# 2 words about Jeff Beck



## guitarjunky (Sep 11, 2007)

On the 6 of July, I will be giving Jeff Beck the first Montreal Guitar Show Tribute Award

We created this Tribute Award to spotlight outstanding guitarists. 

And whoelse then Jeff for the first one! 

So when I will give him the award, instead of empty words... I would like to offer him words from his fans... Hopefully some of you at Guitars Canada are Beck fans...

So can you help me by giving two words that describe Jeff to you?

Thanks


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Only 2?

Tough to do that.

He is one of my favorites.

He is distinctive and unique.
Nobody sounds quite like him.

Maybe start with those two.

I enjoy how he doesn't follow trends, he just plays.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Benchmark player.
Guitar adventurer.
Tremolo magician.

I have two words for you as well: "Me jealous".:bow:

I don't know if you will get to schmooze with him, but here is something I always wanted to know. Five years ago, we took a family trip across the country, from Ottawa to Victoria and back. On the drive back from Thunder Bay, somewhere near Rossport, on the shores of Lake Superior, we stopped for a breather and strolled out to a public beach. There were assorted graffiti and promises of love eternal scrawled on the flat shale beside the water. Among them was "Jeff Beck and Bumble beast".

I always wondered if Mr. Beck had indeed driven one of his cherished hotrods across the country without any fanfare, and "tagged" the Ontario waterline. So, if a suitable moment presents, say "An acquaintance of mine wanted to know if the phrase 'bumblebeast' had any meaning to you"

An earlier post of mine indicates the year was 1992. http://archive.ampage.org/articles/6/open/295363/Graffiti_of_the_stars.html


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

innovative alchemist...

those steel strings surely produce music "gold"...:bow:


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## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

My 2 words would be "f******g amazing!". LOL....you can't say that , but it is true. He has always been my guitar hero from the time I bought "Blow by Blow" waaaayyy back on 8 track to now. His playing and music is always fresh, and he is never afraid to take chances. I have seen him a bunch of times and his live playing has always left me speechless.


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## vds5000 (Apr 14, 2008)

Two words - "Missed Opportunity". The biggest mistake of his career was pulling out of Woodstock at the last minute. Could there have been a bigger stage at the time for his group to showcase their talents? Beck on guitar, Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood (yes the same from the Stones) on bass. Both Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood have said pretty much the same thing on numerous occasions.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

*guitar god *!!!


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## amphead (Jan 9, 2007)

Brilliantly original.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Dumb question..but will he be actually at the show?


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## Guest (Jun 27, 2009)

Bar raising?
Boundlessly imaginative?
Creative virtuoso?


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

The Best,
although i never say that.


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## guitarjunky (Sep 11, 2007)

al3d said:


> Dumb question..but will he be actually at the show?



He is playing 2 shows on July 6


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

i have 2 words for him:

thank you


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

I'd say "innovative" and "adventurous".


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Mu
sician


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## Archer (Aug 29, 2006)

Jeff gives me that warm fuzzy feeling like no other p layer. If I had the chance to meet him I'd probably just stand there like a moron.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Two words? 

Jeff Beck.

Those words are synonymous with class, distinction, taste, and style. Oh yeah, and innovation, invention, creativity, and originality.

There are some words used as nouns, both proper and otherwise, and verbs, but Jeff Beck deserves it most.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Stonesy (Oct 7, 2008)

I think Zontar nailed it inadvertantly with "only 2".


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## dufe32 (Feb 5, 2007)

cheezyridr said:


> i have 2 words for him:
> 
> thank you


That's what I would say to Jeff Beck.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

dufe32 said:


> That's what I would say to Jeff Beck.


Right on!

Peace, Mooh.


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## CocoTone (Jan 22, 2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnr8lMNYzrU''

CT.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

"Creative Genius"

While he lost me after "Truth" from a "what I like to listen to" standpoint his consumate skill and creativity can't be denied.

You are damn lucky to be doing this. :bow::bow:


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

Two words??

"Ronnie Scott's" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3y61-WSuwQ&feature=fvw

How about one word?

"In-freakin-credible!"


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Big_Daddy said:


> Two words??
> 
> "Ronnie Scott's" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3y61-WSuwQ&feature=fvw
> 
> ...


This is the one that gets me. Love what he says about Clapton too. He's way too humble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USadXlyRM9Y&feature=related


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

davetcan said:


> This is the one that gets me. Love what he says about Clapton too. He's way too humble.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USadXlyRM9Y&feature=related


Wow. Just wow. I just ordered the "Live at Ronnie Scott's" DVD from Amazon.


