B.B. King once described Peter Green’s guitar tone as the ‘sweetest’ he ever heard. Find out how you can create the same beautiful blues tones to suit your budget and setup
I have wanted to sound like Peter Green from the moment I first heard ‘Black Magic Woman‘ as a teenager. In my opinion, Green’s playing represents everything that is so brilliant about the blues. He plays with pure emotion. His playing is not fast, nor is it flashy. He doesn’t use a range of exotic scales. Instead, he strips everything back to focus on what is essential in blues – feeling.
Peter Green had amazing touch and feel, as well as a tone that garnered praise from guitarists like B.B. King, who once said of Green: ‘He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats’.
A huge part of that tone came from Green’s fingers. But he also had a unique set up that helped him achieve his beautiful tones. Outlined here are the specifics of his set up, and everything you need to know if you want to sound like Peter Green:
‘Greeny’
Peter Green was the original owner of ‘Greeny’ – a 1959 Gibson Les Paul that has now become one of the most famous guitars in the world:
Peter Green first used the guitar during his short tenure with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. It went on to be his main guitar in Fleetwood Mac. And it was responsible for the beautiful tones on most of their iconic songs.
After Green quit Fleetwood Mac in 1970, he sold the guitar to his friend Gary Moore, who was then a young and up-and-coming guitarist. Moore went on to use the guitar for most of his career as well. He played it with Thin Lizzy and used it to record songs like ‘Parisienne Walkways‘ and the album Blues For Greeny – which he recorded in tribute to his old friend.
Unfortunately, many years later Moore ran into some financial difficulty and sold the Les Paul. And to the dismay of many Peter Green and blues fans, the iconic guitar has ended up in the hands of Metallica’s Kirk Hammett.
Greeny played a huge part in Peter Green’s distinctive tone. When Green was with The Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac, guitarists puzzled for years over how he achieved his tone. His guitar had the power and bite of a Gibson Les Paul, but the definition and clarity of a Fender Stratocaster. His tone was powerful and thick, but it was also more refined than that of some of his contemporaries, like Eric Clapton.
How Green was able to strike that balance remained a mystery whilst he was in Fleetwood Mac, and it was a question that troubled guitarists for the next 10 years.
The Peter Green ‘mod’
The mystery was solved in the early 1980s, when then owner Gary Moore took the guitar to his friend and the founder of Hamer guitars, Jol Dantzig.
Both Moore and Dantzig assumed that the secret to Peter Green’s tone was out of phase pickups. When pickups are wired out of phase, they usually produce a sound that is typically a bit thin and hollow. This they thought, accounted for the difference in tone in Green’s Les Paul.
They agreed to deconstruct the instrument, expecting to find that Green had re-wired his pickups to achieve his signature sound. But when they took it apart, they found that this wasn’t the case. The guitar was essentially an off the shelf model. Dantzig remained puzzled, until he checked the polarity of the pickups. In his own words:
I used a compass to measure the pickups’ magnetic polarity. I discovered that one magnet was oriented north-to-south while the other was oriented south-to-north. The pickups were magnetically out of phase—this was the secret we’d all been searching for!
Dantzig suspected that the guitar had been set up incorrectly at the Gibson factory. If that was the case, then it was certainly a happy accident in a year when Gibson manufactured thousands of Les Pauls. This was an idea supported by Joe Bonamassa, who acquired a 1959 Gibson just over 10 years ago that had the same feature.
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul
If you want to sound like Peter Green then, there are 2 main factors that you need to consider. You need to look at the type of guitar that Green played, as well as the unusual configuration of the pickups in the guitar. We will first look at the guitar here.
Given the key role that Greeny played in Peter Green’s career, I would recommend going for a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, a ’59 Les Paul replica, or a vintage style Les Paul. Original ’59 Les Pauls in good condition typically cost well over $125,000/£100,000. And although the Gibson Custom Shop released 2 slightly different replica versions of Greeny in 2010 and 2015, such is the build quality and legacy of the guitar, that even second hand versions of these replicas start at around $5,300/£4250 on sites like Reverb. Unfortunately then, those options are beyond the reach of most players.
