Pink Floyd – The Endless River

Used live from 1968 to 1977, as researched by Bjorn Riis of Gilmourish. One unit was sold on Reverb.com in 2017 via London Vintage Guitars, with the listing revealing that the unit was an OEM "Sound City Echomaster 2".

Gilmourish, "Binson Echorec"

David used the Binson 2 model from 1968 up to the Animals tour in 1977 after which he replaced it with MXR digital units. He later recalled, “I was tired of cleaning it and needed something more reliable”. Although he probably traveled with several backups, the constant touring and not least the outdoor gigs must have been hell for the delicate Binson.

After years of absence, David’s old Binson made a brief cameo on the 2003 BBC Dark Side of the Moon documentary and Richard Wright again used one with his Farfisa organ on David’s last tour in 2006.

A Binson 2 is also featured in David’s new recording studio, Medina, located in Hove outside Brighton. Both Pink Floyd’s Endless River and David Gilmour’s Rattle That Lock was recorded in the studio but it’s not documented if the Binson is featured on the albums.

(...) Between 1968-73 David had a very basic setup layed out on the floor that consisted of a Fuzz Face, a wah wah pedal, DeArmond volume pedal and an on/off foot-switch for the Binson. Later, the 1973-75 board and the 1976 Cornish board had built in on/off switches for the Binson that was connected through send/returns.

David would mainly use the repeat mode for a classic delay sound. The Binson 2 had a maximum time setting around 300-310ms, which was David’s main setting for most Floyd songs (he used the Echo/slap back setting on live versions of the intro on Time). The level and swell were both adjusted for different songs.

One of David’s trademarks in the early days was the sustained violin effect on the intro of Echoes and many other songs. On the beginning of Echoes on Pompeii you can see David using the slide, rubbing it back and forth on the high E string to create this sustained violin effect. This is achieved by drenching the tone with echo and adjusting the guitar volume for a mild ovedrive from the Fuzz Face. The effect is used on countless early Floyd songs from 1968-1971.

2017 Reverb.com listing

We are happy to offer the following original Binson Echorec which was used , owned by one of the worlds most respected of all artists , that is “Pink Floyd” , please see full details , specifications as follows

• Binson / Sound City Echomaster 2
• 1969 ( Circa)
• Green Hammerite Casing
• Pink Floyd Stock Plaque to side
• Service Signature by Pete Cornish to side dated 1979
• Remnants of original Input / Output Labels - Notes

Verification

The above unit comes with the following verification

Original Pink Floyd Stock Number Plaque to side

Email Verification from Pete Cornish that verifies his Signature / Label and confirms that he serviced , checked the unit for Pink Floyd in 1979

Various Photographic Verification - The unit comes complete with various published photographic verification of David Gilmour using a Sound City Echomaster II that has the Pink Floyd Original Stock Serial Number Plate that is affixed in exact same location / position ( The Picture is taken from 1975 Wish You Were here tour)

Please See Picture 6 + 7 for Verification of Stock Label Position

Note - The above unit is a Key Factor in the sound and tone of Pink Floyd

David Gilmour has used the pitch shift Digitech Whammy since early 90s recording the Grammy-winning song Marooned from the Division Bell album. In his solo album On An Island and in the recently Pink Floyd last album Endless River, he stills uses the same pedal. Of course, he always gets the best from every effect he uses and the Whammy isn't the exception.

This early 70's Fender Precision Bass featuring a maple neck, was a band owned instrument and Roger Waters main bass from 1974-1978. It can be heard most notably on Wish You Were Here and Animals, and features a black pick guard (installed by Gilmour guitar tech Phil Taylor) to match the styling of David's Black Start. After Roger left the band it remained in the bands and eventually David's ownership. It can be heard most recently on Pink Floyd's final album, Endless River, played by David.

Used on The Endless River, as mentioned by guitar tech Phil Taylor in this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview about the contents of Astoria.