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## ssdeluxe (Mar 29, 2007)

whoa ! if you stick with this all the way through...... wow !

truly remarkable, I don't think there are many players that still have this kind of fire, and clearly : "creative joy" after playing for so long....remarkable. thanks for that link.







Big_Daddy said:


> Two words??
> 
> "Ronnie Scott's" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3y61-WSuwQ&feature=fvw
> 
> ...


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## fatherjacques (Sep 17, 2006)

Well for me he is: 


THE BEST


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

No Challengers
-Mikey


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## Lester B. Flat (Feb 21, 2006)

"Train, train"

Two words both the same and the first Beck tune I learned.


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## Stonesy (Oct 7, 2008)

I hope someday I can hit a single note like Jeff, never mind a song.
Jeff can stick his head out ther cause noboby can chop it off.


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## db62 (Sep 18, 2007)

Guitarjunky - how was it last night? Pictures?


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## bscott (Mar 3, 2008)

Whoa!! What a show. Just got home from the festival. What a player!! Just spectacular AND beautiful. The band was awesome. Same band as from the Crossroads CD/DVD plus a keyboard.
I was awestruck by the whole show and even though it is "Jeff Beck" performing the other people are just not sidemen. As well as being spectacular musicians it was a BAND. Each getting to do their solo bit but everyone complimenting each other to produce great music.
One hears so much about egos in the music biz but there is definitely not an oversized ego there. They opened with Beck's Bolero and continued on. I am not familiar with Jeff's music so can't quote every song they played. Last song before the encore was A Day in The Life. A beautiful and masterful interpretation. Two songs for the encore, the very last one was a rousing version of the Peter Gunn theme song - sorry all you youngun's, you will have to youtube it to get the melody. Driving bass and drums and Jeff playing over top.
IF you EVER get a chance to see him play GO!!!! You will definitely NOT be disappointed.
Later

Brian


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I headed straight for the front of the barricade as soon as I got on site (sorry, Brian, I wanted to drop by but the possibility of a good, clear "hi-res" view of Mr. Beck's fingers was calling just a little louder), and was fortunate enough to have him stroll over to our side of the stage many times, providing a clear view.

A couple of technical points:

1) His whammy bar arm is bent upwards by about 10-15 degrees more than normal. I take it this is to allow for a slight mechanical advantage in bending in both directions, but also to provide a little more clearance for simultaneous volume control manipulation.

2) I'm not sure he ever really switched pickups all night. From where I stood, it looked like the selector switch was in the middle position the whole time, and all tonal changes were from his thumb and where he plucked.

3) A big part of his tone is from the slapping of strings against the fretboard when he lifts them and lets them go. He never uses a pick (something that makes the speedier parts of his playing hard to conceive of). Another big part of his playing comes from productive use of off-the-beaten path harmonics. Harmonics can be generated at the 3rd and 4th frets on your E and A strings, but sound very much like a ring modulator when you play them loud enough through a pair of Marshall Plexis. I was also surprised to hear what were very high notes - the sort you expect to see someone producing by bending at the 22nd fret - while his hand was clearly below the 5th fret. These were presumably high harmonics generated from the E and B strings. I'll have to experiment with those.

4) The spirit of Les Paul is never far away in his playing. Lots and lots of humour in the little flourishes and love of making little silly noises.

5) This is, without a doubt, one of the hardest working volume pots in show business. We make much of his picking with his thumb, but that pinky and ring finger are doing some heavy lifting too. I'd like to know what brand of pots he has installed, because for the work they are put through, and at the volume they are played at, they are pleasingly quiet.

6) The picking hand rarely left the bridge area. He is constantly co-ordinating picking, volume pot and whammy, so unless he has other plans, he pretty much stays rooted there.

7) There is a certain "gargley" sound he gets that I've never heard from anyone else, that comes from quickly pulling the tremolo arm *up* (actually, slamming is more apt than "pulling"). This may be yet another reason for the different bend in the arm. The gargley quality comes from a momentary pitch fluctuation as the bridge resettles from a momentary disturbance. I've tried to mimic it, but I can't. I don't know if the secret is in the springs, the spring arrangement, the force of the blow, or what. All I know is what I saw, and what I am unable to do.

8) The hardest working tremolo arm in show business. Most of the time, the arm was situated between his index and middle finger, so that the thumb and index could pluck, the middle and ring could move the arm, and the pinky could work the volume. Loads of Albert King and Roy Buchanan style bends, all done with the bar. Sitar-like 1/4-tone bends and glissandos in abundance. A huge part of his tone is the approximation of notes and functional guitar equivalent of "glide" on a synth. Some is finger-work, but much of it is constant use of tremolo arm. That he could do that, and play the same guitar all night is a testament to whatever brand of strings he uses, and the setup of the guitar. He seemed to only feel the need to retune a string or two once or twice the whole show, and would do so during someone else's solo.

