Actually, Eric Clapton only became known for his use of strats in the early 70's, when he started to play Blackie, Brownie and others on the Derek & The Dominoes album and with Bonnie and Delaney. Prior to that, he'd used mostly Gibsons, most notably a Les Paul in the Bluesbreakers. He also used a SG and an ES-335 during his Cream period. The "woman tone" he is sometimes associated with actually refers to that original Les Paul + Marshall combination he used in the Bluesbreakers, hence why he is being considered an "iconic" Les Paul player.

Heh, looks like you got more info on Clapton's guitars than you ever wanted to know :-) (and we haven't even started talking about "Blackie" and "Brownie" yet...)