The Supernatural

zepp76

I'm struggling to get those long sustained notes in Peter Green's The Supernatural, is there a way of getting that kind of feedback/sustain using a pedal rather than standing in front of the amp and getting feedback? Would a compressor help? I'm not sure if a compressor would affect my pick attack though, any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

koss59

Digitech freak out. Or stupid high volume.

impmann

I've said it before but I'm almost certain the 'secret' to this sound is treble booster.

Funkfingers

koss59 said:

stupid high volume.

impmann said:

booster.

Plus a shedload of reverb and highly controlled finger vibrato.

SimpleSimon

impmann said:

I've said it before but I'm almost certain the 'secret' to this sound is treble booster.

Wisdom this ^^, and standing in the sweet spot in front of the amp.

digitalscream

Get a heavier guitar.

(sorry...)

tone1

Muffroom cloud into treble booster with verb does a pretty good impression 

vasselmeyer

I love that track. If I recall, the sustained notes are  the four notes of a Dm7 chord. I believe it's documented that PG did it with his LP, a JTM45 and a 4x12. I hadn't heard he used any kind of booster and to be honest, it sounds a little too clean to me to have any kind of extra gain in there. 

There are two decent covers  which I have, both recorded in the 1990s. One is  Gary Moore on  "Blues for Greeny" and one by Bernie Marsden on  "Green and Blues". Gary Moore used the same guitar as PG but still overdubbed the sustained notes with a guitar fitted with a Fernandes Sustainer. Bernie Marsden managed three of the notes live but had to overdub the other one. I imagine he used "The Beast" for his recording.

If those guys ended up overdubbing the note, even with 1990s tech and Peter Green  recorded his in  1967 studio technology in one take, I think we also have to  agree there's a little bit of magic in his fingers and his soul and touch. 

You  could use a pedal as well. Something like the BOSS FB-2 or the new Digitech  FreqOut.

1979

What a belter of a track

matone

Saw Mr Green play it live when he returned to playing,when he came to the sustained notes,one of the roadies whacked up either the vol or gain knobs on his amp for it.

SimpleSimon

1979 said:

What a belter of a track

More wisdom, true an aweful lot of Greenies magic was in his fingers at the height of his prowess mid-late sixties. My favourite guitar player by miles.

clarkefan

@vasselmeyer really? GM used a sustainer on that?  Cool I never heard that If Gary bloody Moore needed help then god help the rest of us!

Yeah Green, blinding player is right. Perfect example of why flash playing isn't everything.  Anybody can learn to play the speed stuff but Green, you could spend your life trying to capture the soul of some of his easy little phrases, the man had it.

mburekenge

I will be forever indebted to Gary Moore for turning me on to Albert King and Peter Green.

Its crazy to think how talented PG was. Obvs he had that great BB King influenced style down, but the imagination, song writing and arrangement skills were all other worldly as well.

What a legend.

zepp76

vasselmeyer said:

I love that track. If I recall, the sustained notes are  the four notes of a Dm7 chord. I believe it's documented that PG did it with his LP, a JTM45 and a 4x12. I hadn't heard he used any kind of booster and to be honest, it sounds a little too clean to me to have any kind of extra gain in there. 

There are two decent covers  which I have, both recorded in the 1990s. One is  Gary Moore on  "Blues for Greeny" and one by Bernie Marsden on  "Green and Blues". Gary Moore used the same guitar as PG but still overdubbed the sustained notes with a guitar fitted with a Fernandes Sustainer. Bernie Marsden managed three of the notes live but had to overdub the other one. I imagine he used "The Beast" for his recording.

If those guys ended up overdubbing the note, even with 1990s tech and Peter Green  recorded his in  1967 studio technology in one take, I think we also have to  agree there's a little bit of magic in his fingers and his soul and touch. 

You  could use a pedal as well. Something like the BOSS FB-2 or the new Digitech  FreqOut.

Well, I have the LP the JTM45 and the 4x12 I guess I just need his fingers! sorry if this is a stupid question but do the speakers need to be really driven for this to work or can I really drive the amp but use an attenuator to keep volume down? I think I know the answer but had to ask.

clarkefan

Albert King, very very cool, another seriously under-appreciated blues player. Unique style and musical personality, which is seriously good going in that genre.

I wonder if he and Green ever met/ worked together.  I wonder what each thought of the other's playing.

1979

For me the Peter Green appeal is almost melancholic self indulgence. It's almost perfection when you're in the right mood 

simonk

Great name for a band that!

vasselmeyer

clarkefan said:

@vasselmeyer really? GM used a sustainer on that?  Cool I never heard that If Gary bloody Moore needed help then god help the rest of us!

I was a bit obsessed with GM's version of the track and when listening on headphones to it, there was a distinct tonal shift when coming out of the melodic sections into the sustained note. I emailed the webmaster on his site (1995 so no Facebook or Twitter) asking how he recorded it and was quite surprised when they responded it was overdubbed with a sustainer. I would have thought that a guitarist with a touch as assured as GM would have been able to cover that track without an overdub.

Sassafras

Helix and/or Katana.
The universal answer to everything.

impmann

If that was a JTM45 then it *definitely* had a treble booster in the front end of it to get that sparkle.

Another giveaway is the tonality of the plectrum scrape at the beginning of some notes.

zepp76

Well I had a little look on YouTube at the Freqout and this came up:



It sounds good good but can I justify spending £149 for one song?

The other clip that interests me is this:




In in the notes he says he used a Klon Centaur for the sustained notes, now, I don't have a Klon Centaur to hand but I do have a EHX Soul food that I've never used, would that do as a poor mans substitute? I'll also look into treble boosters but don't really want to spend much just to nail one song.