u/Time-Masterpiece4572

Eric Clapton is my favorite musical artist and biggest inspiration when playing guitar. When I was young my father bought me the two disk best of Eric Clapton album and I learned to play guitar by learning every song on that album. This is my collection of guitars similar to the ones used by Eric at very notable concerts through his career:

- reverse Firebird I from Cream live at Philadelphia Electric Factory, and Eric Clapton’s Supershow Allstar Concert. Clapton described this guitar as the best sounding guitar he ever played and used it to replace the Fool SG in the waning stages of Cream and for the Blind Faith tour. He gifted the guitar to Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, and Nash

- block neck ES-335 “Hare Krishna” from the Cream farewell concert at Prince Albert Hall 1968. Eric purchased the 335 while in the Yardbirds and would use it as his main live guitar for the Cream farewell tour. He would bring it out one last time in 1995 at the Filmore auditorium to play “Have you ever loved a woman”

- telecaster custom with Stratocaster neck that would later be installed on “Brownie” from the Blind Faith Hyde Park free concert 1969. The Brownie Stratocaster, with this neck, would be used to record Layla and other Love Songs

- Gibson Les Paul “Lucy” owned by both EC and George Harrison from the Eric Clapton Rainbow Theater comeback concert 1973. Originally a gold top refinished in SG red by Rick Derringer, Eric bought the guitar at Dan Armstrong. He gifted the guitar to George Harrison, who used it as his main live guitar in the last few live concerts with the Beatles (also used by Eric to record “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” for the Beatles). George would loan Lucy back to Eric for the Rainbow concert.

- late 50’s Fender Stratocaster “Blackie” as EC’s main live performance guitar in the 1970’s through early 80’s - as seen in the Band’s Last Waltz farewell concert. This guitar would become Eric’s favorite live guitar, the frets being played flat and replaced so many times the guitar became unplayable.

The arms manufacturing firm “Cook & Brother” was founded by two British immigrants to New Orleans to produce long arms, swords, and bayonets for the confederacy. They were producing rifles as early as July of 1861 - just 3 months after the firing on fort Sumter. Cook & Brother were the largest long arm manufacturer for the confederacy at nearly 8,000 total units (the contract was for 300,000) produced in New Orleans and later moved to Athens, Georgia on commandeered steam ships during the fall of New Orleans. They also produced a much larger number of edged weapons including bayonets for theirs and other rifles. The rifles are marked with a confederate “stars and bars” flag - the only confederate produced small arm to feature this - the name and location of the manufacturer, and an odd “proved” marking on the barrel (odd because there was no official proofing house in the csa and still is not one in the USA).

There are 4 lengths of rifles - full size, short rifle, artillery musketoon, and cavalry carbine. They are all patterned after the British Enfield rifle-musket. There are significant materials differences however: brass or “gunmetal” bronze used for various furniture pieces to save iron, wrought iron barrels made from iron rods twisted together rather machined from large iron billets, threaded ramrod tips to save on the size of material needed to produce each rod, very simplified sights…. The barrels are also grooved with a rifling distinct from the British style rifling, made using a “drop rifling” machine which the cook brothers held a patent on.

Here I have a pedersoli reproduction of one of the infantry length rifles and a companion sword bayonet. Additionally I have here a set of accoutrements consistent with a Tennessee infantry unit. You can see how the equipment, similarly to the cook brothers rifles, were made to conserve precious materials for the confederacy:

- An 11 star leech and rigdon belt buckle

- George & Magee un-dyed cartridge box with tarred canvas sling

- a canvas musket sling

- An un-dyed George & Magee cap pouch with carved lead fittings

- Arsenal bundles of federal Burton and Williams style cartridges as well as bundles of confederate produced copies of English pritchett cartridges

- A soldered copper canteen and tinsmithed cup

- Uberti 1851 navy with Kirst Konversion
- Marble’s knife
- WWI surplus Mill’s webbing mag pouch
- Don’t know maker of half flap holster
- Rossi R92 trapper carbine
- Green River knife
- Chiappa sharps carbine
- Colt Bisley conversion from .32-20 to .38spl
- Skillet Creek dodge city holster for Bisley
- Colt 1911 government .38super auto
- Uberti single action army rough riders Rinaldo A Carr
- Eubanks Leather 1911 holster
- Skillet creek Cheyenne saa holster
- LD Hanning double roller belt
- Oklahoma Leather .45 cartridge belt
- Wolf Ears Leather by Stan Dolega canvas cartridge belt
- Oklahoma Leather .38 cartridge belt

- Uberti 1851 navy with Kirst Konversion
- Marble’s knife
- WWI surplus Mill’s webbing mag pouch
- Don’t know maker of half flap holster
- Rossi R92 trapper carbine
- Green River knife
- Chiappa sharps carbine
- Colt Bisley conversion from .32-20 to .38spl
- Skillet Creek dodge city holster for Bisley
- Colt 1911 government .38super auto
- Uberti single action army rough riders Rinaldo A Carr
- Eubanks Leather 1911 holster
- Skillet creek Cheyenne saa holster
- LD Hanning double roller belt
- Oklahoma Leather .45 cartridge belt
- Wolf Ears Leather by Stan Dolega canvas cartridge belt
- Oklahoma Leather .38 cartridge belt

- 2oz orange juice
- 2oz pineapple juice
- 2oz coconut rum
- 2oz Jamaican rum
-1/4oz grenadine

