Hot Wired Guitar:The Life of Jeff Beck

[yngwie308]

A new book out in England, not sure about the US by Martin Power published by Omnibus Press.
Chief are you out there, this will take your mind off the..you know what....
Apparently out since May upon research on Amazon, you may have it already!
http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Wired-Guitar- ... +jeff+beck" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Saw this one as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Truth-Stewart-Woo ... _ee_s_cp_2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yngwie308

[Tone Slinger]

Dave, do you (maybe the Chief will chime in) know anything about the history of Becks 'natural Alder' strat with the broke pick guard. I at first thought that he had stripped the white one, because on the '77 live album with Hammer, Beck has a CBS bullet rod neck on it. But, I have seen some vids from the early '70's where Beck has that guitar with a small headstock maple neck ?

[yngwie308]

Billy, hey haven't spoken with you for awhile! In the book Crazy Fingers Ms. Carson describes the guitar as having the pre CBS headstock, ie; the smaller version.
The white Strat on the cover of Wired is I think the post-CBS version and a rosewood board.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/ ... 3f0dcd.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



This one is unusual has three mini toggle switches and a black pick guard!

The trusty '59 still around and privately owned:

http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/ ... 9%20Burst/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I believe they were all separate guitars. The Carson book says it is a stripped '54 Strat.
Can't be right as they were all Ash bodies then... some errors in that book lol are you sure it's an alder body??
Not the '54 Strat that Steve Marriot gave to Jeff which had the original pickups stolen out of it. That remains in it's original two color sunburst and is relatively unmolested.
Hope that helps?
Dave


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoHB8RSQ ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tone Slinger]

Thanks man, so there is actually some info out there on it. That guitar HAS to be alder, so that, like you say, rules out a '54, since those were supposed to be ash. I got a couple of photo's where Jeff has that guitar (alder, broke white pick guard) with a rosewood board bullet rod CBS neck. That is what threw me off. I had seen pics of Beck using that white 3 bolt strat as far back as like '72, but then it dissapeared. On the back of the live Beck album with Jan Hammer ('77) he has the bare Alder strat with broke pick guard, BUT, with what looks to be the neck from the white strat. I assumed (wrongly) that Jeff took to his guitars like he did his cars and maybe stripped the white one down.
The video footage on you tube (like the pic you posted above) shows that Jeff had this bare Alder strat at the same time as the white one. I stripped my reliced olympic white paint job back off of my Tokai. I was just TOO used to the bare alder color (it was originally Black) that it has been for most of its existance. It looks almost JUST LIKE Becks bare strat. Hell, I might even break the lower pick guard horn .

[NY Chief]

Ohh boy, late on this one. I'm embarrassed! No, Dave don't have those books but they are now on the way! Thanks for the heads up, fellers! Interesting note, I met a guy through a mutual friend, Steven Rosen who turns out to be a well published rock writer.

http://www.classic-rock-legends-start-h ... hives.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He wrote a bio about Jeff and because the publishing included pics unapproved by JB and unknown to Steve JB went ballistic. Steve says Ms Carson lifted a lot of his work for Crazy FIngers.

[Tone Slinger]

I gotta say, the bare Alder strat with the maple pre cbs neck with the broken white pick guard, is the coolest guitar I've seen JB with. No frills, just kewlness .

[NY Chief]

+1 TS, now we HAVE know how the guard got broke, eh?

[Tone Slinger]

Exactly, HOW did that pick guard get broken ? There is also a hole drilled in it around the break or cut (was the break planned ?) I had seen only two b&w photo's of that guitar (both had the bullet rod rosewood neck on it), but when I saw the old Youtube footage of it with the pre CBS maple neck, I was immediatly aware of how his guitar looked like MINE, before MINE !

I dont see the walnut plug at the headstock on that maple neck, so it must have been a 'rare' custom order guitar. Fender used the vaneer rosewood board from '63 to '70. In early '71 they put the 'bullet' rod out, which incorporated a one piece maple neck again (though the rosewood board versions were still the thin vaneer). Fender only used maple boards from that era ('63-'70) as a custom order option. The neck on that 'Bare' Alder strat is a two piece maple neck, which makes it pretty rare, considering it was pre CBS. Didnt Hendrix have a Candy Apple red strat with 2 piece maple neck that was pre CBS ?

[NY Chief]

Exactly, HOW did that pick guard get broken ? There is also a hole drilled in it around the break or cut (was the break planned ?) I had seen only two b&w photo's of that guitar (both had the bullet rod rosewood neck on it), but when I saw the old Youtube footage of it with the pre CBS maple neck, I was immediatly aware of how his guitar looked like MINE, before MINE !

Maybe it IS yours AFTER Jeff had it!

[yngwie308]

Jeff recently with the Rolling Stones "Going Down"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Peg0mTWO13Q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yngwie308