The good news, is that there are a lot of vintage Les Paul reissues and replicas out there across a range of budgets.
In the lower price range, these Les Pauls tend to be Tribute style guitars, or guitars modelled after a specific decade. Then if you go up to the Custom Shop level, you can find guitars that are built to replicate models made in a specific year. This typically requires higher quality, bespoke made parts and manufacturing techniques. And both of these incur extra cost.
So with that in mind, the best option outside of the Custom Shop is to look at Tribute and ’50s style guitars. These are vintage style models that do a great job of recreating the features of a ’59 Les Paul, without the higher price tag.
In the lower price range, I would recommend going for an Epiphone replica. After Epiphone, I would recommend one of the cheaper Gibson Tribute or Studio models. Beyond that, if you can stretch to it, then there are some brilliant Gibson Les Paul options. Finally, if you are looking to spend a bit more and make an investment, then there are some beautiful Gibson Custom Shop models out there.
All of these guitars will help you to sound like Peter Green. And with a few further tweaks to your pickups and set-up (see below for more details), you can get even closer to Green’s signature tones.
Pickups
The second factor that you need to consider if you really want to sound like Peter Green, is your pickups. Green is famous for his out of phase tone, and it is by far the most distinguishing characteristic of his ’59 Les Paul.
So with this in mind, it will be a challenge to really sound like Peter Green using stock pickups. When pickups are out of phase, you get a unique sound when you select both pickups together. The tone becomes somewhat ‘scooped’ and is sonically more similar to that of a guitar with single coil pickups.
To recreate this element of Green’s sound, you have 2 choices. The first is to buy a set of Peter Green style pickups, that have their polarity reversed. There are not a huge number of these signature style pickups out there, but some of my top choices would be:
The second way of getting closer to Green’s tone is to modify the pickups you already have in your guitar. This does require some skills with a soldering iron, so if you aren’t comfortable making alterations to your guitar, I’d recommend taking it to a guitar tech who can do the job for you. With the magnetic polarity of your pickups reversed, you’ll get that beautiful out of phase tone when you set your pickup selector to the middle position.
Out of phase alternatives
If you are a huge Peter Green fan and you really want to capture Green’s specific sound, then I would strongly recommend that you either buy out of phase pickups, or mod your guitar. However, if you like Green but don’t want to modify your guitar or commit to changing its sound so dramatically, then there are some other alternatives worth considering.
My recommendation here would be to look at vintage style humbuckers. These are pickups that aren’t out of phase, but will which will help you to capture the sounds of a regular vintage Les Paul. These are ‘underwound’ pickups that have a lower output and a more vintage sounding tone. Luckily, there are some great options here. Some of my top choices are as follows:
- Gibson ’57 Classic Humbuckers
- Seymour Duncan ’59 Humbuckers
- Seymour Duncan Seth Lover Humbucking Pickups
- Stormy Monday Humbuckers
These pickups are not out of phase, and so won’t help you to recreate that element of Green’s sound. What they will do, is help you to produce beautiful vintage blues tones. And this will still go a long way to helping you sound like Peter Green – largely because Green didn’t always have his guitar set to use both pickups.
Commentators always focus on the fact that Green’s pickups were out of phase. But in fact many of Green’s live performances show him using either the neck or the bridge pickups. In these positions, the fact that the pickups were out of phase is irrelevant. With out of phase pickups, the only difference in sound is in the middle position. So you can sound like Peter Green on a lot of his most famous recordings, without making any alterations to your guitar whatsoever!
This is also true if you have (or go out and buy) a modern Gibson guitar that replicates an early model. These guitars (some of which are listed above) are likely to come stock with vintage style pickups. So if that is the case, you don’t need to go out to buy any new pickups at all. Instead you can focus on other areas of Green’s set-up.
Amps
Between 1966 and 1970, Peter Green used a whole range of different amplifiers.
With John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, he opted for high output, heavy rock amps like the Marshall JTM45. This created the tones you can hear on the album A Hard Road, and specifically on songs like ‘The Super- Natural‘, ‘The Stumble‘ and ‘So Many Roads‘.
