The History of Buddy Guy’s Polka-Dot Guitar
You might be cool, but you will never be Buddy Guy cool.
If you are a student of the blues, you know that Buddy Guy is one of the elder statesmen of the blues. Part of his appeal is his signature guitar, a polka-dot Fender Stratocaster, a unique instrument. No one else has a guitar that looks anything like it. But why polka dots?
As a Black person born in Lettsworth, Louisiana, in 1936, Buddy learned the blues the hard way.
His parents were sharecroppers, so his childhood consisted primarily of picking cotton. He first began playing the guitar on a Diddley bow that he made himself.
When he was in his early teens, he graduated to playing an actual guitar that a friendly man in his neighborhood bought for him. The man saw him sitting on his porch each day, trying to figure out how to play the dilapidated or homemade instruments that he had available to him, and he took pity on the young Buddy, buying him a Harmony acoustic guitar.
Buddy used this gift to full effect. As he became older, he began to play with…
