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Lot Essay
When interviewed by Brad Tolinski for Classic Rock magazine in 1999, Jeff Beck mentioned that he had been inspired by Jimi Hendrix to ‘try to play left-handed, just to see if there was any oil in that well – but there wasn’t.’ Being left-handed, Hendrix would play a standard Strat flipped over and restrung, although he was reportedly equally proficient with both right and left-handed guitars, whether restrung or not. Beck would sometimes jam with Hendrix in the late 60s, most famously over five nights at the Scene Club in New York in June 1968. ‘Sometimes he didn’t have his guitar, so he would turn one of my spare guitars upside down and played that way,’ Jeff told Guitar World in 2010. Evidently, this appears to be the guitar on which Jeff focused his left-handed efforts, presumably an attempt to replicate the Hendrix sound by replicating the Hendrix technique in reverse – a lefty Strat flipped for a right-handed player and restrung in reverse order. Music historian Chris Gill explains: ‘This reverses the tension of the strings, making the high E and B strings much easier to bend and the low E and A strings more percussive and brilliant. Some consider this an essential element of Jimi Hendrix’s distinctive Strat tones.’
According to former Fender Custom Shop Founder Master Builder J.W. Black’s annotation on the accompanying export invoice, the guitar was put together to Beck’s specification with a ‘Vintage Body converted to am standard [American Standard] Bridge’ and a ‘Vintage neck for set up.’ Black additionally notes that the guitar was ‘tuned to E Flat’ with string gauges ’11, 13, 17, 28, 36, 48’. The left-handed Strat was shipped to Jeff on 21 December 1995, as per the accompanying fax from Black to Beck’s then manager Ralph Baker: The L/H Body is on its way – I left the set-up neck on the guitar so it can be easily evaluated prior to neck changes… I hope this resolves things or creates new ideas.’ Although the guitar was originally shipped with one of Jeff’s signature spec Custom Shop necks, it appears that Jeff was satisfied with the original set-up neck, which remains on the guitar. The substantial playing wear suggests that Jeff dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to mastering this left-handed Strat, before ultimately abandoning the attempt, presumably due to the awkward positioning of the controls, tremolo and output jack for use by a right-handed player. However, it is reasonable to assume that Jeff took from this experiment a recognition of the potential value in reversing the headstock and string tension, as he would revisit this idea many years later when he began to add Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’ to his live set, utilising a reverse headstock on a regular Strat body.
According to former Fender Custom Shop Founder Master Builder J.W. Black’s annotation on the accompanying export invoice, the guitar was put together to Beck’s specification with a ‘Vintage Body converted to am standard [American Standard] Bridge’ and a ‘Vintage neck for set up.’ Black additionally notes that the guitar was ‘tuned to E Flat’ with string gauges ’11, 13, 17, 28, 36, 48’. The left-handed Strat was shipped to Jeff on 21 December 1995, as per the accompanying fax from Black to Beck’s then manager Ralph Baker: The L/H Body is on its way – I left the set-up neck on the guitar so it can be easily evaluated prior to neck changes… I hope this resolves things or creates new ideas.’ Although the guitar was originally shipped with one of Jeff’s signature spec Custom Shop necks, it appears that Jeff was satisfied with the original set-up neck, which remains on the guitar. The substantial playing wear suggests that Jeff dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to mastering this left-handed Strat, before ultimately abandoning the attempt, presumably due to the awkward positioning of the controls, tremolo and output jack for use by a right-handed player. However, it is reasonable to assume that Jeff took from this experiment a recognition of the potential value in reversing the headstock and string tension, as he would revisit this idea many years later when he began to add Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’ to his live set, utilising a reverse headstock on a regular Strat body.