“The way the Strat just tore that amplifier up, it was different from anything I’d heard before”: Robert Cray on why he fell in love with the Fender Stratocaster – and how Buddy Guy’s younger brother started it all

Class, please turn your textbooks to page 17, where we have the January 1989 cover of Guitar World. You will note that the blues guitar great Robert Cray is on the cover, an excellent portrait courtesy of Jeff Katz, who really captures Cray's playful side. But what can you tell us about the Fender Stratocaster he is holding on the cover?

Anybody? Anybody?? Okay, we'll go to the source and ask him ourselves. Because this is an unusual choice for Cray. Yes, he has always got a Strat, but this has a maple fingerboard. Here's the man himself to explain all, and to tell us why he got into Strats in the first place.

How did you acquire this guitar?

“I think I got that one from Fender because I needed one in an emergency or something like that, so I grabbed it. I think that’s the one with the maple neck – an American Standard Strat. So it must have been somewhere around the time when we did the shoot for the magazine.”

What are some of the things that made this guitar special?

“What was cool about it is that I didn’t have a maple-neck Strat besides my ’58 Sunburst with a maple neck, and I don’t play that one too often unless I’m in the studio. So I wanted another one, and I liked the way that neck felt. That was my reasoning for that guitar.”

What felt different about the maple neck compared to a rosewood one?

“I’ve always been used to having a rosewood fingerboard, so that’s what I continue to use on stage. But just for a different feel and sound, occasionally I will use a sunburst, but more likely, only in the studio because, live, I’m just so used to having a rosewood fingerboard. 

“And [maple] does have a little bit of a different sound; it’s a different feel. It’s something I’m not so comfortable with, but there is a little bit of a brighter sound with the maple fingerboard, so, on occasion, I will use one.”

Did you use this Strat on any notable recordings?

“I don’t recall off the top of my head. I did take it out on tour. I think it’s in open G tuning or something like that. I left it that way after Sonny Landreth had to borrow a guitar when we did some shows together in Europe, and one of his guitars didn’t make it. So he asked to borrow one, and when I got it back, it was tuned that way; I left it in that tuning – and that’s been some years.”

Robert Cray - Right Next Door (Because Of Me) - YouTube

Watch On

Why did you choose this Strat for your GW cover shoot?

“I probably just liked the color scheme. It could have been something as simple as that. Because sometimes I do things just to be different, to be honest. [Laughs]”

Do you still own this guitar?

“I still have it. I’ve looked at it probably within the last six months. I have maybe 15 [Strats], I think.”

Did this guitar impact your signature Strat, which came in 1990?

“The one on the cover didn’t have anything to do with the making of the Cray model, but the ’58 Strat with the maple neck and a ’64 rosewood [fingerboard] Strat had a part in it. The feel of the neck was a combination of both of those guitars, and we worked with Fender to try and find a compromise between the two.”

Robert Cray - Smoking Gun - YouTube

Watch On

What drew you to Strats, and what’s kept you using them?

“What really got me going on the Strat was I had the opportunity to watch Phil Guy [brother of Buddy] play a Strat. This one concert was in a hall, and he was playing through a [Fender] Super Reverb with just the right amount of reverb, and the way the Strat just tore that amplifier up, it was different from anything I’d heard before. 

“After that, I was on a mission to find a Strat. It just so happened that this was in 1979, and a guy had this ’64 Strat for sale, the Inca Silver one that I’ve used for the longest time. It’s retired now, but that was the first Strat I got. And that was, like I said, in 1979. That’s what drew me to it, and I just stayed with it ever since.”

What does the Strat mean to you?

“It’s just a good, honest workhorse. It’s basically set it and forget it. And the rest is up to you. The only thing I changed is the pickups, but the volume and everything is up to you. It’s just there... it’s there for you, and it’s got everything I want. And it’s also helped me to create the sound that people recognize.”