Get ready, guitar fanatics: you can now own Eirc Clapton’s famed “Blackie” guitar. Or, at least a $24,000 knock-off.

Retailer Guitar Center has made 185 official replicas of the Fender Stratocaster that Clapton used for 15 years, beginning in 1970 when the singer put the instrument together out of three Stratocasters he had picked up for $100 each. The guitar was retired in 1985.

Rest assured, the replicas are true to life. Guitar Center owns the original Blackie, having purchased it for $959,500 at an auction in 2004. Look carefully and you can even see the faux worn wood and cigarette burns on the copycats.

The guitars went on sale in the United States on Friday, with a portion of the proceeds going to Crossroads, the Caribbean rehab centre Clapton founded in 1998.






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