So, if you don't already know the "resume" of the Brownie Stratocaster that inspired my Layla design offered here, you'll have to do your own research to understand the truly amazing legacy of the historic original, and rest assured it is a phenomenal musical story. Anyway, that explains what happened to the original listing. As the saying goes: live and learn. Like I said, this new and final eBay listing will be the very last opportunity, this magnificent Layla Stratocaster & EC Crossroads Effects package will not be listed for auction again.

This fine guitar has been strategically configured and lovingly restored using only the very finest genuine Fender USA, Callaham Guitars, and Lindy Fralin components. No detail has been overlooked, and no expense has been spared, to create the finest possible instrument. The work has just been completed by me in March of 2006 (this Strat's birthday will always fall close to Clapton's).

Let's take a tour of this very special musician's guitar:

The foundation of this Stratocaster is a brand new ultra-light solid alder Fender USA Artist Series Eric Johnson Stratocaster body. The Strat bodies for the Fender Eric Johnson model are cut with the ultra-sleek, deep contours of the original 56-57 Stratocasters. And that makes them absolutely correct for a Brownie Strat. They are made using beautifully matched solid Alder wood which, again, matches the original Brownie. And Eric Johnson requires that Fender use only choice, ultra-light alder in these bodies, to produce a wonderfully light and resonant Strat, just like Brownie. As a result, even with all of the premium hardware attached, this excellent light-weight Strat weighs in at a mere 7.75 pounds.

Like the legendary vintage "Brownie" guitar, the correct alder body on my Layla Stratocaster has been finished by Fender in the classic two-tone brown-to-black tobacco burst finish, under a light coat of gleaming nitrocellulose lacquer. Nitro is the old world, wood-based, thin-skin "violin finish." It is not only intensely lustrous and beautiful, but also has the important benefit of laying down thin, and thus nitro allows greater vibration of the wood -- unlocking ALL of the tone in the gloriously porous, light-weight alder. The difference between this light lacquer coat and the thick hard polyurethane finishes used on most modern instruments is like the difference between night and day. The wood feels alive against your body as you play, and the wood rings out with rich Stratocaster tone and sustain.

What about the neck?

The neck on this guitar is a very special find, and the indisputably perfect choice for a Brownie Strat. This is a very rare Fender USA neck, built in 2005, as part of the FENDER SPECIAL RUN (FSR) American Deluxe Vintage Player ‘57 Stratocaster. This Strat was a very limited production special-order-only Strat offered to an elite few industry insiders at the 2005 Summer NAMM trade show in Indianapolis. This amazing neck is 100% perfect for my no-holds-barred Layla Strat Package.

The neck is made from one piece of maple, and the back contour follows the 57 Clapton Fender pattern, with the Clapton-favored soft V profile that gently rounds to a C as you reach the higher register. Like the body, the neck was likewise factory-finished in beautiful period-correct nitrocellulose lacquer. The neck is built from only the most choice possible wood - beautifully grained hard maple with a rich silky appearance. Fender has not overdone the vintage tint (as in my opinion they do on the Eric Johnson and 1957 Reissue Strats). No, the maple here is instead a more natural lightly tinted finish that will gradually and naturally darken to amber with time, as the lacquer ages. Other period correct details include the old school Fender headstock logo, correctly applied OVER the lacquer finish, plus Kluson style tuning machines and a single "butterfly" style string tree.

The neck has a gorgeous vintage correct appearance, but it also features some wonderful modern functional enhancements for the player. This neck has Fender's finest modern bi-flex truss rod, with the adjuster conveniently located at the headstock, so you don't have to take the guitar apart to complete simple truss rod adjustments. The fretboard radius is Fender's modern 9.5 inch curve, rather than the more rounded vintage 7.25 inch shape, so this neck plays fast and easy on lead runs, all the way up to the high frets, and the flatter board shape is capable of accepting low, easy string action. The fretwire is Fender's modern "medium-jumbo" width, which allows you to dig in for long, buttery string bends. The fret and nut preparation is Custom Shop quality, with comfortably rolled edges on the sides of the board for that smooth, "broken-in" feel.

One other little "stealth" feature that my Layla has borrowed from the Eric Johnson model...look closely as those "vintage" style tuners.

That's right, these tuners feature staggered height posts. The staggered heights ensure that each string crosses the nut at precisely the correct angle, so that you won't have to suffer through any buzzing on any open strings.

