Fender Jeff Beck Stratocaster - Surf Green with Rosewood Fingerboard Reviews

This Jeff Beck Stratocaster is the best guitar I've ever owned, no set-up necessary, straight out the box. The neck is comfortable, smooth, just fantastic. Stays in tune great, all around high quality instrument. Been playing since early 70's and have a few other Fenders, and Epiphones which are great, but this is definitely a cut above! Thank you Fender and Sweetwater.

So smooth it plays itself. I sound cleaner with little effort.

This guitar is amazing on it's own but I have to admit that I wished it was a little more "Stratty". The noiseless pickups are kind of thick ( for lack of a better word) and kept me constantly EQing the heck out of them to pull the chimy sound we all know and love. I was just about to change out the pickups when I thought about reversing the polarity of the middle pickup. And voila! I not only had the shimmer but I had the rich Jeff Beck tone as well.
I loved this guitar. Now, I can't see myself parting with it Ever.

This guitar arrived absolutely perfect. The 55 point inspection is definitely no joke. I would never buy a guitar from anyone other than Sweetwater.
Now - to the actual guitar. Plays like a dream, sounds amazing. BUT keep in mind that Jeff Beck doesn't exactly use twangy or Knopfler like tones so expect a deeper, warmer tone than Strats are known for.
These pickups are basically 2 single coils to make them "noiseless" therefore they lean more towards humbucker than you'd expect.

I titled this review "flawless," because of the guitar itself, and Sweetwater's unparalleled customer service. The pickups have a vocal quality, and are up to covering a wide variety of sounds and styles. It really sings! Whether you're playing classic rock, punk rock, surf rock, or just plain rock, this guitar covers lots of sonic bases. Clean, dirty, and raunchy tones are all at your fingertips, with amazing clarity. The tuning stability is excellent…even the temperamental G-string. The neck is a joy to solo on, or grab chords with. This is a well-made guitar that players of all stripes will enjoy.

Outstanding guitar! I took it to my luthier to make a slight adjustment to the bridge and he commented on the beauty and craftsmanship on this Jeff Beck model. I love it, and the C-neck is very comfortable! The shipping was super fast and I waited a little over 24 hours before opening the shipping box as the sticker says on the box! I almost didn't see that sticker! Anyways, thanks, Nate, my sales guy, for hooking me up with an outstanding guitar. AND SURF GREEN IS A BEAUTIFUL COLOR! Nobody will convince me otherwise, LOL

I've owned this guitar for a year and a half now and every time I pick it up I still say to myself "this guitar is amazing." It doesn't matter what style of music you play, it works. And, between the tone, playability and looks it almost creates music by itself. It took me 50 years since I heard "Are You Experienced" to own a Strat. I think Jimi would have loved this.

Phenomenal instrument! Superfluous in everyway. The fret board is fast and effortless. The pickups have excellent tone, and the quality of the build is blow away! Buying an artist series Strat is the only way to go! The artist knows how to properly set these instruments up right out of the box and ready to play all day and night! Oh, and it stays in tune, even with the whammy being used!

first off, if you are on a forum and people say that if you buy this guitar then you will end up swapping out the pickups, I would be skeptical, these pickups sound better than any other strat pickups i've heard, they sound good clean, and can handle a good amount of distortion.

The strings do feel a little more "slinky" because of the roller nut.

it stays in tune well, but would be better if you "decked" the bridge, I just leave it floating because I like it.

great color, not a standard surf green, kind of a mint green/surf green mixture.

This guitar sounds as amazing as it looks and I feel so much joy whenever I play it! The shipping was super fast and the guitar was in perfect condition.

So my wife picked out this guitar for her to play and we ordered. As usual Sweetwater rocks with the quick service even during the COVID life. Had them set up the guitar for her and they got it mailed out quickly. This is one beautiful instrument! It has a beautiful neck that is super slick and the pups have a nice bite to them. Sweetwater polished up the frets and it plays like a dream. Overall it is a very solid guitar that I may have to "borrow" from time to time.

I bought this strat in beautiful Surf Green a few months ago ... and it is a joy to play! Everything came perfectly setup from Sweetwater and the fit/finish was immaculate. I really like the vintage tweed case which has a ton of storage space inside too.

The noiseless pickups are pretty hot and also totally quiet too. The only thing I did was lose the whammy bar spring when I first unpacked the guitar...but I since ordered a new pack of Fender replacement springs and ball bearings to to hold the whammy bar securely in its slot. Works even better now.

Ryan Murphy made my first purchase from Sweetwater a very happy experience!

I have many strats from "57 reissues to a nice USA "72 reissues and a voodoo Hendrix strat and this blows them all away. The sounds you can get out of this guitar is amazing and the playability is outstanding. Add in the cool surf green and you have an exceptional guitar. From heavy distortion to smooth clean this guitar sounds great and it stays in tune lick a guitar with a Floyd! If you have the money and loveca great strat this is the guitar for you also ZERO hum as the pickups are out of this world. Played great right out of the case as all my Sweetwater purchases have. Well worth the money.