After this, Green moved on to become one of the earliest ambassadors of Orange guitar amps. Orange Music started out as a music shop on New Compton Street in London. Green, and other famous guitarists like Paul Kossoff and Marc Bolan were frequent patrons. Shortly after opening, Orange Music founder Cliff Cooper decided to create his own range of amplifiers, when major amp manufacturers refused to stock their amps in his shop.
Cooper teamed up with amp manufacturer Mat Mathias and released the original ‘Orange Matamps’.
The Matamps that Green used were big, 100 watt amps. He combined these with a mix of 2×12 and 4×12 Orange speaker cabinets. In total when Green toured, he played with 6, 100 watt Orange Matamps, as well as 16 speaker cabinets!
After this, Green switched again and started using Fender amps. At various points he played a Dual Showman Reverb, a Twin Reverb and a Deluxe Reverb. These are the amps that Green used during some of Fleetwood Mac’s best live performances, including The Boston Tea Party in 1970.
Some initial considerations
If you are looking to buy an amp that will help you to sound like Peter Green then, there are a number of important factors that you should consider.
The first, is to think about which of the various tones that Green crafted most appeals to you. Are you looking for the heavier tones of his time with The Bluesbreakers? Or the softer and sweeter tones of some of his later Fleetwood Mac records?
The second, is to consider how else you plan on using your amp. Are you interested in dialling in heavy British style blues tones? Or are you looking for a softer and cleaner American sound?
The answers to those questions will determine which type of amp you should buy to sound like Peter Green. And below I have laid out the different options in detail.
There is of course the option to buy one of the amps that Green originally used. And in fact, apart from the Orange Matamp and the Fender Dual Showman that Green played, reissue models of the amps that Green used are readily available. So with that in mind, any of the following could make a brilliant choice in the right context (more on this below):
Additionally, you can also pick up both an Orange Matamp and a Fender Dual Showman second hand on sites like Reverb. The Dual Showman Reverb was discontinued in 1993, having been judged by many to be poorer quality than the more popular Twin Reverb. As a result, these are relatively inexpensive. The heads start from around $1000/£750 on Reverb. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for second hand Orange Matamps, as the heads start from around $5000/£4000.
Authenticity vs. practicality
Of course then, the first consideration when looking at the amps that Green used, is the price. Even the reissue amps are still quite expensive, and will be beyond the reach of a lot of players. Fortunately though, there are some great alternatives across a range of price brackets, which I’ve laid out below.
The other consideration you have to make here – and it is a fairly significant one – is that these are powerful amps. To get the best out of them, you have to crank the volume. This is what gives you that beautiful, vintage sounding overdrive. And this is how Green played his amps. Like so many of the early electric blues guitarists, he cranked the amps until they started to break up into a warm and rich overdrive.
Cranking a 100 watt amp or a Marshall stack produces a huge amount of volume. So if you are predominantly playing at home, in a studio, or in small venues, I wouldn’t recommend any of the amps that Green actually used. Perhaps the only exception to that is the Fender ’64 Deluxe Reverb. At 20 watts you could crank that more easily than the other amps listed above. But even so, it is still probably too large to play at home for most.
As such, I would recommend opting for a smaller combo or stack. And the great news is that there are options here to suit a range of different budgets. There are also options that will help you to recreate specific sounds from different points in Green’s career.
Marshall
If you want to sound like Peter Green in his earlier days of The Bluesbreakers, but don’t want a big combo or a stack, then there are some brilliant smaller Marshall combos and heads. My top choices across a range of budgets are as follows:
Of these combos, there are head versions of the Studio Vintage Plexi and the Marshall Origin 20W. So if you wanted to build a stack, one of these smaller heads could be a brilliant choice. You could then pair it up with one of Marshall’s smaller vintage style 1×12″ cabinets.
