Whenever guitar players talk about ‘feel’, everyone will ultimately have their own interpretation of what exactly the word means. It’s an abstract and subjective term. However, most would agree that no player embodied ‘feel’ greater than Jeff Beck, the English virtuoso known as ‘the guitarist’s guitarist’.
Whether you loved the fierce sound of his Telecaster in The Yardbirds, those early 70s conquests with a Les Paul in his hands, or the Strat magic he was most commonly associated with, Beck’s contributions to music of all kinds were simply incomparable.
His death on January 10, 2023, at the age of 78, is a profound loss to all who knew and loved him, and to all who were inspired by his playing and fearless creativity. And among the many tributes that followed his passing, each paying their respects to a musician who set the bar impeccably high, perhaps the greatest accolade came from Beck’s close friend and former bandmate, Jimmy Page. “The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions,” Page stated. “Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff, I will miss you along with your millions of fans.”
INNOVATOR. MAVERICK. GENIUS.
Jeff Beck was all this and more. And as we look back now on his extraordinary artistic life, we begin with the moment that his path was set – when, as a young boy listening to the radio, he was transfixed by the sound of an electric guitar, played by none other than Les Paul...
THE FIRST GUITAR
He was born Geoffrey Arnold Beck on June 24, 1944 at 206 Demesne Road in Wallington, on the borders of South London and Surrey. And his love affair with the guitar began early, at the age of six, when he heard Les Paul and Mary Ford’s version of How High The Moon, prompting him to ask his mother about the slapback vibrations in between the vocals. By the time he was 10, he was heavily into the sound of rockabilly guitar, idolising the music of Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps with a particular emphasis on guitarist Cliff Gallup’s contributions.
While learning to play on a borrowed guitar, he also experimented with building his own – gluing and bolting together cigar boxes with a fence post for the neck. For strings, he’d use thin wires from his model aeroplane collection, making tweaks and adjustments as he played through an old radio.
At the age of 16, Jeff landed an audition for The Bandits, who had a contract as backing group for singers impersonating the likes of Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley. To get the gig, he needed a proper instrument, and having pestered his parents for years, his wish came true in the form of a Guyatone LG-50 Strat copy.
In the early 60s, while attending the Wimbledon College of Art, Jeff would become a prolific player on the West London