“David has a 1963 Fender Bass VI. It’s strung relatively light for a baritone. But it’s still a 30-inch scale, so I thought I’d get him a new one made. I wanted it to be more like a guitar, shorter scale, but it also had to have a vibrato on it. I talked to Fender, and they made two."

They have a 27-inch scale, so between a guitar and a bass. You can put lighter strings on these, it feels very nice. But I had to change a few things - I put a Vibramate String Spoiler on the back-end of the Bigsby and replaced the electronics with Callaham Cryo electronics. I wanted to get as much detail out of the strings as possible.

“The strings were unbalanced on the regular Fender Tele pickups, so I got Ron Ellis to make some custom baritone pickups. I was very pleased, thought it was marvellous. But it sat here for a year before David even picked it up!

"Only for The Endless River, was it played. We were here with (co-producer) Youth, who said David maybe needed a more baritone sound. David shrugged and says, ‘Okay... have I got a baritone?’ Finally, he played it.”

In 2019, the guitar was auctioned off for $68,750 as part of Christie's The David Gilmour Guitar Collection auction with the following item description:

FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION, CORONA, 2010 A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, TELECASTER CUSTOM BARITONE At the peghead Fender TELECASTER, the reverse with logo Custom Shop, the finish black with white binding, in original hardshell case bearing a label inscribed FENDER BARITONE TELE #1 NO S/N; accompanied by a color photograph by Phil Taylor of David Gilmour playing this guitar in his East Sussex studio circa April 2014 Length of back 15 ¾ in. (40 cm.)

This guitar was custom-made for David Gilmour by Fender Custom Shop in 2010 and kept primarily for studio use. A baritone guitar incorporates a longer scale length than a normal guitar and is tuned either in a perfect 4th (B, E, A, D, F#, B) or perfect 5th lower (A, D, G, C, E, A) than a standard guitar tuning. This allows for deeper voicing than typically heard with guitar performance. Gilmour’s guitar technician Phil Taylor liaised with Fender to build a baritone on a shorter scale than his 1963 Fender Bass VI (lot 30). The resulting guitar has a 27-inch scale, placing it between an electric and bass guitar in terms of size. It was further modified with a Vibramate String Spoiler and custom baritone pickups, and the electronics replaced with Callaham Cryo electronics. At the suggestion of album co-producer Youth, Gilmour used the baritone guitar during recording of Pink Floyd’s fifteenth studio album The Endless River, notably on the track It’s What We Do. Material from the 1993 recording sessions for The Division Bell was revisited and reworked with 21st Century digital technology and supplemented with new material recorded between 2013 and 2014 at Gilmour’s Astoria houseboat studio. Released in November 2014 as a tribute to keyboardist Richard Wright, who had passed away in 2008, the predominantly instrumental album debuted at number one in the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, and Canada. The guitar was subsequently enlisted for performances of Run Like Hell during Gilmour’s Rattle That Lock Tour from 12th September 2015, played by longtime Pink Floyd collaborator Jon Carin during the first three legs of the tour and thereafter by Chester Kamen for the final two legs through to 30th September 2016.

David Gilmour scholar Bjørn Riis notes that the 6121 was used during the 1993 sessions for The Division Bell, particularly for the track that would become "Nervana" from The Endless River, featuring photographic evidence.

David employed a number of guitars for the 1993 Division Bell/Endless River sessions. Here at the Olympic Studios playing a Gretsch 6121 during Nervana and a ’52 Telecaster for Allons-y.

In 2019, Gilmour's 6121 was auctioned off for $175,000 as part of Christie's The David Gilmour Guitar Collection auction. The item description confirms its use during the recording of The Division Bell and The Endless River, particularly for "Nervana".

