- 4 hours ago
On the eve of their auction in London, we take an up-close look at the guitars that legendary guitarist Jeff Beck used to cut historic recordings such as Blow By Blow, There And Back and more - including his iconic 'Oxblood' Les Paul, the seminal 'Yardburst' from his earlier career (also played by Jimmy Page and Hendrix), his treasured 1954 Fender Stratocaster and the 'Tele-Gib' made of him by Seymour Duncan that was used to record 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers'. Our expert guides are Christie's experts Amelia Walker and Kerry Keane, who take us on a deep dive through the mods, features and history of each of these historic instruments.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:13well he purchased it here now in London London right yeah Salmas about 1966 yeah early 66 we
00:20think sort of late February early March he certainly had it by the fifth of March which
00:24is when he played ready steady go at the BBC and there's a photo shoot on the steps of the
00:28Royal
00:29Albert Hall where he's like proudly showing it off so we're pretty sure it was late February that kind
00:34of time in 66 and then he obviously plays it at that show it gets he uses it to record
00:41at ad vision
00:42shortly after I think it's April and it and it makes its way into like a lot of Roger the
00:47engineer
00:48so it's it is a yard-burts guitar but it started off with a sunburst finish black pit guard black
00:56switch surround white double whites which were covered at the time with pickup covers and it's
01:04had a lot of it's had a life as they say we think it's late 67 early 68 certainly by
01:11the time he goes
01:13on tour to the US with the Jeff Beck with with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood and actually as as
01:20Carrie
01:21was mentioning there's an amazing photo of they did a residency at the scene in New York in I think
01:28June 1968 and there's a photo of Jimi Hendrix playing it upside down with Ronnie Wood hiding behind the amps
01:35at the back I mean so we know it was and actually we know certainly stripped before that tour I
01:43think
01:43he the first changes he did were probably taking off the pickup covers then he took off the pit guard
01:49the
01:49switch surround and then I think yeah and so and that was sort of after the yardbirds I should I
01:56should add that before he left the yardbirds in late 66 he had a bout of illness where actually Jimmy
02:02Page who was by that point in the band had to step up from playing bass and play lead guitar
02:06so Jimmy
02:07Page played this guitar on that second US tour that the yardbirds did in 66 so it's a unique guitar
02:15it's
02:15been played by Jeff like Jimmy Page and Jimmy Hendrix three guitar gods without a doubt yeah they've all
02:21played this instrument which is quite remarkable yeah the flame pot you know flower pot inlay the the
02:30Gibson inlay on there it that certainly does not match with the contours of the headstock it's much
02:38too big much too wide and and there is a volute on the back so that's been always shaved down
02:44but you
02:44can see the remnants of a volute so we look at this the neck and we think next next 72
02:52for for lack of a
02:53you know a better date and and I I mean it's my belief that that inlay was added later when
03:02when
03:03the neck was replaced at some point and remarried to the you know married up to the body I think
03:10some
03:10craftsman thought that was kind of cool and it's a great look very different yeah yeah yeah yeah and
03:19I think also the the JB I went and the pearl is very similar though you know it's abalone it's
03:25blue green
03:27abalone both the pickups are patent number pickups um and they're Gibson pickups so it's uh they're two strand woven
03:35connections um and uh what re-wrapping has ever been done to them I don't know and and we didn't
03:46test
03:46resistance on them so uh you know can't can't tell but but we think they probably well we think they
03:52probably got changed in sort of 73 when report he reported that we've I think we spoke to Seymour
04:02Duncan and he remembers in when we were discussing telegib which we'll get on to that the reason he
04:08wanted to make the telegib for Jeff was because the PAFs had been removed and he remembered that
04:13they'd been removed when the guitar had been sent for electrical repair and so rather than fix whatever
04:19was wrong with the PAFs the restorer just replaced them and so that's really the last thing that changes
04:25on the guitar before Jeff sort of semi-retires it in 73 um but you know he was still using
04:32it very
04:33much even with the replaced neck and headstock uh you know in the second Jeff Beck group the beat
04:39sessions in March 72 I think it is you can see it in the background of the videos with the
