Jeff Beck: the boy who built a guitar from a cigar box | Ultimate Guitarist Reunion

Why fans still care

JEFF BECK played guitar so expressively, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says, that he didn’t need a singer. The Grammys back that up in their own way. He won eight, and six were for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Rolling Stone ranked him fifth on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists. He went into the Rock Hall twice. And when Christie’s sold the guitars he left behind, the total came in at more than eight times the estimate.

Early life and training

Jeff Beck was born in Wallington on 24 June 1944. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory.

As a boy he made a guitar from a cigar box, used a picture frame for the neck and strung it with the lines off a radio-controlled model aeroplane. The Rock Hall says he built his first proper guitar at 15.

After school he went to Wimbledon Art College.

He played briefly with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages. In 1963 he started a band called the Nightshift, and later that year he joined an R&B group, the Tridents.

Career chapters

1. 1965Joined the Yardbirds, replacing Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3
2. 1966Left the Yardbirds; Jimmy Page, Who’s Who number 32 took his place
3. 1967Hi Ho Silver Lining, his first solo single, and the first Jeff Beck Group, with Rod Stewart, Who’s Who number 18 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) and Ronnie Wood, Who’s Who number 19
4. 1968Truth, the Jeff Beck Group’s first album
5. 1969The Jeff Beck Group’s Woodstock booking was cancelled
6. 1975Blow by Blow
7. 1986First Grammy, for Escape
8. 1990Grammy for Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop
9. 1992Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the Yardbirds
10. 2009Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, solo
11. 2011Three Grammys in one night
12. 202218, with Johnny Depp, Who’s Who number 9 in · Ultimate Gangster Reunion (story coming soon); guest guitarist on Ozzy Osbourne’s, Who’s Who number 29 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) Patient Number 9
13. 2023Died 10 January, aged 78

The Yardbirds 1965 to 1966

In 1965 Beck joined the Yardbirds, taking over from Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3. The band’s hits in his time included Heart Full of Soul, I’m a Man and Shapes of Things.

About a year later Jimmy Page, Who’s Who number 32, took his place, and Beck was gone by late 1966.

He was blunt about some of what they recorded. “Our version of Train Kept A Rollin’ was pretty awful but it was different,” he told Classic Rock in 2008.

The late 1960s

Beck watched the guitar change in front of him. Of Jimi Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6, he said, “He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening.”

He wasn’t sold on everything that followed. When manager Peter Grant first played him Led Zeppelin’s debut, Beck said, “I thought he was having a laugh.”

His first solo single, Hi Ho Silver Lining, reached number 14 in the UK in the spring of 1967, and it was his biggest hit under his own name there.

The Jeff Beck Group dates from early 1967 too, with Rod Stewart, Who’s Who number 18 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) singing and Ronnie Wood, Who’s Who number 19 on bass. The group’s first album, Truth, came out in 1968 and reached number 15 in the US. Beck-Ola followed in 1969. The band was booked for Woodstock that year, but the appearance was cancelled. Beck later put it down to unrest in the band. In 1970 Rod Stewart, Who’s Who number 18 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) and Ronnie Wood, Who’s Who number 19 left to join the Small Faces, soon to be the Faces.

Blow by Blow and the instrumental years

In 1972 he formed a power trio, Beck, Bogert & Appice, with two former members of Vanilla Fudge. It split in 1974.

In 1975 he went instrumental. Blow by Blow, produced by George Martin, made the US top ten and went platinum, and it became the most successful album of his career. Wired, also produced by Martin, followed in 1976, with Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden on board. From then on the guitar did the singing for most of his records.

The Grammy years 1986 to 2011

His first Grammy came at the 1986 ceremony, for Escape. Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop, made with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas, won at the 1990 ceremony. Then came Dirty Mind in 2002, Plan B in 2004 and A Day in the Life in 2010.

In February 2011 he won three in one night. Hammerhead took Best Rock Instrumental Performance and Nessun Dorma took Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Imagine, shared with Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal and Oumou Sangare, won Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

He paid his respects to Les Paul, Who’s Who number 38, too. At the 2010 Grammys he played How High the Moon with Imelda May in a tribute to Les Paul, Who’s Who number 38, and Rock ’N’ Roll Party Honoring Les Paul, Who’s Who number 38 earned him a Best Rock Album nomination in 2012.

18 2022

In 2022 he made a joint album with Johnny Depp, Who’s Who number 9 in · Ultimate Gangster Reunion (story coming soon) called 18: 13 tracks, two of them Depp’s, Who’s Who number 9 in · Ultimate Gangster Reunion (story coming soon) songs and 11 covers, slated for release on 15 July 2022. The title came from a running joke between them. “We would joke about how we felt 18 again,” Beck said.

Patient Number 9 2022

That same year he played on Ozzy Osbourne’s, Who’s Who number 29 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) album Patient Number 9, released on 9 September 2022. Beck is the featured guitarist on the title track and on A Thousand Shades.