THE FRED GRETSCH MANUFACTURING COMPANY, BROOKLYN, 1957 A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, CHET ATKINS, 6121 Inlaid at the headstock with the logo Gretsch and applied at the pickguard, along with Chet Atkins, the control cavity cover inscribed 23490, with original hardshell case bearing a label inscribed GRETSCH 6121 ORANGE - CHET ATKINS #23490 SERIAL NO. DG1067; accompanied by the original sales invoice from Gruhn Guitars, Inc. to Pink Floyd, dated 26th June 1978, a letter from Dave Gilman to Pink Floyd, dated 27th June 1978, confirming that the instrument had been placed on hold, a facsimile air waybill addressed to Pink Floyd, dated 11th July 1978, a shipping invoice from Dacair Service Limited to Britannia Row Leasing Ltd., dated 27th July 1978, a handwritten note on a Pink Floyd headed compliments slip reading Dear Vic, Please find enclosed the invoices for the two guitars that should be arriving shortly, Phil, a facsimile repair receipt from Charlie Chandler’s Guitars, Middlesex to David Gilmour Music Ltd., dated 27th July 2009, a handwritten note to David Gilmour by guitar technician Phil Taylor on a sheet of Astoria headed notepaper outlining the repair and modification work performed on the guitar, and a color screenshot of David Gilmour playing this guitar at Olympic Studios, London, circa July 1993 [not illustrated] Length of back 17 7/8 in. (45.3 cm.)

The 6121 is the solid-body companion to Gretsch’s famous hollow-body guitar the 6120 Chet Atkins (lot 40). Purchased by David Gilmour from Gruhn Guitars, Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1978, the guitar has seen a good deal of studio use, notably during recording sessions for Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell at Gilmour’s Astoria houseboat studio and Olympic Studios, London, circa July 1993. Between 2013 and 2014, material from the 1993 recording sessions for The Division Bell was revisited and reworked with 21st Century digital technology and supplemented with new material for the last Pink Floyd album The Endless River. Studio footage exists of Gilmour playing the 6121 during a 1993 jam session at Olympic that would become the instrumental Nervana, the third and final bonus track on the deluxe edition of The Endless River. Following a distorted intro, Gilmour plays a heavy metal riff and ends with a two-minute solo on the Gretsch 6121. Released in November 2014 as a tribute to keyboardist Richard Wright, who had passed away in 2008, the predominantly instrumental album debuted at number one in the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, and Canada.

Used on The Endless River, as mentioned by guitar tech Phil Taylor in this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview about the contents of Astoria.

Left to right: 1958 FENDER Tweed Twin, 1976 Yamaha RA200 Rotary speaker with Alembic preamp, 1970s Hiwatt SA212, Alessandro Redbone Special, Leslie Model G27 cab

“These were David’s main amps on The Endless River,” comments phil Taylor on the beautiful array of vintage and modern amps in the studio’s live room. “He also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”

Used on The Endless River, as mentioned by guitar tech Phil Taylor in this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview about the contents of Astoria.

Left to right: 1958 FENDER Tweed Twin, 1976 Yamaha RA200 Rotary speaker with Alembic preamp, 1970s Hiwatt SA212, Alessandro Redbone Special, Leslie Model G27 cab

“These were David’s main amps on The Endless River,” comments phil Taylor on the beautiful array of vintage and modern amps in the studio’s live room. “He also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”

Used on The Endless River, as mentioned by guitar tech Phil Taylor in this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview about the contents of Astoria and Medina.

Left to right: 1958 FENDER Tweed Twin, 1976 Yamaha RA200 Rotary speaker with Alembic preamp, 1970s Hiwatt SA212, Alessandro Redbone Special, Leslie Model G27 cab

“These were David’s main amps on The Endless River,” comments phil Taylor on the beautiful array of vintage and modern amps in the studio’s live room. “He also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”

(...) The Hiwatt SA212 combo is a staple of Gilmour’s recording rig. powered by a brace of el34s, it is fitted with Fane crescendo drivers.

