“Nobody in Decca studios had ever witnessed somebody setting up their guitar and amp and playing at that volume. People in the canteen were complaining”: How Eric Clapton revolutionized electric guitar in the ‘60s

Eric Clapton plays a Les Paul.

It is difficult, in retrospect, to convey the impact that Eric Clapton had on the world of electric guitar playing in 1966. 

For one thing, Clapton himself has spent most of his career since 1970 in denial about his achievements in revolutionizing the sound and status of the instrument, and he has been only too happy to let the spotlight fall instead on those who followed in his footsteps, including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and too many others to count.