Fender
If you want a softer tone that captures the sound of Peter Green in Fleetwood Mac, I would recommend looking at Fender amps. Specifically, I would recommend opting for a small Fender amp that will give you a cranked sound like Peter Green, but at a lower volume. And thankfully Fender have choices to suit every budget. Some of my top recommendations are:
If you are looking for something with a bit more power and headroom, then either a Fender Deluxe Reverb or a Fender ’65 Super Reverb would be my top choices. Both of these are large and powerful amps (particularly the Super Reverb). So they are probably too loud for home use. But if you are gigging and need a bigger amp, then either of these could work very well.
Orange – an honourable mention
As previously mentioned – Peter Green was one of the early ambassadors of Orange amps. He used Orange Matamps during the early days of Fleetwood Mac and when the band toured around the U.S. for 3 months.
You might think then, that adding an Orange amp to your set up would be a great idea. But in fact, I probably wouldn’t recommend it. This is because, by Orange’s own admission:
In terms of their design and sound the first OR100 and OR200 series were low distortion “hi-fi guitar amps.” Sonically, they had little if any resemblance to the characteristic Orange mid-range crunch that began… in 1971
In other words then, the modern day amps that Orange offer don’t sound anything like the Orange Matamps that Green played. As such, if you want to sound like Peter Green, I don’t think buying a modern day Orange amp would be the best choice. Instead I would recommend going for one of the Fender or Marshall amps listed above.
That is not to say that Orange don’t make great amps. Rather, it is to say that they are better suited if you want to play slightly heavier styles of rock music.
Boost & overdrive pedals
Peter Green didn’t use any guitar pedals during either The Bluesbreakers or Fleetwood Mac. Like so many guitarists from the 1960s and 1970s, his tone came from pushing his amp to the point of breaking up and overdriving.
Green drove his amps hard and that really helped create his tone. The challenge for most of us, is getting that cranked sound at a volume that you can play at home or in a small venue. And this is where a choice guitar pedal or two can help.
Specifically, I would recommend adding either a clean boost pedal or a low gain overdrive pedal to your rig.
A clean boost will push your amp and add a bit of extra overdrive and aggression to your tone. There are a huge number of different pedals to choose from (which I outlined in more detail here), but some of my top choices are:
If you want the option of producing a bit more overdrive, I would recommend going for a ‘dirty’ boost pedal that can handle more gain, or a low gain overdrive pedal that won’t colour your sound too much. My top choices here are as above as well.
It is worth noting here, that Green didn’t actually use any of the pedals outlined above. So if you are looking for authenticity, then these are not ‘must have’ pedals. Having said that, they will help you to get a cranked tone at a lower volume, and some of them – like the Boss Blues Driver – will help you to dial in a range of vintage blues tones.
Reverb pedals
The final effect that you need to consider if you want to sound like Peter Green is reverb. Green used a lot of reverb, especially when playing live. Just listen to the live version of songs like ‘Black Magic Woman‘, ‘Jumping at Shadows‘ and ‘The Green Manalishi‘. Green’s sound is thick with reverb, which helps to give his playing a slightly ethereal feeling. In fact, when Fleetwood Mac first started touring, Green used 2 stand alone spring reverb units!
The good news, is that many of the amps that Green used (and which I have also listed above) have reverb built in. If that is the case for your amp, then you’re all set.
If not, then you need to buy a separate reverb pedal. Not only is reverb essential if you want to sound like Peter Green, but it is a key part of a beautiful blues tone. So if your amp doesn’t have reverb, I would recommending opting for a vintage voiced reverb pedal.
I wrote an article on these recently, which you can read in full here. But some of my top recommendations to get those Green style tones are as follows:
Each of those pedals will also make a great addition to your rig if you are looking for a greater variety of reverb sounds than your amp offers you.
Strings
Unlike many of the players that I have covered in my ‘Sound Like Series‘ so far, guitarists have placed much less focus on the strings that Peter Green used. There is speculation that Green used quite heavy gauge strings – possibly as heavy as .012. There is also some speculation that he raised his pickup height much higher than other players, which allowed him to play thinner strings, but make them sound like they were heavier. However there doesn’t seem to be any concrete evidence of either of these theories.
