgren retires the guitar and it is placed in storage.

- 2000 : Rundgren sells the original Fool SG for US$120K to an unknown buyer. Rundgren subsequently sues Sothebys for failure to properly promote the sale.

- circa 2010 : The Fool SG is sold for US$500K.

- the restored Fool guitar is included in the Play It Loud exhibition.

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 3. Origin & ownership

Despite having its own The Fool (Guitar) Wikipedia entry, the origin and ownership history of the now famous guitar is confused. Some accounts state that it was originally purchased by the guitarist (Clapton), who, along with his manager Robert Stigwood, then had it painted by The Fool. This is barely half-correct. Another account tells us that it was given him in its painted form by George Harrison of The Beatles. Once again, this not entirely correct, but closer to the truth (Muir 2010). The known origin is discussed below, based on slowly unraveling information spread across the years from 1964 through to the early 2000s. The original Clapton guitar survives, in a form discussed below, and remains a priceless artifact of the 1960s psychedelic era. Such is the popularity of the instrument, that numerous copies have subsequently been made. In 2021 a hand-painted version of The Fool guitar was offered for sale on eBay / Reverb for US$25K, based on a genuine 1965 Gibson SG.

The Fool Gibson SG replica, eBay / Reverb, 2021.

The seller was Rod Burger of Burger Guitars. Burger is an artist. He painted the replica guitar himself. His associated eBay sale notes are worth replicating as they provide some history on both the original guitar once owned by Clapton and the version then being offered for sale. They include comments by Burger and historian Tony Bacon, some of which are not correct:

Rod Burger: OK, grab your favorite beverage and a snack, this is going to be a long one! Today we have a vintage 1965 Gibson SG standard with the original, complete Fool paint job like the original had right after it was painted in 1967. There are details on this guitar that are closer to the original than the original (more on that later). So sit back and relax. It's story time!

1965 Gibson SG

Tony Bacon: In March 1967, Eric Clapton bought a guitar and quickly decided to give it a fresh look. He'd been through a couple of old-style Les Paul 'Bursts, both of which had been stolen from him during the last nine months or so. Maybe he was starting to feel that Les Pauls were somehow jinxed? Whatever the reason, he went out and found a used SG. A few days later, he took it to Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma, two Dutch pop artists working in London. Christopher Hjort's book Strange Brew logs a rare day off for the busy Eric on March 13, and that's probably when he acquired the circa-'64 cherry finish Gibson SG Standard. We know that he used it on March 15, because the sound of the guitar's vibrola is there on some demos Cream made that day in London. He was pictured with it a couple of days later, still with its original finish, at a gig in Essex.

Eric was familiar with the advantages of humbucking pickups and the regular Gibson control layout from those earlier Lesters, but this guitar had a quite different double-cutaway sculpted body. Like many an SG player, he must surely have appreciated the access and range and lightness of the instrument. And he always had an eye for a good-looking item. Eric also had by now a suspicion that older guitars were better than new ones. When a magazine asked for guitar-buying advice, he said: "When you're starting, always buy a secondhand guitar, because it will be 'broken in' and easier to play, apart from the fact that the older the guitar the better it seems to have been made." That summed up neatly the argument in favor of vintage guitars in one prophetic and influential sentence.