I had high expectations for this guitar and it met every one of them! This guitar has all of the accompaniments that I would have replaced on an American Standard Stratocaster straight out of the beautiful tweed G&L case. tuned up and played wonderfully instantly and held its tuning very well as expected with the untraditional modern nut employed on this guitar. I will say that it is a bit "brighter" in tone despite a rosewood neck most likely due to the nut, but it was by no means unpleasant, just "brighter," certainly nothing a little tweaking of my amp/pedals won't perfect for my ears anyway. Obviously it's a beauty to look at and has the American contour that I have come to love over all other Stratocaster models, the American just feels right to me. the pickups have all the Start tone I am looking for, with a little more "oompf" and completely DEAD SILENT. I love noiseless pickups. Very smooth tremolo, again as expected from the more advanced 2 point system and I really like the more modern string saddles, they are very comfortable when palming the bridge and sound great. My only change would have been to have the signature on the back of the head stock as it is on the Custom Shop model but I like Jeff Beck so I have no issues showing the name, it just detracts a bit from the traditional look of the headstock IMO. This will be my #1 forever.

Received for Anniversary gift from my wife. This is pretty much a flawless guitar. Every time I pick up another guitar to play, I miss my JB Strat. It never goes out of tune and the noiseless PU's are truly "noiseless." The Olympic white is a beautiful finish even though I usually prefer traditional wood finishes on guitars. As I write this, I want to go get it and start playing, it is hard to explain... A wonderful musical instrument. Thanks to Dustin for helping my wife with this purchase.

If you have this guitar on wish list, just buy it. It's ready to go right out of the box thanks to the
service technitions at Sweetwater. Their shipping is the fastest there is and it's free. The guitar
itself is beautiful, and it's performing great, and more importantly feels great to play. I gave it 5 stars only because that was the most you could give it.

This ended up being better than I even imaged. First of all, it plays so well that it's really hard to put it down. A bandmate played mine last night for the first time and played an hour straight without putting it down. The wood and finish is beautiful, and the cut-away neck joint allows full access to the highest fret on each string. The hardware is rock solid, and the Sperzle locking tuners and roller nut make it almost impossible to knock out of tune, even with extreme whammy abuse. I tuned once at practice last night, and only had to raise the high-E a semi-final. This thing is ready off the rack to gig and tour with without changing hardware. It can take the abuse; in fact, I think it likes it!

The best thing about this guitar is the tone. The 5-way switch, along with the rangey volume knob and tone knobs allow for countless tonal variations. Forget the fact that the noiseless pickups are double-coils in disguise because the sound is pure Strat. Plus they're a smidge hotter than vintage pickups and are so quiet they're unnoticeable, even through my 12-pedal board loaded with boosts, overdrives and distortions. The volume knob is great rolling back overdriven tones and cleaning them up. It has a good range of volume and is a great tool for those of you that like to tinker with your guitar knobs as you're playing.

Get it! It's worth every bit of the $1,600 price tag.

Got this beast just before Christmas and have been having a great time with it ever since. It was set up right out-of-the-box just like the folks at Sweetwater said it would be. Great tone, feel and that awesome surf green. I have a 1974 Les Paul Custom and a Fender Telecaster B-Bender. Both are great guitars, but the Jeff Beck is my favorite.

Once again, the Sweetwater team is exceptional. I really can't say enough good about them, from start to finish.
The Beck Strat is IMHO, the most versatile of the Signature series guitars. A 2 point trem, hot noiseless pickups, the LSR roller nut, and locking tuners all contribute to a guitar that basically will not go out of tune.
It was set up according to Beck's specifications, as far as the trem goes. I like the trem closer to the body, and either way, the guitar stayed perfectly in tune.
The hot noiseless pickups are virtually dead quiet. Incredible!! They have a real strat-like character, but when overdriven, they're a 'cleaner' overdrive sound; a lot more character, not compressed. Even with an OCD pedal, which has a lot of headroom and distortion.
The 9.5" radius is very comfortable for bending and chordal playing. The rosewood fretboard has a nice depth and spank to it.
The fretwork is very good, medium jumbo frets.
It also comes with Schaller Strap Locks, a nice upgrade, along with a Fender strap, cable, and a G and G
USA made hardshell tweed case. Very classic.
I would absolutely recommend this guitar as a pro grade instrument.
I played this against a rather expensive strat(will not mention the name), and the Beck literally walked all over it.
Once again, thank you to John and his assistants.

Very happy with the guitar! Thanks to Adam for helping me throughout.

Bought new in 2005. Stays in tune no matter what. I have always played Telecasters till now...the JB Strat won me over. Noiseless pickups mate well with the Line 6 Flextone III XL. Any type music is possible with this axe. Surf green is one cool color. Much better value than the custom shop model. This is a keeper.