Peter Green Mod

[Rico]

What is it and how is it done.????

[Dave Stephens]

You simply put your pickups out of phase. Flip the hot wire and ground.

[Big_dawg]

youve also got to flip one of the magnets in your pick ups, have a 59 burst, put the pick up in upside down .... oh and be a guitar playing god

[Big_dawg]

or of course have a word with bcr greg and put yourself on the list for the PG pick up set....







being a guitar god optional...

[Dave Stephens]

I forgot to say that flipping the magnet will put your pickups out of phase, its maybe easier to do that than wire in a phase switch, a switch lets you turn it OFF though, out of phase tones get boring if overused. Yeah, turn the pickup around too, it won't make a huge tone difference but it will look right :-)

[Dave Stephens]

Also forgot to add that you don't really need a Peter Green set of pickups, any set of PAF style pickups when out of phase are going to have that tone, they all sound like that, its not rocket science...

[b-squared]

My R9 is set up PG-style, and it's quite an amazing thing to play. In the Rhythm position it's not quite as "woofy" as the standard HB, since the pickup is turned around...basically a bit brighter.

In the middle position, it really shines. I've found that I like it better with some OD; when playing clean it's a bit too thin-sounding for my taste. Playing through an overdriven amp is a completely different story--making small changes in pickup volume/tone can get you some awesome tonal flavors. Roll off the bridge tone, and it does a great Brian May impression, for example.

If I only had one LP I probably wouldn't go so far as to do the PG mod, unless you're trying to cop his tone and make it your own. I personally like the variations of tone, but can always switch to my R7 for the Dickey Betts middle position sound, which is also one of my favorites.

My 2 cents.

BB

PS...Here's a pic of my "Greenie" R9 [Courtesy of RS Guitarworks]...

[WBPickups]

Although there is quite a few theories on how to do a correct PG Mod like a mag flip or reverse your lead and your ground wires. I will say that doing the mag flip will give you an out of phase tone. But it won't sound as good as the correct way. Please note, I am not a rocket scientist.

According to the Correct information that was given to me and then tested ... It wasn't just a mag flip. Although flipping the mag will give you an “Out Of Phase” tone.

Also, how the neck pickup is wound vs. the bridge pickup is the real truth and making sure they both blend correctly with each other for an "Out Of Phase" tone that is loud and musical not thin and ok with a mag flip.

Neither pickup was wound wrong just different from each other. Does installing the neck pickup reverse help with "Out Of Phase"? No.

[Rico]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I was curious as to what it was all about, since then, I've viewed some vids on YouTube with this mod, sounds nice, but not my cup of tea. For now anyways. Thanks again one and all.

[b-squared]

It's funny how mine sounds a bit thin (like a Telecaster) when the signal is clean, but is very musical when the amp is overdriven. I've had dudes compare it to having a wah pedal on and set in one position. It's a really neat sound.

I'd like to check out a LP with the WB Peter Green set in it for a comparison. Anybody in STL have one?

BB

[Dave Stephens]

You know, its kind of silly to call it the Peter Green mod. Some vintage Les Pauls actually came wired out of phase from the factory, this is documented on the other Les Paul forum gallery pages. I think TBone Walker's ES5 has the middle pickup out of phase on purpose, this kind of tone is way older than Peter Green. Its also VERY common in the jump blues genre to play out of phase pickups especially P90s. In my opinion an out of phase P90 tone beats OOP humbuckers all to hell. Buckers just don't get the same richness when wired like that; I have all my P90 guitars and test guitars rigged with a push pull pot to reverse the phase on demand. I'm not sure but I think Jimmy Page also had that mod in his Paul way back when.

OOP pickups doesn't work in every situation, if the pickups are too close together way too many frequencies get knocked out and it can be really horribly shrill, good example is a strat with bridge and middle out of phase, something you DON'T want to do, neck and bridge works but not otherwise....

[5F6-A]

The beauty of the OOP sound is that you can mix the vol and tone pots and sculpture your tone.

For instance, my 91 "pint o'stout" LP has a terrific PG sound when you set both vol pots equally. But hey! plug it in a crunchy vintage Marshall, roll down the neck p/ua notch or two and make sure the toggle is in the middle position and voilá Tonal Bliss.... honestly!! it knocks down some mud and it screams fantastically. Add some tone knob fiddling and you can have thousands of beautiful tones.
patience and experimentation will pay back.

BTW,DAve is right real out-of-phase strat tones are a big no-no....

[dkirwan]

Originally Posted by WBPickups

Although there is quite a few theories on how to do a correct PG Mod like a mag flip or reverse your lead and your ground wires. I will say that doing the mag flip will give you an out of phase tone. But it won't sound as good as the correct way. Please note, I am not a rocket scientist.

According to the Correct information that was given to me and then tested ... It wasn't just a mag flip. Although flipping the mag will give you an “Out Of Phase” tone.

Also, how the neck pickup is wound vs. the bridge pickup is the real truth and making sure they both blend correctly with each other for an "Out Of Phase" tone that is loud and musical not thin and ok with a mag flip.

Neither pickup was wound wrong just different from each other. Does installing the neck pickup reverse help with "Out Of Phase"? No.

I don't doubt that winding the pups with the OOP tone in mind can help produce a more balanced tone.

Personally, I don't believe this is what Greeny did. Listen to how thin his tone is at times. When both tone and volume pots for each pickup are the same...the tone is supposed to be thin. To me, the thinner and tinnier the better. Now, I dont doubt that doing this with a great set of pickups like PAF's is better than OTC pickups for sure. But the magic of Green and his tone is that HE manipulated it all the time. His sense of when to be loud and when to be quiet, when to be reverb drenched, when to be dry, when to have a thick tone, when to have a thin tone....its in his hands.

I get a great Green tone just by flipping the magnet. With burstbuckers even. YMMV.

[dkirwan]

Originally Posted by 5F6-A

The beauty of the OOP sound is that you can mix the vol and tone pots and sculpture your tone.

For instance, my 91 "pint o'stout" LP has a terrific PG sound when you set both vol pots equally. But hey! plug it in a crunchy vintage Marshall, roll down the neck p/ua notch or two and make sure the toggle is in the middle position and voilá Tonal Bliss.... honestly!! it knocks down some mud and it screams fantastically. Add some tone knob fiddling and you can have thousands of beautiful tones.
patience and experimentation will pay back.

BTW,DAve is right real out-of-phase strat tones are a big no-no....

I wrote my post before I read this one. This is right on.

[5F6-A]

Originally Posted by dkirwan

This is right on.

Cheers!!

[Anchorman]

It's also worth pointing out that an out-of-phase signal is lower than in-phase. So when switching to the middle position, there is a distinct volume drop.

I actually find this useful for rhythm parts as the signal cleans up a bit.

[toneguy86]

...OK what if you don't want it? I actually put in a new pickup in the bridge and ended up with an unwanted PG tone. What can I do then? Could it be rectified as simply as hooking my ground to hot and hot to the case as a ground.

Mark

[Masa]

You just wired it out of phase. Just reverse the ground and the hot wires, like you said.