So when it comes to choosing strings, I would focus on using the gauge that allows you to play at your best. Given that Green doesn’t play fast, but does favour big soaring bends and long sustaining notes – it might be worth opting for a slightly heavier gauge of string. But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Some different brands and gauges I would recommend are as follows:
Experiment with a few different brands and gauges until you find what works best for you.
Closing thoughts
Well there we have it, everything you need to sound like Peter Green.
The approach that Green took to his gear was very similar to the way he approached his playing. He stripped everything back and just focused on the essentials, which was his signature Les Paul plugged straight into his amp. He didn’t have an extensive pedalboard, nor did he use any fancy effects. His sound came from his out of phase pickups, an overdriving tube amp and a bit of added reverb.
So if you want to recreate Green’s tones, focus on those core elements. Although the exact gear that Green used is prohibitively expensive for most of us, I hope the budget friendly options outlined here have been helpful.
Beyond that – if you want to sound like Peter Green, then you have to put in the hard hours of practice. During the height of his career, Green was an exceptionally skilful guitarist. He was recognised for his versatility, the quality of his vibrato and the nuances of his playing. His fingers played a huge part in his sound. Like his idol B.B.King, Green cared about the quality of the notes he played, rather than the quantity.
If you take the same approach to your playing, and combine that with the suggestions outlined here, then you’ll be well on your way to recreating the beautiful blues tones of ‘The Green God’.
Good luck – and please do let me know how you get on in the comments section!
P.S. If you enjoyed reading this article, please share the love 😁 Thank you!
References
Youtube, Gibson, Music Radar, Guitar Player, Wikipedia, Les Paul Forum, Orange Amps, Wikipedia, Equipboard, Youtube, Louder Sound, Guitar Magazine, Sweetwater Sound, Thalia Capos, Music Radar, Premier Guitar, Ground Guitar, Les Paul Forum, Bare Knuckle Pickups
Images
Feature Image – Nick Contador (Wikimedia Commons) The License for the image is here.
Further Image of Peter Green – W.W. Thaler (Wikimedia Commons) The License for the image is here.
Images of Gear – ZZ Sounds, Cream City Music, Amazon, Strings and Beyond, Orange Amps, Star’s Music
Links
Many of the links embedded in this article are affiliate links. As such, if you buy one of the pieces of gear I recommend, or an item from the same store after clicking one of these links, I will earn a small commission. I never recommend pieces of gear that I wouldn’t use myself, and I include these affiliate links to ensure that I can keep this content free. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on aidan@happybluesman.com.
Thanks very much for this great post – I would suggest updating the amp section containing the Orange statement, as with the release of the Tremlord try now have a product that will completely fit this need.
Thank you so much for the comment and kind words Lopez, I really appreciate it. Thank you also for putting the ‘Tremlord’ on my radar. I hadn’t heard of that range, and they look brilliant! So I will definitely be updating this article (as well as a variety of others) and adding in that recommendation. Thanks again, and best of luck dialling in those beautiful Peter Green style tones 😁
Hi Aidan,
Good advice on Peter. I started on bass and then got obsessed with Peter’s guitar playing many years ago. I have got a Les Paul copy by a Scottish company I think the name was Westone for £100 brand new but discounted, probably a Friday job, badly put together, but a lovely sunburst red. I did a lot of work to it, straightened the neck alignment and replaced all the electrics. I bought Wilkinson 59 copy pick ups, reversed the magnet on the neck pickup and there was a the Peter Green tone!! But to get close to his tone ( I have been playing blues for around 40 years in various bands, some on the London circuits) many years of working at a good vibrato and attack many players have that better than me! Also funnily enough I broke the neck by accident near the headstock and managed to do a good repair some years ago, I don’t think it changed the tone though. This guitar has a bolt on neck, but for some reason even acoustically it sounds like Greeny’s out of phase tone, I have another guitar, same make and similar set up but acoustically does not have that tone. I have humbly managed to get almost identical to Peter’s tone according to my ears when playing over his 2nd Mac album together over many years of practice for fun. I have many amps but can get it with most of them with pedals. Some guys copy Green but spoil it with too much drive and a thin tone. Also I have finally become aware that most of those songs in Horizon Studios have a touch of “room” effect on Peter’s sound, also Mike Vernon did an amazing job on those early recordings! Fenders as you say are maybe the best for it.
