I just bought a Surf Green Jeff Beck Strat from Sweetwater, cannot wait to get it. Any other players with this Strat care to comment on your experience?

Markorth, I got my 60th Anniversary Surf Green Jeff Beck strat last week. My experience? I haven't stopped smiling both on the inside and outside

I am using it in the band for the High School production where I teach. I have always played humbucker guitars, and I am amazed at the versatility of the Fender sound. The music is mainly show tunes (not my musical preference......) and I can get any sound I want on the clean channel of my Carvin tube amp just from the guitar controls. I use the Mark Knoefler in between sound on a few tunes, roll off the tone for a woody jazz sound for a few songs and everthing in between. The all steel/stainless steel tremolo and saddles gives a huge sustain I was not expecting.

The apparently different neck profile is a nice fat roundness, exactly the same as my SG. Both guitars feel the same, so I am comfortable on both.

The bonus is the Surf Green color

I tried a Surf Green one in the early nineties, but the neck was waay too thick. This beast had Fender/Lace Sensors, too. I got a MIA Strat Ultra with a modern C neck, and it's my number one Strat. I think the newer Beck model will have a smaller neck, noiseless SCN Fender pickups, and 2-point tremelo. They all sound good.

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2007 Classic Player Baja Telecaster
1991 Strat Ultra
1990 Gibson ES-347
1986 Yamaha SBG2100
1980 Gibson L6-S
1971 Stratocaster
Fender Stage Lead Combo
Marshall MOSFET 100 watt Amp

Just let me know if where you rest your picking hand it gets discolored. lol Thats just a lil inside joke and my first post on the forum. My Beck Strat knocked my 62 reissue tele that was my #1 for more than a decade from the top spot. It is a great ax in every way and built like a tank. The only advice I can pass is it has an extremly sensitive floating trem so if you rest your hand on the bridge a lot it will sound like you are tapping the bar as everything will go sharp. My trem is blocked so it is not an issue. So depending on your style you might want to give it or get a setup so it plays perfect for you. The surf green with the rosewood fretboard just has that classic look and the neck is perfect. Good luck with it you made a great choice. KEEP ON ROCKIN

Congrats on the purchace. Loved to see pics when you can post them.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I don't have one, but I've played them before. Great guitars, and probably the closest to "my" style of strat that I'd want in a signature. Jeff's an amazing player, sooooo highly respected by everyone, and one of my favorites.

Congrats and yeah, we love pics!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I agree that you can move the tremelo by pushing your hand on the bridge. Jeff does it all the time. It has a tremsetter and the strings don't usually go out of tune. Look @ this linked video. @1:50, you'll see Beck actually use the base of the bridge, instead of the tremelo bar, to create a mild key change. And as much as he uses the tremelo, he should be way out of tune at the end of the tune. Oh yeah, Robert Plant is there.

My Strat Ultra is similar, but there are noiseless Fender pickups, instead of the Lace Sensors. I think the Wilkinson nut on the neck is not on a new Beck model, suggesting that this guitar is an amalgam of old and new guitar parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3y61-WS ... ature=fvwp

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2007 Classic Player Baja Telecaster
1991 Strat Ultra
1990 Gibson ES-347
1986 Yamaha SBG2100
1980 Gibson L6-S
1971 Stratocaster
Fender Stage Lead Combo
Marshall MOSFET 100 watt Amp

Qblue. I agree those first Beck strats had tree trunks for necks and you are right in that the first guitars they built for Beck for his own personal use wound up morphing into the Plus Ultra series as Beck declined the first time around on doing an artist guitar. I also have a Blue burst Ultra just an all around outstanding guitar and mind boggling how that series was shelved .To me one of the best made strats ever in every aspect.

I agree. The Ultra and Plus Ultra were great, beautiful guitars. Top of the line Strats. I still drool over the burst one with the ebony (rosewood?) neck. Damn.

I will now tell you the one scary guitar teacher bringing a guitar to school story that I have.

Way back in the mists of time, when I was upgrading my algebra mark (algebra was my first period class the first time around, but I had a full time job, I lived on my own, and I worked til 3 am, so 1st period kind of suffered. I passed, but I wanted to raise my mark.) I took algebra, but I filled out a lot of the day with other classes, as Algebra was pretty early, and I didn't work til later.

Anyway, one easy credit, for me anyway, was to take the music class, just after lunch. A couple of us were returning students so we used to spend 2 hours (open class then lunch,) at a blues bar a couple blocks from the school. Only class I cared about passing was algebra the rest (music photography, etc,) were just for fun. So after a few wobbly pops we'd go to class.

The guitar teacher one day brought in his shiny new joe satriani sig model, the chrome one.




Much like this one, I don't think this was the same year, I think the picture is newer.

We all had to try it out, only 3 of us were experienced enough that the teacher trusted us. i tried it first. the this other dud grabbed it, and played a couple riffs then dropped it, nice giant piece of the chrome finish chipped off, and the crack went across the entire front.

So have fun with yours at school.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Beck = brilliance. Congrats on the new strat. What is the neck profile btw?
Is there anything special re: the trem that comes with it? Or is it a standard 2 point? (and then you have to do all the mods to make it like his? )