People have deified Clapton for his tone, phrasing and stylings, but really; Blackmore had been there, done that as a 17 year old wunderkind with Joe Meek and Screaming Lord Sutch in the early and mid 60s!

His biography is an interesting read, and he doesn't come across as particularly easy to get along with... he could, in fact, be an arsehole of immense proportions, but his guitar playing.... oh, my!!

Anyway, his strat; a tele by another name?! Though that dummy middle coil was reverse wound to alleviate that good ol' single coil hum. Fender do a Signature Strat but I figure the wiring isn't that much removed from standard and the only tricky part of a build would be the graduated scalloping of the fretboard....