BURST OF INSPIRATION
We caught up with Greeny’s current owner, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, for an in-depth chat about this legendary ’Burst following his recent performance at the London Palladium’s all-star Peter Green tribute concert
How did you manage to acquire Greeny? “[Guitarist specialist] Richard Henry and I have had a long-standing relationship with me buying guitars from him. About five or six years ago, I rolled into London and I called him up and said, ‘Hey, Rich. What have you got for me? Anything interesting?’ He goes, ‘I have a guitar you might want to see.’ I asked him, ‘What would that guitar be?’ He said, ‘Well, I have the Gary Moore/Peter Green Les Paul.’ I said, ‘Whoa! Wait a second. I’m not going to pay $2 million,’ because that was the rumour going around at the time – that it was on sale for $2 million. He said, ‘Don’t worry, Kirk. It’s all poppycock. It’s very reasonably priced. Let me bring it over.’ I thought, ‘This might be a nice opportunity to spend an afternoon playing a cool 1959 Les Paul Standard…’ I can think of worse things to do!
“So he brought it over about 45 minutes later. I plugged it in and I checked the bridge pickup. It sounded nice, bright, full. Great tone. The tonal spectrum was very, very smooth from low to high. I checked the neck pickup. I thought, ‘Oh my God. This is so nice.’ It has that full-on Still Got The Blues sound; I recognised it instantly. Then, you know, I put it in the middle position and started playing and all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Holy… Lord!’ I looked up at Richard and I said, ‘I’m not giving this guitar back to you guys.”
What were your first impressions of the middle-position sound? “I instantly thought, ‘This is like a Strat through a 100-watt Marshall.’ I thought to myself, ‘Les Pauls aren’t supposed to sound like that, especially 1959 Les Pauls.’ I was so blown away by that aspect. I mean, it didn’t even sound like a traditional sort of out-of-phase sound, like the typical middle toggle position Jimmy Page has been known to use a lot. It sounded completely different – its own characteristic, its own tone.”
Sometimes people have an immediate gut feeling about guitars… “I felt it in my gut, but I also felt it in my heart and I felt it in my brain. I felt it in my hands. I’d go so far as to say it had an aura about it. It was just unmistakable and undeniable. I had never experienced a guitar with that much mojo, so to speak.”
Do you feel inspired creatively when you pick it up? “Riffs just fall out of this guitar. When I’m playing at a low volume with a slightly distorted sound or high volume through a Fender amp, all of a sudden, a beautiful chord progression will come out of it. It doesn’t matter really what the situation is, sonically, it leads me to other new things and pieces of music. It has so much tone. I can make the slightest tweak and it will sing in a different way.”
What amps and pedals does Greeny pair well with? “Greeny likes Tube Screamers. And Marshall amps. Just recently, I was recording at Abbey Road using an old Marshall Bluesbreaker – the same model [1962] Eric Clapton used on the ‘Beano’ album. The Bluesbreaker, Greeny, a Pete
“Riffs just fall out of this guitar… all of a sudden, a beautiful chord
progression will come out of it. it leads me to other new things and pieces of music” – Kirk Hammett
Cornish Treble Boost and a cord was all the tone I needed for that particular song. I was in heaven. There are some guitars that you can plug into any amp and they will make it sound great. And Greeny is that kind of guitar.”
Are the pickup DCR readings unique in any way? “They’re really not that high compared with other Les Pauls that I’ve got a reading out of. With most Les Pauls, the neck pickup seems to be slightly louder than the bridge pickup, but with Greeny, the neck pickup is significantly louder than the bridge. I think that has a lot to do with why the middle pickup position sounds like it does. That middle pickup sound is so unique. I call it my ‘Dragon Tone’.”
How heavy does Greeny feel? “For a Les Paul, it’s about average. It’s not too heavy, but it’s definitely not light, either. I would say it’s somewhere in between.”
What does Greeny feel like to play? “It’s definitely a player type of guitar. The neck has been broken twice, but there’s something about the way it’s been worn in. There is something about its components. There is something about the wood. It’s magical. Over the years, it’s become astonishingly unique. It’s been touched so much. I’m looking at it now and I can see the wear marks that Gary Moore’s fingers put in it. Just looking at the wear is inspiring to me, because I’m such a big Gary Moore fan.”
How much of an inspiration was Gary Moore to you as a guitarist? “He was such a big influence on me, in so many different ways. When I was 16 years old, I remember going to the record store and seeing Gary Moore’s very first solo album that came out in ’78 [Back On The Streets]. I remember seeing this really cool live shot of Gary and thinking, ‘Oh, man. What a cool-looking Les Paul. Wow! That’s what I want to do.’ I was aspiring to be a musician, and now I have the very same guitar. It’s one of those full circle things.”
You recently performed at the Mick Fleetwood & Friends Peter Green tribute concert. Tell us about it… “It was amazing. Again, it was a full circle thing for me having Peter Green’s guitar and playing The Green Manalishi. That song has been with me for a very, very long time. And to be able to play it with Mick Fleetwood and a bunch of other players who just understand that era of Fleetwood Mac was an amazing thing. Greeny was so at home with that song, and all the tones were just sitting there waiting to be
“I want to share the magic of this guitar, because it gives so much. It gives more than any other guitar I’ve ever played in my life. It seems to get better, too” – Kirk Hammett
used inside of her. It was a transcendental experience. When it came time to do the solo, I dug deep. I didn’t know what I was going to play, but having Greeny in my hands and with that Marshall Bluesbreaker and with that band, I knew I was going to be okay.”
And how was it meeting Peter Green when you visited him at home? “It was a real honour. He was very, very cool. He was a gentleman. I found him just to be really, really nice. He was very attentive. Once we broke the ice we started talking about fishing and we talked a little bit about guitars. He still likes to collect guitars. He still plays guitar.
“Yet again, it was one of those full circle things, because he had not seen that guitar since the early 70s when Gary Moore acquired it, so it was a homecoming for Greeny of some sort. He said, ‘That’s not my guitar. My guitar had more red in it.’ But afterwards he held it and he kind of acknowledged it in his own way.”
Do you feel like Greeny’s owner or more of a custodian for the guitar? “I am definitely the custodian. I tend to see it as the people’s guitar, only because, obviously, this guitar’s professional life just refuses to end. This guitar wants to be heard. I’m doing all I can to make sure it’s still being heard by playing it live, recording with it, and having people see it and hear it in real-time. I am not particularly precious with this guitar. I mean, if people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, can I play it?’ I’m like, ‘Sure. Plug it in. Get a feel for it.’ I want to share the magic of this guitar, because it gives so much. It gives more than any other guitar I’ve ever played in my life. It seems to get better, too.”
What would you like to see happen to Greeny in future? “All great instruments tend to outlast their owners, or their custodians, or their players. Whoever ends up with it after I do – and I’ve got no fucking idea who will at this point – I’d hope that it continues to be played, because I think that people will always want to see and hear this guitar.”
“I felt it in my gut, my heart, my brain, my hands… it had an aura about it. unmistakable, undeniable. i’d never experienced a guitar with that much mojo” – Kirk Hammett