Fender Jeff Beck Signature Stratocaster

Mine is still a 100% original 2001-model - that means the already updated version which now is basically a standard Stratocaster, but with locking tuners, roller-nut and noiseless pickups.
But for those, who want to read all the details:
- USA-made in 2001
- 22 frets
- master-volume, 2 tone-controls (one for neck and one for middle/bridge pickup)
- standard Stratocaster S/S/S pickup configuration
- Fender Dual Coil Ceramic Noiseless Pickups (obviously a special construction for this guitar, not similar to the Vintage-Noiseless series)
- alder body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard
- olympic white with slightly aged pickup covers and knobs
- Fender American Standard Strat Tremolo (knife-edge non-locking)
- Fender locking machine heads
- especially designed fat C-shape neck - you got a lot of material in your hands, but still very comfortable and thinner that the original Beck-model neck
- case, strap, cable and tools included

I think: a modern version (noiseless and tuning stability) of the original Stratocaster - in that way perfect (if you want a Paula-sound, you won't buy this)

As this guitar is basically a Stratocaster, it is as flexible as the 60ies original - fits perfect to classic rock styles, but would also fit metal, blues, soul, reggae, .....
Together with a Fender Combo and Boss multi-fx, there are not any problems like noise or something - but hey, they call them noiseless for a reason!
This guitar can make a wide range of typical strat sounds with an extended range towards high gain, because the pickups are voiced slightly darker, especially the bridge unit.
I like both: the top-pro clean sounds and the really good-sounding drive-sounds
and: no dislikes - honestly!

- action was set up perfectly
- as well the pickups
but anyone may expect this from a guitar that costs that much
so I was quite disappointed when I realized that the the strings run slightly out of centre from nut towards body. It is not in any way problematic, but still an unexpected fault for a pro-guitar of this level

No problems until now and no problems expected.
BUT:
why do this Schaller-strap locks become loose on every guitar.
I experienced this on just any guitar equipped with those Schallers and I will replace them everywhere as soon as I found an alternative
but I will not let that influence the rating of the guitar

The experience, when complaining about the out of centre strings was quite bad - no real help available

I'm playing since 12 years now and had different stratocaster of my own and I checked out tons of Stratocaster at music stores - this is my favourite.
I would by it again without testing any other guitar, if it were stolen.
I compared it to a lot of other guitars like Fender Stratocaster Deluxe, G&L and others. Besides the locking-tuners, roller-nut, noiseless pickups and overall sound, it was this wonderful neck (feel and playability) that made up my decision
I cannot imagine, what could be improved !

1991
22 frets
s/s/h
active electronics

Lace Sensor pups are somewhat flat. Clean, but flat.
I have since replaced Lace pups with Fralin Blues Specials in the neck and middle position and a Steel poled 43 in the bridge.
Really good clean tone and very good edgy blues when put through a TS9. I always play through a Fender Twin with sometimes a little delay and compression.

The finish is really dissapointing. There are 2 lines running through the paint where the body appears to have been glued toghther. ( I am assuming this is a 3 piece body.) I not a 3 piece then I don't know what caused the lines as they run the whole lenght of the body horizontally on the face.
The fit in the neck pocket is really nice. I have owned this since 1991 and there is no sign of any movement or cracks, nothing.
Action was acceptable but is much better since I replaced the frets with Jumbo frets and blocked the trem and also replaced the original Wilkenson Nut with a LSR roller nut only because I now play with 11's for strings and 11's will not fit the original nut. I do although like both nuts and wish I could still use the Wilkenson.

Very Dependable. Stays in tune very well, especially after blocking trem. The neck on this guitar is large. This guitar is solid as a rock.

Ive been playing 12 years now. This was my first guitar and I will keep it and pass it on to my son when I die. I play this through a Fender Twin (evil Twin)clean channel with a Boss DD-3 for slight delay and a Modified TS9 for a little edge and a Keeley Compressor.
This is a great combination for any one from SRV to Robben Ford to Coco Montoya and a little Joe Pass and a little Keith and a little country.

This guitar was made in 95 or 96. Sea Foam green color, Gold Lace Sensor pickups, Wilkinson Roller nut, Sperzel locking tuners. Maple neck with Pao Ferro fingerboard. Included a tweed case and the usual Fender accessories.
The neck came with a deep baseball bat shape that I subsequently replaced with a Warmoth Strat neck with a compound radius and medium frets. It is a much nicer guitar to play now.

Sound is excellent. My style is blues, R&B, Ry Cooder. The pickups deliver very clean, ringing highs, lows, and bass, plus they deliver the entire range of patented Stratocaster tones, as well as having a beefier honk if you enable the 'double coil' configuration at the bridge. Brights are bright and the neck pickup delivers a very mean Hendrix/Stevie Ray thunder on demand. No complaints here.

Where was the QC department on this?
There were finish flaws in the body and in the neck. The body finish, presumably poly of some sort, had cracks around the 4-bolt neck plate and around the bridge (mostly hidden by the pickguard). The neck had a finish crack (more like a finish 'split') along the skunk stripe.
The Sperzel locking tuners were extremely poor quality. The tuner grommets, which screw down onto the tuning posts on the face of the peghead, were made of a soft metal that allowed the threads to strip out under VERY little torque. I stripped one the day I bought the guitar, simply by tightening down a loose tuner grommet. I have subsequently replaced them with Gotohs.

It seems very reliable now, since replacement of the tuners.

N/A

I rate it a 7 out of the box, because of the finish issues and crummy tuners. The fact that I changed necks because I ultimately didn't like the feel is subjective - I knew I was buying a beefy neck.
After replacing the tuners and the neck, this is my ultimate Stratocaster - a definite 10. Too bad Fender didn't make it that way to begin with.

Innovative, tasteful, tuneful and visionary... That's how we describe Jeff Beck, and his trusty Strat is certainly part of his signature sound. This updated model reflects the significant changes Jeff made to his guitar to accommodate his constantly evolving style. You'll notice the new neck shape is a softer "C," not as large or deep as Jeff's previous choice. Also, the guitar features the new Fender special design dual-coil ceramic NoiselessTM pickups, a contoured heel for easier access to the higher registers, and straight-ahead Strat 5-way switching.

Jeff's updated signature model had better pickups than the previous one. It had also a softer C-shaped neck, not deep and large than his previous choice. His famous warhorse sported Lace Sensor Gold pickups in an efficacious HSS configuration and a clubby maple neck with Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. The Gold Lace Sensor Dually - who was basically two adjacent pickups - looked like a humbucker placed in the bridge position with a push-push mini toggle switch for single or dual-coil pickup operation. After 10 years of extensive use of Lace Sensor pickups, Jeff switched to the Vintage-Noiseless pickups in 2001.

Jeff wanted a softer neck shape for his trusty Strat to accommodate his constantly evolving style. Otherwise, the new Jeff Beck Stratocaster stresses the quality of the model, developed from various early-'60s vintage-style Strats. A new contoured heel now allows the full access to the upper frets for total playing comfort. From the American Series pivot-point tremolo to the LSR roller nut and the Schaller locking tuners, the essential features of this reworked guitar are faithfully replicated. It's a pity that the new model was not available in the cool Midnight Purple finish, the fact that the Olympic White and Surf Green came as "standard" finishes on this wonderful instrument.

Jeff Beck was not only famous for playing a Strat. During its early career with the Yardbirds, he mostly used a cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard (purchased from the Selmer store in 1966) and a 1950s butterscotch Fender Broadcaster fitted with Seymour Duncan Antiquity Tele pickups. Jeff switched to Fender Stratocasters in 1976 during the "Wired" album release (strongly influenced by his good old friends Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton) and since 1980 he plays several guitars (including a Jackson Soloist superstrat, made in 1985). For honouring Gene Vincent's toting guitarist Cliff Gallup, Jeff Beck used a single-cutaway Gretsch Duo-Jet solidbody to record the "Crazy Legs" album in 1993.

Can't dealt with Fender yet, sorry....

Most of the features of this trusty signature Strat had been kept (the pivot trem, the locking tuners and the roller nut), but the new changes (the softer neck shape, the contoured heel joint and the dual-coil Ceramic Vintage-Noiseless pickups) reflected in some points Jeff's current choice for updating his signature model, rather than the previous one with its early-'50s deep profile and the Gold Lace Sensor HSS pickups. Both signature Beck models (the old and the new) are specially designed to meet the demands of Jeff's virtuosity.

