Jeff Beck Guitar Set Up
Vložit
- čas přidán 11. 01. 2023
- A quick video on how to set up your electric guitar to get Jeff Beck sounds with a floating tremolo. I would have played guitar a bit more at the end, but my dog was barking, so what you see is what you get! Enjoy lol.
- Hudba
Everybody should be learning to work on and set up their own guitars. Not only will it save you a ton of money, it will also open up every possibility with yardsale and flea market finds, and trust me, those will end up being the coolest guitars in your collection! If you want to really love a guitar, rescue one from the trash. It will love you back! Rest easy Jeff. Say hi to Stevie and Jimmy for us. ❤️
DIY guitars are such a good idea for any guitarist. It is very satisfying to put the work in and get the result. RIP Jeff
I agree 100%
😎👍
Don't know why but it's true, all the instruments I have rescued and restored have been the most inspiring.
Found a Epiphone SG at a thrift store in shambles payed $40 bucks. Flat frets and just plain looked liked it had been neglected in a mechanic garage (dirtiest oiliest neck ever seen) paid $70 more on tools parts and fret wire and 6 months later...she sang beautifuly neck to neck with much newer more expensive guitars. Learned a lot and fully satisfied with the money saved restoring it my self. Short of an emergency I have no need for a luthier. ✌️🙂🎸
Don’t let these secrets out. 😊
I'd highly consider screwing those back in some and making all springs parallel or drop to two springs and tighten. They are unscrewed fairly far here IMHO. RIP JB. Maestro for sure.
Thanks, will do. Floating tremolo feels great and gives a lot of sonic possibilities. Jeff Beck got so much out of that kind of setup. Incredible guitarist. Wish I'd done it sooner...
Wonderful. Thanks for the help!
You're welcome!
Jeff Beck definitely had his own sound for sure! A big loss for all of us. Thank you for your suggestion to replicate a guitar that will reflect Beck's playing style, AFG!
Very sad about Jeff Beck. The floating tremolo does make a strat much more fun to play... more expressive.
Had a Stratocaster set up like this, it played beautifully.
Great to hear!
Bit of blaze of glory at the outro? Sounds great thanks for that set up tutorial
Glad you enjoyed it!
The Super Vee Blade Runner tremolo is great for the Jeff Beck style if you have a six screw tremolo. It has no moving parts.
Thanks good video, I might give it a try on my Strat.
Have fun!
Also, need to re intonate and might want to readjust the saddle height because you've effectively shortened the string length and raised the action slightly.
Beautiful lake placid blue.
Thanks
Is that a 70's Stratocaster or reissue? I have one.@@appetiteforguitar
I'm not sure, I bought this strat in about 2018 2nd hand and have loved playing it since. I'll have to look it up. When I can, I intend to do a full deep dive review on it. It's the guitar that renewed my passion for playing again after a long break, so is very special to me at least!
@@appetiteforguitar : It's beautiful that lake placid blue, I always admired it after seeing Jimmy Page owned one lol, now I have 2 Fender Stratocasterrs: 1. '70's Vintera II model; vintage white, maple hardwear; 3 single coil pickups big headstock and all; 2 '60's Vinterra II Fender Stratocaster. 3 tone sunburst ; small headstock and neck with rosewood frets, maple neck.
Jeff had his personal sound!
So true. Amazing guitarist.
Mr App FG.....your voice is like Eric Clapton's. That's a compliment of course! Really interesting that you are doing this not on a 2-point tremelo. I'm going to try that on my strat. Cheers.
Wow, thanks!
The problem with the floating tremolo is to keep the guitar in tune. The secret is that you need a perfect balance betwen the tension of the string and the tension in the springs. To achive it the springs screw have to be in the point that when you action the tremolo for rising the pith, the 3 string go from G to Bb, a minor third. The others strings rise one tone or a semitone but I do It checking the 3 string. After this the guitar will keep in tune no matter how much you move the tremolo. If you have tuning problem with this will be because of the friction in your nut or in another place.
Yes i recommend you read into, localized fredrick Peterson string placement or for short LFPSP . It started in around 1972 and jerry garcia was a big fan of it, he incorporated it lots on europe 72’. There is tons about it in the internet just google it. Lots of artists liked a more localized bendix positioning , kind of like a double switch vibrato key bar that you see waylon Jennings either sitting on, or activating with his right foot.