Soon after the March 17 gig, he went off to see Marijke and Simon. Marijke told me that she and Simon had moved to London in 1966. "We found a great Georgian-style place for rent in St. Stephen's Gardens in Bayswater," she says, "quite run down and dilapidated, but with large rooms. We had two floors, the upper story being the studio with plenty of space to paint and store artwork. This is where we met with the Cream guys for hanging out and photo shoots, as well as with other celebrities later." Marijke and Simon became better known later as The Fool - an art collective and also, briefly, a band - and so Eric's SG is often called "The Fool" SG. You may have heard of Marijke and Simon for their work with The Beatles, notably the mural they painted later in '67 on the Apple boutique in London (although the shop's neighbors had no taste for psychedelia, and the local council soon had it removed). For now, though, the duo painted Eric's SG along with Jack Bruce's Fender VI and Ginger Baker's bass drum heads. Jack disliked the feel of the paint and replaced his Fender with an EB-3, a Gibson SG-shaped bass. Eric was more appreciative. Marijke and Simon's colorful work on the body of his SG featured a playful winged sprite playing a triangle, its curly hair not unlike Eric's look of the time, its toes poised near the controls, and all this set among stars and flames and clouds on a background of blues and purples and greens. The pick guard had a separate scene. A path stretched back to a fat red sun looming over distant mountains, while graduated curves in oranges and browns and yellows followed the body's cutaways, echoed in waves of color on the head stock and the rear of the neck. On the back of the body were more colored waves and an intense set of concentric circles, which ranged from greens through to reds and on to bright yellows at the centre. Eric wrote later in his autobiography that the artistic duo had turned his guitar into "a psychedelic fantasy," and it's hard to argue with such a concise description.

When he got the SG it had an original Deluxe Vibrola, the type with the long plate and a lyre-and-leaves motif on it, which points to the guitar's manufacture as between 1963 and '65. Almost immediately, he removed the cover plate from the Vibrola, maybe to reveal more of the artwork. Soon he disengaged the Vibrola altogether, at first leaving the arm pointing backwards and out of the way. Later, into '68, Eric had the Vibrola's arm and mechanism removed, leaving the remaining frame as a simple, sturdy tailpiece. He replaced the guitar's original Kluson tuners with robust Grovers, a popular move at the time and one he was familiar with from his Les Pauls. Paint began to flake from the back of the neck, which must have made for an unpleasant handful, and he had at least some of the extra paint there permanently removed. In March '68, the film director Tony Palmer sat Eric down with an interviewer on stage before a show at Winterland in San Francisco to chat about guitar playing. Eric patiently showed how the controls of his psychedelic SG worked. 

Eric Clapton and the Fool SG, March 1968. Interview by Tony Palmer, from the Farewell Cream film.

He explained that being a guitarist was a useful way to "play out" frustrations, because you could channel pent-up anger through the guitar by playing aggressively. "Not the way I use it," he clarified, "but that can be done, too, with people like The Who, Pete Townshend." The interviewer asked for a demonstration. "What," Eric said with a grin, "you want me to break the guitar up?" Apparently not, mercifully - and Eric proceeded to demonstrate musical aggression for the camera. He became fond of The Fool SG. He managed to successfully avoid the guitar thieves, too, playing the decorated instrument as his main stage guitar through the rest of '67 and on into the summer of '68. He recorded with it extensively, too, not least on a lot of Disraeli Gears. Soon, Eric would leave his Gibsons behind, including that wonderful SG and a couple more recent favorites, a Firebird I and a 335. He became a confirmed and, as it turned out, long-term Stratocaster fan. As for the painted SG, at some point he may have given it to George Harrison, but it certainly ended up with Jackie Lomax, a musician friend of George's from the old Liverpool days. Around 1971, Todd Rundgren acquired the guitar from Jackie. Todd replaced the remains of the Vibrola with a stopbar and an incongruous Schaller "harmonica" Tune-o-matic. He also had the body paint restored and sealed, and he had someone replace and re-paint part of the neck and the head stock. Todd occasionally played the ex-Clapton SG until the mid-'90s, nicknaming the guitar Sunny as a nod to Eric's use of it on Sunshine Of Your Love. [NB: Sunny was actually a copy of The Fool, made for Rundgren] Eric put together some of his guitars for an auction in 1999 to benefit his Crossroads charity, and he asked Todd to donate the SG. Todd declined, because of tax complications, but the following year he sold the guitar in an online auction for $120,000 and gave a percentage to Crossroads. The guitar was apparently sold again later for a sum said to be closer to $500,000. After he disposed of the original, Todd sometimes played a replica of The Fool SG, as on a series of concerts in 2010 where he re-created his albums Todd, Healing, and A Wizard, A True Star. Eric, meanwhile, kept mostly to his Strats and showed no signs of returning to his psychedelic past." Story by Tony Bacon (guitar historian and author).

