Clapton's Guitar

Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument

Allen St. John

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2005
• eBook ISBN:
  9780743281980
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Guitar Music

New York Times bestselling author Allen St. John started off looking for the world’s greatest guitar, but what he found instead was the world’s greatest guitar builder.

Living and working in Rugby, Virginia (population 7), retired rural mail carrier Wayne Henderson is a true American original, making America's finest instruments using little more than a pile of good wood and a sharp whittling knife. There's a 10-year waiting list for Henderson's heirloom acoustic guitars—and even a musical legend like Eric Clapton must wait his turn. Partly out of self-interest, St. John prods Henderson into finally building Clapton's guitar, and soon we get to pull up a dusty stool and watch this Stradivari in glue-stained blue jeans work his magic. The story that ensues will captivate you with its portrait of a world where craftsmanship counts more than commerce, and time is measured by old jokes, old-time music, and homemade lemon pies shared by good friends.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Colophon
• Also by Allen St. John
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Epigraph
• Chapter 1   The $100,000 Guitar
• Chapter 2   Ella’s Little Brother
• Chapter 3   Wayne’s World
• Chapter 4   All Solid Wood
• Chapter 5   1947
• Chapter 6   Third Saturday, Rain or Shine
• Chapter 7   A Bump in the Road
• Chapter 8   Lot 19
• Chapter 9   A Curse Reversed
• Chapter 10   Picea rubens, Dalbergia nigra
• Chapter 11   Reading the Grain
• Chapter 12   Dangerous Curves
• Chapter 13   Playing with Knives
• Chapter 14   Filing on Elvis’s Nut
• Chapter 15   Exactly Somewhat Between
• Chapter 16   The Buzzard’s Revenge
• Chapter 17   Four Hours That Way
• Chapter 18   The Body Electric
• Chapter 19   A Place for Us
• Chapter 20   1948
• Chapter 21   Clean on the Inside
• Chapter 22   Maker’s Mark
• Chapter 23   La Vraie Chose
• Chapter 24   So Finite, It’s Untrue
• Chapter 25   The State of Mind
• Chapter 26   In Death I Sing
• Chapter 27   Good Enough for Who It’s For
• Epilogue
• Glossary
• Discography
• Resources
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• About the Author
• Photographs