Jeff Beck's Orange Soloist - Revisited

[rhoadsfan11]

Here's a picture: http://www.guitar-museum.com/uploads...99/79036-2.jpg

[j2379]

SWEET, i always liked the soloists with dots & bound boards, like some of Vai's.

[shreddermon]

Here's a picture: http://www.guitar-museum.com/uploads...99/79036-2.jpg

Yes, as neilli mentioned, that is a Charvel Spectrum.

[rhoadsfan11]

Yup. Not my cup of tea but pretty easy on the eyes

[UpTheIronsJim]

That was a cool looking Jackson!

...I remember the Seymour Duncan amps in the background too..I had the one it was called "convertable"....I think.
Long time ago!

[DonP]

Yep - convertable. CLE GC had one for sale a few months back. Don't know if it's still there.

[UpTheIronsJim]

It was an interesting amp. I bought it brand new in the mid 80's.
What a treat back then!

[axmann]

I had one quoted from the CS shop a few years back. Bridge hum/single neck though. Long story short it turned in to a really sour deal with the shop doing the middle man thing and I bailed because the price kept changing every other conversation. I always liked that guitar. Maybe because I dig orange guitars also.

[Whoopu2]

It's a nice guitar, but to me it just looks completely out of place on Jeff Beck haha. Even with the "classic" vibe they gave it.

[Emerald]

I disagree, I always thought that that particular Soloist was one of the coolest looking with the Floyd and the Telecaster Bass style pick guard. Plus Flash was a favorite Beck album of mine. The playing is off the charts. "Get's Us All In The End" in particular has a solo that just burns red hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiYvBblPqtM
Plus a Grammy winning performance was chosen from this LP. I believe the track "Escape" written with Jan Hammer won the best rock instrumental performance in 1985.
Some fact's about Jeff's Jacksons you may or may not know: The track "People Get Ready" was recorded with the Pink Kahler equipped Soloist.
This would later become known as the "Tina Turner"guitar.
Jeff played the Pink Soloist in March of '84 at a CBS records convention in Hawaii. He was teamed with SRV. I have the bootleg VHS of this show and it has hit You Tube, some songs at least these days.
Jeff played on Tina Turner's album Private Dancer. He contributed to two tracks, the title track and "Steel Claw."
Jeff dialed in his sound with a pair of Roland digital echoes and the Soloist.
Jeff described the Jackson,"It's a bit heavy metal looking, but it's bloody good. It goes up to high C (24 frets), which you can scream and it sounds almost like a whistle. That's on the thing called "Steel Claw," it's almost beyond human hearing.
With Tina I had a fantastic time-we got blasted at the end of the session and she signed her name on my guitar."
In "Guitar Player" Beck recounted how he asked for Tina Turner's autograph on his pink Jackson as a permanent souvenir. "She got out this green felt-tip pen, and of course it wouldn't stay on a polished, painted guitar with grease all over it. So she said,'Do you want it to stay on there for a real long time?' I said, 'Yeah. Write into the woodwork. Go with it.' And she got a knife out of her bag. First of all she started chipping away, trying to make a nice engraved job. I said, 'Never mind that. Just write your name.'She just tore into it and rubbed nail polish on it. I was totally speechless, but very proud.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkoGnyzfDRM
On Rod Stewart's album Camouflage Jeff guested on the track Infatuation where he plays the solo, that's David Cassidy's ex-wife in the video. It looks like a white Soloist in this video..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VaazQfxGso
Jeff had done six tracks on Mick Jagger's "She's The Boss" right after the TT sessions and prior to the Rod Stewart deal.

Here is a Kramer EE, which has a similar pick guard arrangement:



Reference's from the book Crazy Fingers by Annette Carson.
Emerald

[Axewielder]

Yet another monster player that Jackson let slip away! I recall him referring to one of these as a "fairy guitar". Didn't he play one of these on "People Get Ready?" That solo sounds like a Floyd, yet he has a tele in the video. I wouldn't be surprised to see a limited run of these out of the CS shop at some point, what with him being endorsed by Fender and whatnot.

[Hellbat]

Considering how old he actually was in the 1980's, he looks pretty young.

[ulijdavid]

"Get's Us All In The End" in particular has a solo that just burns red hot.

Great Song!!

[paris is burning]

As a kid I spent many an hour drooling over that Soloist.....nuthing cooler then an orange Soloist

[pro-fusion]

He ought to break out those Soloists again sometime, assuming he still owns them. As good as he sounds with the strats, he could do even more crazy stuff with the Soloists.