GEAR REVIEW V100MRPGM ‘LEMON DROP’ ELECTRIC GUITAR PETER GREEN TRIBUTE Review By Dave Celentano uitarists have been chasing after Peter Green’s elusive tone for decades and now Vintage Guitars Ghas made it available to everyone for an extremely reasonable price. Whether you’re a fan of relic guitars or not this instrument is worth checking out, and once you hold it up close and drop a few choice licks, you’ll be sold. Vintage’s V100MRPGM ‘Lemon Drop’ is modeled after the one Green bought second- hand for about $300 bucks and used during his time with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and early Fleetwood Mac. Since then, Green’s magical Les Paul (with reversed neck pickup) has been passed around the guitar block quite a bit. Following his time with Fleetwood Mac, Green sold it to Irish six-stringer Gary Moore for the same price he originally paid for it, and subsequently using it for much of his stint with Thin Lizzy and solo recordings. Currently Kirk Hammett of Metallica is the proud owner of Mr. Green’s guitar for a rumored $2,000,000. Ouch! 60 GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER DIGITAL EDITION MAY / JUNE COVER STORY GEAR REVIEW It’s a fair estimate that most of us don’t have pockets deep enough to afford the original and upon hearing the jaw- dropping price Metallica axe man paid for the original our guitar community lost all hope of ever capturing Greeny’s black magic tone. Well, wipe away those tears and look no further. Vintage Guitars has made a dream come true for Peter Green fans with their faithful V100 ‘Lemon Drop’ tribute offered up at substantially less than a grand. Can I get a big “it’s about time!” from everybody? The back story: Vintage Guitars’ Trev Wilkinson, who had a once in a lifetime opportunity of seeing and holding the original guitar first hand, designed V100 with the same attention to detail and love Peter Green put into every note he played, right down to the reversed neck pickup, battle-scares, wear marks, and miss-matched volume and tone knobs. This could only be accomplished by someone who truly respected Peter Green, and Trev is that guy. A huge fan and proponent of Green, Trev put a ton of heart, soul, and sweat into recreating the legend’s identifying guitar and tone for us mere mortals to get a piece of. FEATURES The guitar starts with a base of all the usual suspects - Mahogany body and set in neck, curly Flame Maple top with veneer finish, Rosewood fingerboard, and 24.75” scale neck. The hardware includes Wilkinson tuners and humbucker pickups, and a Tune-O-Matic bridge. Weight-wise V100 parodies a Les Paul. The neck profile is a wide ‘C’ shape and slightly thinner feeling, rather than the chunky baseball bat feel of an old Les Paul. But V100s impressive diversity and mojo is in the pickups. The neck pickup exudes sweet, savory, and soothing jazzy tones with a heartwarming calm, and a quick flick of the toggle switch to the bridge position inflicts the polar opposite, with MAY / JUNE DIGITAL EDITION GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER 61 GEAR REVIEW cutting crispiness and fury when combined with overdrive. Here’s Green’s secret recipe - his unique tone is attributed to an incorrectly replaced rhythm pickup that was installed backwards, creating an ‘out of phase’ sound with both pickups engaged. And a little experimenting with the volume knobs while both pickups are activated opens a whole new world of colors. The magic starts the moment you plug it in. But don’t take my word for it. You’ve got to try the V100 to believe it. The only regret is that this tribute guitar representing such an important musical icon and built with much consideration and attention to detail does not come with a hard-shell case. I don’t believe this addition would have bumped the price much at all. Just a thought - I wonder if Vintage Guitars has plans for a Michael Bloomfield model? Hmmm.■ VERDICT At last one of the most underrated blues guitarists of all time is getting some respect. Thanks to Vintage guitars, a long overdue tribute to Peter Green’s guitar wizardry has finally manifested. V100 is one of the most diverse Les Paul style guitars on the market today and when it comes to tribute guitars, this is the real deal. With a smoking hot basement price that’ll have envious Peter Green fans drooling until they get their hands on this prize, I’m sure the music stores won’t be able to keep them in stock. Vintage Guitars has a knack for creating more than just a worthy tribute to Green’s famous ‘Lemon Drop’ guitar. They faithfully recreate many other classic guitars as well. Visit Vintage Guitars Web 62 GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER DIGITAL EDITION MAY / JUNE COVER STORY GEAR REVIEW Dave Celentano teaches private guitar lessons in the Los Angeles area, authored a multitude of educational guitar books, dvds, and internet tutorials, and released several cds. His latest books “Michael Bloomfield Legendary Licks” and “Triads for the Rock Guitarist” are available everywhere and his latest cd “Desert Storm” is available on iTunes, Amazon.com, and CDBaby.com. For more info check out Dave’s web site: www.davecelentano.com MAY / JUNE DIGITAL EDITION GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER 63 A Sou nd Appr oach.