A collection of 90 guitars belonging to the late great guitarist Jeff Beck are set to go up for auction in January.
The former Yardbirds and Jeff Beck Group musician’s collection will be going under the hammer with the auction house Christie’s.
The whole selection is valued at $1.3 million (£1 million) and includes an oxblood Gibson Les Paul that Beck played throughout the 1970s and features on the cover of his 1975 album Blow By Blow. That item alone is expected to fetch between $440,000 (£350,000) and $630,000 (£500,000).
Beck’s widow Sandra said it was a “massive wrench” to let the guitars go, but added, “I know Jeff wanted for me to share this love. After some hard thinking I decided they need to be shared, played and loved again.”
Other items include a 1954 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster and a white Stratocaster that Beck played for 16 years.
Amelia Walker, head of Private and Iconic Collections at Christie’s, described the guitars as “really beautiful”.
“I think it’s part of the appeal,” she said. “These are things that he used. They’ve got the indents of his fingernails on the fret boards.”
Beck replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in 1965, before forming his own group with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and others, and going on to have a long and successful solo career.
He died suddenly at the age of 78 in January 2023, after contracting bacterial meningitis.
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