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Works hi this is Keith Williams welcome

to five W world where we're interested

in help you get the most music from the

least gear what are the most famous L

Pauls of all time Clapton's missing bino

burst Jimmy P's fabled number one Billy

Gibbons Pearly Gates there aren't many

Les Pauls that we recognize my name but

Peter Green's greeny is certainly one of

them even younger players might know

this guitar now due to recent Fanfare

over at Gibson over the

reissues I am endlessly interested in

our fascination with the guitars that

were used by famous players why do we

ascribe so much meaning to the

instruments when deep down we know it's

the wisdom of the players that we seek

if those people didn't play them they

wouldn't be worth more than any other

old guitar we know that there really

isn't Magic in that slab of wood and

steal strings or do we so if you want to

know the story behind this particular

bit of mystical history stay tune

because this is the five wart World

Short history of Peter Green's greeny 59

Les Paul if you enjoy our videos make

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description Peter Allen Green bomb who

would later become known professionally

as Peter Green was born on October 29th

1946 in Bethel green London green would

become a central figure in the Second

Great era of the British Blues movement

of the 60s 1965 found green playing in

John Ma's Blues breaker but when Clapton

returned from his draunt through Greece

he was let go to make room for Clapton's

return using a Harmony meteor green then

began playing lead guitar in Peter Bon's

band Peter B's luners where he met

drummer mck Fleetwood was during this

time in 65 that green found his 59 Les

Paul serial number

92208 at sour music in London and he

purchased it for

114b it was very much like the guitar

that Clapton was then playing with the

Blues Breakers where Clapton would put

the world on its ear with the tone he

used on the beino record and green was

right there to drink it in as my friend

Jeff mcklin likes to quote not all

vintage guitars are great but the

greatest guitars I've ever played were

vintage guitars greenie's tone has often

been described as magical as a 59 it had

a set of the original patent applied for

pickups as the pickups were wound on a

machine without a counter to count the

windings each set each pickup is unique

early in his career in an attempt to

emulate Clapton's stinging tone green

removed the neck pickup later replacing

it backwards on mistake this pickup

isn't just placed so the pole pieces are

in the opposite position of the typical

Les Paul but it was also wound in

reverse polarity either at the factory

or by a repairman perhaps one of the

best examples of a mistake growing into

a feature in the history of electric

guitar the reverse pickup gives Greenie

a distinctive out of phase tone when

both pickups are on this tone has been

copied by many others since but it was

not the first example of this in history

a number of other players had guitars

that came with reverse polarity pickup

sets from the factory such was what

passed for quality control in the days

of guitars still being handbuilt by a

group of crashman in the factory in

kalamazo Michigan some well-known

players without out oface tones were

T-Bone Walker with his es5 Hubert

sumblin with his P90 gold top and Freddy

King's P90 Les ball on Hideway dance

away of course many companies offer pif

style hcky pickups sets modeled after

the tones of Peter Green now right down

to the reverse polarity Jeff maeran has

a set of throwback SLE 101 with the

reverse magnet in his historic Makeover

at Gibson Les Paul and along with Jeff's

hands can do a very convincing version

of Green's tone

while green owned the guitar it still

retained much of its original Sunburst

finish

after all the guitar was only between 8

and 11 years old at the time but it has

famously faded now to an overall honey

color that shows the type flame of the

top those that live in the rarified ER

of collecting burst L PS will tell you

that there are two things that influence

a burst value the most who owned it and

the top I've read others who put it more

succinctly barring a famous owner there

are three things that influence a burst

value the top the top and the top the

guitar is reported to weigh 8 lb and 15

o right around the typical less Paul

weight Green's First recording with the

Blues Breakers was on a hard Road in '

