Joe Bonamassa Plays Peter Green's Guitars!

[Music] thank you [Music] there you go you know when I was a kid like a lot of a lot of American kids we were we were inundated with the British influence LED Zeppelins the Jeff Beck groups the you know Eric claptons and stuff like that and it was a band called Fleetwood Mac and I remember my dad liking a version of the Fleetwood Mac that had Peter green in it and my mom liking a version of the Fleetwood Mac that um had Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in it but like you know a lot of us the first time you ever heard Peter Green paraphrasing but but you know and you know that band would even you know like with Peter and Jeremy Spencer and what you heard was these guitar sounds that were not being created in America at the time you know what I mean it was like the late 60s and it was it was partly the gear it was partly this kind of movement of of the Blues in the UK that that that um that really influenced more Americans I think at the time than than than you know than than anybody because it was it was it was this kind of exotic form of the Blues dressed as rock and roll and so you know and then as I went down the rabbit hole Peter Green you know you know I mean you know I need your love so bad it's just it's like BB King called it one of the great blues songs of all time you know and you know just his feel and his touch you know he kind of was like you know he played all the T-bone stuff but he also could Rock I mean when you listen to John May on the Blues Breakers the hard road record I mean that's it's fiery in his incendiary guitar playing you'll ever find and you know if you didn't know you would think it was Clapton it was the second record with clapping but it's not it was him it was Peter Green and you know it was the sound of a Les Paul through a cranked Blues breaker Marshall combo or some sort of British amplification device because the Box could have been but you know those footage you see Peter he's playing Showman's so it was a fender thing and but you know a lot of times for me I enjoyed um just listening to that that Journey that those guys would would make especially in Fleetwood Mac you know I mean it's like it's a real it's a real um it's a real eye-opener and uh and you know he's he's so young when he died and such a talent you know so to be holding his guitar is like a real real treat for me today well moving on to the guitar on your lap you've got a 1968 great white Falcon that belonged to uh Peter once you as a guitar collector what's your sort of estimation of the of the guitar it needs a set of strings but that's the easy part oh it's a beautiful guitar you know the the white Falcon was the the it was the highest end model that Gretch made the highest end appointments and you know every Guitar Company fried Gretch included um they always they had they had the one for the for the rich dad who wanted it all you know and this was it this was this was the most you know Decked Out appointments it got two mutes not one um you got kill switches everywhere it's hard to figure out how to get these things going we got the filter trons which is cool this is a good those are the best pickups for these and it's a double cut and you know gretches have a certain sound and they're kind of indelibly linked to the Bigsby you know because [Music] I'm trying to keep it intense but um you know the roller Bridge it's a beautiful example and if you had one of those cowboy belt buckles they had you covered you know um Gold Everywhere You know I remember first seeing one of these I think Steven Stills had one and I think Steven Stills had a double cut or a single cut Neil Young had a single cut but it was his was stereo so half it it was like half the crazy stuff that they made and you know befriending Randy Bachmann for years and years and years ago you know Randy has or had um until he sold it I believe he sold it to Gretch itself um he had the most definitive completist Gretch collection in the world and you know it's just to think about like all of the iconic brands that came out of America in the 50s and 60s I mean crutches was around long before that but the the design you know they're still making guitars that that are derivative of this today we're talking about 65 70 years later you know and you know this guitar is almost 60 years old and it's still just as cool as it was in 1968. and that's that you know that's a classic design I could see why Peter wanted one you know because you know do you think it's a slightly unusual guitar for a blues player you can play Blues on anything you know Sun seals play Blues on a guild you know Muddy Waters played Blues on a guild um Bobby Parker um the the legendary blues guy who since passed away um he was the one that recorded the version of Steel your hard way which I believe the new Yard Birds covered and was suggested to me that I covered Bobby Parker was from Baltimore and he was a stone cold blues man and he showed up with a dime bag Daryl Explorer by Dean with the headstock modified and he ripped into the blues and he didn't care and that was that's the cool thing about the blues you can play it on anything you know [Music] that's why I love the fact that you know like Kirk Hammond has has the Les Paul he's playing his music on that guitar you know and it's it's that the Les Paul shouldn't just be a blues guitar you know this guy shouldn't just be a rockabilly guitar it you can play anything you know on on any any guitar you know it's as long as it works and it's loud [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] we're in more sort of traditional Blues territory now yeah 1931 National geolian what's your take on that the condition Etc particularly good one um not a lot of these survived with neck angles that are playable you know we were talking earlier off camera about the fact that these didn't come originally with with truss rods so if the thing sat for 80 years with tension on it like the neck would bow and and a lot of times you have to do some pretty invasive maintenance to get these to play and of course you got to do it because it's either you have two choices hanging on the wall and look at it or or make music on it I'd rather maintain it um but this one is a particularly good sounding one um the resonator is in really good shape sometimes these things develop rattles over the I mean we're talking about a Guitar let's round up almost 100 years old and they they develop kind of kind of rattly non-musical things happening this one's really stable you know and IT projects nicely and that's basically what it was is is something that was a guitar amplifier built in you know into a you know a metal guitar and it's such a genius design to make him out of steel and put a resonator on them actually put a lot of work into this and these would come in this is a duolian and some of these were fancier than others this is pretty pretty basic one um but it's Peter's and it's on the cover of that album and and you could tell he loved it and uh and it's definitely a a blues guitar but you like I said you could play anything on this I I watched Chris Whitley one time literally by himself with one of these and a a pickup tape to the front of it a wire down to the floor a phone book with a with a kick drum sample on it blow my entire three-piece band off the stage at the patio in Indianapolis and it was the most incredible intense thing I've ever seen in my entire life and Chris used to play one of these and it was not Blues it was very very Progressive and modern and it was just him by himself and it was just the most insane thing I've ever seen in my entire life so so so the less it is is no matter what the tool is is you can always do something different with it and uh yeah this is this is really good this is a real thrill to see this I'm I recognize this from many photos that uh I've I've seen Peter with this one so do you have any Nationals in your collection [Music] um yes uh I may have a half a dozen uh Nationals of different kinds I got dobros I got I got wooden ones I got steel ones got trichomes um you know my my my favorite is um I have uh I have a 1929 or 30. figure out the date it's a it's a national you know style three trichome pretty engraved and it's and it's nice um I use it on Mark brassard's record and they're really cool um we actually put a microphone in the in the f-hole taped it in there kind of like it's taped to my lapel and ran it through an old amp and got this really cool very low-fi bluesy sound out of it and uh yeah so they're they're they're great when they work there's nothing like them there's totally a unique design pre and post well we were saying earlier again off camera that it was a genius idea to attend banjo players into actually playing guitar and do you find that's an incredibly loud one I've heard I've heard a few in the past and for the body size and everything that's really kicking out some volume it has good volume yeah it's it and it's Dynamic too because it's foreign [Music] my hands are all beat up but anyway um it's it's a particularly good one I I could see why he would want it um because you could line 10 of these up in a row and be like this one's not good this one's not gonna this wouldn't this would stand out in anybody's you know in anybody's mind as being the reason why he bought it in the first place and finally the um the rest of the collection the bottoms I've got is a really eclectic um group of guitars Peter seemed to buy anything just because he liked for instance they say that he would buy something just because he liked the color and everything right um he's not unique in that by the way people us collectors do that you know so how do you think that fits into Peter's sort of Personality as a player well I mean I read a story or I watched an interview with somebody it was it was it was it was somebody associated with Fleetwood Mac and when when Peter left the band he said well you should name the band Fleetwood Mac for the drummer and the bass player because when the band breaks up they're gonna need something to fall back on if that is not eclectic thinking and you know I mean he was like that I mean he was so consistent his whole life you know about how he just did things he he was a unique individual and and could always surprise you you know I mean like just that output from like 1967 to like 1970. I mean just are still again we're still talking about it today you know it's like such a such a such a great so it's a great band and then to have them pivot to make one of the best selling rumors is one of the best selling records of all time and you know but if you still think about it you know don't stop thinking about tomorrow as a shuffle um it's a shuffle a great shovel you know Nick fleetwood's great Blues drummer you know so there you go and here we are with Peter Green's guitar [Music] thank you [Music] thank you

Channel: Guitarist

Views: 202,723

Keywords: Peter green, Fleetwood mac, Joe bonamassa, vintage guitars, bon hams auction house

Id: -1rSUUH0Ue8

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2023