He was in good company. Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 plays on One of Those Days, and Ozzy’s, Who’s Who number 29 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) old Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Who’s Who number 23 on No Escape from Now and Degradation Rules. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready is on Immortal and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on God Only Knows, while Zakk Wylde, Who’s Who number 27, Ozzy’s, Who’s Who number 29 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) longtime guitarist, plays across most of the record.

Craft, sound and style

Most of Beck’s Grammys were for instrumentals, which tells you how he played. The guitar carried the tune. He liked to leave room for surprises, too. “I like an element of chaos in music,” he told Guitar World in 2014.

His gear tells part of the story. When Christie’s sold his collection in January 2025, an Oxblood 1954 Gibson Les Paul went for US$1,315,708 (£1,068,500). Guitar Player reported it as the most expensive Gibson Les Paul ever sold at auction at that point. A 1983 hot-pink Jackson Soloist made US$543,029 (£441,000), a record for a Jackson and about 50 times its estimate.

Esquire, fuzz and the Yardbirds

With the Yardbirds in 1965 and 1966 his guitar was a 1954 Fender Esquire, serial 1056. Premier Guitar puts it on Heart Full of Soul, Train Kept a-Rollin’ and I’m a Man, and Guitar Player also names it on Heart Full of Soul. Seymour Duncan owns it now. The sitar sound on that record came from a Sola Sound Tone Bender fuzz, the MkI that Gary Hurst designed in 1965. Neither magazine names the amp he used in those years.

The Les Pauls

In early 1966 he bought a sunburst Les Paul at Selmer’s on Charing Cross Road for £175. Premier Guitar dates it to about 1958 and the PA report says 1959, so the year is open. It’s on Roger the Engineer, Beck’s Bolero and Truth. In late 1967 he stripped the finish and took off the pickguard, and Jimi Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6 played it on stage at the Scene in New York in June 1968.

His Oxblood Les Paul, a 1954, came from Memphis in November 1972. He used it with Beck, Bogert & Appice, at the Bowie and Ronson farewell show at Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973 and on Scatterbrain, and it’s the guitar on the cover of Blow by Blow.

Tele-Gib, Tina and the Strats

Seymour Duncan built him the “Tele-Gib”, a Telecaster with two Gibson humbuckers out of a Flying V. It’s the guitar on Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers. The sources don’t agree on the Telecaster’s year or when it was built, so we’ve left the dates out.

Steve Marriott gave him a 1954 sunburst Stratocaster, serial 0062, fitted with a 1958 neck. The pink Jackson Soloist with a Kahler bridge first came out at the 1983 A.R.M.S. shows at Madison Square Garden, and it’s on Flash, including People Get Ready with Rod Stewart, Who’s Who number 18 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon). Tina Turner, Who’s Who number 1 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) signed it in place of payment for his work on Private Dancer. Later came a white Custom Shop Strat built by J.W. Black, nicknamed “Anoushka”, and his own Fender signature model, first issued in 1991.

No pick, all hands

He dropped the pick and played with his thumb and fingers, so every note stood out. The rest was in his hands at once: the whammy bar, the volume and tone knobs, harmonics and notes played past the frets. Premier Guitar’s Ben Fulton describes volume swells, feedback brought in on chosen notes and the volume rolled back for a cleaner sound. Researchers at the University of Surrey list jazz, reggae, Bulgarian folk, and Western and Indian classical music among what fed into it. Beck himself said the Strat was “a totally different animal” and that you “can’t do it with a Les Paul”.

Stories people still tell

1. The cigar box guitar.

   A box, a picture frame and some model aeroplane line, long before he could get a real one.

2. The dropped guitar.

   In 1966 Alice Cooper’s, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) teenage band, the Spiders, opened for the Yardbirds at the VIP Club in Phoenix. Cooper, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) has said he was 16 at the time, though going by his birth date, February 1948, he would have been about 18. By Cooper’s, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) account, Beck held his guitar upright in one hand while it fed back, chatting to someone, then let it drop, playing perfect triplets on the way down. “He catches it right on the last note where it’s feeding back,” Cooper, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) said. For Cooper, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon), that settled who the best guitarist was.

3. Pink Floyd.

   Pink Floyd reportedly thought about asking him to join in 1967, as Syd Barrett was slipping away from the band. Beck told Alice Cooper, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Queen Reunion (story coming soon) in 2010 that he’d only just found out, and that they were “all afraid to come and ask me”.

4. Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6 in one evening.

   Beck’s own line on the night he heard the rules change.

Legacy

That May, Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 led two tribute concerts for him at the Royal Albert Hall, on 22 and 23 May 2023. Ronnie Wood, Who’s Who number 19, Billy Gibbons, Who’s Who number 5, Kirk Hammett, Who’s Who number 10, Rod Stewart, Who’s Who number 18 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) and Johnny Depp, Who’s Who number 9 in · Ultimate Gangster Reunion (story coming soon) all played.

In January 2025 Christie’s in London sold more than 130 of his guitars, amps and pedals for US$10,746,430 (£8,727,284). He had also been a patron of the Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust.

A biography, Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story by Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill, was scheduled for 14 July 2026. It draws on more than 30 hours of interviews with Beck himself.