04:43still with
04:44the double whites but with the the very clearly with the flowerpot inlay to the headstock so I think
04:49I mean I think the neck had been broken probably three times at this point um it's been it's been
04:55played hard it's interesting to look at you know his his the career trajectory and and and when he's
05:02working with trios when he's working power trios that's the tool to do the job you know um rather
05:09than a Stratocaster um it their projection the way they cut the control that you have with a Les Paul
05:18with a humbucking pickup is you know it's it gives a wonderful big round fat sound with with great
05:25overdrive so right he gets the oxblood when he's you know again working with another power trio right
05:34well with the same one I mean I think it's funny if you look at his career in those early
05:39years it
05:39is a kind of Gibson Fender Gibson Fender Gibson Fender and then sticks to the fenders from about 76
05:46onwards really but yeah this is still like right in the middle of him loving Gibson loving the Les Paul
05:54and and I think that he was still very much using the yard bus when he bought the oxblood in
06:00Memphis
06:00in late 72 when he was there with Beck Bogart Napis and um by all accounts just loved it wasn't
06:09particularly looking for something of that color or but but happened to be taken around local car shops by
06:15a young guitarist there called Buddy Davis and his guitar was in the back of the car and Jeff spotted
06:22it and sort of went oh I like a guitar he'd I think he had been in guitar shops that
06:26day but hadn't seen
06:26anything he liked and so bought it and this was out on approval I think with the guitar yeah I
06:31think he
06:31hadn't paid for it yet yes yeah well before Jeff this was a fifty four gold top and you know
06:43with a wrap
06:44stop tailpiece it would have had P90s in it and the P90s were at some point someone decided they wanted
06:54humbuckings in there took the P90s out and and opened up the cavity so you can facilitate the humbuckings in
07:04there so
07:05when you take these covers off and you look at these pickups it's a huge big very raw hole in
07:10each one of
07:10these um and and and you don't leave there's not a lot of room here um between the pickup surround
07:17and
07:18the tailpiece bridge and you can actually see where it's it's kind of pushing up in here and
07:23and they've actually had to like smutch the uh the surround up so there's room it's quite remarkable so we
07:30can even get a you know I don't know how how he even changes the e-string on this um
07:35it's it's filthy dirty
07:38it is rode hard and put away wet it's uh it it has I think all the mojo of a
07:45of a guitar that's been
07:46played hard yeah they're both Gibson um patent numbers um and they've and they're correct uh t-top
07:58bobbins on there um one I'm trying to remember whether it's the bridge or the neck one of them
08:06came off of a gold-plated guitar so something like a custom yeah or or a or or a switch
08:15master
08:16you know um and the other is uh chrome chrome poles um but all that's evident when you take it
08:22off and you look underneath um and again mounting screws that are slot head screws like you like you
08:28start to see in about 68 um well the neck has been I mean this is another guitar that was
08:36broken
08:37correct yeah so actually I would say that the previous owner who did the finish into the pickups
08:42had shaved down the neck to a much thinner profile um which I don't think that was probably the one
08:48thing Jeff didn't wasn't so keen on he liked a fat neck and then we had this is again through
08:54all of
08:55the amazing conversations we've had with roadies but um the guitar was the neck was snapped on a
09:02flight back from America after the blow-by-blow tour so it had to be restored and when it was
09:07restored the the neck not the fingerboard but the neck was replaced back to the original gauge
09:13um the fingerboard was kept yeah the fingerboard and the faceplate were kept but the neck
09:19was replaced yeah yeah and it's nice that they bothered to do that with the fingerboard and
09:23yeah yeah and actually I spoke to the restorer and they even like they re-stamped the serial
09:30number at the back they they did a great job the only thing they couldn't do was exactly match the
09:34finish because they didn't have the original can of paint that that they'd used in Memphis and it's
09:40an odd number on there um which I've I've been scratching my head over like well why that number is
09:46there um you know 2700 is uh 60s um and or 27000 is 60s and it it it's not a
09:56what would have been an
09:58ink stamped number at all um because two would have been 52 and four would have been four and then
