AN ELECTRIC ARCHTOP GUITAR, X500 MODEL

This Eldred X-500 was custom built by former Fender Custom Shop Senior Master Builder C. W. Fleming with Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90 Dog Ear pickups and a Guild-branded Bigsby vibrato, with custom decorative pinstriping on the figured curly maple back. According to music historian Chris Gill, who worked with Jeff Beck on the guitar captions included in his 2016 book BECK01, this Guild was one of Jeff’s favourite guitars as it reminded him of the hollow-body archtops played by rockabilly guitarists like Scotty Moore that he admired as a young child. Jeff used the Guild during recording sessions for his 2010 studio album Emotion & Commotion, although it is not known whether the guitar made it on to a recording. When asked by Guitar Player’s Art Thompson whether he used anything other than a Strat on the album, Jeff divulged: ‘I went through about five different guitars, and they all got put back on the rack. We did one song with a Gretsch and some with Guild even, but they just didn't sound like me. I picked the Strat back up and, boom, there I am again.’ The X-500 is seen behind Jeff in the Jeff Beck Discusses… interview series produced by WMG to promote the release of Emotion & Commotion in 2010. According to surviving tour carnets, the Guild was carried on tour in 2011 and 2012, probably as a dressing room or hotel guitar.