9) While he uses no pick, he uses his thumb, and what I imagine to be quite the callous on his thumb, like a pick during faster passages. At other times, he uses more of a finger-picking style, more reminiscent of Atkins and Merle Travis, working the lower and upper strings in counterpoint with his thumb and middle/ring fingers.

10) Every now and then, he'd throw in some two-handed tapping, but more as a textural element than as any sort of EVH stunt. Texture is what Beck is all about. Whether its tapping, use of unexpected harmonics, quick descending slides, or little stabs, he loves to throw in little textural contrasts.

11) Not that shabby a bass player, either. Continuing a little musical joke he has been doing for a number of shows now with bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, he stands to her left and plays the lower notes on her bass while she does a solo in the higher register on the upper two strings. He held his own quite nicely. Tal, by the way, is an excellent bass player. Once her tenure with Beck is over, I'm sure she will be in demand for decades to come.

12) His cord - yes folks, he's not wireless - would likely play a big role in his tone. It's a long cord, that I imagine takes the edge off his Strat, allowing the uber-cranked Marshall to still sound smooth.

13) I wished he would have wahed. Beck is a very expressive wah player (listen to "I Ain't Superstitious" from the Jeff Beck Group album with Rod Stewart), but it seems to have disappeared from his vocabulary. Perhaps because it requires him to stay stationary, and he appears to like to move around the stage.

14) Note to late evening performers: Wear long sleeves. Beck had a sleeveless shirt/vest thing on, and spent much time flicking wee beasties away from his arms when they distracted him. Though he never looked pushed beyond the point of tolerance, at times the look on his face had a little bit of exasperation in it when he would rather be picking than flicking.

15) Mr. Beck's hair is, um, conspicuously monochromatic. Methinks there is a bottle of something involved. Meh, he's allowed. Makes it hard to tell him apart from Ronnie Wood, though.

16) As someone said to me on the bus ride home last night, it was good to see a performer who did NOT use the occasion to talk about the environment. Not that there is anything wrong in that, but Beck was humble for a humbler. Came on stage wordless, played his ass off, gave other people lots of room (Tal took an unusually long solo on "Cause We"ve Ended as Lovers"), smiled a lot, was playful, and ended with a simple naming of the band members, a "God bless", and a bow and curtsy.

Finally, yeah, it was a pretty good show, and well worth the standing for 4 hours and the 40 years leading up to it.:smile:


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

mhammer said:


> 7) There is a certain "gargley" sound he gets that I've never heard from anyone else, that comes from quickly pulling the tremolo arm *up* (actually, slamming is more apt than "pulling"). This may be yet another reason for the different bend in the arm. The gargley quality comes from a momentary pitch fluctuation as the bridge resettles from a momentary disturbance. I've tried to mimic it, but I can't. I don't know if the secret is in the springs, the spring arrangement, the force of the blow, or what. All I know is what I saw, and what I am unable to do.


Mark,
Great report on Mr Becks technique. I can 'feel' your appreciation of his technique and guitar mastery.

Regarding the trem arm warbles, Greg Koch does something like on his instructional DVD. I'm not sure if its the same move or not, but it sounds similar. He pulls the arm up quickly and then releases it, causing the arm (and the pitch of all the strings) to "warble" until the arm comes to rest again. In another part of the DVD, he explains that he keeps his trem arm floating ie can pull it up or push it down. Maybe the trem has to be floating just right before the technique will work?

You can see it briefly in this Youtube video:

[youtube=Option]L5Iu_y6tKcc[/youtube]


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Thanks for providing a different perspective Mark. I was there too but not close enough to even see him at times because they have this huge screen right in the middle of the field which blocks the view of the stage from the back.

Brian, I'll try to pass by sometime to say hi.


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## tojoe (Apr 5, 2009)

That was a great post about Beck very little doubt few others have as much fun as he does, Les Paul and him have that in common in spades.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

bagpipe said:


> Mark,
> Regarding the trem arm warbles, Greg Koch does something like on his instructional DVD. I'm not sure if its the same move or not, but it sounds similar. He pulls the arm up quickly and then releases it, causing the arm (and the pitch of all the strings) to "warble" until the arm comes to rest again. In another part of the DVD, he explains that he keeps his trem arm floating ie can pull it up or push it down. Maybe the trem has to be floating just right before the technique will work?


