Saw Jeff Beck last night...

[KellyBass]

Amazing show to say the least. Incredible tone! He was using a marshall stack...JCM 2000 maybe, I don't think it was an 800...and a tweed champ! I couldn't see his pedalboard, but whenever he did stomp down on something, it was very subtle. I can't help but wonder what that guy could do with a really good TW express...

[lyman]

that must have been awesome. he's an amazing player....

[vibratoking]

I love Jeff's playing...who doesn't? I know he recorded most of his latest album with the Tweed Champ. He works the volume knob so much and that makes me wonder what he would sound like with an Express. Surely, he has played through one in his travels. If so, I would like to know what he did/didn't like about it.

[KellyBass]

I love Jeff's playing...who doesn't? I know he recorded most of his latest album with the Tweed Champ. He works the volume knob so much and that makes me wonder what he would sound like with an Express. Surely, he has played through one in his travels. If so, I would like to know what he did/didn't like about it.

Exactly!! He seems perfect for the express. He would pull these screaming notes out of nowhere and let them swell into feedback...

Damn, I'd love to hear him through an express!

[vibratoking]

Just thinking out loud...

Could be that he doesn't want them blossoming into feedback. As he has gotten older, I have noticed that he likes the notes to maintain a more pure sound as they sustain. His recordings have quite a bit of reverb/delay that tends to 'boost' sustain while maintaining that pretty quality. So maybe the Wreck doesn't float his boat in that way. Just rambling...

[DerStever]

Maybe he doesn't know.......

[Gibsonman63]

I caught the show in Houston and he was amazing as always, but... this is the third time I've seen him. Would it really kill him to play "The Freeway Jam" just the one time for me?

That being said, it was one of the handful of shows that I have been to that I was really not ready for it to end.

... now I have to go back to my room and practice more.

[KellyBass]

Just thinking out loud...

Could be that he doesn't want them blossoming into feedback. As he has gotten older, I have noticed that he likes the notes to maintain a more pure sound as they sustain. His recordings have quite a bit of reverb/delay that tends to 'boost' sustain while maintaining that pretty quality. So maybe the Wreck doesn't float his boat in that way. Just rambling...

That's a good point. He does have a very delicate approach at times.

An interesting (maybe) thought occured to me last night. If I'm a hot shot rock god, do I want people thinking it's my amp...or me...that's making all the mojo. If I'm just using, what appears to be, an off the shelf amp...It's gotta be all me. If I lug around this beautiful, unobtainable wooden box with me everywhere, a huge part must be the box.

It could be that boutique amps and the rock ego don't mix very well. Now I'm ramblin'!...

[Gibsonman63]

Who's to say what is really going on inside those Marshall heads? There is much published about his guitars, expecially when he puts out a new signature model, but not much said about his amplifiers. To my ears, they are smoother sounding than stock and being a rock god, someone has to be maintaining them and possibly tweaking them for him.

[Buschman]

His version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat has got to be one of the most amazing guitar songs ever recorded. The feel and the diffirent tones take me to a different place.

[vibratoking]

Becks' tones on Pork Pie are incredible. The changes in tone produced by pickup changes, picking technique, volume manipulation, etc...are masterful. The other thing that makes that song for me is the harmony played by the keyboards. Those chords, especially in the intro...mmmmm

[toneslinger]

Yea seconds and thirds on that...
I bought a maestro ring mod like the one
Jan Hammer gave to Beck...

Thats the soaring through the atmosphere sound you hear
at the end where he goes off a bit.

They are very very touchy and have internal trim pots
to adjust that with.

Beck's sounds just amazing.

He still uses that pedal its on his board right now.

Great phrasing in that tune as well cause weve ended as lovers.

[Dano]

I might as well make my 1st ever post be about my favorite guitarist. I've loved Beck's playing since I first heard him...solo on Evil Hearted You. I think Goodbye Porkpie Hat is possibly the best electric guitar recording made with Cause We Ended as Lovers being a close second. It's his phrasing and use of dynamics and space that always gets me. Just stellar. I really like his current stuff as well. The guy just keeps getting better and pushing the musical horizon while others play catch up it seems. I can't wait to see him in June when he makes it to the midwest. The solo in Come Dancing stands out on Wired as well, also with the ring modulator.

[vibratoking]

I use a Moogerfooger Ring mod which I really like. I seem to be able to get what I want from it, but I've always wondered how it compares 'in-person' to the Maestro unit. I have the MF'er mounted in a drawer in my rack so knobs don't get turned, but I always need to adjust it to get the intermodulation tone in tune. It is pretty picky as far as that goes. Ring mod is fun, but only once or maybe twice a night.

I won't get into comparing Jeff's solos. You got me thinking about it, but as I sit here at my desk at work replaying his solos in my head they all seem like masterpieces.

I've often wondered how he usually ends up with great songs on his albums even though he is not technically a songwriter. Yes, he performs highly creative guitar parts to go with the great grooves, but usually someone else writes those great grooves. At least that is my impression from his(and others) interviews, song credits, etc... I'd love to be a fly on the wall when one of those songs comes together for the first time.