A SEMI SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, ARTIST SERIES JOHNNY DEPP SIGNATURE, CUSTOM BUILT FOR JEFF BECK

Commissioned by Johnny Depp in May 2019, this special one-off Duesenberg Johnny Depp Signature guitar was custom built for Jeff Beck as a gift from Depp for his 75th birthday in June 2019. The two were introduced by mutual friend Joe Perry in 2016 and became fast friends and collaborators, culminating in the 2022 release and subsequent tour of their album 18. The Johnny Depp Signature model had been unveiled at NAMM 2014 as a limited edition of 52 guitars played and personally signed by Depp. The guitar was designed to reflect Depp’s style and tell his story through his tattoos, each one symbolising a significant event in his life. Another special feature was the model’s custom tapped JD-63 pickup, designed as a classic open sounding P90 single coil with a switch that introduced an additional 1963 turns of pickup wire to the coil (for Depp’s year of birth) to create a warmer and crunchier tone. Naturally, Depp kept #1 of the edition of 52 as his personal guitar, which was the only one of the original edition to feature a Duesenberg tremolo. After Jeff played Johnny’s #1 and loved it, Depp reached out to Nathan Fawley of Duesenberg USA with the special request to duplicate his #1 Signature guitar as a custom piece for Jeff Beck. Fortunately, Duesenberg had retained a spare body and top from the original 2014 production run of 52 plus three spares to allow for damages during production. The guitar was then assembled to Depp’s specification at Duesenberg’s factory in Hanover, Germany, and delivered to Johnny for presentation to Jeff in June 2019. As a duplicate of Depp’s own #1, custom built for Jeff Beck outside of the original edition of 52, the guitar is one of only two Johnny Depp Signature models with the Duesenberg Tremolo.