I played a 2 yr old floor model at the Seattle GC and really liked the sound. I ended up with a used 4 yr old Green with Vintage Noiseless pups from the Tempe GC.

This is your basic Am Std Strat with Active pickups, funky vintage slotted hole in the center post tuners that are difficult to re-string, and a vintage 8 hole pick guard which makes this look cheap because of pick guard buckling and not held down as well as a 11 hole pick guard. The battery for the active pickups is in the trem cavity.

Plays as good as any american standard, active pickups sound awesome. I would pass on this model again because of the tuners and 8 hole pickguard in favor of a 11 hole pickguard model with normal side hole tuners. See model 423641, same guitar no signature stamp.

To me, this guitar is not unique or feature rich enough to command the extra money and signature stamp on the head stock. The James Burton Flame Tele is a better representation of a signature series guitar with features and playability not generally available on other like fender models.

I own 3 Strats (one American Standard, American Delux and an MIM). I just bought the Erica Clapton signature model and played it for the first time at a gig. Wow! I usually use a Fulltone 2 Mosfet Overdrive pedal for many solos. Guess what? I didn't have to use the pedal once! The mid range boost provided a wonderful overdrive that met all my needs (classic rock and some blues). This guitar has a wonderful neck, the soft V shape is great AND the vintage smaller frets are fantastic...so much so that my other beautiful Strats feel like clunkers compared to this one. You do have to watch the boost and TBX with the bridge pickup...sound can get a bit too trebley. Fit and finish are superb...best dressed frets with smooth ends along the edge of the fingerboard. One complaint, the pickguard was buckled where there would be a 4th screw along its top border...do I drilled a hole and added a screw, now the guard lays flat. The vintage tuners are great...string stay in tune as well as on my other Strats with the modern locking tuners. I love this guitar and highly recommend it...you will not be disappointed!

This is one of my favorite guitars of all time and I would be hard pressed to part with it. I ordered my 2000 Candy Green EC Strat just before the pickup change over from Gold Lace Sensors to Fender Noiseless pickups. Features: This is probably the most versatile guitar I own. The V shaped neck is very easy to play with a like satin finish. You can man handle this guitar and not be worried about breaking it. The real beauty of this guitar is the mid-range boost circuit (MRB). Keep the MRB knob on one and you get beautiful clean “bell like tones” of a strait forward Strat. Turn the knob to 10 and you get some of the biggest tone I've ever heard in a guitar. It's amazing. If I could I have this feature on every guitar I own. Quality: Since the guitar was ordered from the factory for me, I was the first one to touch it. I took it out of the box and immediately noticed a few problems with the set up. The neck was not seated properly into the body and there was a hairline crack in the finish in the neck socket. The neck was easily straitened and I forget that there is crack in the finish. As usual I feel that big name guitars sometimes forget attention to detail. If you are spending over $1K on guitar you want it done correctly. Value: If you have the money, get this guitar; it cheaper and more useful than a Les Paul. Overall: I had to wait a month for this guitar and it was worth it. If I had to pick one guitar for all occasions, this would be it.

I currently own 3 E C Strats, a pewter 1989 model bought used in 1997, a pewter 1995 model bought new in 95, and a 1996 olympic white bought used, but in dead mint condition from a private collection in 2008. Prior to switching to Strats I was a die hard PRS man, having owned 5 over the years. But after playing my first E C they soon became and have remained my main guitars for the last 15 yrs. I have to say that the neck shape, and mid-boost were what got me hooked. Having owned 5 PRS custom 22 and 24, two custom shop strats,2 Les pauls, and 2 american deluxe strats, a custom buit Don Grosh, the E C's to me have the best feeling, playing necks of any guitar out there. Also I must add that while I Love the mid boost a did not care for the Lace pickups. After trying everything from Kinmans, Fender Vintage noiseless, Frailins, Van Zandts, that I finally found my sound with the Fender custom shop 54's. I have changed all three of my E C's pickups to 54's, and removed the TBX tone and replaced with standard vintage 250k tone controls. To everyones surprise even with the mid boost full on the 54's are very quite. I hate to use other artist to compare tone, but to my ears with this set up the tone is very close to seventies era Clapton, and as I add more boost I can get everything from Gilmore to Beck, to Gibbons, and even a very Santana like singing sustaining tone. With the 54's I still get that classic bell like single coil tone. I must add that on all three I also change the saddles and trem block to solid titanium KTS replacements. This to me is the most significant mods I have made. With the titanium parts all three became in my opinion the perfect guitars. Even though all the specs are the same, except on my white one I did replace the pickguard with a 8 hole gold anodized, the tone and feel are slightly different. Also through the years I have tried several other Claptons and all felt and played somewhat different. To my hands, and ears these three are the best of all the E C's I tried and the best all around guitars I've ever owned. I used to have a pedal board full of the finest boutique pedals built, but now I go from the guitar into a Buddy Guy wah, straight into various custom built tube amps. Perfect for the styles I play, mostly blues, blues rock, jazz. But also some country, hard rock, jam band type stuff too. I'll never need another setup as long as I live.

I have to say that I am impressed, however the price tag pushed me away on this one. Not because I am cheap, but because I weighed my option. One of my favorite strats that I have ever owned was an older Clapton model that had the Lace Sensors which I had bought in the late nineties. I owned and enjoyed it for many years and played many different styles of music with it. I then passed it on to use my gibson less paul more frequently. After realizing the error of my ways, a few years back I went looking for another Clapton. This series of guitar had gone trough minor respectable changes including pick ups. And what I considered to be a substantial price hike. I think this is a masterfully crafted ax. The price tag was a memorable discomfort that I was not willing to bear again. I have since purchase a 2005 Powerhouse Deluxe for far less. The active electronics are there along with fenders quality craftmanship. However, my powerhouse has a rosewood neck which I now prefer. Previous Powerhouse models had mapleneck. I put in noiseless pickups and I was good to go.

My point is, the power house has been to my knowledge discontinued. I believe that it was a comparable to the Clapton for lesser the cost.

I would like to have an working musicians guitar like the Clapton and the Powerhouse at a workingman's price.