“The last gig of the tour was in Barcelona. We were there for a couple of days and Eric said he wanted to get a Spanish guitar”: The acoustic Eric Clapton used to write Tears in Heaven just sold for over $100,000
Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’ guitar has recently fetched $101,600 at auction. The 1977 Juan Alvarez acoustic guitar in natural finish was originally owned and played by musician and music producer John Porter before Eric Clapton used it to write his 1992 single Tears in Heaven.
Alongside the guitar, there’s a signed letter of authenticity from John Porter, who toured Europe with Clapton in 1977, and a letter of provenance signed by Eric Clapton.
“The last gig of the tour was in Barcelona. We were there for a couple of days and Eric said that he wanted to get a Spanish guitar and would I go with him to see what we could find,” wrote Porter.
“We pretty much checked out every guitar in town, and after much deliberation ended up with two virtually identical guitars by Madrid luthier Juan Alvares.”
Clapton asked Porter which guitar he thought was better, and after taking his pick, Clapton took the other one. Fast forward a couple of months, and Clapton begged Porter to sell him the guitar he chose back in Barcelona.
“He wanted to try using one on stage and have the other one at home for songwriting. I said no, but after much pestering from both Eric and his guitar tech Lee Dickson, I said I’d give it to El on a permanent loan,” Porter explained.
“I have great memories of the time when we first had the guitars. We played together a lot and many of the songs written at that time, including Tears in Heaven, were worked out on those two instruments.”
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Construction-wise, the guitar features a 26.25” scale length mahogany neck, 19 fret ebony fretboard, rosewood back and sides, spruce top, and rosewood bridge.
While classical guitars are traditionally played in a fingerstyle manner, the pick marks in the finish are clear indications that Clapton opted for the less traditional pick route. In addition to these pick marks, the bass side of the rosette is worn to the wood, with plenty of scrapes from the 12th fret area, down to the bridge on both sides.
Eric Clapton’s guitars are known to fetch eye-watering prices at auction. Just last year, his iconic ‘Fool’ Gibson SG sold for more than $1.27 million, making it one of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.
The 1977 Juan Alvares acoustic was sold by Julien’s, the same auction house responsible for selling John Lennon’s Framus 12-string for a whopping $2.8 million this week.
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