Please make a video on how to do such a set-up thanks
@@theloniouscoltrane3778 I recently did a set up video which you might find useful: czcams.com/video/zC05L6AbJ0U/video.html
Thanks for that, but I won't remember it lol
Never had problems with tuning with a floating trem!
When setting up a floating Strat bridge, pulling up the trem arm should have these notes: E (F) B(C#) G to B flat....on the treble strings....E B G, it sounds ridiculous but that's how most likely Jeff Beck had his bridge set...
A thing that Jeff did I believe was to have a custom set of strings, 9 on the top but heavy low A and E ,54 / 56 ? ,this would increase the tension on the trem which I imagine increases the pitch travel for the G B and high E ,,very clever!
I saw a video which may still be around, but it was one of his techs and the guy went into some detail about his setup.
THE VIDEO I WAS SEARCHING FOR! THANK YOU CZcams Algorithm!
Jeff could play an out of tune guitar and make it sound in tune. Touch. It’s all about ‘touch’ baby.
He could indeed, using slight bends and the trem.. I once heard him say though that about the only trouble he ever really had holding tune with his strats in recent years was when he played Big Block.
Wallington boy Beck .. borough of Sutton .. just like me
Gr8 vid man. thanks for the tutorial. How do you best keep it in tune after using whammy a lot? Graphite nut the answer? Edit: Found answer in the comments. Now u got me going down a rabbit hole! lol. Merry xmas.
That's great 😅. Merry Xmas!
I've set up my Strat very good but It just doesn't possess the notes that come from Jeff's hands.
Jeff won his first Grammy in 1985 not 1995 for the SONG Escape on his album Flash (at 6:02).
Thanks for the spot 👍
I need a strat and I am looking hard at the Jeff Beck model. That, or the Vintera 2 70's model.
Thanks , trying to mess about with my cheapest SX guitar so this I'll likely give a go once I've change the pickups. did it cause any issues with intonation?
Thanks for the tutorial.
No worries. You may need to tweak the intonation, but in this case it remained fine for me. It's worth checking on your guitar when you've made the change to a floating trem. The tuning itself is much more sensitive now the trem is floating, so you may have to tune all your strings as normal and then check them again to make sure they are actually in pitch. Also, treat this video as a quick guide. When I get time, I'm going to upload a more detailed tutorial. Your mileage will vary by eye-balling it and adjusting until it feels good, which is what I did here. If you have the patience, one of the best ways to set the floating trem is via your B string. Basically, 1) loosen up your trem a bit and tune all your strings to pitch. 2) Pull back on your tremolo and aim to get a whole step up in pitch from your B string i.e. C#. 3) Keep tweaking and adjusting the screws of the trem and re-tuning until you get a whole tone up in pitch. That will take longer and it depends on how much patience you have :). Good luck and enjoy!
@@appetiteforguitar Makes sense. Thanks for the reply and advice.
Nice Video!!!!!!!!!!! all strats should be set up like that
Thanks! I would have played longer at the end, but the dog was going crazy... she's not much of a strat fan, lol. Will try her with something on the old Les Paul next 😅
@@appetiteforguitar Yeah Man to fine tune it use a guitar tuner and make it go 2 steps !!! I like strats better than les paul becuase the tunomatic is a dog
@TheGuitarProfessionals yeah, much prefer the flat saddles on a strat. Was thinking of maybe getting a bigsby style for the les paul at some point though anyway for fun. I think it's called a Duesenberg
@@appetiteforguitar im gonna a vid on what i did to the tunomatic real soon
cool, look forward to watching it
I grabbed a warm Milk, and I want that floating trem, Warm tone and great playability ....some sweetspot there!
6:40 Your Dog Approves of JEFF!
I am sure your Action is now (much) higher? Didn't you have to intonate the Bridge?
Thanks! Yes, the dog loves it. Strangely the impact on action was minimal. Plays really nice and intonation stayed bang on target. I think it's going to be dependent on the guitar. This particular Fender is one of my best guitars for sure. I will get around to reviewing it when I can. Defo a keeper. I have done this with a Squier Affinity and Yamaha Pacifica and they both needed a bit more adjustment - still pretty good though for budget guitars.
@@appetiteforguitar Thanks for the Response. I got a Squire Affinity right now in my hands. When I was setting it up, It had so really nice tone....really loud. Now the action is way lower and I can press down everything with ease...but the guitar plays a bit stiff, lost a bit of its, soul. Can you follow? Did you experience this? I might go up a bit again with the action. Just a tiny bit. So i get to the sweetspot of tone and playability.
