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Jeff Beck's real Oxblood

JJ Blair

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Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Messages
3,462
Nobody plays guitar like Jeff Beck. NOBODY. He could play a broomstick and a rubber band and still get great tone from his hands while blowing minds. Regardless of the guitar he chooses, he still sounds like Jeff Beck from the first note. :dude:

Yeah. Really minimal pedal thing, too. There's an Archer, and MXR Super Badass Variac Fuzz, a Echoplex pedal and a wah. That's it!
 

BSeneca

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Nov 17, 2011
Messages
128
I was just a kid when blow by blow came out. I didn’t know who Jeff Beck was but I was and am a huge Beatles fan and I bought the cassette because of She’s a Woman. His playing at the time was just beyond me. Now all these years later the album really has an impact on me. I don’t think Jeff ever had traditional lessons or reads. So how the hell did he go from Yardbirds era blues through Truth era into THAT!?! The only player I can WATCH what he is doing and STILL can’t play it!
 

LeonC

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Joined
Aug 30, 2002
Messages
799
Very interesting video! Thanks for posting. Anybody recognize the little Ampeg amp? Model?


Yup, he was using an Ampeg VT40 back then. And I believe he had a Princeton in front of it. Boy didn't that sound GREAT!??!! JB in that era was very, very influential to me. I had just started playing...I must have worn out several copies of Rough and Ready, the orange record and Blow by Blow...
 

VamboRool

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Nov 25, 2015
Messages
424
Very interesting video! Thanks for posting. Anybody recognize the little Ampeg amp? Model?
The only two Ampegs that I can think of that were that layout would be the VT-40 (tube and four 10s) and the GT-10 (solid state and one 10).
 

57gold

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Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
692
Thanks for posting that live video of the Oxblood in action.

What a badass player, great touch, phrasing and signature style! Also like that he can't ride the tremolo like he does these days, it's all his hands.

Love BBB as well and the three or so albums before that.

Have picked up most that followed, but whilst his playing is always fine, the songs are less so.
 

Sol

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Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
775
I've come to Jeff Becks music late in life and regret not doing so 25 yrs ago, when the fusion of guitar styles was one of the most dynamic and creative growth areas of progressive guitar music.

I've an opinion on Becks playing I want to put out there for your consideration and creative criticism.

I find that when Jeff is constrained to a guitar without a vibrato/trem, he is forced to reach deeper within himself to draw creative solutions to the melodic and harmonic challenges before him. This often results in his increased utilisation of the entire tonal and dynamic range of the guitar, frequently discovering new tones and sounds in the absence of a tremolo.
For this reason I love and value his Les Paul and Tele virtuosity above all else..

I m hoping this gets us all talking all things Beck..
 

goldtop0

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Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Messages
8,931
He's the most creative guitarist I've ever seen play........without peer.......so good,so expressive and emotive.
 

fernieite

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Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Messages
609
It's definitely a VT40. It's displayed prominently in another section of the show which you can watch here:
https://web.musicaficionado.com/main/video/-p05vOgGNSo

go to about 3:19 or so.

There's another Ampeg that looks quite similar to these - a 1969/1970 Reverbojet. I would have thought Becks's was a Reverbojet, judging by the size; but LeonC used to have one of these, so I'd go with his opinion that Beck's was a VT-40.

http://www.ampegv4.com/pdf/Ampeg Amplifier Catalog - 1971 Pg-8.pdf
 
Last edited:

LeonC

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 30, 2002
Messages
799
See screen grab from that show:
JB_BBC.jpg

It's a VT-40. The Reverbojet (19 H x 18 W x 11 1/2 D) while larger than a SF Princeton (12½ H x 19¾ W x 9½ D); it's not that much larger. JB's amp in the BBC series is clearly quite a bit larger than the Princeton. But you can see in the screen grab that the Ampeg amp is WAY bigger than the Princeton.

A top-loaded VT-40 is 22 H x 24 W x 11½ D. It's absolutely a VT-40 in that video.

Not only that, but no Reverbojet ever sounded that good :) They are extremely bright amps and aren't nearly as tonally flexible as the VT-40.
 

rockabilly69

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Messages
2,872
I've come to Jeff Becks music late in life and regret not doing so 25 yrs ago, when the fusion of guitar styles was one of the most dynamic and creative growth areas of progressive guitar music.

I've an opinion on Becks playing I want to put out there for your consideration and creative criticism.

I find that when Jeff is constrained to a guitar without a vibrato/trem, he is forced to reach deeper within himself to draw creative solutions to the melodic and harmonic challenges before him. This often results in his increased utilisation of the entire tonal and dynamic range of the guitar, frequently discovering new tones and sounds in the absence of a tremolo.
For this reason I love and value his Les Paul and Tele virtuosity above all else..

I m hoping this gets us all talking all things Beck..

I totally agree with everything you said, the trem is too much of a go-to for him these days. I've had this discussion with many friends over the years.
 
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