Peter Green
Peter Green was more than a founding member of Fleetwood Mac, his pioneering blues mastery won him the respect of people the world over. In addition to his playing, his unique tone, partly as a result of a Gibson QC issue, has long been held in an almost mythical regard by fans.
Image: W.W.Tahler
Getting The Peter Green Tone
When fans talk about the ‘Peter Green Tone’ they’re usually referring to the ‘out of phase’ sound produced by his 1959 Gibson Les Paul “Greeny” as heard on songs like Albatross and Black Magic Woman.
The story goes that Peter got a Les Paul after seeing Eric Clapton using one during his Bluesbreakers days. Because of Clapton’s exclusive of the bridge pickup during the performance, Green decided to remove the neck pickup on his LP altogether. When he later decided to re-install the neck pickup, he accidentally installed it upside down, and for years many assumed this was the cause of Greeny’s distinctive sound.
As revealed in an article by Jol Dantzig, the luthier who took apart and inspected Greeny shortly after it was bought by Gary Moore, the reason why Peter Green’s Les Paul sounded so different was that the magnet in the neck pickup had been installed the wrong way round, most likely at the Gibson factory when the guitar was built.
Though this was an uncommon QC issue for Gibson, Greeny wasn’t the only ‘59 Les Paul to leave the factory this way; Joe Bonamassa is reported to have bought one with the same “issue” and YouTuber Chris Buck claims in his video exploring out of phase pickups that of the five ‘59 Les Pauls he has played, three were out of phase.
Jump to:
1959 Les Paul “Greeny”
Peter Green is best known for his 1959 Les Paul, “Greeny”, though he sold it to Gary Moore in the early 1970s. After Moore’s passing the guitar changed hands again to Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, now sporting more wear than it had in Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac days.
Greeny originally featured a cherry sunburst finish, but over time the finish has worn (as was common for early cherry finishes) and it now more closely resembles what Gibson refer to as Lemon Drop finish. At some point the bridge Tone and Volume controls were replaced with reflector knobs found on ‘60s Gibsons.
Gibson have produced a replica of Greeny for Kirk Hammett, prompting speculation that a limited run consumer version is in the works. Other ‘59 reissues (often called R9s) have also been made available by Gibson over the years.
Tonally, a guitar with vintage spec (PAF-style) humbuckers will help achieve the tone found in Fleetwood Mac’s earliest albums.
Notable Appearances
Specs
Model: 1959 Gibson Les Paul
Body: Maple Top, Mahogany Back
Pickups: Gibson Patent Applied For (PAF) Humbuckers
Notes: Neck pickup magnetically ‘out of phase’, creating Peter Green’s signature tone when playing in the ‘middle’ position
Alternative Guitars
Tokai & Greco Les Pauls
If you can find one, the Les Paul copies made by Tokai, Burny & Greco make a great alternative to the Epiphone and Gibson Les Paul models.
Higher end models rival Epiphone quality and pricing on the second hand market, while the top spec will compete with the best Gibsons, but are usually priced accordingly.
Epiphone Standard 50s Les Paul
Gibson’s own budget-friendly brand, the whole Epiphone line-up has come along leaps and bounds in recent years, with the “inspired by Gibson” range getting tonally closer than ever before.
The Probucker pickups found in Standard 50s Les Paul are modelled after the P.A.F. pickups found in ‘50s and early ‘60s Les Pauls, making it a perfect starting point for getting the Peter Green Tone.
Available From
Gibson R9 Les Paul
If you want to go for true authenticity, Gibson’s 1959 Les Paul reissues (R9s) are as close as you’ll get to the original Greeny.
Even by Gibson’s standards, the Custom Shop Reissues are on the expensive side, but that’s because they are (in their own words) a “clone” of the original, using plastics and adhesives they’ve had to “chemically recreate” to 1950s spec.
Is it overkill? Absolutely. But it’s also as close as you’ll get to an original right out of the box.
It isn’t difficult to carry out the Peter Green mod, but there’s more than one way to do it.
Magnetically out of phase
True to the original, you can make a humbucker out of phase by removing the magnet, rotating it lengthways and reinstalling it. This is fully reversible and if the humbucker you are carrying out the mod on doesn’t have a pickup cover, doesn’t even require a soldering iron.
Here’s how to do it:
Electrically out of phase
Often called Jimmy Page wiring, pickups can be wired out of phase without having to remove the magnet. Another popular mod to do in conjunction with this is to add in a push-pull control that allows the neck magnet to work in phase again when activated, allowing the player to choose between an in-phase and out of phase tone when playing in the middle position.
Here’s how to do it:
Aside from being “out of phase” Greeny’s pickups were stock P.A.F.s from Gibson, which means if you’re carrying out the work yourself or getting a luthier to perform the work for you, you really only need a vintage spec humbucker for the neck of your guitar.
Alternatively, a few companies make pre-modded humbuckers, so all you need to do is install the new pickups and you’re ready to make your own Peter Green tones. At present Bare Knucke and Seymour Duncan still list their Peter Green pickups as being in production, so they may be the easiest to source.
Both provide the vintage tone of a PAF humbucker with the magnetically out of phase sound from Peter Green’s guitar, and both are well-loved and respected makers of pickups so choosing between the two largely comes down to preference.