One thing I would like to say is my band went to Bristol to see John Mayall with Peter Green. While lining up around the block to get in I could not believe my ears because I heard a sound like an opera singer was singing, but when we got it it was Peter Green!!! I had NEVER HEARD THE BLUES BEFORE! Wow, but interestingly I noticed a hole in his famouis Les Paul where the neck pick up should have been! I heard later it was sent for repair and that is when the magnet was reversed, that makes sense because we did not hear that famous tone until he started Fleetwood Mac.
Best regards,
John Page.
Thanks so much for sharing this story John – it sounds like you have put some serious thought and time into capturing Peter Green’s beautiful blues tones, which is just amazing! As you said, a lot of people crank the drive up too high when trying to recreate his sound, but his tone had a real warmth to it and all of the drive came from his old-school amps, so it was never really that heavily broken up. As for the time that you were able to see Green live – what an experience that must have been! Every time that I go back and listen to Green playing – be it either with John Mayall or Fleetwood Mac – I am just blown away. He remains one of my all time favourite blues guitarists, and in my opinion is one of the very greatest blues guitarists of all time.
Hey, this article was great. I have a vintage Peter green les Paul copy done by trev Wilkinson. The first batch were all dinged up and aged but I didn’t like them as it looked abit false. I got the later version which would have been like the new one Peter bought. It’s a great guitar and I enjoy trying to emulate Peter on it, But it’s very hard! I recently picked up a fender blues junior tweed which is the closest tone I’ve got so far. Albatross and Green Manalishi sound pretty good. I enjoyed the comments about turning the volume control slightly to turn down the dirt and then using it to get the frit back. I’ll have to try that next time. It’s very prevalent in Peters tone on I’ve got a good mind to give up living. So excited to try that. I found the advice on getting the amp to feedback interesting as well. I may look into the pedals you mentioned or see if I can get my blues junior to feedback. Anyways just wanted to say great article, great hints and tips for a young lad to learn. All the best, Luke
Thanks so much for the kind words Luke and I’m really glad to hear you found the article helpful. It sounds like you’re doing all of the right things with regards to recreating Green’s tone. Does your Les Paul copy have out of phase pickups? If so, then that combined with your Fender amp will definitely set you on the right path. Then it’s just all about manipulating your sound through subtle changes to your tone and volume controls and by changing your pick attack. Given Green’s amazing touch and playing style, this isn’t easy to do, but it makes for a very fun and interesting challenge! 😁 Good luck with it all man and if there is anything more that I can help with or if you have any questions – just send me an email on aidan@happybluesman.com. I’d love to help!
Thanks Aiden for your detailed answers to my questions. Great info! The Digitech Freqout pedal is a great tip! I’ve watched some of the demos online, it sounds very authentic playing “The Supernatural” (It reminds me a little of using using an eBow). In this demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puXTs6zclT4), I noticed the guitarist is playing fingerstyle, which raises the question: what kind of pick was Peter Green using? I’ve tried several, including a thick jazz pickup, a 1950’s UK sixpence (as used by Brian May), and using my thumb/fingers.
A couple of other comments:
– regarding the ‘out of phase’ sound, I have a Brian May Red Special which uses Burns Trisonic pickups, and has the out of phase setting. But I don’t think that setting even comes close to the Peter Green sound, it sounds too thin. So your comment that they found the Greenie pickup was magnetically out of phase (rather than it having 2 pickups out of phase) makes sense. FYI this weekend I tried using the Fryer Brian May treble booster in front of the Josh Smith Chula clean boost, with my Les Paul, and that sound comes much closer.
– in the black and white video on Youtube of Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac playing “Need your love so bad”, PG is playing a Strat…. do you know if this was just for the video, or did he also play the strat on that recording? There are a bunch of takes of this tune on Spotify, on an album called “the pious bird of good omen”.