10:06four digits um so I it I wonder if someone's not remembering the number right well exactly but I
10:15mean so when I spoke to this this for sure he's actually based in the UK he said yeah we
10:18always
10:19put the number back on the back which is why the digits are the wrong type of digits yeah right
10:23um
10:24but you might be right maybe he got the seven in the form exchange yeah yeah as soon as he
10:29got it this
10:30was pretty I think it was played on every single show he played for the next two to three years
10:35so the whole of 73 74 75 pretty much um it's on stage with him when he comes on for
10:44the encore
10:44of David Bowie's last performance with Ziggy Stardust in July 73 it's a great photo like there's great
10:51footage actually which was really re-released last year um of the motion picture and you can see Jeff
10:57playing he plays the bag you know all that and all the all the amazing um sort of tricks he
11:03has
11:04and um and then he also uses it to record some of the tracks on blow by blow and of
11:09course it's on
11:09the cover of the album so it is iconic in that it is sort of forever depicted on that seminal
11:17album cover
11:19um and it's it's difficult to know exactly how many tracks he used for that use this guitar for
11:24because you know he obviously had the telegib which he used for because because we've ended as lovers
11:28he had the strip strat which is now in the rock and roll hall of fame I think and we
11:35think it was
11:35just those three he also played bass a bit on that about album which is interesting um but yeah so
11:40between the three reportedly George Martin much preferred the sound of the Les Paul and the
11:46telegib to the strat he found the strat a bit screeching so you know it's it's definitely all over that
11:55album this is such a cool guitar you know and and I Seymour came to LA when we did the
12:00exhibition
12:01there and I chatted to him for hours about this guitar and he remembers making it he remembers every
12:05detail of it it was a real privilege to chat to him about it it it for me within this
12:11collection it's
12:13it's one of my two favorites um because I think there's a little bit of hillbilly in me
12:20and this is certainly you know a telecaster is a it it's a hillbilly guitar you know and and and
12:28he
12:28what he's done here is marry the telecaster body um with uh two humbuckings to give it a big fat
12:35sound
12:35um it's a heavy body there's a lot here um it weighs actually a lot like the Les Paul and
12:43and and if and it's not it's probably why it has such great sustain um it's the density of this
12:50body
12:51usually when you pick up a tele you want it to be light and this one's it's chunky but I
12:56think a good
12:56match with with the uh with the pickups I think Seymour had sustain in mind as well when he put
13:02on
13:02these brass bridge sure yeah as well which came from a another telly I think that belonged to Roy
13:09Buchanan oh wow um and the switch the little black switch cover came from a telephone switch bank
13:17oh that's nice yeah that's right which he also used on a guitar for Roy Buchanan yeah yeah that's
13:23quite fun that's right we've got the date on it right 56 or 57 yeah I can't remember it it
13:28had
13:28definitely a bigsby on there yeah and there are your holes um he made the pit guard for it right
13:38yeah he hand cut it yeah yeah he hand cut that he put in the gibson jumbo frets he right
13:44he actually
13:45relayed the maple board um and then he said I wish I'd put a fender decal on the headstock I
13:52was like
13:53he didn't and it's fine yeah no no no um yeah and then he rewound he rewound the pickups which
14:01had
14:01come from a flying v yes yes right I mean so they're original bobbins and he he rewound them
14:08yeah I mean Seymour was devastated when the pickups were taken out of Jeff's yard burst when they got
14:13restored and he really wanted Jeff to have PAFs um I think he'd been a huge fan of Jeff since
14:20the
14:20yard bird's days and um and we really put this together purely with Jeff in mind and took it to
14:26the rehearsal space which was just around the corner I think Seymour was working at the Fender
14:30Soundhouse and BBA were recording were rehearsing you know somewhere in Tottenham Court Road and um
14:37and he took it there and by all accounts Jeff loved it straight away loved the sound you know it
14:44was like
14:44an old friend in terms of the shape but also the power as Kerry was saying of the pickups and
14:49and then shortly after that um that when he was in the studio with BBA he then went into the
14:55studio
14:55with George Martin and it ended up on the album I have to think that there's there's a bit of
15:00romance
