Legendary guitar player Jeff Beck passed away on Tuesday, January 10, at the age of 78. Beck’s family shared in a statement that Beck died on after contracting bacterial meningitis.

The statement reads: “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

Beck was famous for replacing Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds in 1965 and released numerous classic albums with his own band, the Jeff Beck Group. He is a two time Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer with the Yardbirds and as a solo artist.

Former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman has paid tribute to Beck, sharing a message on social media.

Friedman: "With Jeff Beck`s passing, a huge and tangible void has been left in the world of music. Thankfully, through his profound influence on an astronomical number of musicians, his sweet notes will continue to ring loudly, for generations to come.

I became aware of Jeff Beck a bit late in the game, through my dear friend Jason Becker, who was constantly extolling Jeff`s many virtues to me. Jeff Beck is a peerless role model, especially in the sense that his playing identifies him immediately, and it is always played with so much finesse, and the depth of a master. 

I knew how much Jason admired Jeff, so I made the rather foolish decision to play a Jeff Beck song for Jason at one of the first Jason Becker tribute concerts in Chicago. Doing that sounds nice on paper, but Jeff`s touch is inimitable; you would have to literally live his life and go through his experiences to play like that. And then you would need a masters degree in unique techniques that he invented and polished over the years.

Still, I love Jason, so after playing a bunch of my own songs, I threw caution to the wind and ended my set with Jeff Beck`s 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers'. The song itself is a relatively simple and familiar melody that many guys have played pretty well, as it is kind of a 'guitar standard.' The thing is, the simpler a melody is, when it is in the hands of a master like Jeff Beck, the more exponentially difficult it becomes for others to interpret on the same instrument, because the feelings, inflections and emotions in the original version are Jeff`s and Jeff`s alone. 

The bill was full of super guitar players, including Eddie Van Halen who was to follow my set, and many others. Imagine the tremendous stupidity (or balls...but probably leaning toward stupidity) I must have had to play a Jeff Beck song in front of Eddie Van Halen.... and just before his set, no less. So I play the song, and survived it, maybe it was passable at best. Most likely it just plain sucked. I am pretty sure it was the latter.

My point here is to point out just what an extremely unique and special identity Jeff Beck is, and how playing his music further inspired me to try to carve out my own musical road.

I'm not the only one Jeff inspired in this way. There might be something in the fact that when many of us tried to play some of Jeff`s material, we just gave up, and sat there in wonder thinking, 'Who am I kidding... I`ll never be able to play like that.'  I'm sure we have Jeff to thank for a lot of us taking inventory of what we could do on our own."