Jeff Beck

[Stratocaster vs Les Paul] It’s a totally different animal. One is for very subtle and, I would say, more musical things that you can distract and abuse. You can’t do that with a Les Paul. It’s too delicate. It’s got a very delicate tone; most people don’t ever realize that because they are plugged into monstrous amplifiers which completely, instantaneously covers up the unique sound quality it has. All those years of development go straight out the window when you overload the amp.

A Les Paul, which is kind of a sissy guitar compared to a Strat anyway. The Les Paul is heavier, but because of that bulk you can do bends on it more easily. Also, the Les Paul’s lack of a vibrato arm means you’re not wrestling against the spring-loaded bridge all the time. The Strat is the ultimate because it’s like having a miniature pedal steel within it. Once you get familiar with it where the bends are and where they meld down into a fourth or whatever, you can do all kinds of pedal-steel-like things, which I think are cool..

My Strat is another arm, it’s part of me. It doesn’t feel like a guitar at all. It’s an implement which is my voice.

A Les Paul feels like a guitar and I play differently on that and I sound too much like someone else.

[on Django Reinhardt] By far the most astonishing guitar player ever … Django was quite superhuman, there’s nothing normal about him as a person or a player

I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever.

The blues was bleeding the same blood as me. The blues didn’t have to explain the mystery of pain that I felt; it was there in the songs and voices of singers like Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, in the cries of their guitars.

I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.

Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

It is Jazz’s very nature to change, to develop and adapt to the circumstances of its environment.

All the music that was ever heard came from the inner silence in every musician.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It’s our great contribution to the arts.

When you sing, always tell the truth.

Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That’s why I wanted the clarinet.

Despite the fact I’m a professional performer, it’s true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

In this trumpet I hear our icons and the sound of the future.

It’s easy in music to tell what’s good. It’s hard to tell what’s bad.