#1
|
|||
|
|||
Peter Green's pickups and tone
Hi,
I'm just curious about his line from the obituary in the NYTimes: "Mr. Green’s main instrument in Fleetwood Mac was a 1959 Les Paul Standard, known as Greeny, that had one pickup installed in reverse, creating a distinctive tone because it put the instrument’s two pickups magnetically out of phase." What does that mean, how did he do it, do other people do it, should I do it (probably not) and what songs can you hear this distinctive tone. As I think of Fleetwood Mac songs I think of the one that starts "Well there you go again, you want your freedom": there's a particularly thick (?) electric guitar playing as kind of a response to the vocals. Is that what we're talking about. I'm glad (but slightly humiliated) that the NYTimes expects its readers to know all about this. will
__________________
Huss and Dalton TROM custom Voyage Air VAOM-6 PRS SE Soapbar |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Post deleted
Last edited by JKMartin; 11-04-2020 at 04:26 PM. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Greeny guitar has a great provenance. It went from Peter Green to Gary Moore to (I believe) a private collector and then Metallica's Kirk Hammett bought it a few years ago for an undisclosed price rumored to be $2M.
The out of phase was a "happy" accident. You need to flip the magnet in the neck pickup and then put the pickup in backwards, i.e. the pole pieces are closer to the bridge then the neck (look at the neck pickup in the pic below - you'll see only Moore has it in correctly). You may also need to rewire the lead on the pot (not sure). |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
That song is "Dreams".Peter Green was long gone from Fleetwood Mac when they recorded that.
|
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Very neat! Can't imagine holding a $2 million guitar!!
I have one of the Hamer Sunburst models where the pickups came from the Hamer factory wired intentionally out of phase in the middle pu position to emulate the Green sound... |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Yea, a '59 Les Paul without provenance is one of the most sought after electric guitars. Add provenance with those names and it's worth $$$. Kirk Hammett actually tours with it, as hard as that is to believe. He plays at least one song on it at each Metallica concert. If he ever sells it the price will be more than $2M.
|
#7
|
|||
|
|||
OP: listen to this. This, IMO, is the Peter Green sound (and playing) at its best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7IonOLQd8 Green did not just play the Greenie. He played a Strat too sometimes. But the Greenie is iconic, and my understanding is what you hear on most live recordings. The intro to this is my warm up routine. But it is humbling. My instructor tabbed it out for me, and there is little there above my beginner-intermediate level of playing, at least in terms of fingering. The touch is another story. Green's touch is so good, He can throw just a few notes at you and they are exactly right exactly as they are. It still sounds good when somebody else plays it. Especially when that someone is Gary Moore. But it's not the same. Edit: there is another version of this tune on Vol. 3 I believe, on which some people like the tone even more. The solo here, IMO, makes this one the best. Well, that and I shiver every time I hear this one. Last edited by rwmct; 08-03-2020 at 07:21 PM. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
https://youtu.be/0DsFnQqN8uk |
#9
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
I have a strat and an SG with P90s. The strat is my #1 by a large margin, but I do my best Green / BB type playing with the SG... -Ray
__________________
"It's just honest human stuff that hadn't been near a dang metronome in its life" - Benmont Tench |
#10
|
||||
|
||||
My Matt Eady EG Pro custom electric guitar has a 5 way toggle switch for switching between the bridge and neck humbuckers. Positions two and four run the pickups out of phase for a different sound. I haven't tried experimenting with it much though. It was not one of the primary reasons I bought the guitar, but I do prefer it to a coil tapping option.
__________________
John Tucson, AZ 2020 Kraut 00, Swiss/Brazilian, build 2018 Eady EG Pro Electric, Redwood/Mahogany 2013 Baranik Meridian, Blue Spruce/Cocobolo, build 2008 Baranik CX, Blue Spruce/African Blackwood 2008 Breedlove A20 Masterclass 12-string, Adi/IRW 2003 Thames classical, Euro/Brazilian Fodera Standard 4 Fretless bass, figured walnut |