This is the brand-new model--mine's a 2003 and not to be confused with the original JB signature model. USA made, naturally. Solid Alder, I think. Comes with a tweed case, surprisingly acceptable-looking Fender strap (not the one I'm used to seeing), extra trem springs, 10 foot patch cord, adjustment allen keys, instruction book.

It has the standard Strat controls--Vol, tone, tone, five-way selector. All modern hardware--two-point knife-edge tremolo, cast bridge pieces, locking tuners, roller nut (not a Wilkinson), strap-lock ready strap buttons (I hate these, but the quality's great--it's a personal thing).

Uses the new Noiseless pickups, but a special "hot" version that uses different magnets. To the best of my knowledge, these are only available on this model.

Maple neck, satin finish with skunk stripe and rosewood fingerboard, medium-jumbo frets. The real headline here, though, is that it is NOT AT ALL like the original Jeff Beck neck. That think was like a tree trunk. The new neck is the best one Fender makes, in my opinion. Up by the headstock, it's fairly full and rounded, but no more so (and maybe less) than an American Standard Strat. As you move toward the body, the neck profile becomes less "c" shaped and more "u" shaped, and gets thinner. It makes for a guitar that feels great playing open chords, yet is also very easy to play fast runs up high. Just as I hated the old Beck neck, the new one is fantastic.

I've rated this down just a bit for one reason--it only comes in two colors, dang it.

The sound of this guitar is amazing. The new pickups are terrific. What they are NOT, though, is classic Strat pickups. They are substantially higher output, for one thing. The neck pickup is a good deal more midrangy, and does not have some of the twang you might expect. This guitar sports the first Strat middle pickup that I'd consider using by itself--bright and clean. Bell-like might be appropriate. The bridge has a lot of twang, but not with the piercing highs that you find on a standard. For some this may be a disadvantage, but for those of us who've been trying to get a meatier strat tone, this is home.

You still have the usual wide range of strat sounds, but slightly different--stronger and slightly darker. To my ears, the settings that combine pickups are much better than usual--better balanced and because the middle pickup sounds so good, they are usually full. I find that combining, say, the neck and middle on a standard strat leaves me feeling like I'm hearing the neck and middle pickups. On this guitar, it sounds like one new pickup that's very different, and quite rich.

The pickups are also very quiet--quieter even than other vintage Noiseless pickups I've auditioned.

The setup on this guitar was top-notch. I don't know whether this is a factory setup or not, but since it had to be brought up from the basement, I imagine it's the factory setup. Action is great, intonation (inasmuch as I could tell) is fine.

I'm a little suspicious of the pickup positioning--they seem really far from the strings. I may mess with that a little, but I'm not going to go nuts--it sounds really really good as-is.

I will be changing out the 9's (strings) that came on it for 10's, and suspect I may have to adjust some things once I do that. I will also be pulling the tremolo down to the face of the guitar. I seldom use one--on my other guitar it's blocked. With the new nut, I think I'll leave this tremolo useable, but not floating.

Finish seems flawless so far.

I couldn't say what the reliability is, but I trust it--it's a Fender, and doesn't appear to be a lemon.


I probably wouldn't gig it without a backup, but does anyone ever do that anyway?

Don't know anything about dealing with Fender--hope I never have to.

I've been playing for about 20 years, and only own two other guitars. One is a Hamer Special P90, which is a totally different animal (love it, though), and the other is a $250 Charvel Model 1 that I put a single coil at the neck. I've had the Hamer for about 6 years, and the Charvel for 12, with the Charvel being my workhorse through 3 years of playing out with a band. Been playing for nearly 10 years through an MXR Distortion+, Crybaby Wah into a Yamaha T100C (1x12 Soldano designed tube combo), and doubt I'll change much. I've known for a while that I wanted something else, and figured a Strat was the right thing--it'll do straight-ahead rock well, and is unmatched for blues.

I've had to do a lot of research to find the perfect Strat, though. Once you get to a certain level of expertise, you know what you want in pretty much every aspect of a guitar, and it's hard to compromise on any one thing. For me, it was Strat, modern hardware, rosewood fingerboard, some kind of noiseless s/s/s configuration, medium-to-jumbo frets, fatter sound than usual, and not the graceless baseball bat that most Strat necks are. That left me pretty nearly high and dry--there were three choices: The new Clapton (near perfect but for vintage frets), The Classic Player (standard neck, no fat tone), or the Jeff Beck.

I was worried at first about this guitar--most literature and reviews mention that the neck is not nearly as extreme as the old JB neck was (and I thought that an unplayable nightmare). But what nobody says is that this is in fact an extremely moderate and graceful neck. As I said before, I've never seen its equal. I've seen some aftermarket neck diagrams that sounded like this, but never seen a stocker this nice. If you're worried about the neck on this guitar, you owe it to yourself to try it out--it's a 180 degree turn from the old ones.

As much as I love the neck, though, it was the tone that sold me. The salesman (a guy I know personally and trust) said that they get calls every day from guys wanting the HOT vintage noiseless pickups, but they can't get them. I see why (though I don't see why anyone wouldn't just buy the JB and be done with it).

If mine was stolen, you bet I'd replace it, and right away (well, I might have to save up a little--they're not cheap). I didn't even intend to buy a guitar the day I tried it. I didn't even intend to try the JB at all--I was trying the Classic Player, but the sales guy urged me to give the JB a chance when I said what I disliked about the other Strats I'd tried. I played it for 1/2 hour, and knew I had to have it.

I know that not everyone wants a rosewood neck, or maybe they want a Fat strat, or maybe they like the more cutting tone of the other noiseless pickups, but if you are looking for what I listed above, you really need to check out this guitar.

2002 Model: Oly White,new cut-away base plate at neck heel,new noiseless pickups. The rest is covered in other posts!

Style? 60's - 80's Rock mostly. Bought this model since it appears to cover several styles.

Set up was acceptable. Flaw? Chipped Body joint - where it meets the neck.Reason to return to Fender? No. Not noticeable unless you look for it.But rate it low for this reason. At this price, this guitar should be near flawless.Shows American made (assembled) does not mean jack anymore.

Reliable - like most Strats I am sure. On the heavy side overall, so should take a whupping!

No experience here. No comment.

Playing on & off since 1976. Would probably replace this one if it was lost or stolen.

2001 USA Made, "new' model. mine's olympic white wit h the white pickguard (i changed it out to a bronze moto for a hip look), 22 medium frets, LSR Roller Nut (take THAT! wilkinson), Locking tuners, medium maple neck with rosewood fretboard, alder body, 3 Fender Hot-Noiseless Ceramic single coils, volume, tone, tone controls, 5 way switching. American Standard tremelo bridge, came with Tweed Fender Case, cable, polishing cloth, straplocks (why don't all guitars come with straplocks?!), tools, trem bar, etc. For the money, you get a whole lotta features that are all 100% usuable, hence my "10".

My style(s) are pop, funk, latin, blues, R&B, and gospel. I'm playing through these effects: Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive (modded by my tech for ultimate smoothness), Vox Wah-Wah, Akai E1 Headrush loop/delay pedal, Voodoo Labs Tremelo, EH Small Clone Chorus, Ibanez LF-1 Lo-Fi Filter. Through a 1995 Mesa/Boogie DC-5 combo (for some things), otherwise I run the SD-1, Wah, and Akai into a '73 Silverface Twin with Jensen speakers. Now, I really like these pickups because they are what they say- hot and noiseless. No noise. No hum. When playing a strat thru a vintage twin, noise can be a damned problem, which is the main reason I'm liking the HN's so much. Now, you don't get a pure vintage single coil sound, and I do prefer the Fender '69 pickups for that pure tone. But as far as versatility, I prefer the HBs in my Jeff Beck. The bridge pickup is usable- less shreiking highs than my old AmStd Strat, but it still could use a tad more low end to even things out when used 100% clean- I'm thinking about a Fralin baseplate to smooth things out here. The middle and neck pickups are fabulous- neck is very smooth and buttery, and the 2&4 "in-between" positions are probably my favorite for those funky rhythm licks, NOTE- at first, the sound wasn't really up to my standards and I considered taking the Jeff Beck back, but... ***PLAY WITH THE PICKUP HEIGHTS!!!!*** these pickups are VERY sensitive to your string gauge and pickup height, those two go hand in hand. For the record, I use Thomastik .11s or DR .11s, depending on how poor I am that month (I still like good strings)

I had it setup upon purchasing, with my choice of Thomstik .11s, but as noted in "Sound", you really have to play with the pickups to find the ideal height, mine sound superb now. Fit and finish are A-OK, very tight neck pocket, fretwork is fine (not perfect, but for the price you can't complain). Easily equal to the PRS CE24 I used to own.

