Join Guitar World and Andy Aledort for a private lesson on the inner and outer workings of guitar guru Jeff Beck. This lesson continues only at guitarworld.com
"...and I'm gonna show you how to play just like him." - He never said that. Not at all. He said he'd show the techniques he - Jeff Beck - uses "to get the incredible sounds he gets from the guitar." Learning a few tricks, obviously, does not make you Jeff Beck. This short video was only about balancing the whammy bar to both raise and lower notes, and using only 3 springs for a light touch on the bar.
I've always hated the strat because of how generic and common i thought they were. Just with a simple twist of the bridge, it made me realize the endless possibility of the strat. Thank you Jeff Beck
I've always loved Strats but having grown up in the era of the floyd rose I always regarded the strat vibrato as inferior, unable to do more than surf style shimmy and goes whack out of tune because it doesn't have a locking nut. Thus I always pinned mine to the deck and played it like a hardtail. But recently I saw a video by carl verheyen showing how he angles the claw to get the right balance between high and low end, pitch up a whole step, claims it no longer goes out of tune... and the lightbulb went off "THIS is how Jeff Beck is able to do what he does so accurately". Now I'm obsessed with mastering this technique.
@@onlywhenprovoked you actually don't have to angle it like carl does cuz all you have to do is ballance the strings tension with the springs as much as possible and it won't go out of tune There's a video by i guess a fender tech on the fender youtube channel that shows you how to do it
Another important thing is that the bridge is a G&L styled, two-post fulcrum design which gives you more bar flexibility with great accuracy. I put one on a strat I had almost 30 years ago and I've been sold on them ever since.
Jeff is a very nice and creative person. He can make very simple things sound extremely good because he comes in and goes out when you do not expect. I have admired his playing ever since I was 13 years old. That was in 1966. What kind of the Planet Earth are we going to leave to Mister Jeff Beck?
Saw Jeff Beck group with Rod Stewart and Ainsley Dumbar on drums for a while at the Wardour st Marquee club awesome but check out Ray Gomez and Scott Henderson !
Jeff also bends the tremolo by pressing his palm against the raised bridge instead of using the tremolo arm, and will also rapidly tap the bridge like that to get a trill
Yeah I get what you mean, its a shame, it almost seems like his career lived under the shadows of clapton and Jimmy page, but id argue his technique is better than clapton, that being said its all personal preference, and I still love me some clapton.
The more you back the claw out, reducing the spring tension, the higher the bridge will float off the body when the guitar is tuned to standard pitch. Jeff tunes down 1/2 step to E-flat which puts less tension on string/springs.
@CrushedJustice well, if it goes out of tune after a week, its excellent! staying in tune for a week is a very long time, i usually retune between every 2 songs during shows and i don't use too much the tremolo.
I like the fact that he says "the inimitable Jeff Beck" after just having done a very good imitation of him. Oh, well... modesty is a good thing, I guess :)
Hi Andy. Thanks for your post. I know it's 12 years old now and I wonder if you're still checking comments on it. You mentioned pulling up a major third with the bridge set very high off the body. How far down can you bend? On "Where were you" Jeff drops down a 4th. Thanks again! James
Hey James! I don’t recall how far you can drop a pitch but it’s still a lot; the lower string will cover more whole steps of “descent” than the higher strings…
Yes it is raised at 3.1mm of the body. This is what Fender recommendation say from 54 when first Strat was made. So nothing new. This is what that bridge was made for. That’s what it has that shape. People forget that.
@CrushedJustice Yes you have to tune it like a Floyd. That is, you tune it to pitch, then tune it again until it stays in tune. Once, you have that done, you'll probably have to adjust the intonation.
Agree - Jeff Beck since many years top - But Joe Satriani for me is more melodic and better in songwriting than Steve Vai.. But all three fantastic and in addition for me : Gary Moore... smile
@casdebom2 Whenever i saw a strat before, i always just thought of someone first starting guitar, or the squires all the time. They meant nothing to me untill i saw this video and how the strat actually soundss
couple of thgs I can share w/ you..i use graphite lube on the nut so the strings don't get hung up in the nut and slide back & forth easier, also when ever I use the bar, I try to remember to pull it back up (with 1 quick pull) to get it back where I started..i believe there are strats available w/ locking bridge systems, or I know for sure strat copies have the Floyd rose as an option..check out Tom Anderson, Suhr, strat copies ( high quality, like Fender custom shop or even better..)
i started tryin to do this kind of technique before i knew who he was. he is definitely the kind of the trem tho. i play floyd rose but agree, beck doesnt need one unless he wants it. GREAT VIDEO. peace. \m/
@CrushedJustice yes I know that since I have a strat myself, but that one guy was telling "you would normally need a floating bridge to do what Jeff does"
@mehlliont - No good worker blames his tools!... But you do need to have a pretty sensitive tremolo, thats why he was talking about removing springs behind the back plate. If you haven't, it will probably just go CLUNK! Rather than bounce back and forth really fast. However, Beck actually gets this sound by pushing down on the bridge really fast (the bridge has been raised, which is another modification to the guitar). So to get the sound you need to do one of those things. But but be careful
You roll the Volume down with your pinky, pluck the note with the pick or thumb, and then use your pinky to roll the Volume up. It's that deceptively simple. Or you can cheat and use a volume pedal
Andy Aledort kicks ass I have his dvd on Dime's 4 Pantera tracks and the Hendrix discs for Axis and Electric Ladyland!SWWEETTT!! Some Jeff Beck - Hey Andy how about some Rock n Roll Jelly- Where's Stanley and Carmen!
@sunnyjim98 but then you gotta deal with re setting it if you play in different tunings. it also takes awile to change strings and theirs more parts to go wrong. i think their a great invention, but they need to be less complicated.
@rush12450 Just depends on which bridge you've got on your strat.. =) And his name ain't jeff beck, it's andy aledort.. The gutarist he's copying here is Jeff Beck! =)
MICHAEL thats why you lower the posts (unless theyre already set up properly) or the saddles to compensate. Everything has to change when you change something.
someone found Steve Vai better than Satriani...Anyway Jeff Beck since many years top - But Joe Satriani for me is more melodic and better in songwriting than Steve Vai.. But all three fantastic and in addition for me : Gary Moore... smile