15:01with this guitar and and Jeff Beck in the mere fact that you know his first good guitar was
15:11a Telecaster and he's playing Esquires and Telecasters um before he makes a jump to a Les Paul and and
15:20I
15:20bet it was a bit of an old friend you know um it it's a very recognizable shape um I
15:26mean this is
15:27post-war industrial design you know simple clean and uh it's what we grew up with
15:36here's a guitar from my birth date so now everyone knows everyone knows how old I am
15:41oh Kerry
15:43um yeah this is uh it's you know classic 54 and uh two-tone
15:54sunburst yeah
15:55tobacco would you call that tobacco
15:56well I get yeah I guess some people they call it tobacco sunburst I always stick with the
16:00the two-tone um and they're uh yeah they're great guitars what what did he call this his
16:07his sort of well it's like it should be in a museum it was his buddy holly strats
16:13and it was his like most I think most prized possession you know and he did he played it he
16:19taught it he recorded with it and then I think got worried about it getting damaged like a lot of
16:25the other ones that's not to say he didn't use it pretty hard actually I found this amazing photo
16:31of him pogo sticking on it um which was reproduced in the in the in the backology
16:38in 1991 and I thought I've got it we've got to get that photo so it's a beautiful thing
16:44when we were dating it um you know I mean I saw some writing under here so I started pulling
16:50the
16:51springs out and you know lo and behold it's it's month and date 54 right right underneath the springs
16:56and then as I'm putting them back on again uh this little penny dropped and went my god he's used
17:02all five strings all five springs here you know which is rare I mean most yeah most guys take pull
17:09one off and or pull two off and they're usually usually playing with either uh three or or sometimes
17:15even two but um I think he had a he had a pretty strong right arm I mean actually it's
17:24it's almost
17:25like he comes back to the strat at this point because he plays the strat he actually has a stripped
17:30a
17:31completely stripped strat which he i think he bought in 1968 with with the jeff beck group which he used
17:38to
17:38record becola and um the jeff the the second jeff beck group album the orange album and then this neck
17:47is from that guitar so this neck he's he has a lot earlier so the the he came about owning
17:55this guitar
17:56because he did a late night he did a recording session or a session with steve marriott of humble pie
18:02we think in late 76 early 77 and it by all accounts it descended into heavy night and um
18:13steve gave jeff the guitar i think jeff wasn't sure if it was the booze talking or if it was
18:18a you know
18:18if he meant it so he left it at the studio for a couple of days and then when he
18:21went back it was
18:22still there and it was clear that it was meant as a gift um so it's been his it was
18:27his after that and
18:28actually initially it had a telecaster neck on it which he then took off and put this neck on from
18:33his other strat which you'll know is the one with a kind of distinctive broken horn treble horn which
18:41is now in the rock and roll hall of fame um which i think he sold for charity in the
18:4680s um anyway so
18:49this is in 77 i would say and it goes out on tour sort of later that year and into
18:5778
18:58um and then you know it's played almost constantly from like 78 79 and he used it to record i
19:07think
19:07all of there and back the 1980 album the challenge has been trying to date the neck yeah and uh
19:13yeah
19:14and i i have i've used that wonderful word that catalogers use all the time with circa which allows
19:19us to fall off a horse on the other side of it and and i've said circa 58 um i
19:25we could easily say
19:2657 and but i i went more 58 because of the there's a very subtle v back here right and
19:34and enough that
19:35it's it it's a little softer that you're going to see later in 57 and then 58 rather than those
19:41really
19:41accentuated ones um like blacky had a 57 neck on it it was like very sharp so but it's yeah
19:49it's there
19:50you can feel there there's the turn and at some point the original pickups got removed but jeff i
19:57think was reporters saying he doesn't know where they went they've got i think it's 1986 seymour
20:02duncan pickups in now so don't have the original pickups but these have been in for a very very long
20:07time if i wanted pickups i'd go to seymour duncan exactly they're going to be right seymour actually he
20:14he had to mend this guitar once when the neck the neck got broke that got broken off at the
20:19top of
20:19the neck so you know even though it was a prized possession it's had it it's had fair share of
20:25jeff
20:26treatment
Comments