You shouldn't have a problem with a Strat, I never have and doubt I really will.

I used to work in a music shop, and I did deal with the company reps and they are great guys, but never as a consumer, but I'll give em a rating anyways.

This is my ideal strat for under $3000. From August to December, I was occupied with finding the perfect strat for my needs, and the JB did it for me. I wanted a vintage guitar, but honestly, the new ones feel better to me, I couldn't really justify the extra expense for a vintage piece. The sound is nearly perfect for everything I do, just want to try that Fralin baseplate on the bridge pickup, maybe smooth it out, then I would be as happy as a pig in shit.

I have the new Jeff Beck Strat in Olympic White finish with the Noiseless single-coil pickups, new neck profile (thinner but still has a nice heftiness to it), and the LSR nut, which is a vast improvement over the Wilkinson roller nut. Other than these features, it's a typical Strat with alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, 3 single-coil pickups and a 5-way switch. I used to own an old Surf Green JB Strat with the Lace Sensors and I could honestly say that this new incarnation is a VAST improvement. The new JB Strat stays in tune better, doesn't have the annoying open-string rattling caused by the Wilkinson nut, and the new pickups sound a LOT better than the Lace Sensors, which I think are just terrible pickups. This Strat also has a heel cutaway that makes upper register access a lot easier. It's a nice feature. As far as Strats are concerned, this new JB Strat pretty much covers it all. I can't imagine adding anything more to it and still retain its Stratocaster character.

I play a variety of styles and own a variety of guitars. I'm a true believer that no one guitar and/or amp could do it all. My other guitars are a Brian Moore MC/1, a Parker Fly Artist, a PRS Custom 22, and an Ibanez JS1000. So compared to those guitars, this Strat is the most "traditional" solid-body electric that I have in terms of look, sound, and feel.

I felt I needed to have a Strat around with the single-coil pickups. One thing I've always hated about the single-coil pickups is the noise but this one doesn't have it. It's pretty damn quiet while retaining the single-coil character for the most part. The Noiseless pickups in this JB model is also somewhat hotter than the Vintage Noiseless single-coils. I like to play with high-gain distortion a lot, so it helps to have some more kick from the pickups. The output is still nowhere near that of typical dual-coil humbucking pickups, but it's definitely hotter than vintage-style single-coils.

The guitar on its own (acoustically) has a typical warm, open and springy sound. I'm sure the the hefty neck adds a lot to the tone of this guitar. The alder body/maple neck/rosewood FB combination is a classic that I do not feel has been surpassed on a bolt-on guitar.

The new JB Strat sounds great. I personally feel that this is as far as you can take a Strat and still retain the timeless Strat character. Once you start adding Floyd Rose bridges or dual-coil humbucking pickups, etc., it really isn't a Strat anymore. This guitar embraces the modern concepts while retaining the classic Strat character.

The action, fit and finish on mine out of the factory was just fine. I put on a set of .010's as soon as I got the guitar because Strats just sound wimpy with .009's. Putting on .010's improved the overall sound and feel a great deal. It also meant I had to readjust the tremolo cavity springs, the truss rod and the action, but I'm pretty good with that stuff, so it was no problem.

The fretwork is excellent for a mass-produced factory guitar. The action needs to be set higher than on guitars like a Brian Moore MC/1 or the Ibanez JS1000, but I believe that's the way Strats should be set up: thicker strings with higher action. Strats sound and respond much better that way. This is a guitar that you want to dig your fingers into. It's not something you want to play Holdsworthian legato licks on.

The new neck shape is just splendid. It's got the heft but is very comfortable. The first JB models had that ridiculous end-of-the-baseball-bat chunkiness that I could never really get used to. I don't like thin necks, but that one was a little too much in the other direction. This new neck shape is one of the best I have ever felt on any electric guitar.

This is a professional instrument and is going to stand up to the rigors of live playing night after night.

Thank God that I won't need to deal with the Fender Customer Service staff.

As I said earlier, no one guitar could do it all. I play a lot of styles but prefer high-speed fusion kind of stuff personally. For that kind of stuff, my other guitars like the Brian Moore MC/1 and the Ibanez JS1000 suit me better. For more tonal variety, I also use the Parker Fly Artist and the PRS Custom 22. Still, this new JB Strat could also cover a variety of musical styles very well. The only styles that I would not try to cover with this guitar would be heavy metal and jazz.

It's a Strat and it does everything that a Strat is supposed to do and does all of that better than any other Strat I've owned. If this one got lost or stolen, I'd definitely replace it with the exact same model. The only thing I wish Fender would do with all their Artist Signature models is to remove the signature from the face of the headstock. Why not put that on the back?

Overall, the new JB Strat is a great instrument that takes the feature set to the limits while retaining its great classic characteristics. I love Jeff Beck, but I don't care about getting his sound. I want an instrument that fits MY own peculiar wants and needs and this Strat fits me better than any other Strat that I've tried.

Purple, 93'(possibly ealier) made in the US blah blah blah blah

I recieved this guitar as a gift so it packs sentimental value. I hated the wilkenson roller nut, the locking tuners, the pickups and the trem block (too thin, the block should be thicker then this)....since I have all my strats customized by my tech, he and I have had to really work with this guitar to make it enjoyable...New pickups(lipsticks, our own wiring which is secret) new tuners and my tech made me a new nut made of ivory...it would have been less costly to just trade for a new strat but it was a gift so I was stuck...I also need dunlop 6100 fretwire so this guitar needed a fretjob...I use 12 to 60 guage strings so you can see why I had to change the roller nut.....after all this, my guitar was thought to have come out of the custom shop, the sound of this thing is killer but for price I had to pay to have all this shit done was just wrong...I give it a one for the initial guitar, and a 10 for the work I have put into it

the factory set up on all strats that I have played and owned sucked which is why I thank god for my techie......he is a miracle worker...thanks Rick K.

I always travel with at least 5 guitars....this strat, like all my others, is used here and there.....whenever I feel like using it

always been a fender guy, but have never dealt with them

Been playing for about 11 years, I own a 61' strat, a red strat, an orange strat, a jeff beck strat, a 57' reissue...

See previous reviews for details.

I originally sold my Steinberger GL2T to pick up an instrument with some soul and less perfection--specifically with single coil pickups. Looking for a similar feel in the neck, I ended up with the JB strat primarily for the rosewood fretboard and the meaty neck. I would have liked the bite of regular pickups, but the splittable Lace Dually in the bridge position made it a real attraction. I cover styles from early 80s clean sounds (The Tubes) to modern grunge rock, and this guitar does a better job of covering that range than any other instrument I've known. I may upgrade pickups soon to EMG's.

I bought it used, and until very recently the set-up was poor. However, studying a few recommendations on string set-up for tremolo-bridge strats made a huge difference, and now it plays like a fraggin' dream!

I read an earlier review and was surprised to hear another JB strat owner has an intermittent neck position pickup. I, too, had that exact same problem. The pickup became thermally intermittent--that is, when the instrument was cold (or at least not under the influence of stage lighting...), the pickup worked fine. As soon as the stage heated up, the windings on the pickup would open up. Less than $50 for a new pickup + 30 minutes of soldering, etc., cleared up the problem, and I've had none since other than string breakage.

N/A

This is a 1997 model; surf green. I won't go into all of the details as the other have above, except to note that I have changed out the pick-ups for a set of Blues Special Lindy Fralin Pick-Up set, purchased from Torres.

I am basically centered around rock and blues, though I do appreciate many other styles as well. But for rock and blues, this guitar is pretty tough to beat. Pretty great strat sounds from all positions...I think that a lot of it has to do with that HUGE neck.

In fact, even stock, with the lace sensors the tone was pretty great. To be honest, I wanted a bit more of a vintage look and sound and the pick up upgrades did just that.

I play this through a Mesa Maverick and am quite pleased with the variety of tones. It does tend to need a stomp box if you want searing sustain, as the Mav is more of a mid-gain set up. Humbuckers definately drive the front end harder than the fralins.

