A SEMI SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, ROC JET 6130

Jeff Beck acquired this guitar from Mick Flynn of Mick’s Vintage Guitars, Seattle, on 10 July 1984. At this time, Jeff was one week into a 74-date joint tour with Rod Stewart in support of the latter’s 1984 album Camouflage, for which Jeff had contributed lead guitar on several tracks. The fourth show of the tour in Seattle on 8 July 1984 was notable for featuring the first known live performance of the pair’s 1983 collaboration ‘People Get Ready’, which would be released the following year as the lead single of Jeff’s 1985 album Flash. According to Mick Flynn, Rod Stewart reached out to Mick’s Vintage Guitars on the day of the Seattle show in search of a Gibson J-200. ‘I went to the Olympic Hotel with guitar in hand,’ Flynn recalls. ‘Rod comes in along with Jeff, Gary Grainger and the rest of the band. Rod strums a few chords… Then Jeff picks up the guitar and proceeds to play along with the piano player in the lounge. I had brought along a bunch of photos of guitars I had for sale, Jeff spots a Gretsch Roc-Jet I had and he says, “I have wanted one of those since I was 15!”’ Jeff had likely identified the black Roc-Jet with his childhood guitar hero Cliff Gallup, who actually played a black Gretsch Duo-Jet. Speaking to Douglas Noble in 1993, Jeff said of the Gretsch Duo-Jet, which he eventually tracked down in the early 90s: ‘I knew Cliff [Gallup] used one 'cause there's quite a good picture on the sleeve of the album 'Blue Jean Bop'. At the time it was a mystery guitar because you couldn't see the headstock so there were all these rumours flying around about what it could be.’ At Jeff’s request, Flynn brought the Roc Jet along to the next stop of the tour in Vancouver on 10 July. ‘I get a call from Jeff and I said I will bring the guitar to Vancouver,’ Flynn continues. ‘So, the next day I head to Canada with the guitars (I had 2 of them). We meet Jeff in his hotel room, he tries both guitars and decides on the less clean one that he liked and I sold it to him for $600.’ Following the two shows in Vancouver on 10-11 July, the tour continued to Calgary for what would be Jeff’s seventh and final appearance on the tour, having become disillusioned by what was evidently more of a supporting rather than co-headlining role. ‘He left,’ Rod recalled in his 2013 memoir, ‘saying something about how the audience were all housewives, which was a little bit rude of the old scamp.’

Christie’s are grateful to Mick Flynn for contacting us and kindly sharing the story of how he came to meet Jeff and sell him this guitar.