The neck fastens to the body by means of a heavy Callaham vintage style numbered neck plate. But look again -- that is not just any old "random" number on the plate. 11476 is a number that falls within the range of serial numbers used by Leo Fender for Stratocasters built during the year 1956, making the number correct for a Brownie tribute (serial numbers 9000 to 16000 = 1956). No detail has been overlooked to make the best possible Stratocaster, and no corners have been cut.

A critical factor for tone in every Strat is the floating tremolo bridge. Since the strings are anchored in the tremolo block, and since the block lies isolated from the wood on the body by the tremolo springs, it is vital that the block have the proper mass and resonance for maximum tone and sustain. A good Strat needs a light resonant body, and it also needs a quality bridge with the right metal in the block. This guitar has both elements, thanks to the addition of the very finest vintage Strat tremolo assembly ever made, Bill Callaham's 2006 enhanced bridge with a block made of UNS 1018 cold rolled steel, and the new Callaham "virtual pop-in" stainless steel arm.

The Callaham block is made of the very finest steel, and it exceeds the quality of any other Strat bridge ever produced, including those from Fender's Custom Shop. The Callaham arm is made from a pattern produced directly from a real pre-CBS Fender arm, and is made of the highest quality stainless steel. The path through the block for the arm is specially jacketed so that there is no free play to stress the bar, leading to bending or breakage.

And, best of all, this 2006 "enhanced" design frees you from all that tedious threading, and also from the danger of over-tightening and stripping the threads, which is a danger that you'll run into with every other vintage Strat bridge. Simply push the bar into the block, give it a couple of easy turns, and the bar is secured in position. It will stay in place (or can be pushed down out of the way), but you can't over-tighten (like happens with all the other threaded arms), and it won't become too loose to stay in the desired position (like happens with all other threaded arms), and it can't be pulled out by accident while you are playing (like happens with all other pop-out arms). To remove the Callaham arm, unscrew a couple of turns, and then pop it back out.

It has taken the passage of 52 years after the debut of the Fender Stratocaster model, but now at last Bill Callaham has provided Strat players with the ideal Stratocaster floating tremolo and arm design. PURE GENIUS!

The magic of the Callaham bridge goes beyond the block and arm. The pivot bevel on the bridge plate is cut at a better angle with superior machine work for smooth action and accurate return. Likewise, the saddles, plate, claw, and attachment screws are all made using much better metals than any other bridge on the market. Bill's saddles are much harder, and much better machined, than saddles you'll find on every other bridge, for enhanced tone and reduced string breakage. And so everyone knows you have the real thing, the saddles are each stamped "CG" (for Callaham Guitars).

The correct 50's style single ply pickguard and back plate are custom cut pieces, from a special "aged" white material. Fender's reissues of 50's models and Fender's Clapton Artist Series Strats are supplied with a blindingly bright snow white pickguard, but this guitar was built using a brand new lightly aged white color ("parchment") guard. The trem cover, pickup covers, knobs, switch tip and tremolo bar tip ALL are also in matching "aged" white, for a proper and pleasing vintage appearance. No detail has been overlooked, and no expense has been spared.

No expense was spared "under the hood" either. I have installed the very finest 50's style Strat pickups that money can buy, complimented with an array of hand-wired vintage style premium controls.

The pickups are Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots. These very fine and expensive pickups are hand-wound, using only the best traditional materials and methods, including beveled Alnico V magnets and #42 Formvar wire, to produce the finest pure Leo Fender-era Stratocaster tone, with a reverse wound middle to negate hum in your combined switch positions. Every set of Vintage Hots is matched and calibrated for perfectly balanced correct 50's output, with just a smidgen of extra heat on the bridge pickup. Lindy's pickups cost about twice as much as Fender's mass market Custom Shop 50's style pickups, but the Fralins sound so much better that Lindy can hardly keep up with the constant demand for these pricey little hand-made tone masterpieces. Yeah, sure, I could have used cheaper factory-built machine-wound Fender replacement 50's pickups, but I know the winner of this guitar will agree that the immensely superior tone of these hand-made Fralins was well worth the extra expenditure to make this Layla Strat truly the best it can be.

I have lined the pickguard with a Fender USA aluminum shield for excellent reduction of unwanted noise and for optimal grounding of the controls.

