Song Rig

Brush with the Blues

Jeff Beck · Who Else! · 1999

Tone Overview

What Makes This Sound Unique

Beck's most direct blues statement — slow, heavy, and deeply emotional. The tone is warm and overdriven, with wide whammy bar vibrato and massive sustained bends. This is the slow blues tradition meeting Beck's unique approach: Hendrix-inspired, but with the whammy bar doing the work that most blues guitarists do with finger vibrato.

Signal Chain

1Fender Stratocaster
2Marshall (moderate gain)
3whammy arm (critical)

Amp Settings

Gain / Volume7

Bass7

Mid7

Treble6

Reverb5

Warm, moderate gain with heavy reverb — slow blues requires notes to sustain and breathe. The whammy bar creates a deep, pitch-varying vibrato that sustains each note. The combination of amp gain and reverb allows each note to hang in the air.

Technique

How to Play It

Whammy bar as vibrato — instead of finger vibrato (which Beck rarely uses), the whammy arm provides constant, wide pitch variation on held notes. The technique creates a singing, vocalised quality. Timing the arm oscillation to musically match the note's emotional arc is the key skill.

Budget Alternative

Achievable With

Stratocaster with trem arm → moderate gain amp (Marshall or Fender Blues Deluxe) → practice deliberate whammy arm vibrato (not aggressive dive bombs, but subtle oscillation on held notes).

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