Man, that's a tough one for me. I was listening to him as I started playing guitar. Huge fan of his catalog. I know a lot of non-players don't get him, but to me, he was the best. RIP.
Huge loss. No matter how many people copied him, he was always unique. The world is full of clones of SRV, EVH, John Mayer, Hendrix but not Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop was as important an album for me as SRVs “In Step”, or Vai’s “Passion and Warfare”, in a this-is-what’s-possible kind of way. Thanks to Jeff Beck (and Lukather, who is also channeling Jeff Beck a lot) the whammy bar is never far from my hand and my bridge is always floating.
This is my little story of how Jeff Beck saved my ears. Also, it contains my first copyright claim against me because I play a minute of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" at the end of the video. *facepalm*