There is also a bit of noise with the fralins, but Lindy says there wil be right on his site!

I actually bought this used and it was set up O.K., but only O.K. nneded more than a bit of tweaking...But once that was done, everything was perfect.

Hey it's a strat! You can (and I have) drop a strat and expect the thing to be in tune when you pick it back up... I am not exactly easy on my stuff, and this (and other Fender gear that I have or still own) has been great. I do not like to gig with only one guitar anyway (I'm a bit heavy handed and can break strings regularly) but I suppose if I had to this would be O.K.

Never had to...

I've been playing for almost 20 years and own multiple guitars and amps including PRS, Gibson, etc. I would certainly entertain another JB Strat if it were stolen or whatever...Especially now that they have done a few mods, including replacing pick-ups. I actually chose this guitar because I had been playing Les Pauls and wanted to get back into strats, but had grown acustomed to the bigger necks on the LP's...As it turns out, this thing has a bigger neck than many LP's I've played!

I've played rock (Van Halen style), blues, and country with this guitar.

The setup and finish was very good. Neck position pickup developed intermittent problem (my reason for the poor rating).

I bought this guitar especially for live performance. I broke a B string after 2 hours of playing and decided to replace the bridge saddles with a set of Graphtechs (no recurance of premature string breakage). The neck position pickup quit working leaving me leary of the reliability of Fender Lace Sensors. I wouldn't use any guitar without a backup, but since the pickup failure the backup guitar will remain readilly available.

The lack of a toll-free phone number for customer support sends up a red flag. I also have not been able to find an email address for customer support or anyone with the company on their website (It seems they are insulating themselves from the problems encountered with their products). I have been trying to get the local Fender dealer to replace the pickup for 6 weeks (three visits). It is an intermittent problem which has not been cured by re-soldering a suspected "cold solder joint", reversing wires that caused the pickup to be "out of phase", or whatever "mojo" Fender forgot to bless it with before it left the factory. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll diagnose the bad pickup before the warranty runs out (I think it's has a one year warranty).

I've been playing 20 years. I also play a Charvel, a bastardized Strat with a Warmoth neck, and a Tobias. If the Jeff Beck Strat were stolen or lost, I would get something else. One good thing is the tone in the bridge pickup position with a Marshall tone. It has some good blues tones, too (when the neck position pickup is working). The ablility to stay in tune after dive bombing the tremolo is disappointing as I was expecting better after the way this model was hyped. My goal was to purchase a high performance guitar. For the price I paid, it should work flawlessly.

1999 corona california -22 frets -antique white-3 gold lace sensor pickups/s/s/h-rosewood fingerboard-schaller locking tuners-fat neck-tweed hardshell case.

it covers all the tunes i use a electric for. i run a 50 watt sovtek head thru a 61 bandmaster cabinet with a 707 effects mod to simulate reverb. its not as warm as the noiseless pickups but it has a fatter sound than the american standard and the humbucker will just cut through with bitting treble. the roller nut and vibrato work well on string bending and the guitar does stay in tune when you beat on it.

the factory did a great job on the set up . this thing sat on the shelf for 2 years before i bought it. the workmanship was flawless.

i've called fender before- its ok but they need a 1 800 number. i think gibson does a better job!

ive been playing as long as beck-34 yrs-(i think) i currenty own a taylor acoustic 614ce and a early epiphone thin line emperior. i sold my 89 strat in order to pay for the beck. the beck is very solid.

1996 hand made in usa,
stratocaster with 22 frets volume,tone,TBX 5-way selector,
s/s/dual(which you can switch from single to hum) lace sensors gold,
maple neck, rosewood finish, alder body, vintage white color.
american deluxe bridge, LSR roller and sprezal locking.
very fat neck.
tweed case, strap and cables included.

i couldn't imagine a guitar with wider range of possibilities then this.

i play usualy 70's rock, like led zep and pink floyd, also a lot of my own stuff, i use fender all tube amp : "hot rod deluxe" and i also have a zoom gfx-8 and wireless samson cable,
all togather it's the best, i could sound like whoever i want with a veraity of sounds i couldn't imagina going out from just one guitar, but only cause i own a fender all tube amp, if you have a marshal, maybe you should consider something else.
i know meny of you won't like the lace sensors pickups for them being over clean, without a single buzz, but i love them, especialy the dual which i can switch it from single to hum.

this guitar didn't need setup at all for 3 years, everything was perfect, from the pickups to the neck.
the finish is the best fender make, looks very impressive.
also it never goes out of tune for me, i can play for two or three weeks and not tune it.
you also have to know that this baby has a fat neck like you have never seen,i love it ,but it's hard to get used to ,so you should know what you are buying,i would give it a -10
but not everyone can play it and feel comfortable.

have to say that i never tested it for a long lasting concert, so i don't know.

i'm playing for 7 years, i also have 2 nylon-strings acustics, i have been thinkin for a whie about buying a ibanez jem but when i played it i just wanted to play the jeff beck again,
my opinion is that if you are comfortable with this fat neck, you won't need any other guitar, it is the les paul, the 50's strat and alot more in one guitar.
i woudn't trade it for anything.

bought in atlanta 1997,
look for the rest in www.fender.com...

i suits my music style perfectly, all kinds if new sounds that i learn to know about every day...i usualy play old classic rock, like led zeppelin, but i'm not even close to discover the veraity of the ful sounds rang eof this baby...
I use a fender all tube amp, HOTROD DELOUX and a zoom gfx-8, both fukin' graet.
this guitar has the most beautiful, clean sound, you'll never find cleaner then that.

this is the best guitar fender makes.

i have total confidace in it

don;t know

this is the best guitar anyone can make, the ret is compermise

Fender Jeff Beck model. Alder body, surf green,lace sensor pickups, locking tuners...etc.etc.got it brand new, last month,02-2001.the only thing i did to mod it was to put a Musiworks cocoboola neck on it. the neck is almost the same size & feel of the beck neck, but has a 15 " radius..

before i got it i read all the reviews posted here, let me first say that the lace sensor pickups sound fantastic, i set them real close to the strings, and back them off a bit on the volume to 7-8 on clean and 9-9.5 on crunch...i use rivera amps, maybe thats why they sound great...i boost my leads with a boss overdrive, and the leads sound awesome, full of harmonics, the clean tone is as good as it gets.the alder wood body gives a very sweet open sound.

The guitar was set up ok from the store, i traded in a very used anderson drop top, and a newer ernie ball axis, for this guitar and a cool brown case. the people at guitar center in sacramento ca. worked the deal i wanted with no money needed..very cool...i did play a few new PRS guitars and a bunch of fenders and musicman guitars, but this guitar sounded fuller and more open with a nice top end that just sang with tone,,alot of people in the store said the same thing.

the finish is very good,,the parts seem solid, i compared this axe to my vintage strat, and it equals it in feel & sound,,,i always take 2 guitars to gigs, but i would take this guitar alone, and not feel any pressure of failure..fender did a good job on this axe...i will keep the neck as a backup, it is a good neck, i just like a flatter radi.

i never delt with Fender, but they make killer guitars, i never had a need to bitch....

I have had a ton of strat type guitars, from anderson to Zion's. the 2 best guitars i have, a 74 strat with a warmoth neck and emg pickups, and this beck model..i love the sound and flexabillity of this axe..i know i will be playing this one for a long time..if it was lost i would get another the next day. i think i made myself the ultimate strat and i am very happy....

This baby was made in 1996 in the US of A...
22 fret alder body, w/ maple neck,(rosewood fretboard)...
Pickups are all Fender Lace Sensor Golds(YUCH!!!!!!!!!)...
Neck: Single, Middle: Single, Bridge: 2 singles side by side, (humbucking or single, & switchable)...
Contols are standard Strat: volume, tone, tone,(TBX cicuit in bottom tone pot)...
The tuners are Schaller locking..
The nut is an LSR roller nut...
The bridge is a Fender fulcrum pivot type..
The guitar came equipped with Schaller strap lock buttons...
My "JB" is Surf Green...
The guitar comes with all the goodies: "Tweed" case, strap, cable, wrenches, spare springs, polishing cloth, ...the works!!!

