Known as “the guitarist’s guitarist”, Jeff Beck was one of three electric guitar icons to rise to fame in The Yardbirds in the 1960s (the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). He later formed the Jeff Beck Group, for which he recruited Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart and set a blues rock template that would prove inspirational for Page’s Led Zeppelin.
1975’s Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers (penned for him by Stevie Wonder) became Beck’s signature track, distilling the violining technique and stunning fingerstyle touch that would secure his legacy as one of the most distinctive and masterful electric guitar players of the 20th century.
Latest about Jeff Beck
How Jeff Beck and Brian Robertson swapped guitars – and brought guitar synths to Motörhead
Robertson’s ill-fated stint in the band was short, but Jeff Beck helped him introduce an oddball instrument into their lore
The advice Jared James Nichols took – and the bad advice he ignored – to develop his electric fingerstyle
In a journey that took him from rural Wisconsin to world stages, Nichols reflects on the fingerstyle players who inspired him
How the ’80s guitar scene left Jeff Beck feeling like an “observer”
He helped change the instrumental guitar scene forever. Then it nearly killed his career
How Jared James Nichols took Blues Power to Dave Grohl's Studio 606 and super-sized his sound
On this year’s Louder Than Fate, Nichols is spreading his creative wings, and – with some help from a one-of-one amp made for Jeff Beck – venturing into new musical pastures
Why bassist Paul Samwell-Smith chose a short-scale Epiphone for his “rave-ups” with the Yardbirds
The blues-rock opener from the band’s 1966 debut album showcases a standout example of Samwell-Smith’s fluid, freewheeling bass work
When a teenage Suzi Quatro laid down a marker by jamming with Jeff Beck and Cozy Powell
The bassist was determined to prove her worth, and the impromptu jam was the perfect platform to do it
![Dweezil Zappa [left] and Jeff Beck, both playing Strats. Zappa recently recounted a costume part at which both were dressed in chainmail, when Beck dinged a vintage Strat](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/z3iMpnjWcc3skeZpCVr5Ki-840-80.jpg.webp)
When Jeff Beck damaged an impossibly rare vintage Stratocaster – while he and Dweezil Zappa were at a party dressed as knights
This Fender once belonged to Steve Marriott or something… But Beck? He wasn’t too fussed. People pay for these dings nowadays!
Seymour Duncan goes toe-to-toe with Fishman with its triple-voiced MortalCoil active pickups
Offering three distinct voices in one package and promising fast, dynamic response and long battery life, these might be SD’s most modern pickups yet
Paul Reed Smith on how he built his brand, secret PRS players – and why the internet is wrong about tonewood
Once the guitar brand for the one percent, the smash-hit success of the SE line took PRS Guitars mainstream, but for Smith, it’s still about trying to raise the bar and find new sounds
