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Lot Essay
This curly maple-headed white Stratocaster was made by Former Fender Custom Shop Founding Master Builder J.W. Black in 1996, although curiously it was not entered into his log until February 1999. It was likely initially intended to be a surf green guitar like his main Strat at the time - dubbed 'Little Richard' - as traces of that colour remain within the neck pocket and to the contoured neck heel beneath the current white finish. The larger pickup cavity also suggests that it had been designed with the intention of fitting the higher 'stacked' John Suhr pickups which Jeff Beck favoured, and which were in both 'Little Richard' and the Surf Green 'spare' (see lot 42).
From not long after its delivery, coinciding with the retirement of 'Little Richard' and its replacement with the white Strat which would become known as 'Anoushka', this guitar became the main spare. Like the main white Strat, its neck heel was cut off at one corner just after Jeff Beck's tour of Japan in 1999 - a modification which both allowed him to play higher up the neck and helped to prevent irritation to the palm of his hand from the nickel-coated backplate. As the main spare it included a tremolo cover adorned with a sticker for Giovannoni Cams featuring a pin-up girl seated astride a camshaft, and became known as 'Cam Girl' - a moniker that Steve Prior, Beck's guitar tech 1999-2014 told us, was always used to denote the main spare, with the tremolo cover moving from guitar to guitar depending on Beck's preference.
The guitar bears extensive playing wear and was evidently put straight to use on the 1999 Japan tour. A fan review sent to The Jeff Beck Bulletin from Japan reported that at the show at Kenmin Hall, Kanagawa, on 25 May "His main guitar is a white strat. When he played THX 138, he used another white strat, because of dropped-D tuning. Today he used another white strat as a spare, when a string snapped in the middle of playing BLUE WIND. WHERE WERE YOU was perfect."
Prior's tour carnets and inventories imply that this guitar remained the main spare until around 2003, when the baton (and tremolo cover) passed to another white Strat with the serial number '020', made by Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Todd Krause. From 2007 the guitar was kept for a time at Beck's London home for use when he was in town, although photographs taken in 2022 of his Sussex home show it very much in use amongst a gallery of others in his home studio.
From not long after its delivery, coinciding with the retirement of 'Little Richard' and its replacement with the white Strat which would become known as 'Anoushka', this guitar became the main spare. Like the main white Strat, its neck heel was cut off at one corner just after Jeff Beck's tour of Japan in 1999 - a modification which both allowed him to play higher up the neck and helped to prevent irritation to the palm of his hand from the nickel-coated backplate. As the main spare it included a tremolo cover adorned with a sticker for Giovannoni Cams featuring a pin-up girl seated astride a camshaft, and became known as 'Cam Girl' - a moniker that Steve Prior, Beck's guitar tech 1999-2014 told us, was always used to denote the main spare, with the tremolo cover moving from guitar to guitar depending on Beck's preference.
The guitar bears extensive playing wear and was evidently put straight to use on the 1999 Japan tour. A fan review sent to The Jeff Beck Bulletin from Japan reported that at the show at Kenmin Hall, Kanagawa, on 25 May "His main guitar is a white strat. When he played THX 138, he used another white strat, because of dropped-D tuning. Today he used another white strat as a spare, when a string snapped in the middle of playing BLUE WIND. WHERE WERE YOU was perfect."
Prior's tour carnets and inventories imply that this guitar remained the main spare until around 2003, when the baton (and tremolo cover) passed to another white Strat with the serial number '020', made by Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Todd Krause. From 2007 the guitar was kept for a time at Beck's London home for use when he was in town, although photographs taken in 2022 of his Sussex home show it very much in use amongst a gallery of others in his home studio.