OK...before I get into the nuts and bolts of this puppy, let's get one thing straight right off: Lace Sensor Pickups LICK SACK!!!!!!!!!!
if you are considering buying any Fender guitar, be forewarned...these things have no SOUL!!!....cold, thin, and LOW output,(the golds anyway)...once I dispensed with those and installed some good pickups, this guitar went from pretty cool to awesome sounding!!!
So...I play in an original hard rock/metal band, and a top 40/ classic rock band as well...
I always wanted a quality Strat type guitar, and being a HUGE Jeff Beck freak I gave this a try...
I love this guitar...the bad rap about this thing having a baseball bat neck just ain't true...mine is very playable...average in size I would say...maybe I just got lucky???
Very comfortable guitar overall, balances well, feels " friendly"!!...
I installed 2 Fender Texas Specials,:neck and middle, and a Seymour Duncan JB (what else?), in the bridge...
this set up is THE SHIT!!!...
gets that sweet 60 cycle Strat hum, and a crunchy bridge humbucking tone as well...very versatile set up for my needs...
I like everything about this baby, except the aforementioned LACE STINKUPS!!!..ha ha

No complaints at all about the set up on my Beck...played great right off the rack.....neck pocket was nice and tight...no finish flaws...A-OK!!!

This thing is built to last....I'm pretty hard on my stuff, but this baby seems solid...
Gig without a backup?...ya ...when pigs fly!!!!

As far as customer support, they have been great...I emailed their tech guy about suggestions for replacement pickups and he got back to me fast.....very helpful...
The guitar has a lifetime warranty...SWEET!!!
Oh ya ....the website is very cool!!!

I've been playing for 25 years, and have been through a shit load of stuff...so I know a good guitar from a bad one.....
This sucker covers all my needs, it plays , sounds , and feels like quality!!...I'd replace it if stolen, and poke the creeps eyes out with string ends if I cought him!(or her!!!!!!)
Just heed my warning about the Lace Sensors....heck, Jeff Beck himself don't play em'...so there you go!!!!!!!!

My baby was made in 1999, I ordered it through Guitar Center from Fender, who made it just for me because they didn't have any Midnight Purple ones in stock at the time. LSR roller nut, 22 frets, alder body (probably centerjoin), thick neck, locking tuners(Schallers I think), 1 volume, 2 tone, 2 Gold Lace Sensor singles and one Gold Lace Sensor humbucker, coil split button, 5-way switch, American Deluxe floating trem. She's got a rosewood fingerboard, and came with a cable, tools, and a polish cloth. The gigbag was extra.

She suits me fine, I play all kinds of stuff: blues, jazz, rock & roll, hard rock, old school heavy metal, thrash metal, fusion, and I just started trying to learn bluegrass. I play through a Line 6 AX2, and can get a whole bunch of tones. The tone of this guitar is very full and muscular, especially the neck pickup, but I want to change the bridge humbucker to a different model of Lace Sensor for a little more of a PAF sound. There is very little noise with this guitar, unless your near some types of lights, then occasionally there is a buzz.

The finish is great, it was still a little tacky when I got it and I got a little purple on my hand the first time I picked it up. The set up was fine from the factory, I don't know if they did a set up at the store. I put heavier strings on, though, since it came with .009's which are a little wimpy for my taste.

This guitar has survived a handful of gigs, she's very solid. When I first got the guitar, it busted strings constantly, I had to put String Savers on. Now strings last forever, and the tone was sweetened a little. Using the tremelo made the guitar go way out of tune every time, even with a roller nut and locking tuners. I had a Trem Setter installed and now it is a lot better, but still goes out of tune sometimes. I want to put in another tremsetter eventually. I have gigged without a backup with it once because I didn't have a decent backup, and though I would never deliberately do it again, I don't think I'd have any problems. The score I gave was for the STOCK guitar. Now it'd be a 10.

Fender was great about my order, they had to make one specifically for me because I hated the Surf Green color option and wanted the Midnight Purple. Guitar Center was FANTASTIC, the salesman was Walter White, and he bent of backwards to accomodate me, he even let me keep a Lonestar Strat for a really long time until the Beck came in. Another salesman, Jeff Repp, is a guitar tech and installed the Tremsetter for me overnight for $20 (I supplied the Tremsetter), I am going to use him a lot I think.

I've been playing 10 years, use a Line 6 AX2, a Peavey Transtube Bandit, a mid 70's Polaris Solidbody, and an Oscar Schmidt OG-6 acoustic. I love this guitar, if it were stolen or lost I'd be devastated. I might then try to put together a Warmoth Strat, or something. I'd never be able to replace this guitar, I don't get a thousand bucks together very often. I originally ordered a Carvin DC127, which was a nice guitar, but I'm more of a strat cat so I sent it back. I then got a Lonestar Strat, which I liked, but I wanted locking tuners, a coil splitter, and a fatter neck. As I said earlier, I want to change the bridge humbucker and have another tremsetter installed, but this is definitely my main axe for the forseeable future. My band gets mostly cover gigs, and we are working on original tunes. We want to do a DIY cd sometime this year. This guitar/amp setup is extremely versatile and reliable.

Purchesed in November, 1998. I had my local music store order my Jeff Beck Signature Strat brand new directly from Fender. I made sure none of the employees opened the case or even remove any of the plastic protection film from the case latches etc.. My main guitar before the Jeff Beck is a Strat that I had built from hand picked custom parts but I've always wanted an authentic Fender Strat. The features on this guitar are what really attracted me to it. The Jeff Beck has 22 Frets, Alder body, Maple neck with roewood fretboard and bi-flex trussrod. It has Schaller locking tuners, 4 Fender Gold Lace Sensor pickups with two of them side by side humbucker style in the bridge position. The pickups have a 5 way blade switch as well as a push button to turn on\off one of the Sensors in the bridge position. It has and American Standard 2-point tremolo with an LSR roller nut. The tweed case with gold hardware is ultra, ultra cool! I love walking into a gig with it.

The sound is crsp and clear. My other main guitar has a Seymor Duncan JB humbucker in the bridge position with coil split and phase switching. The Jeff Beck Signature Strat is so much brighter and crystalline sounding than my humbucker equipped strat. I love the lace sensors although they have more hum than I am used to with my humbucker. The sensors still have far less hum than a traditional single coil. The pickups distort nicely with my Digitech 2120 Valve Guitar system. They don't have quite the sustain as the humbucker. They also don't get that really smooth heavy metal distortion. Where they excel though is Hard Rock, Rock, Blues, Jazz, and Country. The thing about this guitar is the clarity of the tone. You can hear the slightest nuances of the attack. The middle and neck position pickups are absolutely classic Fender Strat sounding!! I love that. The dual bridge pickup really gives you a thick sound with both coils on. It's definately a nice design idea. One thing I did with mine is switch the positions of the two bridge pickups. I wanted the pickup closest to the bridge to be on when I went to single coil instead of the one farther away. After I did this I got an unbelievably bright sound out of the single coil bridge setting. I can get downright irritating with the brightness yet control it nicely with the tone pot and a slight change in attack as well. After I made the change I switched both pickups on and it was smooth and bright with a midrange punch. This guitar can make so many different sounds it is amazing. One thing I don't like sound wise is with the volume pot all the way up you get some guitar generated distortion if you attack to hard with your pick. It's easily controlled though by turning the pot to 9 or just picking a little lighter.

I was the one who did the setup on this guitar. It had gone out of factory spec slightly during shipping with the strings slackened. I had to straighten the truss rod slightly. Adjust the individual string heights, and do some slight intonation adjustments. I set it up as soon as I got it home and then set it up again after about 15 hours of playing time. It has stayed beautifully set up ever since. I have not had to make any adjutments to it since that second setup. It's really built rock solid. I did have to put a drop of wood glue on the strap button screws and on the neck bolts to set them in tight. They haven't loosened a bit since. That's a trick I learned from my custom built guitar. The locking tuners and roller nut are one of the most impressive things about this guitar. After being used to tuning, locking, re-tuning and re-locking my Floyd Rose double locking tremelo on my other guitar I couldn't believe how fast i had the Jeff Beck Signature restrung and staying in tune. For someone who hates the tedium of re-stringing a guitar you HAVE to get locking tuners. Just because it's so easy i change the strings twice as often on this guitar as I do my other. As for staying in tune the roller nut\locking tuner setup does very well. It will never stay in tune as well as a Floyd Rose double locking system. It does stay in tune well enough that I can use the whammy for 3-4 note dives and it comes right back in tune. It never goes out of tune simply from note bending. Dive bombing till the strings go slack are something to be avoided on this guitar. I do use the tremolo for David Gilmour type vibrato and it works perfecltly. I would have liked a harder finish coat on the paint. The paint is still a little soft on mine because it is so new. It will harden over time though. The paint job was flawless though. I got the surf green because that's what Jeff uses! Which brings us to the neck. Yes it's large but very playable. On my other guitar I had the frets removed and the neck shaved down, then the frets replaced so it is really small and fragile. I am always afraid of breaking the neck on my other guitar. Not so on the Jeff Beck. The beefy neck is extremly solid. And honestly in only a day or so I was just as fast on the Jeff Beck neck as my shaved down custom one.