I have wired the guitar with my popular resistor-capacitor "volume kit" on the volume control - it keeps your high and low frequencies intact as you lower the volume knob on your guitar. Otherwise, the controls have been wired in the modern Fender American Series scheme, with a master volume, the upper tone knob controls the neck pickup, and the lower tone knob controls both the middle and bridge pickups. The switch used here is the modern five way selector, so that you can enjoy the hum-cancelled neck-middle and bridge-middle positions, thanks to Lindy's reverse wound middle pickup. Did you know that Clapton achieved the sweet signature sound of Brownie by setting his old-fashioned 3-Way switch between the bridge and middle? That won't be as tricky for you as it was for Eric, because you'll have the 5-Way selector, which of course includes both of the "in-between" pickup settings already.

The 5-Way selector is the finest vintage correct CRL brand switch, with a real coil spring, for maximum positive contact and that solid "click" as you move from one position to the next. The pots are all top quality USA Fender CTS components, just like Leo Fender used, and the tone capacitor is a genuine Sprague "Orange Drop" .047 microfarad tone cap, for the most accurate pure vintage Stratocaster tone. And these top-shelf controls are all wired (straight through to the top-of-the line Switchcraft USA jack) using vintage cloth-covered push-back wire, made by the same American company that sold cloth wire to Leo Fender back in the 1950's and 1960's. Once again, no detail has been overlooked, and no expense has been spared, in order to produce the best possible Layla Stratocaster for you.

Not bad, eh? The superb nitro-finished two-tone solid alder body, the delightful nitro-finished vintage-modern maple V neck, the staggered-height Kluson style tuners, the one-and-only enhanced 2006 edition Callaham bridge with virtual pop-in arm, the beautiful aged white plastic parts, and the tone-drenched hand-wound Fralins, with shielded premium USA vintage-modern controls and wiring --- all add up to one superb Stratocaster.

But there is more!

In celebration of Eric Clapton's birthday, if you are the auction winner you get an extra free "birthday" present with this amazing Strat to complete the package: a brand new LIMITED EDITION Eric Clapton signature "Crossroads" pedal. This is not just a single effect pedal, it provides seven of the most famous and beautiful Clapton signature sounds -- which are among the greatest and most distinctive sounds in the history of the guitar.

The Limited Edition "Crossroads" pedal really is an amazing tool. From the rich yet achingly delicate tears in heaven sound of Clapton's Martin acoustic "Unplugged," to swirling 3 dimensional Leslie speaker "Badge" tone, to the famous fat "woman tone" of the Clapton Marshall stack-powered British Blues era, to the blistering Brownie through a distorted tweed Champ sound (modeled directly from Derek and the Dominos Layla), this incredible little box models a huge range of tonal effects. And you get separate outputs for amp and mixer!

Again, my friends, even if you aren't a big Eric Clapton fan, this one amazing device, which has a list price of $200, will bring to you a terrific array of sounds that will make this Stratocaster, as well as any other electric guitars in your collection, a LOT more versatile. Tweed era single coil breakup, roaring fat humbuckers, lush round "Reptile" jazz box sounds, acoustic sounds -- all of that and even more is available to you right here with one masterfully built Fender Strat and the astounding technology inside one amazing Digitech Limited Edition Clapton Crossroads pedal!

Included with your Crossroads pedal are an AC power supply, a zippered carrying case, a detailed manual, and even a Crossroads guitar pick...once again, no expense spared.

And when you've made the successful bid or used Buy-It-Now, won't it also feel good to know that Digitech donates a portion of the profits from every Crossroads pedal to benefit the Crossroads Centre? The Crossroads Centre was founded by Eric Clapton, and the Centre does magnificent work in liberating lives that suffer from the terrible grip of substance abuse and the misery of addiction.

This amazing Layla Strat + Crossroads Effect package all comes to you in a beautiful 1962 vintage style Blonde Fender Custom Shop G & G hardshell case. These fine hard cases are made by "G & G," the very same company that supplied Fender with cases back in the day when Leo Fender was still the man at the helm of the company that still bears his name. The guitar is beautifully set up with low easy action and perfect intonation, and (to go with the best Fralin hand-wound pickups) it has a fresh set of new DR Blues strings (.010 - .046), hand-wound strings, the very best! You also get a Callaham bridge saddle height adjustment wrench and spare trem spring (four springs are already installed).

All that is needed to complete this incredible package is one very happy new owner - like YOU!