67 and it featured two of his

compositions the same way and the

supernatural the latter Latin tinged

instrumental established green as a

player and became his trademark in an

odd to his ability on the instrument his

friends at the time began calling him

the green God a subtle reference to the

Clapton his God graffiti that had sprung

up around London though green was

inspired by and followed Clapton and

John Ma's Blu breakers on guitar after

Clapton left in ' 66 Clapton often

praised Green's playing and BB King said

he has the sweetest tone I've ever heard

he was the only one that gave me the

cold

sweats he had an economy of style that

included his trademark vibr bending and

ability to say a lot with very few

notes after leaving the Blues Breakers

in 67 he founded Fleetwood Mac as a more

pure blues band the band included

drummer Mick Fleetwood from the Blues

Breakers Jeremy Spencer on guitar and

Bob Bruning on bass who would later be

replaced by another Blues breaker Alum

John McVey greeny was Peter's main

instrument during the earliest days of

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac's debut

album made a significant impression

remaining in the British charts for 37

weeks although classic Blues covers and

blues styled Originals remained

prominent in the band's repertoire

throughout this period green rapidly

blossomed as a songwriter and

contributed many successful original

compositions from 68 onward the songs

chosen for single release showed green

style gradually moving away from the

group's Blues Roots into new musical

territory their second studio album Mr

Wonderful was released in ' 68 and

continued the formula of the first album

in the same year they scored a hit with

Green's Black Magic Woman green later

said that the tune was influenced by

Otis Rush's all your love that may Hall

had recorded with Clapton on the guitar

and green later played live with the

band in Peter Green the biography green

is quoted saying one of the things that

may said was that if you really like

something you should take the first

lines and make up another song for them

so that's what I did with Black Magic

Woman a minor blues with a Latin feel

that was embraced and expanded on in

Santana's version this was followed by

the guitar instrumental albatross in

1969 which featured a third guitar an

18-year-old Danny Kerwin and reached

number one in the British singles charts

more hits written by Green followed

including o well man of the world and

the

the green manalishi by the beginning of

1970 his fellow bandmates began to worry

about Green's state of mind he began

taking large and frequent doses of LSD

grew a beard and began to wear robes

green continued to further become arange

from his bandmates and played his last

show with Fleetwood Mack on May 20th

1970 after which he slid under the radar

for many years eventually being

diagnosed with schizophrenia that led to

being institutionalized many times along

with the other members of with Mac green

was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall

of Fame in

1998 about 10 years ago I discovered

artist works and signed up for the

electric country guitar with Guthrie

trap it completely changed the way I

approach the guitar artist works as

affordable courses and a wide variety of

instruments and styles all with Master

musicians ready to work with you using

their Innovative Video Exchange program

get 40% off any artist Works course

using the link in the description along

with the code fww W 40 learned from

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Works I'd like to thank artist works for

their support in making this video it is

at this point in our story of greeny

that Gary Moore enters the picture

Northern Irish musician Robert William

Gary Moore was born on April 4th

1952 heavily influenced by Peter Green

and Eric Clapton Moore was a logical

home for greeny to land Moore began his

playing career joining Skid Row in the

late 60s after two albums Moore left

skid with bandmate Phil Lynett he'd play

with Lynett and Thin Lizzy on and off

until July of 79 after leaving Thin

Lizzy the final time Moore embarked on a

relatively successful solo career in the

mid 70s Peter Green asked his friend

Gary Moore to borrow greeny and hold on

to it for him green had met Mo in the

70s when skidrow was opening for

Fleetwood Mac he later decided to sell

his famous lust Paul to his friend and

blues rocker Gary Moore I've read this

recounted in various ways but the

version more told to guitarist magazine

in 1995 goes like this after borrowing

the guitar for a Time green offered to

sell more the guitar and when Moore

asked the price green told him to sell

his main guitar and SG at the time and

give him whatever he got for it Moore

sold the SG for 160 lbs but when he

tried to give him the money green said

he'd only take what he'd paid for it

originally in 1965 114 pounds even in

the mid 70s it was a tiny amount of

money to pay for a vintage less Paul

more used the guitar on Parisian

walkways which was his signature tune

from his 78 album back on the streets

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in the 80s Moore played more hard rock