Yep, that would appear to be it. I suspect it's one of those things that demands high volume in order to use, simply because one loses sustain at normal volumes when the bridge floats that much.


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## bscott (Mar 3, 2008)

There was one piece in particular that had me really paying attention. Jeff would start a riff and then head off into a totally different direction from where one might expect the riff to go.
All in all - a great show.


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## autorpm (Apr 21, 2008)

kick ass !!!!!!!:rockon2:


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

There is a surfeit of recent youtube videos posted, as well as many concerts posted around on various download sites. You may find the name of the piece there. You can also check Amazon.com for his albums. A number of them have little samples of each tune.


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

I really enjoyed this show. He really has spectacular feel, technique and GREAT tone.

Like mhammer I was pretty close to the front, 20 feet or so from the left of the stage. One this I really enjoyed that he didn't mention was his slide work, really tasteful and controlled, and he did a great solo using the slide very high on the neck, tapping it on the string to sound the notes. I've never seen that techinique before.

HE did switch pickups occasionally, I noticed in "big block" he switched to the bridge pickup for the ower chord section, and there were a few parts on the neck pickup as well.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

zdogma said:


> Like mhammer I was pretty close to the front, 20 feet or so from the left of the stage. One this I really enjoyed that he didn't mention was his slide work, really tasteful and controlled, and he did a great solo using the slide very high on the neck, tapping it on the string to sound the notes. I've never seen that technique before.


Cripes, he went *beyond* the neck, and was actually playing notes over the pickups themselves, muting the strings over the neck with his fretting hand. While normally a player of his stature doesn't need to actually look at the neck to know what he's playing, when you get up that high, you're looking at the equivalent of fret distances like you might find at the top of the neck on a mandolin. So naturally, he was staring straight at his (glass) slide, trying to be as precise as possible.

And yes, I imagine that when you get up that high, there's only one pickup that would work - the bridge.:smile:


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## guitarjunky (Sep 11, 2007)

mario said:


> My 2 words would be "f******g amazing!". LOL....you can't say that , but it is true. He has always been my guitar hero from the time I bought "Blow by Blow" waaaayyy back on 8 track to now. His playing and music is always fresh, and he is never afraid to take chances. I have seen him a bunch of times and his live playing has always left me speechless.


Hey Mario,

Thought you would be happy to know I did bring your two words to Jeff when I gave him the MOntreal Guitar Show Tribute award...

A proof? 










More pics here http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkyguitarsanddrums/sets/72157622071937859/show/


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## zjq426 (Aug 23, 2009)

simply brilliant


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Nice pics. 

I missed this thread, gave thanks to Mark for the wonderful description as I read through.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Many thanks for the flickr show. It's warm feeling to know one's words of appreciation reach the artist, two at a time, instead of being lost amongst the din. Sweet.

It was very generous to make the offer to us, and comforting to know the gesture was authentic and came to fruition. I'm sure it was a good day for you too.

I have to say that I needed a lot of pictures before I was convinced that the trophy itself wasn't some "African fertility thing". Unless you see it from the right angle, it can look like a very large, er......"thumb".:smile: Although viewed from the correct angle, it turns into a very nice piece of work. Only fitting that it be wooden, too.

BTW, what wood?


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## guitarjunky (Sep 11, 2007)

mhammer said:


> Many thanks for the flickr show. It's warm feeling to know one's words of appreciation reach the artist, two at a time, instead of being lost amongst the din. Sweet.
> 
> It was very generous to make the offer to us, and comforting to know the gesture was authentic and came to fruition. I'm sure it was a good day for you too.
> 
> ...


thanks for the good words.

It is spalted maple!

yes quite a day... He was a real gent and his show was amazing... quite a day!


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## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

guitarjunky said:


> Hey Mario,
> 
> Thought you would be happy to know I did bring your two words to Jeff when I gave him the MOntreal Guitar Show Tribute award...
> 
> ...


LOL....I'm so honoured! Wish I could have thought of something more profound, but that's the way I feel about Jeff Beck.:bow: Thanks for the great thread!


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Excellent presentation. Looks like he was having a good time as well


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The current issue of Guitar Player has a short feature on the Montreal Guitar show, and makes mention of the award and presentation.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Flipping through a bunch of back issues of GP this week, I came across a 1993 issue with a Jeff Beck interview, pertaining to the release of the "Crazy Legs" and "Frankie's House" albums at the time. Read it on the busride to work today, and was really impressed with the guy's attitude, particularly his humility and his enthusiasm for his craft. Impressed with the interview article too. _Reallly_ long.


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