Man if you need any convincing that Clapton is/was a guitar "god", just go listen to Creams' "Wheels of Fire" it'll knock your socks off... and remember it was a live recording in 1968 of a trio on tour!
I remember sitting in my brothers' bachelor pad in Galveston (across the street from the Bishops' Palace) in the summer of '69 listening to "Wheels", Hendrix' "Smash Hits", Johnny Winters' 1st Columbia record, and Led Zeppelin 1 over and over and over, it was new, cutting edge and mind blowing!
I don't think any electric rock guitar playing since has really topped those records.
Of course, during the same time period we had the other guitar heroes; Jeff Beck, Peter Green, and a few others... it was a very short list at the time, before many of us had heard of Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, Alvin Lee, Santana, and the other greats of the early '70s.
Clapton and Hendrix were at the top of the list, the question of the day, even to novice teens, was "who's the best guitarist, Clapton or Hendrix?"
I prefer Jimi, but Eric comes in a very very close second... personal preference.
JT