Built over ice in a Collins glass or a fog cutter mug. Serve with a swizzle stick to mix everything and an orchid flower like a hula dancer wears over her ear. Basically a Bahama mamma built instead of blended

- Frank B stag scale swing guard
- Frank Beltrame abalone scale swivel guard
- Dolfins Maniago honey horn scale Sicilian ring pull
- all with grommets leather works leather slips

- Frank B stag scale swing guard
- Frank Beltrame abalone scale swivel guard
- Dolfins Maniago honey horn scale Sicilian ring pull
- all with grommets leather works leather slips

So hot outside all day had to make a cold Mai tai to relax for the night

One of the groups I play with does a lot of 80’s pop and pop rock covers and I love using my squier single coil p bass I’ve mocked up to look like Sting’s p bass. I swapped the bridge with a 2 saddle type, installed an Emerson wiring set, fender control plate and knobs, installed a Seymour Duncan antiquity pickup, added rosewood tug bar, and strung up some of sting’s preferred DR lo-riders. Finally I got a wide strap with a police badge pinned to it. Extremely punchy and a super baseball bat neck. Lots of fun

I did a lot of framing houses to help pay for college but it’s been 10 years since I’ve done anything like this. It’s almost like riding a bike and luckily I still had all my tools. Had to take a week off from work to keep from losing pto hours so I started at 7:00am yesterday and with only 3 trips to Lowe’s, got done before my girl came home from work at 6:00pm

Beretta Jetfire 950
Frank Beltrame 11 inch stiletto

The officially adopted revolver of the confederate states army for both officers and cavalry was the Colt Navy revolver. However the confederate war department possessed only around 2,200 genuine Colt navy revolvers at the start of the war. Contracts for domestically produced revolvers specified that the guns were to be made in the style of Colt revolvers. Here are some examples of revolvers which may have been popular choices in the confederate military

- 1851 Colt navy (a modern colt signature series). The confederate war department purchased 2,200 navy revolvers from Colt between 1860 and 1861 before the United States Government forced Colt to stop shipment. Additionally, between the state militias of the secession states, the south possessed around 5,000 more genuine Colt revolvers. There would be around 8,000 domestically produced copies of the Colt navy purchased from numerous small shops. The largest manufacturer of the copies - Griswold & Gunnnison - produced only 3,700 copies by the time they were captured by the Union. All of the Griswold copies were made with a brass frame to conserve iron for the war effort (pictured here with a Stan Dolega made copy of a pre-war Missouri style slim Jim holster)

- Spiller & Burr Navy (a defarbed modern pietta copy) Although their contract specified copies of a colt revolver, Spiller & Burr produced nearly part-for-part copies of the Whitney revolver, save for the fact that they used brass for the frame. Of their 15,000 unit contract, Spiller & Burr would produce only 840 revolvers independently and 400 more once the confederate government took control of production - making them the third largest domestic manufacturer in all of the south. (Pictured here with a reproduction of a Morrow and Sons of Nashville Tennessee confederate flap holster)

- Colt army (a cimarron McCullough 1860 army by uberti). Most revolvers purchased by the Confederate government were of navy caliber -.36. However several state militias purchased the very modern for the time Colt 1860 army revolvers in .44 caliber. In fact the first 100 units produced were sold to the Georgia state militia. An additional 500 would be sold to the confederate war department in 1861 before the US government would again stop Colt from shipping any further arms to the south. Even after this, Colt would send about 2,000 1860 army models through the blockade (only 1,000 made it) to the Texas rangers under the guarantee that they would be used only by the rangers and only for the defense of frontier towns against bandits, natives, and outlaws - a repayment for the rangers helping Colt out of bankruptcy. Eventually most of these revolvers would make it to the front lines of the war when the rangers would form a cavalry division. (Pictured here with a graveyard jack slim Jim holster

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If you would like to know how to defarb a pietta spiller & burr:

- file off Italian proof marks on the frame and barrel
- property mark stamping C.S. On the lower left side of the frame near the loading lever
- shorten and concave the loading lever ram
- enlarge the loading lever port in the frame
- notch the top of the hammer nose to allow viewing of the sights
- crown the muzzle of the barrel with a rounded “traditional crown”

The strobo tuner had to go there in the signal chain to keep the fuzz face from squealing. Also the fuzz face has been modified for a 9v plug. Also also the tin just has guitar picks in it

I just picked up this Epiphone valve junior combo for super cheap. It has a sticker that says “powered by voodoo labs” and has definitely been modded as it has a Jensen mod speaker instead of the stock eminence. I looked on the voodoo amps website and they don’t list Epiphone as one of the amps they mod. I really don’t like the look of the sticker and am hoping a previous owner just stuck it there. I’d like to remove it but don’t want to takeaway any kind of service or modification record.

My newest partscaster - a Keith Richards style tele. I really love playing five strings open G and I love The Rolling Stones so it felt like a perfect match. Tracking down the schaller brass bridge was fun

Originally a 50’s black guard tele owned by Eric Clapton, Clapton gifted the guitar to Keith and was used on tour by both Keith and Ronnie Wood. Keith’s Arkansas born guitar tech Ted Newman Jones modified the guitar by putting a PAF humbucker in the neck. Later Keith would have the bridge swapped to a heavy brass saddled model. He also has a duplicate of this guitar in a natural finish named “Malcolm.”