You’re very welcome Patrick and glad to hear that it was helpful! 😁
To address your other questions:
– There isn’t much concrete evidence about the type of picks and strings that Green used. Having said that, my suggestion would be to use quite a thick pick made from either Tortex or Nylon. I suggest a thick pick because Green was constantly altering his dynamics, and he did a lot of that through his pick attack. If you use a heavy pick, then you can easily dig in and add some extra bite to your sound. Equally you can still play with a soft touch to create a sweeter and softer tone. I think this makes thick picks more versatile than thin ones. People say that Nylon picks have a warmer sound, which would work well when trying to sound like Peter Green. Though having said that I don’t believe there is a really appreciable difference between Nylon and Tortex. There is however a noticeable difference between Tortex/Nylon picks and metal picks. The latter will produce a much harsher sound with more bite, which is probably a bit too much for Green’s tone, but brilliant for Brian May and Rory Gallagher style tones.
– Regarding the Trisonic pickusp, I also think that the fundamental sound of those pickups is going to be quite different from those that Green used. Compared with Peter Green, Brian May’s tone is quite sharp and biting. It is more of a heavy rock tone and I suspect (without knowing too much about May’s specific pickups) that the output of the pickups is reflective of that. It depends on how much you want to emulate Green’s tone – but if you are very interested in authenticity and in recreating that classic Peter Green style sound then I would recommend going for a set of lower output, vintage humbuckers that are out of phase. The Bare Knuckle PG blues set that are linked above would be a great choice, and apparently those were the pickups that Gary Moore used in one of his Les Pauls. So you would be in good company!
– Again there isn’t a huge amount of concrete evidence, but apparently that was Jeremy Spencer’s Strat. Green used it for the music video, but played his Les Paul on the recording. That makes sense to me, because on all of the recordings of the song on The Pious Bird Of Good Omen it sounds like Green is playing his Les Paul in the middle position. It is my belief that his Les Paul just sounds a bit thinner and Strat like because he has the tone controls on his guitar (and possibly also on his amp) set so that his tone is more treble intensive.
I hope that helps man and please do let me know how you get on!
This is a great article. 2 questions:
1. I’m interested to know if there is any info regarding the settings Peter Green used on his amps? I have the mid-60’s Marshall JTM 45 MkII (the same one you have in the picture) which has presence, bass, middle, treble, then 2 channels (one with more treble) with 2 outputs each (one each with more gain). I also have a 59 style Les Paul which I built, with vintage-style humbuckers (StewMac GoldenAge). I crank the amp then back off the volume using a Weber MASS 200 attenuator. For Pedals, I add clean boost (Lovepedal Chula) and some reverb (Boss RV-5). I sometimes add the Boss Compression/Sustainer CS-3 and the Boss Delay DD7 eg for Albatross .
2. How does he get that incredible sustain on “The Supernatural”?
Hi Patrick, thanks very much for the comment and the kind words – and for sending those great questions across! My thoughts/answers to both of those are as follows:
1.) I’ve struggled to find any concrete evidence on the specific amp settings that Green used. Having said that though, in listening to his playing (and especially to his live performances), there are are a few things that I think we can conclude:
– Green sets the amp with a lot of reverb. In some of his live performances his tone is very heavy with reverb. So if you are going for the Peter Green sound, you either want to crank the reverb on your amp or dial it in on your Boss RV-5.
– Green cranks his amps. You can tell that he is pushing his amps hard and playing at a high volume. For his clean tone he rolls the volume off a few notches, and then when he goes for a solo he opens that up, which creates his more overdriven tones. You can hear this illustrated beautifully on ‘Jumping At Shadows‘, from the Boston Tea Party performance.
– I suspect that the EQ controls on the amp are set pretty level. Green often changes his tone quite radically during different parts of the same song. One minute his guitar sounds warm and mellow, and the next it is sharp and biting. And I think he is making these adjustments on his guitar, with his volume and tone controls, and by switching through different pickups. So I wouldn’t get too caught up on the EQ settings of your amp, but instead would focus on making subtle adjustments to the controls on your guitar.
