The History of Buddy Guy’s Polka-Dot Guitar

You might be cool, but you will never be Buddy Guy cool.

Buddy Guy: cooler than you. (Photo by Masahiro Sumori, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons)

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?