“He picks it up, hits the corner of a stone table and puts a huge ding in it”: When Jeff Beck damaged an impossibly rare vintage Stratocaster – while he and Dweezil Zappa were at a party dressed as knights

Dweezil Zappa [left] and Jeff Beck, both playing Strats. Zappa recently recounted a costume part at which both were dressed in chainmail, when Beck dinged a vintage Strat.

The life of a rock star isn’t all rehearsals and touring, recording take after take in the studio, then doing the press tour, interviews, all work and hustle. Sometimes – very occasionally – these cats like to party. And few could put on a party like the late Jeff Beck.

Well, at least according to Dweezil Zappa’s telling. Speaking to GW columnist Jared James Nichols and Tyler Larson on the No Cover Charge Podcast, he recounted a remarkable evening in the company of Beck, when he was not only made a knight of the realm by the late guitar icon, but witnessed something terrible happening to – quite possibly – one of the oldest Fender Stratocasters in existence.