I use this guitar live 3 out of 4 weekends a month. I play 4 sets 45 minutes in length per night on weekends and have been using this guitar 3 out of those 4 sets since I have gotten it. I've never broken a string or had to switch to my other guitar because it was out of tune in a middle of a set. I wipe the cigarette smoke haze off of the finish at the end of the night and it's been holding up great. The finish is still soft like I mentioned but it is very thick. The strap buttons are schaller locking which I use with locks. At first the swinging around I do onstage was causing them to loosen up. Then I did the drop of wood glue on the screws trick and that solved that problem. I never play any gig without a backup guitar. I will say I would use this guitar with only one backup guitar instead of two.

I called Fender to see how long before they had mine built and they were right on with the time estimate. (It took about 5 weeks from the time I ordered it.) I mainly had the music store deal with Fender as far as ordering and shipping the guitar. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting a guitar that was in a huge warehouse store stockpile waiting and waiting for a buyer that wanted next day shipping. I wanted my guitar to go from Fender directly to me. It has a limited lifetime warranty. I've never had to deal with Fender service. Unless the next spontaneously snaps in two I'll probably never have to use them. The beauty of the Stratocaster design is that it's totally user servicable. I'd be afraid to tear apart a Gibson Les Paul.

I've been playing for 17 years now. I got in my first band when I was 15 and I had a Fender Bullet cause it sounded like a Strat. I still have the Bullet as well as my custom made Strat, an Aria ProII copy of a Gibson ES-335, a Rogue minature practice electric guitar (it sucks but it's small!) a Fender Precision bass, and an old beat up acoustic I've had since I was 13. I know my guitars like children and the Jeff Beck Signature Strat is my current favorite of the lot. I use it in tandem with my custom made Strat with the humbucker. I love how easy it is to string and set up. I love the tone the most! I don't really hate anything about it yet. I chose this guitar because of the pickups and their configuration, the LSR rolling nut, and the locking tuners primarily. I crossed my fingers on the tone becuase I didn't play it before I ordered it. I'm totally happy with the tone because it's vintage Fender Strat. And yes I'm a huge Jeff Beck fan and he had a lot of input into this guitars design. It's a unique Fender design for a strat and that's another reason I like it. They don't have any other models that are set up like it.

New. a 1998 model. U.S. made. 22 medium-jumbo frets, contoured alder body, maple neck with bi-flex truss rod, fingerboard is rosewood. Schaller locking tuners. 4 fender gold lace pickups (sensors). 2 point synchronized tremolo. 5 position blade for switching and a push/push button on bridge. The pickup guard is three ply, white on the bottom then the next layer black and then white on top. The scale length is 25.5". The color of mine is surf green. LSR roller nut. It is a well planned guitar.
Also, the nice added touch is that it comes with a vintage looking tweed hard case, strap, 10' practice plug, and two additional tremolo springs if you want to use heavier gauge strings.
The neck? This seems to be a concern for some. Unless the older models were huge I am unsure of what the ruckus is all about. I found the neck thickness to be "just right". But maybe this measurement will help some to compare it to what they are used to. I measured the thickness by wrapping a cloth tape under the strings and around the neck; and it is 4.75" near the nut and 5.25" at the twelth fret (that's based on the accuracy of a tattered cloth tape ruler).

I really enjoy the "quality" of this guitar, both in sound and feel. I play a variety of music styles, from thumping 50's Chuck Berry, to note sustaining David Gilmore. This guitar has it. It is a milestone in stratocasters, because of its ability to capture a wide gammit of sounds. I am continually amazed at its ability to hold a single solitary note prisoner, like an archtop e335.

Factory set up was close, but I had to take it to my local store to have it "refined" a bit to my taste. All the hardware was great as was the finish. Knobs were solid, the locking tuners were top knotch. Overall I got a good factory model.
Playing with a strap on will test you fitness after a while. The guitar is solid but heavy.

I can't comment on the durabilty or reliability, since this is a recent aquisition. But, everything looks extremely solid. I'll tell you, the damn thing stays in tune if after some rough guitar bites. And I hope the surf green stays it's cool color.

Never dealt with Fender.
But, let me tell you about the place I bought this from. Elderly Instruments of Lansing, Michigan. I had it shipped to me. These guys are great. Answered all my repeated questions, by phone and via the net. Shipping was immediate after I ordered. And when I contacted them and told them that I had to have a better set up on the guitar, they sent me twenty five bucks to help cover some of my cost. Pretty good for mail order. Check them out, they have a lot reasonably priced quality instruments. I give them a 10.

I've been playing 29 years, just for the enjoyment of playing. I gig with others, but primarilly I play for self accomplishment, like most guitarists. I've had a multitude of acoustics, a couple of electrics, an E335, and a fender american standard. I have a bullet amp, and two other practice amps, a deluxe 112, and a champion 110.
There's a point when you go after "quality" and the JB is that. You can feel it and hear it. Fender can and does make the quality guitar. When I look at the present Gibsons, I have found them to be overated and overpriced, and that pricing is alienating the great majority of guitar players. You don't need a Les Paul and a E335, just pick up a Jeff Beck, it surpasses both.

1992 American made Strat w/22 frets. Three-piece alder body w/5 way switch. It has four Gold Fender-Lace sensors, two SC, one double-coil (two SC sensors together - a "Dually"), all passive pickups. Bridge dually pickup has switch to go from SC to humbucker. Neck is maple w/rosewood fretboard, & has Wilkenson nut w/locking Schaller tuners. Standard 25 1/2 " scale w/medium jumbo frets. Also includes tweed case.

I liked the Gold Lace-Sensor at first, & bought the guitar when the EMG & Lace Sensors were the "Big New Thing". I also liked less noise (the claim of complete hum-bucking of noise for Lace Sensors is crap; LESS noise, but not NO noise!). Now that I have had years to digest the sound, it is pretty thin & sterile, although the Dually has a pretty decent punch when in double-coil mode. I use a Fender Deluxe Reverb, a Marshall JCM 900 & (don't laugh) a Seymour Duncan Convertible Amp (when it doesn't blow all the tubes, it sounds great). It is a versatile setup, but the Lace Sensors don't have the full vintage tone as advertised. Although it is not as bad as people seem to say as of late, I am still looking into replacing the pickup configuration.

The action was great off the rack, no problems with general setup. There was one thing that severely p***** me off though, the Wilkenson nut was only good for 9&10 gauge strings. I play 11's, so I had to buy a new nut, and then the action was terrible because the new nut was larger, & the action was too high at the nut. So I finally had to cut (ARRRGHHH) my little beauty. Then that nut started getting grooves from the strings, and a string broke off & was trapped down inside the Wilkenson housing. So I replaced it with the LSR nut (although they had to put an insert in the nut area to take up for the "gouging" of the neck). The LSR nut seems to work pretty well, though. I can whammy like crazy, & it stays in pretty good tune. The pickup selector has gotten a little stiff over the years, but otherwise, everything else works pretty well.

This has been a great guitar for durability. It is not mt main axe, but I do like the way it plays & holds up to abuse. I'm not real abusive to any of my instruments, but they hold up to live playing just fine.

Didn't deal w/Fender since there was no real defect. I got the music store where I bought it to get me a larger Wilkenson nut at cost, & do the work for free.

