Jeff Beck has died,
My guitar gently weeps.
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He had an amazing career and is admired by so many.
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Very sad/ I was watching my DVD ROD STEWART AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, yesterday where Rod sings a duet with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders she reminds Rod she first sough him with Jeff Beck and Ronny Woods many years ago. DVD is very very good with two solos from Ronny Wood.
But we have gained a second thread.
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Sorry.
Jeff Beck and Cosy Powell look so alike and both played with the finest of musicians and in the same band.
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So did I. May even have been the same gig - The National Jazz and Blues Festival [Kempton Park Racecourse 1969]
They played 3-4 numbers. While the next one was being announced the rumblings in the audience grew to a roar - aimed at Rod Stewart - and Beck led the band offstage.
I was not doing any roaring. This was my first ‘festival’ gig with multiple star lineup but I agreed with the roarers - Stewart was dreadful.
There was now a 20 minute gap in the programme. Ginger Baker and his mentor, Dick Seaman, had a drum battle and after Seaman left the stage a figure in an electric blue velvet ‘suit’ edged round the end of the PA stack, unannounced, plugged in a 335 and, with no bass player, played for 20 minutes non-stop, unplugged and disappeared.
It was Eric Clapton.
The gig ended parematurely when a roof, where masses of people had taken to sitting, collapsed. The number being performed at the time was sort of appropriate - ‘Fire’ Arthur Brown
A really close friend of mine was with her best friend and a group of three young handsome men came up to them and invited them to go to a party. My friend and her friend decline this invitation from Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.
I liked the brief clip of Three Famous Guitarists meeting the late Queen - Clapton, Page and May.
May led off … Jubillee, roof of Buck Pal, Nat’n Anthem … “Oh! It was you up there! Glad you didn’t fall orf!”
Then there was an awkward pause. What have these guys to say to HM The Queen?
Clapton thought of something. “Oddly enough ma’am, we are all from Surrey”
The Queen moved on.
My guitar … My tenous connection with Jeff Beck revolves around a guitar - 3 in fact.
In the '70’s Leo Fender sold Fender Musical Instruments to C.B.S. The standard of Strats went down. There were ‘pre-CBS’ Strats and the rest.
In around 1985 Fender bought his company back. The problem was that nobody had thought whether the factory was included in the sale. There was a hiatus of many months in the manufacture of Fender USA instruments. Fender Japan was still turning them out, including the sensational looking Strat and Tele and P.B. Aerodynes.
Discussing what first to put into production as Fender Musical Instruments V2, it was suggested that a Strat specified by Jeff Beck from the Custom Shop but which Beck had never taken delivery of would be a top grade return for Fender USA.
This Strat, named The Strat Plus, had, as standard, staggered locking tuners, a Wilkinson steel nut,
pickups designed and made by a company called Lace, who were in the windings business,
this is Eric Clapton’s Strat with Lace Golds.
These pickups were a revelation. They were noiseless - no transmission of mains hum, a non-optional extra with standard Fender pickups, and exerted no ‘string pull’ - the attraction of the strings to the magnets in a guitar pickup. Too close and string pull deadened the string vibation.
This meant that a Lace pickup could be placed much nearer the strings than a Fender p/u, thus gaining signal strength and sustain. They sounded superb, as well.
A push-pull ‘TBX’ tone control rounded off Beck’s design requirements. TBX supposedly stood for ‘Treble/Bass Extension’. In fact it just scooped some middle but it sounds great.
Beck ordered his guitar in ‘American Grafitti Yellow’ the colour of a car in that film.
I have owned 3 of Mr Beck’s creation. This was the first, and best. It looked fabulous and the neck played like butter. I had to sell it as I was going broke.
Then I got a ‘Blackie’.
Sold - going broke again 
I still have one. 3-tone sunburst Strat Plus Deluxe.
That’s going to go, too but not a forced sale this time. Replace with Yamaha Revstar and bank the change.
Where is the best place to sell guitars here in France?
Do you still play?
I am currently detained in hospital and listening to all my yesterdays.
It will be difficult to find anything as remarkable as Peter Green or Jeff Beck.
You could try Leboncoin, but it’s a bit of a scammers’ paradise. And eBay of course.
Are there no French equivalents to The Fretboard or Reverb?
Instruments de musique d’occasion - Zikinf
Achat Instruments Musique | Vente d’instruments d’occasion (musicalchairs.info)
Instrument Musique Occasion - Vos instruments pas cher!
Not checked any of them, mind!
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Our local music shops have pinboards where you can place a card with details of instruments for sale.
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IIRC the tbx could also provide a mid boost - one of the key reasons these guitars were adopted by many players who would otherwise use humbuckers.
And that’s also a part of why the strat plus etc weren’t quite as popular as you might expect. While they had a particular sound, they weren’t a traditional strat, and guitarists are notoriously conservative.
It’s a pity to sell an instrument you’ve bonded with, so I hope you enjoy the replacement.
You might enjoy Jack Thammarat.
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