Rod Burger: If David Gilmour's Black Stratocaster sold for almost 4 Million, and Kurt Cobain's Martin recently sold for 6 million, just imagine what Clapton's Fool SG would bring today at auction. The guy that paid $500,000 got a pretty good deal! But most of us can't afford anything close to that, so if there was only some alternative... Which brings us to today's listing: A completely hand painted vintage 1965 Gibson SG Standard serial number 325200 that is the closest one on Earth to the way the original looked right after it was returned to Clapton. If you flip through the pictures in this listing you will see a print of Cream's 1967 Saville Theatre poster autographed by it's designer Bob Masse (also comes with a Certificate of Authenticity) who was helpful when I chatted to him about the colors. The photo used in the design of the poster was done right as the group received their hand painted instruments and was taken by Karl Ferris earlier in 1967.

Cream with The Fool artworks - guitar, bass and drum header, March 1967

Ferris luckily took a bunch of photos during this session, in which two of them show the back of the Fool SG. I had never seen those photos before. The only photos of the back I saw were when all the paint had rubbed off while Clapton owned it and the way the guitar looks in it's current state (the repainted version which looks cool, but isn't like the original design at all). When Todd Rundgren had it touched up / repainted, he didn't have access to the original Karl Ferris photos (or wasn't aware that they existed) so he left it up to his artist friend to have a go at it. Also, this 1965 Fool SG has the fretboard painted! Clear coated as well so it won't flake off like the original. So quick summary of the changes the original Fool guitar went through: original paint on the back of the neck worn off then repainted with a different design; all sorts of touch up pretty much all over the body (including on the sprite and the tip of his mallet/spoon); the original head stock was rotting off so Todd replaced it with the more modern small Gibson head stock and that was painted to look like the original; the ABR-1 bridge with nylon saddles was replaced with a wood saddle by Jackie Lomax, then changed to the 70's "harmonica" bridge; the Mastero vibrola was modified several times by Clapton and eventually was removed completely and replaced with a stop bar tail piece. This 1965 Fool SG can be seen in action on YouTube.

Demonstration of the Burger Guitars The Fool SG, 29 September 2020. Duration: 6.22 minutes.

And if that link doesn't work you can type in "1965 Gibson SG The Fool paint job Eric Clapton Cream White Room 60's! Hand painted Burger Guitars" and it should bring you right to it. The song demonstrated is White Room. The guitar plays and sounds great. I easily got woman tone by either using the neck pickup or bridge pickup with the tone rolled down to 3. The guitar serial number is 325200 and according to a photocopy snippet of the Gibson logbook, left the factory on 8-2-65 which I will include with the guitar. All pots and electronics are original. The pickups are period correct Patent Sticker humbuckers. I was told the guitar was owned by a member of Aretha Franklin's band, and the pickups were changed when I got it. I wanted to bring it back to original so I bought two Patent Sticker pickups that sound amazing. Joe Bonamasa thinks Patent Sticker pickups are as good as PAF's (and that makes sense since they were made right after them). I highly recommend watching the video so you can hear for yourself as I recreate "White Room". Patent Sticker pickups are in the original Fool as well. The 1964 and 1965 SGs are basically the same guitar -same big neck shape, different from the 61. The only difference is nickel was used in 64 and chrome was used in 65. I replaced the chrome covers on the pickups and added the nickel covers because I wanted this to be the best Fool recreation on the planet. One of the tuners was changed, so there are 5 Kluson Deluxe and one Gibson (which is period correct and has a patent number stamped just like the Klusons - same patent number if I remember correctly. Included with the guitar is the Gibson hard case with yellow interior (perfect color for this guitar). You will also get the signed Cream poster, 2 different 5x7 modern printed photos of originals featuring Clapton live with his guitar. But wait, there's more! After watching a million infomercials in my life, I've always wanted to say that ha. You will also get the signed 45 record of White Room autographed by Cream's Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and the one and only Ginger Baker. That also comes with a certificate of authenticity. I have been hand painting guitars for years and have probably done around 2,000. I have painted them for famous musicians, museums, tribute shows, Broadway and Vegas shows, collectors, hard working gigging musicians, and music fans all over the world. I have been wanting to paint the Fool SG on a period correct vintage Gibson for years, and finally got the chance. I wanted to do it as accurate as humanly possible. I have seen countless versions. Some have been decent, others not so much. I put everything I had into making this the second greatest Fool on Earth. This is a special guitar that I hope goes to the right person. If you happen to be friends with Eric Clapton, this would make a good birthday gift for him ;) Thanks for taking the time to read this and be well. - Rob Burger, Burger Guitars