Been playing 18 years, professionally & semi (on & off), own 4 Strats, a Les Paul, Larrivee acoustic, & three amps mentioned above w/ various effects & Roland guitar synth. I wish I had known about the nut, but overall it hasn't been THAT bad. It plays well now, and there shouldn't be the problems I had with it now, since the Wilkenson nut is no longer on this guitar. I love the neck, it's why I bought the guitar; it fit so well in my hands when I picked it up, & I had to have it!! It is a big round neck. I think they have trimmed it down a little in recent years, but I hope not. That is a great neck, especially for a factory job. It kind of is like a custom job on the neck & controls, as I hear Jeff Beck had a Strat Ultra modified to his liking, and his custom changes are the prototype for this version. I am getting new pickups, but Jeff Beck uses this guitar's prototype on Guitar Shop, and it sounds pretty damn good on that album, but I can't play like Beck (who can?), so I'm looking into new pickups. Listen before you buy, I wouldn't mail order, I'd go into a guitar shop & play it first.

I won't say to much about the features as some have already anyway but I will say that this has the american standred trem and not a vintage trem system. the neck was a huge big mochogrande type of affair much to large for my short fingers, I have owned many strats and gibsons been playing for 20 years. this one was the off white {yellow color}

it has taken me about two years to like this turkey but I do like it, I think it is NoW one of the finest guitars I have ever had the pleasure of owning,{NOW} when I bought the flextone amp this guitar really took off. funny I didn't like it that much through most of my other amps it was just another strat. now it is the best I don't need another strat. I guess I struggled with it so much that it is a part of me.

I finally had that extra money and was going to buy that guitar that would be so special, it would be the one I could always depend on, the one to do it all and after carefully reading "much" I special ordered the J.B. without trying it first, when it arrived it came in a shipping crate and I took it home and opened it to find that the neck had a pocket that you could get two {2} picks into between the neck and body, the body at the neck had that finnish crack that many fenders get. the push switch that cuts half of the rear pickup didnt always work and then stopped working altogether {I paid "twelve hundred bucks" cash for this?} the neck although well done felt like a tree trunk in my short fingers and I saw nothing in fenders brosure to warn me of this.

well to make a long story short this was a turkey of the highest order of turkeys so I took it back and they said that there would be a twenty percent restocking fee. commonnnnnnnn Fender, I am still angry about this!! American Music in caldwell Idaho. so I kept it and fixed it myself. I turned down the neck so it would fit my short fingers and fixed the push swich but I finally took that neck and put it on my lonestar and put the lonestar on the JB and it was a happy marriage with no pocket left in the neck.

I didnt call fender I have heard that they don't give good support, I tried to go back through the dealer and thats when I got hit with the twenty percent, they have lost a lot of my business since then and I only shop there when I have to now. I give them and fender a low rating because they are representives of fender because they sell fender products.

I have been playing since 1978 and have owned many fenders and gibsons mutitudes of amps. I wish I had been able to buy one that was in dealer stock, I will never order a guitar again. I like the basic Idea behind this guitar and I love the way it sounds but fender or american music should have fixed this no questions asked. I get a bad taste in my mouth every time I think about this. I am sure Jeff would not want his name tied into something this shoddy

Alder body, made in USA, rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets, one volume knob, one regular tone knob - one PBX knob. Coil tap on bridge humbucker (Dual Gold Sensor). Pickups : 2 single coil Gold Lace Sensors, bridge - Dual Gold Lace. Bridge is vintage fender tremelo, but LSR rolling nut keeps it in tune. Locking sperzel tuners. Important: Although much is made about the thickness of the Beck neck - it is way overblown - the neck is no thicker that a Strat ultra - it feels great!

I play rock and jazz, this guitar fits a variety of styles. I'm using a Line 6 Flextone and it suits the guitar very well. This isn't a metal type guitar - not enough output, but it does provide an amazing number of tones. The bridge humbucker gives a full sound, but remains bright. The single coil pickups are very clean - almost to clean, but I like them. The in-between sounds are fantastic on this guitar. The PBX tone knobs is useful. This guitar really shines in a clean setting - shimmering tone esp. throught a Marshall clean channel.

Good action from the factory - a little high, but playable. This is a very well constructed guitar and it is solid, but heavy. The finish is good, but not exceptional. I got the surf green, so it looks cool anyway.

Remains to be seen. Just got it.

No yet.

I've been playing for 23 years and have several guitars. I bought a Mexican strat last year (my first strat) and really enjoyed it - I wanted to buy a higher quality strat with better workmanship ( ala the Beck sig). I am very happy with this guitar, I tired a variety of sig strats like the Clapton, Blackmore and Voodoo, but the Beck is best by far - it is so solid and plays very well. I delayed buying a Beck for about a year because of all the horror stories I had heard about the thick neck - totally false. When I finally got my hands on one, I couldn't figure out what all the discussion was about; the neck is fine.

THIS GUITAR WAS MADE IN 1996 IN THE UNITED STATES AND I PURCHASED IT HERE IN LOS ANGELES. IT HAS 22 FRETS AND A ROSEWOOD FINGERBOARD WITH A MAPLE NECK, WHICH IS JOINT TO THE BODY BY FOUR BOLTS(LIKE OTHER STRAT MODELS). I HAVE A SEAFOAM GREEN COLOR BODY MADE OUT OF BASSWOOD, LIKE MOST STRATS. THIS TYPE OF WOOD HAS A VERY GOOD SOUND WHEN WORKED TOGETHER WITH GUITAR EFFECTS. THERE ARE FIVE CONTROLS ON THE GUITAR, THE VOLUME, TWO TONE CONTROLS, THE FIVE WAY SWITCH, PLUS A KNOB, WHICH IS USED TO CUT DOWN REVERB. IT HAS ONE LACE SENSOR HUMBUCKER, AND TWO LACE SENSOR SINGLE COILS. THE BRIDGE HAS THE SAME VIBRATO AS THE AMERICAN MADE STANDARD STRATS. THE NECK IS PRETTY UNUSUAL, DUE TO THE DESIGN BY JEFF BECK HIMSELF; IT SEEMS AS IF IT IS A COLLABORATION OF A GIBSON LES PAUL NECK AND A STRATOCASTER NECK. THE TUNERS ARE THE SAME AS ONE THE DELUXE AND THE DELUXE PLUS STRATOCASTER. I RECEIVED THE GUITAR WITH A CABLE, A STRAP, A TWEED CASE, AND SOME PARTS AND ACCESSORIES.

I PLAY USUALLY BLUES AND JAZZ BUT OCCASIONALY GO BACK TO HARD ROCK, EVEN PUNK ROCK AND HEAVY METAL. ALTHOUGH THIS GUITAR IS WELL SUITED FOR BLUES, JAZZ, AND ROCK (A BIT OF PUNK) YOU DEFINATELY CAN FORGET ABOUT PLYING DIRTY AND NASTY HEAVY METAL ON THIS GUITAR. EVEN THE BRIDGE LACE SENSOR HUMBUCKER DOES NOT HAVE THE FAT AND CRUNCHY SOUND YOU EXPECT FROM HUMBUCKERS. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE THIS GUITAR PRODUCES AN AWESOME, AND GALVANIZING SOUND FOR BLUES, JAZZ AND ROCK AND ALSO IN CLEAN SOUND, THE GUITAR HAS A HEAVENLY VOICE. IF YOU LIKE THE SOUND OF A HUMBUCKER, THEN CONSIDER A GIBSON LES PAUL, HOWEVER IF YOU LIKE A MILD HUMBUCKER TONE AND THE GREAT SOUNDS OF SINGLE COILS, THEN THIS GUITAR IS A GOOD CHOICE. I HAVE A PEAVEY AUDITION 110 AMP, WHICH IS PRETTY GOOD ON THE CLEAN SETTING BUT AWKWARD WHEN DISTORTED, THAT` S WHY I USE A BOSS BLUES DRIVER, FOR THAT GREAT DIRTY AND LOUD BLUES SOUND PLUS A WAH WAH AND A CHORUS PEDAL BY BOSS FOR THOSE GREAT PINK FLOYD SONGS, LIKE COMFORTABLY NUMB OR SORROW ETC. THE GUITAR CAN PRODUCE A GREAT VARIETY OF SOUNDS LIKE ON A REGULAR STRATOCASTER, THOSE LACE SENSOR PICKUPS AND THE LACE SENSOR HUMBUCKER MAKE THE SOUND SOMEWHAT MORE CLEANER AND WITH LESS FEEDBACK, AND I BELIEVE THAT IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN MAGNET POLE PICKUPS. IF YOU LIKE HEAVY METAL AND HARD HARD ROCK FORGET THIS GUITAR, BUT IF YOU LIKE JAZZ, BLUES, ROCK (LIKE THE EAGLES, PINK FLOYD, STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN, ERIC CLAPTON ETC.) THIS GUITAR RULES.