It sounds like you are doing all of the right things to get the best out of your amp. Do you alter which outputs you use? I only ask because the higher gain output would work well for recreating the tones from Green’s early playing with the Bluesbreakers. But I would suggest running the lower gain output for when you are trying to recreate the tones from Fleetwood Mac.
2.) In short, Green plays his amp very loudly and causes it to feedback. He then controls the nature and length of the sustaining notes through his vibrato. This is not only very difficult to do, but also challenging to do if you are playing at home. The amp only starts to feedback when it is pushed, and generally speaking, you need volume for that. And that is likely to difficult if you have family and neighbours to consider!
Even if you were able to play at volume however, there are 2 further challenges to overcome.
The first is that you have to find the position in front of your amp where it starts to feedback. Apparently Gary Moore (who was a huge Peter Green fan) used to mark out a large ‘X’ on the floor of the stage where he knew his amp would start to feedback. He would then stand in that spot when he wanted to hit the big sustaining bends on songs like ‘Parisienne Walkways‘. So if you want to create those soaring notes, you have to figure out where that spot on your amp is.
The second challenge is a technical one. Apparently when Gary Moore did his cover of ‘The Supernatural‘ for his tribute album ‘Blues For Greeny‘ he used a Fernandes Sustainer (a specially designed electronic system) to hit the long, sustaining notes. So if Gary Moore can’t manage to play those notes, it doesn’t give the rest of us much hope! 😅
The good news is that after a bit of research I discovered a couple of pedals that will help you to create the same effect. The first is the DigiTech Freqout, which is used in this clip to amazing effect to play ‘The Super-Natural’.
The second is the Boss Feedbacker/Booster. This is both a boost and feedback pedal in one, and so gives you a whole range of different tone shaping options. You can see it demonstrated on this clip here. You might not want to spend so much on a pedal that just performs 1 specific job, but either of those options would definitely help you get close to the sustaining notes on ‘The Super-Natural’.
I hope that helps a bit but if there is anything else I can do or if you have any more questions – please do let me know. You can reach me whenever on aidan@happybluesman.com and I’d love to help! 😁
I have a Dean Markley k-150 100watt combo with accutronics spring reverb a Boss Me 80 and a Laney Cub 12 15 watt tube amp and a Epiphone 1960 Tribute 2010 with Gibson Classic 57 and 57+ in Bridge will I be able to replicate Peter Greens tone advice please thank you from Douglas Allan
Hi Douglas – thanks so much for the comment and for providing that background, it was very helpful. Based on your set-up and with your Laney Cub and Epiphone, I think you should be able to get pretty close to Green’s beautiful tones!
The key ‘Peter Green’ sound that everyone thinks of when they talk about his tone, comes from his out of phase pickups. So if you are intent on replicating Green’s tones, it might be worth looking at switching out the pickups you have now for a specific out of phase set. The Bare Knuckle PG blues set that are linked above would be a great choice, and apparently those were the pickups that Gary Moore used in another of his Les Pauls. So you would be in good company!
Beyond that (and assuming that you are doing most of your playing at home?) I would set your Laney Cub on one of the lower power settings. This will allow you to produce an overdriven tone at a lower volume. Then just roll the volume control on your guitar off a bit. This will clean your sound up – which you can then use for a rhythm or clean lead tone. If you decide that you want to add some crunch to your sound, all you need to do is open your volume control up 👌🏻 Either way, just make sure you’re quite generous with the amount of reverb you set on the amp, because Green’s tone was pretty heavy on the reverb, especially when he played live.
Finally and depending on your budget – it might be worth adding a boost or low gain overdrive pedal to your set-up. This will just help to ‘fatten’ your tone up a bit and give it some added warmth. You can get some great boost pedals to enhance your base tone for pretty reasonable prices, and quite a number of them are listed in this article that I wrote quite recently.
Please do let me know how you get on. And if you would like more specific recommendations based on your budget and the rest of your rig, just send me an email on aidan@happybluesman.com. I’d love to help! 😁