Jeff Beck

Alternative title: - "Guitars to The Stars (The other side of the Screwdriver)"

Jeff Beck and the three guitar shuffle, dogs and archery.

First off, let me say that as far as I am concerned, Jeff beck is the most innovative and tasteful exponent of the electric guitar ever to have lived and probably always shall so remain. Pick your top favourite player and ask him or her who he or she personally rates above all the rest. Chances are, they will pick Jeff Beck; the guitarist's guitarist.

In 1974 I got my first commercial workshop under the roof of Barry Mitchell's shop, Wing Music at Bromley North, Kent. At that time, in South East London and North Kent, if you wanted a guitar repaired or serviced, you took it to someone up in the West End of London who you probably didn't know, left it with them for three weeks, then picked it up and came away with a wallet much lighter and no guaranteed improvement.

After the school years and sawn-up desk lids, I'd been fixing friends' guitars at home for several years and since 1972 had been taking in set-up work from Barry at Wing. That all had to change when my flat was burned out by an escaped loony in late 1973 and I could no longer depend on the security of my temporary accommodation; hence the offer of the workshop on commercial premises.

That summer of '74 was a scorcher, both weather and trade-wise. We were offering a "heel-bar" type of service for guitar set-ups and repairs. The idea was that for a modest charge, you could bring the axe in and get it serviced virtually while you waited or return in one hour to collect. In that hour I would re-profile and polish all the frets, re-string, do the action, truss rod, harmonics, top nut and service the electrics. To say we got busy would be an understatement.

That was also the beginning of my professional career as a custom guitar maker and the first instrument I made there was for Rob Hendry, ex of Renaissance and The Motors, The Alan Price Band, Sandy Denny and The Nashville Teens.

One of Barry's trade contacts was a bunch of guys who managed Jeff Beck. They wanted to commission a really hot Fender Stratocaster to be souped up to "race specification" for Jeff to use on his forthcoming album "Blow By Blow". We took a truly manky CBS transition guitar from shop stock and I "did the business" on it. That involved, basically, what I would have liked for myself, which was a set of decent frets to start with (Gibson Hi-Dome was the best I could get at the time), along with a phosphor-bronze hand sculptured top nut. Then I over-wound the bridge pickup for greater power and modified the trem system support pivot screws and block for improved (less) friction. Strung up with 11's or 12's (I can't remember), it worked rather well. Even if I do say so myself.

So did the album (work rather well). It was met with rave reviews all round but the fly in the ointment for me was the interview with Mr. Beck in a specialist guitarist magazine that followed shortly afterwards. Praised by the interviewing journalist for the amazing sounds that he had managed to coax from his Stratocaster (the one I had "race modded"), he asserted that he would never allow anybody else to do any work on or make any modifications to his guitars. He claimed that he did all of his guitar technician work for himself. Er, not...

Quite astonishing! But what's a chap to do? You have to realise that someone of Jeff Beck's credentials has no need to be making friends with anyone. When you are in that kind of position of fame, respect and kudos, everybody wants a piece of you; I do get that. At no time during all of that work on that very special Stratocaster was I to meet Mr. Beck - everything was handled by the shop and the guitarist's management. But I have to say that I was a wee bit pissed off to get absolutely no credit whatsoever for turning that particular sow's ear into a very fat silk purse for him, thank you very much. (That was an ironic use of the phrase "thank you", by the way).

By 1980, I had moved out to the countryside of Kent from the suburbs and had taken up residence in the small village of Yalding, where nearly every person on the planet "used to go fishing" (apparently). That village has no major shops, so on a shopping trip to somewhere nearby that did have, whilst meandering around the Marks and Spencer's store in the mall precinct of Royal Tunbridge Wells, I suddenly found myself face to face with the great man himself. This was my first face-to-face encounter with Mr. Jeff Beck (but not to be the last).

To tell the truth, I was a bit lost for words. So I just blurted out what I knew to be true: - "You're Jeff Beck, aren't you?" (mumbled affirmation from he who always fixes his own guitars) - "Well, I'm the guy who put together your Stratocaster for the 'Blow By Blow' album. Thanks for the the credit, arsehole" (actually I put it a wee bit stronger than that but there's no need for the "C" word here). I don't do confrontation; I just wandered off and sat down for 10 minutes with a nice cup of tea. And that was the end of that, except for the obvious lingering frustration.

Moving on to 1988, I was back into making guitars again after a four year break caused by the almost complete absence of that instrument within most popular music during the early 80's (due to the advent of the cheap and accessible keyboard synthsizer). During that, possibly the worst period in pop music history, I was driving a fork truck in a chemical factory, pumping and packing Gramoxone weedkiller into an endless conveyor belt of bottles in cardboard boxes and steel drums, whilst wading about in the stuff and breathing in all of those wonderful aerosol fumes (and crying a lot).

My first inclination upon restarting guitar manufacture in a small way, was to experiment with original body shapes - a more than slightly daft idea, considering the stalwart work of Leo Fender and the Gibson crew! The first kick to be delivered in the right, more sensible direction, was prompted by Wango Wiggins, who used to teach guitar at Wing Music when they moved to Sidcup in the 1980's. "Very playable - but can't you make a Telecaster (™ ® Fender) copy?" - Well, of course I could - that's just about the easiest and most practical pattern to copy that exists. So there began a period of intensive Telecaster copy manufacture. To begin with I didn't have one to hand, so I made Wango's plank from memory. As it turned out, I wasn't more than a couple of millimeters out in any direction.

