A week doesn’t go by without
my being asked about
obtaining the “Peter Green tone.”
Usually the seeker has narrowed
their possibilities down to this
or that pickup, and just wants
some final guidance. Though
I’m always surprised to hear the
question, it actually begs another.
Which Peter Green tone?
Most players, regardless of
their stylistic leanings, are aware
of Peter Green’s genius. The
English guitarist is revered for his
amazing tone and fluid vibrato,
and his work is as inspirational
today as it was 40 years ago.
Clearly influenced by Chicago
blues greats like Otis Rush and
Buddy Guy, Green had the vocal
and songwriting chops to stand
alongside his American idols.
In early 1969, Green and his
bandmates made the sojourn to
Chicago’s Chess Studios to do
just that. To my ears, the slightly
restrained playing on the resulting
Fleetwood Mac in Chicago
reveals the raw sound of Green’s
technique more clearly than the
balls-out jams Mac was known
for at their live shows. Regardless
of the session, Green’s use of multiple
pickup settings—sometimes
within a single solo—demonstrates
his adventurous spirit and
desire to extract the maximum
emotional effect from whatever
instrument he was playing. For
him, it was about the surroundings—the song itself.
I was lucky enough to see Green
and Mac at a 1968 New Year’s
Eve show in Chicago. The pure
power of their signature loping
shuffle could make a believer of a
stone wall. During the show, Green
alternated between a Les Paul and
Stratocaster. At the time, my limited
understanding of the inherent
differences between the two
guitars did not allow me to detect
a major difference. In his hands,
the instrument did his bidding.
Fast-forward 15 years: In June
of 1984, I had the opportunity
to inspect the “Peter Green” Les
Paul Standard. At the time, it
belonged to the late Gary Moore
who was in town supporting
Rush on their
Grace Under
Pressure tour. We’d been working
together for a while and had
become friends, so he called me
up when he hit town. Moore
had some free time during the
day and expressed an interest in
visiting the workshop. We were
both big Peter Green fans and
he mentioned he’d acquired the
legendary ’59 ’burst directly from
Green himself. Moore was eager
to show the guitar to me—so
much so, that when I picked him
up at the hotel, he pulled it out
of the case before we even got in
the car. I remember thinking how
surreal it was to be standing on
Clark Street in Chicago holding
that guitar. We were grinning like
little kids with a cool new toy.
Back at the shop, I gave Gary
a tour of the place and introduced
him to all the guys. Then
Gary and I went into my office
to play some guitar. I fired up a
’68 Marshall plexi and plugged
in the ’burst for him. Sitting
directly across from me, Moore
launched into a note-for-note
cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Stop
Messin’ Round.” The dual-pickup
position yielded a convincing
tone that was both recognizable
and unique. Moore handed me
the guitar and urged me to give
it all I could. We traded the axe
back and forth to the delight of
the entire shop.
To be honest, when Moore
played, it sounded a lot like Gary
Moore even when he channeled
Green’s licks. When it was my
turn, I did my best to replicate
Green’s signature riffs on the very
instrument that made the recordings
I’d learned from. Moore
managed to be gracious about
my playing. Still, with both of
the guitar’s pickups selected, we
acknowledged that something
was special about the tone. If it
had been any other guitar, we
might have stopped there.
Up to this point in time, I’d
been the owner of a few original
Sunbursts, and our shop had
bought and sold plenty more.
But none had the eerie tone that
Green’s guitar demonstrated
in the middle selector position
with both pickups on. I’d always
assumed that the hollow tone on
particular Mac recordings was the
result of an out-of-phase condition.
On my guitars, I’d been able
to replicate it to a good extent by
reversing polarity on one of the
pickups. With the actual instrument
now in my grasp, I suggested
to Moore that we disassemble
it and determine the cause once
and for all. To my delight, Moore
jumped at the chance.
Back on the bench, I carefully
removed strings and hardware. A
quick look inside the control cavity
revealed that everything was
stock. Hot to hot, and ground
to ground—original pots and
caps. It didn’t appear to have
been resoldered or disturbed in
any meaningful way. Carefully
removing the pickups yielded the
same results. The pickup covers
retained their original undisturbed
solder joints. Still, I knew
that something lurking within
gave this guitar its unusual sound.
Removal of the pickup covers
showed nothing unusual either.
A pickup creates current
through the use of a magnetic
field coupled with coils of wire.
Both the wiring and the orientation
of the magnetic poles determine
polarity. If you alter either
of these, you change the phase
of the pickup relative to another
pickup. So, with the wiring
intact, I decided to test the magnetic
polarity with a compass.
Bingo! The magnet was reversed
on one pickup. Because the
pickup internals looked undisturbed,
I concluded that it must
have been a mistake at the factory.
With Gibson having made
over ten thousand electric guitars
that year, the odds of the mistake
showing up in Green’s guitar
seems incredible. But strangely
enough, Joe Bonamassa recently
acquired an original ’burst with
the same condition!
Much to my surprise, the
story of my examination of the
Green/Moore guitar has now
entered the lore surrounding the
instrument, which explains the
stream of inquiries. As for the
Peter Green tone—here’s one
more sidebar. Not long after our
meeting, Moore received delivery
of a guitar we’d built for him.
It was equipped with Slammer
humbuckers designed for me by
Steve Blucher. Standing on the
shop’s loading dock, I took a call
from Moore who was almost
screaming with enthusiasm.
“What pickups are in this guitar?”
he demanded. “They sound
better than Greenie’s guitar!”
He asked me to ship him a half
dozen sets immediately for his
other guitars. I agreed and hung
up the phone, but the depth of
his statement didn’t sink in for a
few days. I laughed as I realized
that tone is often “Greener” on
the other side.
Jol Dantzig is a
noted designer, builder,
and player who co-founded
Hamer Guitars,
one of the first boutique
guitar brands, in 1973.
Today, as the director of
Dantzig Guitar Design, he continues to
help define the art of custom guitar. To
learn more, visit
guitardesigner.com.