Now @ CME | Two Kirk Hammett “GREENY” Collector’s Edition 1959 Les Paul Standards
Can You Believe There Are Two (!!) Of The Most Coveted Gibson Custom Shop Guitars Ever Under CME’s Roof At One Time?
We’ve had an unbelievable amount of amazing Gibson Custom Shop guitars come through Chicago Music Exchange these past few months, especially with all the Collector’s Choice and Murphy Labs aged models—including a few aged and painted by Tom Murphy himself—in The CME Collection. Then, just when we thought we’d seen it all, we had a chance to behold for ourselves not one but two of the Collector’s Edition Kirk Hammett “Greeny” 1959 Les Paul Standard guitars side-by-side! And incredibly low, single digit serial numbers at that!
Well, you better believe that we’ve been seeing double at CME since the moment that two of the first “Greeny” models to come out of the Custom Shop came under CME’s roof less than a month after sales of this limited run began!
An “exacting replica” of a legendary Les Paul
Perhaps one of the most storied 1959 Les Paul Standard guitars Gibson has ever produced, the original “Greeny” guitar now owned by Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett was first owned by Peter Green, who used it on the first four Fleetwood Mac albums—which included some of their earliest hits, like “Oh Well,” “Black Magic Woman,” and “Albatross”—until Green met Gary Moore in 1970 and eventually offered to sell Moore his Les Paul.
Moore went on to use that guitar throughout his career, on songs like “Waiting For An Alibi” and “Parisienne Walkway,” both as a solo artist and during his time in bands like Thin Lizzy. But, after Moore sold “Greeny” in 2006, it changed hands among several private collectors until Hammett bought the guitar in 2014 and has since used the guitar live and in the studio.
Emulating Iconic Tones
As the story goes, early on in his career, Green removed the original PAF neck humbucker to try to emulate Eric Clapton’s “Bluesbreaker” tone. But, after tinkering around, he accidentally put it back together out of phase with the bridge pickup, which gave the guitar a unique middle position tone compared to other Bursts of the era.
Each Kirk Hammett “Greeny” Collector's Edition 1959 Les Paul Standard was hand-made at the Gibson Custom Shop to recreate the legendary guitar, including the immediately recognizable fade (now referred to as a “Greeny Burst”), as well as its distinctive sound, featuring two Custom Greeny Humbuckers, which use Alnico 2 magnets that are out of phase with each other to achieve that middle position sound the original guitar is so famous for.
Kirk Hammett was very involved in the prototyping process, ensuring every detail was faithful to the original—from the mahogany body to the two-piece maple top and cream binding, Brazilian rosewood fretboard, and aging done from start to finish by Tom Murphy himself to match the original.
While having two of these guitars at once has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see, play, hear, and compare these guitars ourselves, you can still find some of the most highly sought-after Gibson Custom Shop and actual vintage guitars when you shop CME any day of the year!
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