Throughout 1988, I really got into the swing of things with the making of very many Telecaster (™ ® Fender) copies. As fast as I could make them, they went out of the workshop door. Prices started around £150 (yes, crazy!) to start with, quickly rising to £500 after a couple of years. That was for a completely hand-made instrument: - neck, body, pickups, plates, bridge parts and knobs (controls and strap). Ridiculously cheap, even then. By about half a dozen down the line, I decided that I didn't want to be doing that forever and that I would make it a limited edition of 47 as a numbered series.

Why? because I was born in 1947 and that was also the year that Leo Fender designed the Broadcaster (and we all know that particular story). I was in the throws of making number 11 Telecaster (™ ® Fender) copy when I decided to make one to keep for myself. Number 12 was then put together from bits of knotty pine 5x2" joist timber out of a builder's rubbish skip, with red printing along its surfaces depicting the trade name for the timber importer: - "TEAMWOOD" (as if it was straight off the ship). I gave it all the custom bits but no proper finish - just a hefty coating of polyester resin. The neck had no truss rod - just a meaty slab of carbon fiber pultrusion, so no adjustment - just bloody stiff (I wish).

That guitar became my firm favourite and the great planking thing got passed around like a joint (spliff) and all of my guitar playing buddies had a go - and most fell in love with it too. Then it left home for a while and turned feral...

Maidstone had a music shop too, run by Eric Snowball. He had a variety of sales staff working for him, one of whom was Dick Studholme - a dedicated bluesman and a great fan of the Telecaster (™ ® Fender). I made him a 5-string version of the tele format for bottleneck style and "Keith Richards" tuning with a special 5-pole pickup. He (Dick) took the Teamwood guitar to a pub gig at Wadhurst, in Jeff Beck's local watering-hole where the great man would often get up and jam with whoever was playing that night. Jeff played it all night and insisted that he borrow it for working on his then latest current album in progress: - "Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop".

Of course Dick thought I'd be really pleased about that, not knowing the story of the "Blow By Blow" album customised Stratocaster kerfuffle. So Teamwood was lent to support that cause also and got duly recorded on the album, along with three other guitars of my making, to the details of which I was never made privy. Too late to make any difference, I had no option but to go along with the plan after finding out about it a week later.

Months later, Eric Snowball was holding a party to celebrate the opening of his new extension to the ESE shop in Maidstone. There were live bands and a great atmosphere was cooking. There was I, suitably Guinness'd and reasonably mellowed out when who should I e-spy with my little eye? Sauntering in with lady in tow, there was Mr. Beck, no less.

My instant knee-jerk reaction went unchecked and I did my own bit of sauntering and approached him to ask about the Teamwood guitar, how he'd got on with it and, more to the point, if he'd finished with it, could I please have it back? His reply was that he "didn't know where it was". Slightly in shock and a little blathered, I spilled my pint over his girlfriend.

This was my second face-to-face encounter with Mr. Jeff Beck (but again, not to be the last).

My chosen career (a default kind of thing, actually), attracts kids who "want to work with guitars" like moths to a candle flame and I've many times been approached by ambitious and deluded young fools who only see the "glamour" side view or image of the electric guitar technician. Lee Wenham was one of these well-meaning youths and he approached me in 1992 to ask if he could just hang around and maybe sweep up, just for the sake of being around guitars. He was a helpful worker and together we made him a guitar. He later failed in attempting to steal the millennium diamond from the Dome. His family had close business connections with Jeff Beck because of their mutual interest in the supply of vintage car parts and Lee was a big fan of Beck's music. So he suggested that I build a '34 coupé car guitar for Jeff, for which he would pay.

For the third time, this time with rather mixed feelings, I started work on a guitar that was destined to be handled by the great and famous Jeff Beck. The 1934 Ford Coupé car was the car that was his favourite; apparently he would have no fibreglass pattern parts in his workshop but always worked with pressed and beaten steel, like the real thing, which is the mark of a perfectionist in that field, to his credit.

Constructing the guitar was a pretty complicated affair; I wanted the tail lights to come on when it was plugged in to an amp and the rear wheel to be wire-spoked, with the hub cap serving as a volume control knob. The overall layout of pickups and tremolo system was that of the Stratocaster (™ ® Fender) and it all worked fine. When it was done and complete, Lee organised a meet with Mr. Beck at his local pub and that went ahead as planned.

This was to be the first time I would have had a civilised meet face-to-face with the man and we chatted fairly intensely for a couple of hours about dogs and archery mainly, with very little talk of guitars at all (thank gawd - I mean, what would you say? "What strings do you use?"). I have to report that a more polite, witty, charming and erudite chap I don't expect ever to meet. A really great guy with a fabulous sense of humour - and what's more, he picks with his thumb, so he must be O.K. I seriously doubt that he would remember me, though. After all, what did I ever do for him?

As to whether he ever took delivery of the guitar, I never found out but he did at least see and play it (and I got paid).

Alternative title: - "Guitars to The Stars" & "The other side of the Screwdriver"

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