Electric Guitars On eBay

In part I of this review, I told you the story of how I zeroed in on the Jeff Beck Signature Stratocaster model. In this follow-up, I’ll fill you in on the numerous features that make it stand out from the other models available.

Beyond the gloriously thick, 50s style neck on this model, the next thing that jumps out at you is the highly resonant sound. The sweet tone created by the heavier neck and the alder body provides a fat, punchy tone in the lower and midrange frequencies as well as fantastic sustain rivaling any Les Paul. Even though alder is a lighter wood compared to maple or mahogany, the Jeff Beck Stratocaster is not the lightest guitar I’ve ever played, but the beefy tone makes it worth the extra weight.

Probably the biggest question I had about this guitar before I ordered it was the Lace Sensor pickups - I had never played them before and didn’t think anything could compete with a traditional pickup - even with a little hum. Well, long story short, I love the Lace Sensors and I wouldn’t take them out for anything - even Fralins. Consequently, my Jeff Beck Strat is a ‘98 model and since 2001 Fender has since started putting their own Noiseless pickups in the JB Models. To be fair, I had a set of the Noiseless pickups in an American Deluxe Stratocaster with no complaints, but you definitely get a little more “quack and chime” out of the Gold Lace Sensors - and those things are just dead quiet in any room I’ve ever played. Try’em both and see what you like - hard to go wrong with either one.

I’ve covered the neck of the guitar pretty well, but haven’t mentioned much about the fingerboard. I’ve picked up a lot of Strats over the years with those skinny little frets that look like tinsel on a Christmas tree - well, Jeff was having none of that. This model has 22 medium jumbo frets laid into a sweet, 9.5″ radius rosewood fingerboard that plays fast and furious when duty calls. Equally important, the back of the JB neck has a satin finish that won’t slow you down like a sticky lacquer finish common on most other Stratocasters.

On either end of the neck are some cool features too. The Jeff Beck Signature Model features Fender/Schaller Locking Tuners, an LSR Roller Nut and a 2-point synchronized Tremelo with individual string saddles. First off, one of my favorite features are the locking tuners. These modern marvels hold the string like a vice-grip and easily cut the time to change a set of strings in half. But what about the tremolo? Will it stay in tune after some serious dive bomber whammy action? In all honesty, for a non-Floyd Rose system, it’s work pretty well, but it ain’t a Floyd Rose. Most of my vibrato action is pretty tame, but I’ve never had a problem with tuning. Even after sitting in the case for a week, this guitar holds it’s tuning extremely well.

So that covers all the features, but how does it sound? Well, this is my main guitar for the local Monday and Wednesday night blues jam around town and anything can happen - blues, jazz or rock. I typically use a Fender Deluxe Reverb provided by the club and take along a Voodoo Sparkle Drive for a little added dirt around the edge. To date, I’ve never played a set where someone didn’t come up to me and compliment the tone of this guitar - and I still get a rush everytime I plug it in myself.

For blues, the rhythm, rhythm-middle in-between and middle pickup are just about the closest thing to tone nirvana I’ve found. I string this guitar with GHS Boomer .011s, so it’s got a lot of volume and punch to spare. And the Lace Sensors hold their chime even when you turn down the volume on the guitar - I just love that!

For the rock stuff, I typically split the Dual Lace Sensor in the bridge for rhythm work and then just go full humbucker for the solos. I usually don’t go for a heavily saturated distorted tone, so I run the Voodoo Sparkle Drive about 60% up on the gain and mix in 25% of the original signal with the “Clean” knob. This settings gets a real funky lead tone with a ton of a punch and balls deluxe - I think Mr. Beck would be proud of the tone he inspired. Long live the King…

To wrap up, the Jeff Beck Stratocaster is hands-down the favorite guitar in my arsenal. In fact, I’ve been crusing eBay for another JB Signature Strat in the ‘93 to ‘98 model years with an Olympic White or Aged Yellow finish. Although I’ve played the newer models, I find the older JBs have a little fatter neck and I really prefer the Lace Sensors pickups that used to come stock. Another major change in the newer models is the switch from a dual coil to a single coil pickup in the bridge. Moreover, the ability to split the bridge pickup just provides another set of tones I’ve come to rely on - strictly personal preference. Old or new, go find one of these pups to try out and see what you’ve been missing!

I was a humbucker guy the first 25 years I played guitar starting off on a used Les Paul Pro that I bought working down at the local grocery store. It wasn’t until I picked up a copy of Jeff Beck’s “Guitar Shop” in 1997 that the “Strat sound” really got stuck in my head. Around this same time, I also started listening to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy Guy almost non-stop. After listening to the magical, glisening tones that Stevie, Buddy and Jeff were creating with this legendary guitar, I knew a Fender Stratocaster was in my future.

I started going out and playing some Strats around town, but even though I was getting the sound I wanted, there was a major problem - the modern, skinny Strat necks. After years of playing fatter, thicker necks on my vintage Ibanez AS200 hollowbody and PRS CE 22, the thin, modern Strat necks were really tough for me to play. To establish a baseline, I measured the width of my Ibanez AS200 from the back of the neck to the the top of the fingerboard - about 7/8″.

A little discouraged, I started checking some online forums to get more information on vintage Stratocaster necks - I had heard they were substantially larger than their modern counterparts. After hitting the forums, it seemed I had heard right - the vintage necks were substantially larger, but so were the prices for the vintage guitars they were attached to. As I continued my research, I came across a thread one night concerning the “baseball bat” necks on the Jeff Beck Signature Stratocaster - the poster thought Fender was insane for building guitar with a neck nobody could play. “Hey!”, I thought, “This looks promising…” I immediately started researching the Jeff Beck Strat and found that the neck on this model was very similar to the early 50s neck that Beck adored. It sounded exactly what I was looking for.

I knew intuitively this was probably the perfect Stratocaster for me, but finding one to play around Philadelphia was tough. The best I could do was a little shop in New Jersey that had several Strat Ultras - same basic neck and body specifications, but completely different electronics. I headed over one Saturday afternoon, played the Ultras and was thrilled with the feel of the necks. Feeling confident, I decided to do something I promised myself I would never do…buy a guitar I hadn’t actually played…

When the guitar came in, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. It was the retro Surf Green finish (my friends call it Milk-of-Magnesia green, but they’re just jealous!) with a white pickguard and rosewood fingerboard. Looks aside, the first thing I did was snatch it out of the case and checked out the most important part - the neck. To my delight, it was actually a little thicker than the Ultras I had played and didn’t have laquer on the back to slow me down. To my great relief, this guitar was everything I wanted.

In my next entry, I go over all the features of the guitar and give you my impressions after playing this guitar for several years.