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As noted above, the original Fool guitar appears to have originated from George Harrison, and this was noted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York when it was included in the 2019 Play It Loud exhibition. As the online catalogue entry for that exhibition states:

In 1967, Cream’s manager Robert Stigwood commissioned Dutch artists Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma to create a custom-painted set of psychedelic instruments, costumes, and posters for the band’s upcoming U.S. tour. This guitar became known as “the Fool” after the art collective that Koger and Posthuma later founded. Eric Clapton received the guitar from George Harrison before it was painted and went on to use it as one of his main instruments with Cream, playing it while recording Disraeli Gears (1967), Wheels of Fire (1968), and Goodbye (1969). “The Fool” was restored after 1972 by former owner Todd Rundgren.

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4. The Fool and Cream

The Fool guitar will forever primarily be associated with Eric Clapton, Cream and the psychedelic Summer of Love period from May 1967 and into the following year. During that period the group released its two most iconic albums - Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire. It was a period of almost constant touring, in the United States and to a lesser degree Europe and England. As such, the guitar saw a lot of use and was subject to wear and tear. By the time Clapton passed it back to George Harrison around July 1968 it had been modified to a degree and areas of the paint had been damaged. The precise details of its state at the time are not known, nor the reason why Clapton moved from Gibson (the SG and a ES335) to Fenders (Telecasters and then Stratocasters) shortly thereafter. The following are images from that period.

Artificially coloured image of the guitar with Clapton and Marshall stack, circa 1967.

Cream, 1 June 1967, Paris.

Eric Clapton, circa 1968.

Live at the Fillmore, 7 & 10 March 1968.

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5. Acknowledgements

Some of the information and images included in this blog come from The Fool Gibson SG Facebook page - thank you to all those who have provided information and opinions therein regarding the history of the guitar.

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6. References

Gill, Chris, The secrets behind Eric Clapton's guitar tone on Cream's Sunshine of Your Love, Guitar World, 15 April 2022. 

Guitar Hangar, Gibson Eric Clapton Todd Rundgren Fool Guitar [webpage], Guitar Hanger.

Muir, Ross, The Fool Guitar - The Fool Story, FabricationsHQ [blog], August 2010.

Oxman, J. Craig, Clapton's Fool: History's Greatest Guitar?, Vintage Guitar, December 2011, 62–66.

Pattingale, Graham and Bob Elliott, Cream - The Gig List, 1967, From the Blues to Wheels of Fire [website], n.d.

Roman, Ed, Eric Clapton's Fool Guitar [webpage], Roman Guitars, Las Vegas.

Rosen, Steven, Legendary guitar: The saga of Eric Clapton's famous Fool SG, Lifestyle, Gibson Guitars, 16 April 2008.

The Fool Gibson SG Guitar, Facebook, accessed 8 January 2023.

The Guitars of Eric Clapton, Five Watt World, YouTube.

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Cream: Meet Me in the Bottom | Tales of Brave Ulysses | The Fool Gibson SG | Wheels of Fire 1968 |

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Last updated: 4 August 2023

Michael Organ, Australia