Squonk wrote: Busy Watching Live at Ronnie Scotts again, Man Beck knows how to use his thumb....

I need a Guitar with a Whammy, I love his technique...

Any one else intrigued by his fingers and whammy technique??

I'd have to be honest that I haven't really noticed his whammy technique as being anything specifically unique but I am a BIG fan of his right hand technique. When I fantasize about the kind of guitarist I'd like to be, his right hand often pops to mind.

deefstes wrote:

Squonk wrote: Busy Watching Live at Ronnie Scotts again, Man Beck knows how to use his thumb....

I need a Guitar with a Whammy, I love his technique...

Any one else intrigued by his fingers and whammy technique??

I'd have to be honest that I haven't really noticed his whammy technique as being anything specifically unique but I am a BIG fan of his right hand technique. When I fantasize about the kind of guitarist I'd like to be, his right hand often pops to mind.

I first noticed the wammy thing here: http://www.guitarforum.co.za/bass/what-are-some-songs-with-cool-bass-lines/msg194748/#msg194748

Don't know Beck much but this really impressed me

With Beck, it's a combination of the whammy, volume knob and notes articulated with his thumb. To my noobish ears, it's very much his signature tone and technique, it doesn't sound like anybody else.

Back in his earlier days with the Jeff Beck Group he was very much a plectrum player and was associated with an ox-blood Les Paul which was pretty famous. There was some great blues-rock stuff going on with the albums "Truth" and "Beck-Ola" which sounds very different to what he sounds like today on the Strat.

Squonk wrote: Busy Watching Live at Ronnie Scotts again, Man Beck knows how to use his thumb....

I need a Guitar with a Whammy, I love his technique...

Any one else intrigued by his fingers and whammy technique??

I've been a big fan of his since i was 16.
Loved Blow by blow, Jeff beck's Guitar Shop, Truth, Who Else...haven't got his latest album yet, but i've heard his version of nessum dorma and it kills.

Like Warren mentioned. It's his use of vibrato, in conjunction with the volume control that nails it.
There are some things he does that just blows my mind...like depressing the whammy bar and slowly rolling up the volume and releasing the whammy to sound like a slightly warbled fade-in. Currently, i have to use a volume pedal to simulate it and even then i'm not half as close.

Squonk you are right that thumb technique is great,

Joel, aka - Joe Moore, gave me a Jeff Beck DVD a while ago which was filmed live at the Iridium Jazz club, being a small stage the camera gets in quite tight on his playing tech. especiall in his slower bluesy stuff - The man can play - the DVD is badly named "Rock& Roll Party" honoring Les Paul,

peace

Lately I find myself somewhat distracted when watching a Jeff Beck clip on YouTube...
by a bassist (Tal Wilkenfield)... I just can't help myself :-[

Beck is an interesting one. He's more about melody than anything else and has a very fluid, vocal-like phrasing. He shapes nearly every note in a phrase with lots of subtle (and not so subtle) vibrato, bends and pinkie swells and is one of the most accomplished trem users ever (right up there with Belew and Vai). Detail. Detail. Detail in every note. He gets a lot of different tonalities from his right hand from playing with his thumb and two fingers - clawhammer, harp harmonics and those mind boggling things he does picking with his thumb while simultaneously manipulating the bar with fingers and volume with his pinkie.

I was lucky to see Beck, Bozzio and Hymas on the
Guitar Workshop tour, Hammersmith Odeon, many years ago.

His 'pickless' playing and whammy technique is really
something special.

The initial dates were re-scheduled as he was suffering a bad back
at the time and we affectionally then referred to him as Jeff Back
after that.

His 'Wired' album was my first, blew me away.
Produced by George Martin, it has a raw 'live' feel
complete with amp hum on 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'
and the album captures Beck exploring and improvising.

Great player. Technically one of the very, very best. But poor QC I think. When it all comes together he's amazing. Eric refers to Wired. Really that and the preceding album, Blow By Blow are the high points. Listen to the version of "'Cos We've Ended As Lovers" on Blow by Blow and the way he builds it up over a couple of verses and even the solo takes a while to really cut loose. He builds the tension so brilliantly and then he winds it all down again - great performance. Then listen to his own recent performances of the same piece - technically great, but musically less satisfying.

Geoff Emerick was the engineer on Blow by Blow and he says that one of the problems was that Beck couldn't stop tinkering. They kept on thinking it was all done and dusted and then Jeff would phone up and say he wanted to add a new part or re-record some solo. Eventually Jeff called one day saying he wanted to make more changes and was told that it's too late now, the record is in the shops.

PS: Blow by Blow also has a seriously fabulous drumming performance by Richard Bailey.

Blow By Blow, Wired and Guitar Shop are my three go-to albums.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Blow By Blow, Wired and Guitar Shop are my three go-to albums.

Me too !!

But check this BBC video out........

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eric vaxxine wrote:

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Blow By Blow, Wired and Guitar Shop are my three go-to albums.

Me too !!

But check this BBC video out........

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Wow, cool as you like! He just looks so relaxed behind the guitar. Interesting though that he has a very different technique in this video than he has these days. Awesome nonetheless.

deefstes wrote: Interesting though that he has a very different technique in this video than he has these days.

Out of necessity - on a Les Paul you can't do much in the way of tweaking controls, pickups or vibrato while you're playing. He's always had the fluidity though, regardless of the guitar he plays.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:

deefstes wrote: Interesting though that he has a very different technique in this video than he has these days.

Out of necessity - on a Les Paul you can't do much in the way of tweaking controls, pickups or vibrato while you're playing. He's always had the fluidity though, regardless of the guitar he plays.

Granted, but I suppose the most obvious difference in technique that I picked up on immediately is his use of a plectrum here.

Part of my interest in posting that video was noting
he still used a plectrum. There are many phrases he delivers
that are heard on the 'Wired' album too.

Here he is using a Strat (1973) and a plectrum.

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