Gary Moore / Peter Green Orca review...

You may remember the PG Orca which we had delivered some months ago (see 3 posts ago).
The owner could not keep it and found a willing buyer in another player - collector who has access to some real 50s Les pauls and who owns a 52->57 "Conversion" LP.
her is what the new owner has to say (names withheld for privacy reasons):


Hey Paul,
I bought the PG Orca on Friday, and the below is what I told J.E.:

O.K. Here's my first impression of it so far...

It is perhaps the best "playing" guitar I've ever held in my hands.
Initially when I first picked it up when I met you, it felt little "foreign" to me especially considering I just came from playing '50s les pauls for about 2 hours straight (and little bit of '50s strats).
But, after raising the action little bit (probably should raise it a bit more), I had no problem "locking in" with it. The string tension feels pretty much the way I want it, not too tight and not too loose. It has what I call "rich sweetness" at the fingertips when I play it unplugged that I look for in every guitar.
Those that have that, I can just play unplugged all day long.
Great resonance, no dead spots on the neck, very comfortable access to the high frets beyond the 15th fret. Very easy to play, and my right hand also likes the lower angle from the bridge to the headstock,
which is what I'm used to with my conversion.
It's a new guitar, but does not feel stiff, cold, plastic, and well... "new" like many new guitars feel to me, hence my general aversion to most of them.
This one feels more "old-ish" and warm instead.

As to the comparisons to other guitars I'm familiar with... it's like a very good '50s les paul with some sprinkles of '50s fender chime and sweetness on it.
My conversion sounds bigger and has more woodiness and hollowness to its tone (but then, it is like that compared to a few '50s bursts and GTs I have access to also), but it also has more "woofyness" and "compression" to
its sound (in les pauls in general) that I sometimes would like to dial out when playing with my bands.
The Orca doesn't have that woofyness and sounds more open, not as compressed as the les pauls.
It just sounds really sweet when doing the OD/crunch tone and sounds really pretty when played clean.
The notes have long sustain and "pop" to them, which is fantastic.

I could probably say more, but I'll stop here for now since the honeymoon could be over next wee! ;-) Thus far though, Nik Huber has achieved for me what PRS (and others so far) has failed to do...

Pretty Damn Good, I'd say.
And comes right on the hell of a very favourable review of one of Bob Willcutt's Orca guitars in Vintage Guitars.
It can't get better than this, right?

BTW - his "honeymoon" ain't over yet...here is the last mail I received from him:


Thanks Paul.
Yeah, I'm having a blast with the Orca. It is without a doubt the best new
guitar I've ever played. Last week or so, I've been a/b'ing it with my
52/27 conversion every chance I get and shake my head in disbelief how good
the Orca sounds in comparison...

D.


-----Original Message-----
From: P.]
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 8:28 AM
To: D.
Subject: Re: Peter Green Orca on TGP

Hiya Don...
Yup - 095s are the way Nik strings 'em!
Glad to see the PG is holding up to your expectations to the point of
breaking its strings!! :-)


D. wrote:
> > Paul,
> >
> > Do you know which strings Nik used on the PG Orca? I broke the high E and
> > put an Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 10 on it, and it feels stiffer and thicker
> > than what was on there.
> > The 9.5s, maybe?
> > Thanks.
> >
> > D