Jeff Beck’s Guitar Collection and Other Memorabilia Are Headed to Auction

Jeff Beck strummed many a great tune on his guitars, playing with the likes of Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, and Steven Tyler. Now, the iconic musician’s collection will be up for grabs.

Over 130 guitars, amps, and “tools of the trade” belonging to the Grammy award-winning rock star, who died in 2023, are headed to auction today via Christie’s in London. The memorabilia, which spans over the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s nearly 60-year career, has estimates ranging from £100 to £500,000 (about $123 to $616,000).

More from Robb Report

• The Electric Guitar Played During Bob Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival Set Could Be Yours

• A Purple Guitar Played by Prince Could Fetch $400,000 at Auction

• How the Most Rare and Valuable Watches Are Traded Among Elite Collectors

Leading the pack is Beck’s famed 1954 “Oxblood” Gibson Les Paul, which can be seen on the cover of Blow by Blow, his 1975 solo instrumental album. Expected to hammer down from between £350,000 and £500,000 (about $431,000 and $616,000), the axe was purchased in November 1972 in Memphis and performed alongside David Bowie and Mick Ronson at the farewell show of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973.

Other lots up for grabs include the “Tele-Gib,” a hybrid guitar that pickup designer Seymour Duncan made just for the former Yardbird. With an estimate of £100,000 to £150,000 ($123,000 to $185,000), this piece—made up of a Fender Telecaster body and neck alongside a pair of Gibson PAF pickups—can be heard on Stevie Wonder’s “We’ve Ended As Lovers” track on Blow by Blow, as well as a live performance alongside Eric Clapton in 1981. The circa 1958 Gibson Les Paul, meanwhile, is expected to fetch from £40,000 to £60,000 ($50,000 to $74,000); Beck used the collector’s item to record “Over Under Sideways Down” and “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” on the Yardbirds’s Roger The Engineer album, among other accolades.

“Jeff Beck was a rock pioneer whose influence on his peers was unmatched,” Amelia Walker, Christie’s specialist head of private and iconic collections, London, said in a statement. “From the outset, he was a sonic innovator; a maverick and mercurial virtuoso who blazed the trail for musical genres as diverse as psychedelia, heavy metal and jazz-rock fusion, and who embraced a wide range of influences from the Blues, Rockabilly and Rock ‘n’ Roll to Indian sitar music, Bulgarian Folk, Techno, and Opera.”

Among the other offerings, you’ll find a 1954 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster ($62,000 to $99,000); a Tina Turner–signed pink Jackson Soloist ($9,900 to $14,800); and Beck’s longest-serving white Stratocaster, known as Anoushka ($24,600 to $37,000).

Plenty of guitars from famed musicians have headed to auction as of late—though perhaps not this large of a collection. A 1985 Sadowsky Telecaster played by Prince was expected to fetch $400,000 at auction last fall, while George Harrison’s Futurama was up for grabs last October with a $800,000 top estimate. These numbers, however, are shadowed by John Lennon’s “Help” guitar, which sold for a record $2.9 million in May 2024.

Sign up for RobbReports's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.