Fender pays tribute to Eric Clapton’s “Brownie” Fender Stratocaster with the release of its Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton “Brownie” Tribute Stratocaster. It will be available exclusively through Guitar Center on March 21 as part of the Guitar Center Eric Clapton Crossroads Collection. The original Brownie is most famous for its use on seminal 1970 Derek and the Dominos recording Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

January is "gear month" in the music industry — the month when manufacturers and retailers gather at the annual Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, to show and sell what's new for the coming year. With NAMM in the air, the Fender Custom Shop released its 2013 Custom Collection last week (Check it out here). It consists of eight new guitars and two new bass models.

Last year, in Observance of the 10th anniversary of the events of 9/11, the Fender Custom Shop unveiled a trio of commemorative Stratocasters honoring the three major organizations — the New York City Police Department, the New York City Fire Department and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — that lost many men and women in responding to the attacks at the World Trade Center complex in downtown Manhattan that Tuesday morning.