Are there any imperfections? NO, everything you see here is brand new, pristine and perfect! If you like what you see, I respectfully suggest that it would be very wise to act immediately, and not end up in a shoot-out with lurking bid snipers, in the closing hours and seconds, after many days, during which waves of new people discover this stellar Stratocaster package, add it to their watched-item lists, and plan their last-minute-bid-sniping strategies.

Don't forget that this featherweight Stratocaster weighs only 7 and 3/4 pounds! It has all of the design virtues, vibe, and beauty of the great Leo Fender-built vintage Strats of the mid-to-late 1950's, mixed with some terrific 2006 player advancements like the modern truss rod, modern fingerboard radius and fret size, staggered tuners, Callaham's revolutionary floating tremolo bridge with pop-in arm, not to mention Fender's state-of-the-art neck, body, and finish work. It really is difficult to stop looking at this guitar, especially the exquisite nitrocellulose-tobacco-burst-finished, deeply contoured, solid alder body.

Forgive me for saying it one last time, but for this Brownie Layla Strat-Crossroads pedal package, no expense was spared, and no detail was overlooked. I know it is a cliché to make the following two statements in an eBay guitar description, but this instrument truly does "play like butter," and the pictures truly "do not do it any justice." If you think it looks nice in the photos, wait till you see it in "real life." This classic Layla Stratocaster is a very special guitar that shows excellence in every aspect.

No, my Layla is not "cheap," yet this guitar really is an amazing value at the price offered. The Fender, Fralin and Callaham Guitars components are all absolutely top of the line and all elements of this guitar are brand new. You could not purchase the parts alone for my LOW reserve price. This Stratocaster is a hand-assembled labor of love. Layla has timeless beauty, she plays like a dream, and she sounds like heaven.

Where else can you buy a Fender Stratocaster with:

An exquisite ultra-light nitro-finished 2 tone Fender Strat body?

also with an exquisite one piece maple Fender 50's V neck with modern frets, radius, and truss?

also with the finest Fralin pickups and premium shielded controls and wiring?

also with the finest enhanced 2006 Callaham vintage tremolo, including the pop-in arm?

also with the 1956-correct numbered neck plate?

also with the fantastic Clapton signature Crossroads pedal with SEVEN effects?

and also with the beautiful G & G Blonde Custom Shop case?

and also with the option (in another auction) of adding a real 1966 case, just like Clapton used for Brownie?

As I said at the outset: This is the resale of a previously-owned guitar with changes and upgrades. I am sure that the good people of Fender Musical Instruments would want you to understand that this guitar does not come with any warranty from Fender, since it has been briefly previously owned (by me) and has been restored to a much higher level of excellence with a comprehensive set of superb modifications and upgrades.

However, this is not some "Franken-Strat" thrown together from left-over parts, by some person who works all day changing oil at the Quicky-Lube, and who then returns home to the trailer park and spends the evening screwing together mis-matched "Brand X" guitar parts of "unknown" aftermarket and Asian origins for fun and profit. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of those amateur-made mutant "parts guitars" roaming the back alleys here on eBay (and many of the mutant sellers seem to like to mimic my designs, descriptions, and even my phrases, backgrounds and camera angles, ~ one of these wanna-be/mini-me characters has so little self-esteem that he even copies my "About Me" page...this poor simian evidently can't even describe himself without copying someone else!). So be careful, compare feature-to-feature, and don't get confused or misled by a copycat, because the amateur builders that sell these mutant parts guitars on eBay often can't distinguish their frets from their nuts ~ if you know what I mean!

This beautiful Layla Stratocaster - Crossroads Package is something else completely.

This is a tastefully restored and upgraded guitar, made using ONLY the very highest quality authentic Fender USA, Fralin and Callaham components, all of which compliment each other in complete harmony, and which together result in a guitar that is unique (and to many eyes so much finer) than any mass produced corporate-built product. Most importantly, all of the construction was carried out by a respected professional who operates a legitimate full-service guitar business.

Guitars ARE my business, not something I dabble in, and guitars are my passion in life. This auction is your avenue to a completely special and unique guitar. The tone, the feel, and the appearance of this Layla Stratocaster - Crossroads Package are all nothing short of exceptional, and it is waiting and ready to ship to you right now. Life is just too short to play mediocre guitars. I think you've earned the very best, don't you agree? I can't give you Clapton's skills, but this Layla Crossroads Package auction is your admission ticket to Clapton's fabulous Layla tone!

Have any questions? Please ask, and I'll respond promptly.