There was a Gibson Firebird I looked at and an Epiphone Explorer that, again, both had really high actions.” Careful with that axe But higher up the fretboard, he didn’t want a low action. Where he did seem to have had setup work done was in the nut area: the nuts of some of his guitars were cut to around those first three frets. “The main thing I’d say on all of the guitars in his collection, which really surprised me, was how high the action was,” Steve continues. It’s just a wonderful guitar, impressive,” he says, adding that the way he found Peter’s guitars set up shone an interesting light on his preferences as a player. You know that feeling you get when a guitar’s not been played for a while? But after that it was great. I then put the strings back on and just carefully tuned it up, because they were quite old strings, and I’d gotten rid of that scratchiness. “The fingerboard looked fantastic when I’d done it. The main thing I’d say on all of the guitars in his collection, which really surprised me, was how high the action was So I oiled the fingerboard and cleaned all the frets with these fret rubbers, which you probably know about – they come in three gauges – and got a really nice shine on them. The frets were also a little bit bronzed-over due to storage. “I slacked the strings off – which had to be kept on – because the fingerboard was so dry. “It was a little bit untidy,” he recalls. However, beneath the evocative looks, there was still a guitar that Steve needed to set up and perform cautious, sympathetic maintenance on before it could be presented for sale. “It’s got nice engraving – I think it’s one with the palm trees on the back. Like so many National guitars, wear-marks have only increased its charisma, while the familiar Pacific-island scenes on the back of the body still beguile the eye. It’s quite heavy, though – it surprised me – and it’s got a very wide fingerboard on it.” ![]() Someone next to me said, ‘Have you plugged that in?’ I said, ‘I was just going to ask you that! Where’s this volume coming from?’ It doesn’t sound real. I’ve played these before, but I didn’t know where the sound was coming from – and that’s with old strings. “You strum a chord and it’s a shock, to be honest with you. So what did Steve think of what must surely be the centrepiece guitar of the sale? ![]() Imbued with shovelfuls of mojo and evidently played hard for decades, the guitar embodies so much blues history, not least Peter’s own contributions. One of the most exciting is the 1931 National Duolian that Peter was photographed with around the time of his 1997 Peter Green Splinter Group album. ![]() Peter Green's Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III (Image credit: Future / Olly Curtis)
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