Jeffery Beck was born in Wallington, Surrey, England on June 24, 1944. He showed interest for music at a very young age, and he was a part of a church choir and took piano lessons for 2 years. His interest in string instruments came after his uncle showed him how to play an upright bass and the violin. His encounter with an electric guitar was when he went to a Buddy Holly 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 – who never asked it back. He also made an attempt of building his own guitar, but never really succeeded.

Jeff joined his first band “the Rumbles” in 1963, with whom he played mostly Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly songs, and he got his first gig as a session guitarist in 1964 on a single by the Fitz and Startz titled “I’m Not Running Away”. His breakthrough came in 1965 when he replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds on the recommendation of his childhood friend Jimmy Page, who also joined the band shortly after.

Jeff left the Yardbirds 20 months later, and started doing his own stuff. He recorded a couple of singles, and formed his own band called “the Jeff Beck Group”, whose members among others were Shadow Jet Harris, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Nicky Hopkins and Micky Waller.

From then on Jeff mostly went by himself, but he also appeared on great ton of albums by musicians such as Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Jon Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Donovan, Stevie Wonder, and many other. He was even approached by Rolling Stones to join the band following the death of Brian Jones, and he the members of Pink Floyd intended to ask him to join as a replacement for Syd Barrett, but as they said, “None of us had the nerve to ask him.”

Today Jeff is considered to by one of the most influential guitarists of all time, and he was placed as number 5 in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.
Jeff is also a lover of Hot Rod cars, of which he owns quite a collection. He does not only drive and own them, but works on the mechanical stuff himself.

1960s Fender Stratocaster

This Stratocaster was a gift from John McLaughlin, who would often approach Jeff with various guitars and ask him for an opinion.

This guitar was the second Strat Jeff received from John, with the first one being stolen. He used it on the “Wired” album, and since then he keeps it safe at his studio, considering it to be one his most prized possessions.

Jeff Fender Signature model which was introduced in 1991 was mostly based on this particular guitar.

1993/95 Fender “Jeff Beck” Custom Shop Stratocaster

This is the oldest Jeff Beck Signature model that Jeff still plays, which is also his main go-to guitar. If you see Jeff playing white Stratocaster nowadays, it’s most likely this one.

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

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

Fender “Jeff Beck” Signature Stratocaster (Post 2001)

In 2001 Fender decided to refresh the Jeff Beck Singature model. The new version features thinner C-shape maple neck with 9.5″ radius rosewood fingerboard, LSR Roller Nut, Schaller locking tuner, 2-point synchronized tremolo, and three Dual-Coil Ceramic Noiseless pickups. It was made available in Olympic White and Surf Green finishes.

1954 Fender Esquire

 

Jeff got this guitar in 1965, while touring with the Yardbirds and the Walker Brothers. At that time Fender was releasing guitars with the rosewood neck, but Jeff preferred maple. John Walker from the Walker Brothers offered Jeff to sell his Esquire for £75, which he gladly accepted. This quickly became his favorite guitar, and he have used it on nearly all the early songs, since he didn’t have any other guitars at that time.

The guitar was stolen from Jeff 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.

In 1974, while working on “Blow by Blow” album, Jeff was approached by Seymour Duncan who offered him one of his modified Telecasters for his Esquire. Jeff 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’d done, and he stated in many interviews that he regrets making that decision to this day.

Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop JB Reverse Headstock

This guitar was used extensively for the 2016 Loud Hailer tour, next to his regular old Signature Stratocaster [Jeff Beck, ‏@jeffbeckmusic] This Stratocaster has a couple of unique features which point out to the possibility of it being a Custom Shop modification of Jeff Beck’s standard series Signature Strat.

The first one, and the most obvious one, is the headstock – which is rotated 180 degrees while still featuring correctly orientated logo – meaning that it isn’t 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’ll 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’t particularly common.

Rest of the specs seem to match the JB Signature model (pre-2001), including the Wilkinson roller nut, Fender Noiseless pickups, and a Fender modern-style 2-point tremolo.