
Jeff Beck: The Guitar Collection
Private & Iconic Collections
Jeff Beck playing Day on the Green, Oakland Coliseum, CA, 6 June 1976 © Robert Knight
Jeff Beck: The Guitar Collection totalled £8,727,284 at auction on 22 January, selling 100% of lots. The world turned up in London and online to celebrate the ultimate guitarist’s guitar hero, with registered bidders from 40 countries. The auction, lasting almost seven hours, saw intense and lively bidding with minutes-long bidding battles for several major lots, including the star of the show Jeff Beck’s 1954 ‘Oxblood’ Gibson Les Paul. After four minutes of fierce competition, the ‘Oxblood’ more than doubled its pre-sale high estimate to reach £1,068,500 and established a world auction record for a Gibson Les Paul.
The global admiration, love and respect for Jeff Beck was undeniable, as the afternoon began with a standout opening and saw lot 1, a Fender Custom Shop Jeff Beck Esquire Relic Reissue, 2006, soar to achieve more than 10 times its pre-sale estimate. The auction continued with fierce competition for every lot, including Beck’s main performance white Stratocaster ‘Anoushka’, which sparked a 9-minute bidding battle to achieve £1,008,000, and ‘The Yardburst’ Gibson Les Paul, which sold for £403,200. In addition to the record price achieved for the ‘Oxblood’, two further new world auction records were set: for a Jackson guitar, with Jeff Beck’s pink ‘Soloist’, signed by Tina Turner, realising £441,000, over 36 times its pre-sale high estimate; and for Jeff Beck’s main stage pedalboard, comprising the arrangement used on his last tour in 2022, which sold for £126,000. 100% of the hammer price of the final four lots in the auction – including a Jeff Beck Signature White Stratocaster signed by the musicians who performed at the Tribute to Jeff Beck Concert in May 2023, which achieved £94,500 – will benefit Folly Wildlife Rescue in Tunbridge Wells, a charity proudly supported by Jeff Beck during his lifetime alongside his wife Sandra and close friend Johnny Depp, who continue to act as patrons.
Jeff Beck at the Auditorium Theatre, May 1975 © Jim Summaria
Jeff Beck (1944–2023) was a multi-Grammy award-winning artist — twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His inimitable sound led to collaborations with countless internationally renowned musicians and friends including: Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Billy Gibbons, Jan Hammer, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Tina Turner, Nile Rodgers, Mick Jagger, BB King, Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Imelda May and Johnny Depp, amongst many others.
From the outset, Jeff Beck was a sonic innovator; a maverick and mercurial virtuoso who blazed the trail for musical genres as diverse as Psychedelia, Heavy Metal and Jazz-Rock Fusion, and who embraced a wide range of influences from the Blues, Rockabilly and Rock ‘n’ Roll to Indian sitar music, Bulgarian Folk, Techno, and Opera. A maestro of his trade, Jeff could make just about any sound possible with a guitar and an amp. His playing style could not be defined and part of his magic lay in the balance between the fluidity and aggression of his playing and his technical brilliance, which could swing from furious attack one moment to sheer ethereal beauty in the next.
All the guitars Beck played tell a story and bear the unmistakable signs of his hands. The results of this auction are a testament to his revered standing as a rock pioneer and pay tribute to the enduring legacy of the late, great guitar legend.
I don’t care about the rules. In fact, if I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song then I’m not doing my job properly.—Jeff Beck
My Strat is another arm, it’s part of me. It doesn’t feel like a guitar at all. It’s an implement which is my voice.—Jeff Beck
Relive the major moments and bidding battles during the momentous auction, including when the gavel came down on the world record price for the ‘Oxblood’ Gibson Les Paul.
Private & Iconic Collections
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MAIN IMAGES: Left © Barrie Wentzell, Centre © Robert Knight, Right © Robert Knight Jeff Beck at The Auditorium Theater in Chicago, 19 February 1977 © Jim Summaria