Tweaking never stops! I'm constantly modifying my set ups for fun. Low action's going to mean less fight but a more gentle touch is needed... if big tone is what you want a SRV set up with 13 gauge is the ultimate but wow it will likely hurt. 😅 I'd say have fun experimenting. There are so many elements that factor in to tone, from strings to pick attack, to the amp... when I adjusted the Fender to floating, if anything it felt slightly beefier. I think it was mostly due to the ability to really yank around the whammy and not hold back.
@@appetiteforguitar Thanks...Yes I feel what you write here. I think i want some of the Beefier Sound back, while still playing the way I want and need to...I will tweak it soon.
It really doesn’t matter how you set up the guitar, what Beck did with his hands came from immense talent and thousands of hours of practice. He said he lost his technique if he didn’t play for 3 days.
I'm a strat guy but I'm not great at setups. I've always just put up with tuning issues and try to be subtle about constantly retuning. I've been looking at Wilkinson and calahans but I'm wondering, is there a secret to stable tuning on a strat with tremolo that I just don't know? I've tried things like screwing the bridge all the way back but still not stable. Then I think of Jeff beck the king of tremolo. I would assume someone like him would use a fender Bridge. Did he? And how did he keep his tuning stable?
He played a lot of Fenders for sure. Good quality parts will make a big difference. I have a Squier Strat too which is a great cheap guitar, but not so good for heavy trem use. The trem on the guitar in my video is really solid and stays in tune well with use, but it's a Fender so is more expensive. Good quality tuners and a well lubricated nut also go a long way.
I'm a strat guy, but I recently got an epiphone les paul and I like that better lol
Roller Saddles + Roller Nut for better string flow . It's not a rocket science . Greetings from Mexico !!
Roller nut? Never even knew they even existed.
@@chrisjames1924 They went out of business but Jeff Beck had a LSR Roller Nut on his strat. Helped it stay in tune.
Actually the secret to keeping a strat in tune is lubrication. I mix Vaseline with powdered graphite
Rather than the "Jeff Beck" setup, this is just how a Stratocaster was designed to be set up. It is a floating system by design. Having the trem set flat is just something people started doing because they couldn't keep their guitars in tune, mostly due to using the tremolo incorrectly
Take it down to two springs for floating bridge
I recommend a Vega Trem Awesome Trem.
I'll check it out!
I had a 1980’s Ibanez Roadstar that had a knife edge tremolo.
Just FYI , your term springs should be straight. With 2 on angles and 1 straight , the tension is not equal.
Simple physics.
Thanks, it requires a bit of fine tuning. At the moment, I've got a bit more tension on the bass end. On this guitar that feels nice but it can vary from guitar to guitar what feels 'right'. I might switch the springs out eventually for higher tension springs, which will change things again... Good fun!
I think what he is trying to say is, get rid of the middle spring @@appetiteforguitar
David Gilmour sure doesn’t mind
Having the bridge up and floating is how Leo intended it.
99% of players have the bridge flat against the body.
99% of players don't use the volume knob - Beck did - lots!
Well said! I just wished I'd realised it before... the strat is so much more fun to play now!
@@appetiteforguitar you can here the springs sproing more too...
The Fender spec for the rear trem height is 0.125" above the top of the guitar. That is where Jeff has his set. Works for both 6 screw and two post bridges. Which 2 post Fender bridge I have routed the top under the bridge down 8mm and float the bridge parallel to the top. You need locking tuners for this mod.
It is a Steevie Wonder song.
Actually, they kinda wrote it together in a jam session. JB was going to release it but Stevie released his version first. As an apology Stevie wrote Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers and gave it to Jeff as an apology.
I find the floating tremelo to be inherently unstable and prone to detuning; witness Hendrix' tuning problems in live performance. Despite the ferocity of his tone, Jeff Beck was actually using a very light touch with only his fingers. Another tone monster, Brian Setzer, also uses a very light touch.
I am of course no Jeff Beck and never will be, but my fellow merely human guitar players may be interested in this set up. I found that at least one stellar player, John Mayer, does what I do, which is set up the tremelo to only go down. I did it before I learned that there's a name for it: "decking." I use all five springs set up very tightly and the trem is flat against the body (hence the term decking). If you don't plan on spending a few decades chasing Jeff's trem technique, decking can give you an interesting little trem flavor without the unruly tuning issues.
My two cents.
Malisimo