{"id":8126,"date":"2023-01-14T21:25:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T20:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thestoryinst.com\/?p=8126"},"modified":"2023-12-01T21:53:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T20:53:48","slug":"jeffbeckguitars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thestoryinst.com\/en\/2023\/01\/14\/jeffbeckguitars\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Beck’s most famous guitars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jeffery Beck<\/strong> was born in Wallington, Surrey, England on June 24, 1944. He showed interest for music\u00a0at\u00a0a very young\u00a0age,\u00a0and he was a part of a\u00a0church choir and took piano lessons for 2 years. His interest in string instruments\u00a0came after his uncle showed him\u00a0how to play an upright bass and the violin. His encounter with an electric guitar was\u00a0when he went to a Buddy Holly<\/strong> concert at Croydon School in the spring of 1958. This inspired him to get his first guitar which was an acoustic, and which he borrowed from a friend \u2013\u00a0who never asked it back. He also made an attempt of building his own guitar, but never really succeeded.<\/p>\n

Jeff<\/strong> joined his first band \u201cthe Rumbles\u201d in 1963, with whom he played mostly Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly songs, and\u00a0he got his first gig as a\u00a0session guitarist in\u00a01964 on a\u00a0single by the Fitz and Startz titled\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m Not Running Away\u201d.\u00a0His breakthrough came in 1965 when he replaced Eric Clapton<\/strong> in the Yardbirds on the recommendation of his childhood friend Jimmy Page<\/strong>, who also joined the band shortly after.<\/p>\n

Jeff<\/strong> left the Yardbirds 20 months later, and started doing his own stuff. He recorded a couple of singles, and formed his own band called \u201cthe Jeff Beck Group\u201d,\u00a0whose members among others were\u00a0Shadow Jet Harris, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Nicky Hopkins\u00a0and Micky Waller.<\/p>\n

From then on Jeff<\/strong> mostly went by himself,\u00a0but he also appeared on great ton of albums by musicians such as\u00a0Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Jon Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Donovan,\u00a0Stevie Wonder<\/strong>, and many other. He was even approached by Rolling Stones to join the band\u00a0following the death of Brian Jones, and he the members of Pink Floyd intended to ask him to join\u00a0as a replacement for\u00a0Syd Barrett,<\/strong>\u00a0but as they said,\u00a0\u201cNone of us had the nerve to ask him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today Jeff<\/strong> is considered to by one of the most influential guitarists of all time, and he was placed as\u00a0number\u00a05 in Rolling Stone\u2019s list of the \u201c100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time\u201d.
\nJeff<\/strong> is also a lover of\u00a0Hot Rod\u00a0cars, of which he\u00a0owns quite a collection. He does not only drive and own them, but works on the mechanical stuff himself.<\/p>\n

\n

1960s Fender Stratocaster<\/h2>\n

This Stratocaster<\/strong> was a gift from John McLaughlin, who would often approach Jeff<\/strong> with various\u00a0guitars and ask him for an\u00a0opinion.<\/p>\n

This guitar was the second Strat Jeff<\/strong> received from John<\/strong>, with the first one being stolen.\u00a0He\u00a0used it on the \u201cWired\u201d album, and since then he keeps it safe at his studio, considering it to be one his most prized possessions.<\/p>\n

Jeff<\/strong>\u00a0Fender Signature model which was introduced in 1991 was mostly\u00a0based on this particular guitar.<\/p>\n

\n

1993\/95 Fender \u201cJeff Beck\u201d Custom Shop Stratocaster<\/h2>\n

\"\"This is the oldest Jeff Beck<\/strong> Signature model that Jeff<\/strong> still plays, which is also his main go-to guitar. If you see Jeff<\/strong> playing white Stratocaster nowadays, it\u2019s most likely this one.<\/p>\n

