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Chasing the Peter Green Tone

Everyone who knows about Peter Green as a guitarist knows about his famous “PG Mod” out of phase tone. While not very well accepted by the general population of guitarists, anyone who is a fan of Peter Green is interested in the unique tone.

But, I often ask myself, “What if Peter had a typical Les Paul that didn’t have the necessary resonance and sustain needed to pull off the out of phase tone properly?” What then? Well, I suspect there would be no Peter Green out of phase tone to be chasing! Let me explain…

                       


Having been totally into the out of phase tone since I first heard Peter play it (Merry Go ‘Round on the Dog & Dustbin album), I was able to finally have my first experience with it in 1971. A good friend of mine, Peter Montagna, was lucky enough to have a dad who was into woodworking. Somehow, Peter found out about how to get the out of phase tone by manipulating a magnet in one of the humbucking pickups. I didn’t have a Les Paul at the time (I was using an SG), so we decided it would be best to get the Peter Green tone from an actual Les Paul. So, we headed to 48th St. in Manhattan on a quest to find a Les Paul.

Of course, original 50’s Les Pauls were scarce, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford one anyway, but there was hope because of Gibson’s recent decision to make “real” Les Pauls again in 1968. We found one of them, a P90 Goldtop, at We Buy, where I traded my SG and some cash for the guitar. Since Peter’s dad had all the necessary equipment to route the guitar for humbuckers, that wasn’t an issue. After doing the deal at We Buy, we went across the street to Manny’s and bought a set of humbuckers. To make a long story short, when the guitar was ready, there it was – perfect Peter Green out of phase tone! I thought, “well, that was easy,” and just assumed that I could get that tone from any Les Paul going forward. That turned out to be a very bad assumption. Read For more information - https://corsaguitars.com/chasing-the-peter-green-tone/

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