and heavy metal but by 1990 he returned

to his blues rock roots with Still Got

The Blues which would be the most

successful album of his career in 1995

more put out blues for greeny an 11

Track studio record of covers of Peter

Green's greatest hits including if you

be my baby and the supernatural

the 8 minute long version of Need Your

Love So Bad includes a 4minute outro

solo which shows what both Moore and

greeny were capable of Moore put a

substantial amount of the playing wear

we see on the guitar today it was also

Moore who changed the bridg volume and

tone knobs to reflector tops leaving the

regular Amber knobs for the neck

controls more sold greeny for financial

reasons in 2006 and the guitar floated

between collectors for the next 8 years

in those intervening years there were

occasional sightings of Greenie most

notably perhaps in the hands of burst

lover and collector Joe bonam Masa who

played greeney at his Royal Albert Hall

Show in 2013 on the tune midnight Blues

bonam masa's higher gain style during a

solo being very different from the one

used by Peter Green back in the 60s

shows again what the versatility of a

vintage less Paul can

be in 2014 greeny was purchased by

Metallica's Kirk Hammet Hammet has been

quoted as saying he paid quote much less

less end quote than a million dollars

for the guitar having bought it when the

previous owner wanted the cash but

there's also been rumors that the price

paid was closer to 2 million as a

private sale the exact number will

likely never be known Gibson has done a

number of reproduction runs with various

levels of greeny specs in 2013 Gibson

released a Gary Moore Les Paul Standard

that had many features modeled after

greeny including a 50 speec neck profile

mismatched volume and tone knobs and a

doublea grade figured maple

after Gibson built Hammet a duplicate of

greeny in 2020 they announced a brand

partnership with hamt saying that a

number of replica guitars would be

forthcoming from both Gibson and epone

in 2022 Gibson released with much

fanfare the collector's edition Kirk ham

at greeny 1959 Les Paul Standard limited

to just 50 units and only available

directly through Gibson they were said

to be exact replicas of Greenie

handcrafted in the Gibson custom shop

and aged in the Murphy lab

they were sold for $50,000 each and sold

out quickly I found one of these for

sale at Wildwood tars in Colorado and

used it for the thumbnail it's on sale

there currently for a cool

$75,000 there were next launched a

custom shop Kurt hammock greeny

advertised with a lightweight mahogany

body with a figured top a custom greeny

neck profile custom greeny pickups with

the appropriately flipped Alo 2 magnet

all wrapped in a brown pink lifton

reissue case for just

$199,999 and recently in 2023 a

production greeny Les Paul Standard has

been released built in the main Factory

on the line with the other Les ball

standards they have a unique finish that

simulates an aged burst and a unique set

of pickups with the reverse polarity

needed to achieve those middle position

greeny tones my friend John Cy was

curious enough to buy one and used it to

play on the intro and outro for this

video overall John was not that

impressed with the guitar capturing his

impressions in two videos that I'll link

in the descript destion at over 10 lb it

might be more reminiscent of a 70s than

a 50s less Paul but John had to admit

that the overall pickups and the guitar

tone did impress at

$3,199 about a grand more than a stock L

Paul Standard you have to ask yourself

how deep Your Love of Peter Green Gary

Moore or even Kirk Hammet might need to

go to Shell out that extra cash if

you've been following the channel for a

while you'll no doubt remember my

flirting with a 2020 Gibson R9 L Paul it

was very light for modern Les Paul and

though I didn't love the color the burst

top I did love the way it sounded but

I'm not doing Standing Rock gigs never

have really and I think that's how the

ergonomics of a Les Paul work best so I

let it go and you know what I'm still

searching for something to replace that

guitar's tones with better ergonomics

lots of other guitars can get close but

so far nothing else has taken me all the

way there if you like this video you'll

probably enjoy my short history of the

burst L Pauls as well if I missed your

part of the greeny story please put it

in the comments for everyone to enjoy I

know from experience that I can count on

you my DTS to John Cy just keep piling

up he's becoming a master of the almost

recognizable tune the clip he sent me

this time was labeled not good Magic

Woman perfect

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of course I need to thank my longtime

friend and collaborator Jeff maeran when

I ask about Clapton Jeff almost always

reminds me to go listen to Peter Green

as well his own playing style owing much

to both I'm still trying to get a little

of either into my Blues playing and Jeff

continues to school us all to that end I

need to thank Tony bacon for his books

Sunburst and the Les Paul guitar book

and whenever I'm writing about Les

Paul's my copy of Dave Hunter's

excellent the Gibson L Paul The

Illustrated history of the guitar that

changed rock is a near at hand

I want to thank everyone that stopped by

the store and picked up a t-shirt hoodie

mug or a stomp preset pack and in

particular I need to thank the friends

of five watt on patreon it's the guitar

Community I've always wanted you're all

5watt world I just make the videos If

you enjoyed this short history of

players that made Greenie famous hit the

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this is Keith Williams thanks for being

a part of the five wi world