The guitar is kind of a hybrid of couple of other guitars, and it features three custom-wound single-coil pickups by John Suhr<\/strong>, rosewood fretboard with Dunlop 6150 fretwire and a split Wilkinson roller nut.<\/p>\n

The basswood-body was made in 1995 by Fender<\/strong> Custom Shop builder J.W. Black, while the neck comes from an older guitar from 1993, which was also built by J.W. Black.<\/p>\n

\n

Fender \u201cJeff Beck\u201d Signature Stratocaster (Post 2001)<\/h2>\n

In 2001 Fender decided to refresh the Jeff Beck Singature<\/strong> model. The new version features\u00a0thinner C-shape maple neck with 9.5\u2033 radius rosewood fingerboard, LSR Roller Nut, Schaller locking tuner, 2-point synchronized tremolo, and three\u00a0Dual-Coil Ceramic Noiseless pickups. It was made available in\u00a0Olympic White and Surf Green finishes.<\/p>\n

\n

1954 Fender Esquire<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeff<\/strong> got this guitar in 1965, while touring\u00a0with the Yardbirds and the Walker Brothers.\u00a0At that time Fender<\/strong> was releasing guitars with the rosewood neck, but Jeff preferred maple. John Walker from the Walker Brothers offered Jeff<\/strong> to sell his Esquire for \u00a375, which he gladly accepted.\u00a0This quickly became his favorite guitar, and he have used it on nearly all the early songs, since he didn\u2019t have any other guitars at that time.<\/p>\n

The guitar was stolen from Jeff<\/strong> during one of the first tours with the Yardbirds, but it was fortunately recovered a week later. Jeff claims that the fingerprint dust from that day is still present on the guitar.<\/p>\n

\"\"In 1974, while working on \u201cBlow by Blow\u201d album, Jeff<\/strong> was approached by Seymour Duncan who offered him one of his modified Telecasters for his Esquire. Jeff<\/strong> accepted the deal straight away, finding it surprising that Saymour would give him a better guitar for his old worn-out Esquire. But just as soon as Saymour walked out the studio with the guitar, Jeff realized what a mistake he\u2019d done, and he stated in many interviews that he regrets making that decision to this day.<\/p>\n

\n

Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop JB Reverse Headstock<\/h2>\n

\"\"This\u00a0guitar was used extensively for the 2016\u00a0Loud Hailer<\/em>\u00a0tour, next to his regular old Signature Stratocaster [Jeff Beck,\u00a0\u200f@jeffbeckmusic<\/a>] This Stratocaster<\/strong> has a couple of unique features which point out to the possibility of it\u00a0being a Custom Shop modification of Jeff Beck\u2019<\/strong>s standard series Signature Strat.<\/p>\n

The first one, and the most obvious one, is the headstock\u00a0\u2013 which is rotated 180 degrees while still featuring correctly orientated logo \u2013 meaning that it isn\u2019t just a regular neck reversed, but a completely custom-made one. The edge of the fretboard on the bottom-end also has a very sharp edge, instead of it being slightly curved as you\u2019ll find on both the JB Signature model and on most of standard Strats. The 22nd fret rests on the very edge of the fretboard, which is also something that isn\u2019t particularly common.<\/p>\n

Rest of the specs seem to match the JB Signature model (pre-2001), including the\u00a0Wilkinson roller nut, Fender Noiseless pickups, and a\u00a0Fender modern-style 2-point tremolo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeffery Beck was born in Wallington, Surrey, England on June 24, 1944. He showed interest for music\u00a0at\u00a0a very young\u00a0age,\u00a0and he was a part of a\u00a0church choir and took piano lessons for 2 years. His interest in string instruments\u00a0came after his uncle showed him\u00a0how to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559,564,575,566,580,611],"tags":[378,307,745,396],"class_list":["post-8126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-fender-en","category-guitar","category-rock-en","category-stratocaster-en","category-telecaster-en","tag-fender-en","tag-guitar","tag-jeff-beck","tag-stratocaster-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t