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Old 06-16-2010, 12:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vivfox View Post
peter green

the original 59' peter green les paul

peter green in action during old fleetwood mac days

i'm supposed to be doing my 2000 word history essay but i kinda got sidetracked while listening to peter green on john mayall and the bluesbreakers and fleetwood mac, so this shall be a tribute post!

NOT! just gonna go about praising his tone actually. alright fine some brief history of the man (and his guitar) first. peter green got noticed in the music scene after replacing eric clapton in the john mayall and the bluesbreakers band. after playing on a record he moved on to form fleetwood mac, which i'm sure a few of you have heard of. what many don't know about fleetwood mac is that it used to be a blues/rock band, before it defected to pop music when peter green left the band after being diagnosed with schizophrenia due to abuse of LSD.

many cite him as one of the pioneers of blues rock because of his "darker blues" playing style and holy grail les paul tone, though never reaching quite the commercial success of eric clapton and jimmy page. and what's the secret to peter green's tone? well its quite obvious isn't it, knowing my blog...

notice the pickups

his guitar!! actually, the pickups on his guitar. but then again, this subject has been on debate by guitar people all over for a long time, and the world still isn't too sure what it is that gives him his brilliant tone. some say its in the fingers, but i'm just gonna go with his pickups, which are wired out-of-phase (whatever that means) that give his tone the mojo!

peter green used a gibson les paul which he modified in 1967, having the neck pickup rewired and reversed. also, peter green used to be gary moore's mentor, and sold him his gibson later on. so in many gary moore albums, you actually hear his guitar, but gary moore's tone is NOTHING and i repeat NOWHERE near to peter green's. i guess the amps and effects play a role as well. gary moore later sold the guitar for 1.2 million dollars, not sure to who.

download the john mayall and the blues breakers album - a hard road. there are a few tracks where his guitar tone (and playing) really stand out. tracks i'd suggest are dust my blues and so many roads. keep in mind this is british blues, which to some might seem boring/bland. oh and this album has lotsa harmonica stuff as well!
I'm not blaming you Vivfox, you're only the messenger.

The irony of this blog post is that Peter Green's special "tone" wasn't heard until he formed Fleetwood Mac. While the blogger lists examples of tone (he does give credit to playing, barely), from John Mayall's "A Hard Road", it's still a factory stock '59 Les Paul. At the very least, the neck pickup was missing.

If this blogger ever heard "Fleetwood Mac" (the original 1968 album), he would never call British blues "boring or bland". I would also recommend the "Live In Boston" Volumes 1 and 2 from the Boston Tea Party, recorded 2/70. It also wouldn't hurt to do a few Peter Green Fleetwood Mac hits on Youtube.


To set the record straight, a great example of Peter Green's flipped magnet tone is the studio "Black Magic Woman" guitar solo.

I tried to respond directly to this person's blog last night, but I don't have the proper account. If someone could help me send this post to him? Thanks.
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