There's only a select few electric guitars that are famous enough to be known by a nickname, and with three famous owners in its history, Greeny is one of them. We've talked to Kirk Hammett about his experience of buying the guitar and becoming its most recent custodian, but this excellent new documentary in Five-Watt World's short histories series gives you a fuller picture.
Keith Williams does a fantastic job with these documentaries and this is another thorough treatment telling the story of how Peter Green encountered the '59 Les Paul Standard in 1965 at Selmer Music in London, buying it for £114, before using it to help shape his most iconic guitar moments.
We get the full story about the happy accident re-install and coincidental reversed polarity of the neck pickup that helps give Greeny its out-of-phase character in the middle position when both pickups are on.
Gary Moore has also spoken about his perspective on how he came to own Greeny and become the next player in its story. This 1995 interview is quoted in the Five Watt World documentary and the story goes, as told by Moore, that Green only accepted the same amount he had originally paid for Greeny when he sold it to Moore in the mid-seventies.
He later used it for signature song Parisienne Walkways. Find out what happened next in the documentary above and check out more short history videos on guitar gear from Five Watt World on its YouTube Channel.