WHEN I BOUGHT THE GUITAR FROM THIS GUITAR SHOP HERE IN L.A. I WAS VERY SATISFIED WITH HOW THE GUITAR WAS SET UP. ALTHOUGH THERE WERE SOME MINOR, LITTLE SCRATCHES ON THE GUITARS BODY, BECAUSE A LOT OF PEOPLE TRIED THIS GUIATR OUT, IT WAS IN AN EXCELLENT CONDITION.

THIS GUITAR IS PRETTY STRONG AND WILL DEFINATELY WITHSTAND LIVE PLAYING, INCLUDING ITS HARDWARE, THE STRAP BUTTONS ETC. I MEAN WATCH HOW STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN ABUSED HIS NUMBER ONE STRAT IN THE VIDEO "LIVE AT THE EL MOCAMBO"; STRATS IN GENERAL ARE VERY SOLID GUITARS, VERY WELL MADE. HOWVER I AM SLIGHTLY WORRIED ABOUT THE FINISH. I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF STAROCASTERS WHERE THE FINISH CAME OFF AFTER TEN YEARS OF PLAYING. I DEARLY HOPE MINE DOESN` T. I USED THIS GUITAR SEVERAL TIMES ON GIGS WITH OUR SCHOOL BLUES AND JAZZ BAND AND I ALWAYS RELIED ON IT AND IT NEVER LET ME DOWN.

I HAVE NEVER DEALT WITH CUSTOMER SUPPORT

I HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR FIVE YEARS NOW, AND I ALSO OWN AN EPIPHONE CHET ATKINS ACOUSTIC/ELECTRIC GUITAR. I WOULD DEFINATELY BUY THIS GUITAR AGAIN IF IT WAS STOLEN OR LOST, BUT I WOULD ALSO CONSIDER THE GIBSON ES-355 SEMI-HOLLOWBODY GUITARS OR THE GIBSON LUCILLE. I LOVE THE GUITAR` S VERSATILITY OF SOUNDS YOU CAN GET FROM IT, I LOVE IT` S COLOUR AND DESIGN, AND THIS IS MY FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR AND IT IS SPECIAL TO ME. I WISHED HOWEVER, THAT THE HUMBUCKER COULD GIVA A MORE FAT AND BASSY SOUND SOMETIMES. THAT` S WHY WHEN I BOUGHT IT I HAD TO THINK A LONG TIME IF I WOULD PREFER GETTING THE LES PAUL STUDIO OR THIS ONE HERE. AFTER VISITING THE GUITAR SHOP FOR SEVERAL TIMES I FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS STRAT AND PREFERED IT OVER ALL LES PAUL MODELS. I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ADD SOMETHING. FOR ALL EURPOPEANS, WHO THINK OF GETTING A LES PAUL HERE IN THE U.S. DON` T. A SIGNATURE STRATOCASTER IN AMERICA COSTS ABOUT 1000 DOLLARS IN ENGLAND IT COSTS ABOUT 1000 POUNDS. IN AMERICA A GIBSON LES PAUL STANDARD COSTS 1600-1800 DOLLARS (EVEN MORE), IN ENGLAND A LES PAULS STANDARD STARTS AT 1050 PUNDS. SO IT WOULD BE MORE ADVISABLE, ECONOMICALY SPEAKING, TO BUY A STRAT RATHER THAN A GIBSON LES PAUL.

Purchased brand new in Guitar Center in 1998, serial number starts with N6. Sea-foam green finish, alder body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 22 frets. I purchased the Fender tweed case with it.
The neck on this guitar is thick, but not uncomfortably large. From what I understand, Fender scaled these back a bit after 1993 or '94. The uniquw neck dimensions was one aspect of this guitar that I really fell for when I first played it. I always liked the thin/wide "shred" necks but this was very comfortable to play. It feels "solid".
Pickup/electronics configuration: Four Fender gold lace-sensor pickups (two in a humbucking configuration at the bridge.), one vol, two tone controls. The bottom tone is "TBX" and is "neutral" at 5 and provides a boost at 10. One coil-splitter button between tone knobs which controls bridge humbucking option. 5 position pickup selector.
Tremolo/tuners: This guitar is equipped with an American Standard tremolo, LSR nut and Schaller locking tuners. After learning how to string the guitar properly, I've discovered that it holds its pitch extremely well with tremolo use. I've always used Floyd Rose trems before and the simplicity and stability of this tuning equipment has been enlightening - so far I've found no reason to go back to double-locking tremolos.

The sound of this guitar is what convinced me to buy it. I A/B'ed this guitar with a custom shop fender 6? reissue that I also liked. The other guitar had a very nice explosive "blazing" single-coil tone (ala Yngwie Malmsteen) but this Jeff Beck guitar had a darker tone, probably one of the "ballsiest" Strats I've played. It sounded less like a Strat and had its own unique humbucking tone that I really like. I think the tone can be attributed to many things about this guitar from the thicker neck to the pickups and body woods.
Another A/b comparison was done with a very nice Tom Anderson with a DiMarzio Evolution in the bridge. That guitar had a very "hot" sounding rock tone which I really liked. The Jeff Beck seemed to get close to the output level, but didn't have the "grind" that the Anderson had. From memory, the Beck strat had a fatter bottom end and a rounder high-end sound. It didn't sound _better_ than the Anderson, just different.
This guitar has a thick, long sustain. It rings pretty loudly unplugged.
I will probably use the full-humbucking bridge pickup 85% of the time. It's relatively dark sounding with relative high-output. Certainly high enough for most rock tones (which is what I play most of the time.) Although the humbucking mode sounds "darker" than normal strats, harmonics are very easy.
The second tone control is TBX enabled so at 10 the bridge pickup is in a "boost" mode while at 5 it's in a normal "flat" sounding mode. There is a button between the tone knobs that when pressed deactivates one of the dual bridge pickups and provides a single-coil tone in the bridge position.
As noted previously, the guitar is equipped with Lace Sensor pickups. They're a little less "shimmery" as regular Strat single coil pickups but these can get very close to nailing that sound without the noise.
I think that this guitar could "nail" most conventional tones - anything from rock or metal or more conservative styles. The single coil sounds are very good and as I said earlier, I think the humbucking tone is unique and inspiring. The TBX tone control and the coil switching button add to its tonal flexibility.
Currently I play this guitar through a 100 watt Marshall 25/50 silver jubilee head and through a Boss gx-700 preamp. I can get very "vintage" sounding tones straight into the Marshall (in fact I dare say it sounds a lot like Jeff's older tones) and higher-gain tones through the preamp. I'm very happy with the tonality of this guitar.

This guitar was set up well for .009s from the factory. It needed a minor truss rod adjustment (to reduce neck relief) at home when new types of strings were installed. I also adjusted the tremolo intonation associated with the truss adjustment. Coming from a double-locking Floyd Rose background, I absolutely love the simplicity of Strat hardware.
Fretwork is uncommonly good compared to most production Fender Guitars. Action is comfortably low - no buzzing.
No serious complaints in this context. Very solidly built - I have found no flaws.

Long term: unknown. It feels solid, and everything seems like it'll last.

The salesman at Guitar Center failed to include a tremolo arm so I called Fender the next day and asked for the part number to ensure I got the right component. I waited on hold for approximately 15 minutes but once I spoke to a person he was excellent and very helpful.

I've been playing for almost 12 years, have been through a lot of gear (many Ibanez, various Japanese, USA and custom shop Jacksons, Steinberger, Yngwie Malmsteen Strat, other Strats, Peaveys, BC Rich, and so on.)
I've only owned this guitar for a week but no regrets in my decision. I've not grown a strong attachment to it yet, but if it were stolen I'd probably buy a new one.
I was considering a Parker Fly Deluxe and other high-end guitars. As stated earlier, I a/b'ed this J.B with a custom-shop Strat and an Anderson. They all sounded and played great - the JB is unique, has a unique sound and feel - seems to have a lot of a unique "character".
One thing I like about this guitar is that it's a great blend of traditional sounds/technology and newer systems such as the LSR nut, locking tuners, Am Std. tremolo, and lace-sensor pickups. It performs and sounds exceptionally well. I'd definitely recommend anyone to check one out.