“It’s the one he took around with him – the one he went back to the hotel with after gigs”: Up close with the 1974 Martin that Eric Clapton used to write Wonderful Tonight

Behind many platinum-selling songs lies a simple acoustic guitar, one that is always close to the artist, at home or on the tour bus. One such guitar is Eric Clapton’s 1974 000-28, the instrument upon which he wrote Wonderful Tonight – a love song inspired by his then-girlfriend Pattie Boyd that became his best-selling single ever. 

The guitar has been largely out of the public eye since it was sold at auction to a private collector in 1999 for $173,000, with the proceeds going to Clapton’s Crossroads Centre for rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. 

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