Used on The Endless River, as mentioned by guitar tech Phil Taylor in this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview about the contents of Astoria.

Left to right: 1958 FENDER Tweed Twin, 1976 Yamaha RA200 Rotary speaker with Alembic preamp, 1970s Hiwatt SA212, Alessandro Redbone Special, Leslie Model G27 cab

“These were David’s main amps on The Endless River,” comments phil Taylor on the beautiful array of vintage and modern amps in the studio’s live room. “He also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”

Documented extensively by Kit Rae in part 2 of his "David Gilmour Tone Building" subpage "Amplifiers and Speakers".

David's WEM speaker cabinets are typically loaded with Fane Crescendo 100w 12" speakers. They are a perfect speaker to blend with the Hiwatt sound, and out of all of David's gear, the Hiwatt/Crescendo combo could be said to define the core foundational tone heard in most Gilmour performances. The Crescendos have a distinct bright tone that accents the upper mid range. The sound is very detailed and cuts straight through in a band mix. The bright mid range is almost too bright with certain amps, like Marshalls, but works well with a Hiwatt and most Fender amps. It is perfect with mid-scooped pedals like the Big Muff and B.K. Butler Tube Driver.

"One of the first jobs I did in the band was to go out and buy him (Gilmour) some new Hiwatt amplifiers. I went down to Hi-Watt in Kingston (in 1974) and saw Dave Reeves and bought two 100 watt heads which are still in Dave's rack today. He had WEM 4x12 cabinets with Fane Crescendo speakers in, identical to the ones he uses now…" - Phil Taylor, Guitarist Magazine Jan 1995

"I have two new 100-watt Fender Twin Reverb heads running to two 4xl2 cabinets each-two WEM cabinets with Fane Crescendo speakers and two Marshall cabinets with Celestions." - David Gilmour, Guitar Player, Nov 1984

Fane Crescendo speakers were made by the legendary British loudspeaker company Fane throughout in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. In the 1970s Fane made speakers for Selmer, Watkins (WEM), Simms-Watts, and Dave Reeves of Sound City and Hiwatt fame, which is likely where Pink Floyd was first introduced to them. Fane produced a massive number of speaker models with many different options, so there is not one "Fane" sound, and the Crescendos sounded very different to other Fanes. There were also several different Fane Crescendo models with various speaker frame designs and labels. The original Crescendos were 12" 100w, 15" 100w, and 18" 150w models, all available in both 8 ohm and 15-16ohm. Two common types of 12" Crescendos were made in the 1970s - type 'A' general purpose speakers, with aluminum dust caps, and type 'B' or 'B/L' for bass and organs, with plastic treated linen dust caps.

The type of 12" Crescendos David Gilmour has used since the early 1970s are type 'A', with the identification code 122326 ink stamped on the speaker frame. These had large ceramic (anisotrophic ferrite) magnets, 20,000 gauss flux density, 2" voice coils with fiberglass formers, and 3" diameter aluminum dust caps with a round, felt diffuser mounted in the center. Aluminum caps were popular with many speaker manufactureres in the 1970s. They accented more of the upper mid range than paper or cloth dust caps, adding a unique, jangly top end to the Crescendo sound. They brought out much more detail in the top end than paper or cloth, but some found the sound too harsh. They work very well with the Hiwatt frequency range however. These silver dust caps can be seen through the grille cloth in David's 1994, 2006, and 2015/16 tour speaker cabinets. It is not clear if David has always used type A Crescendos with silver dust caps, but they can be seen in several of his WEM cab photos from 1973 and 1974, so he has probably always favored this speaker. Little is known about the speakers in David's combo amplifiers, but Phil Taylor revealed in a 2015 interview (Feb 2015 Guitarist Magzine) that David also uses Fane Crescendos in his Hiwatt SA212 combo studio amp.

That Hiwatt SA212 (and, therefore, the Fane Crescendo) was also used on The Endless River, as mentioned by Phil Taylor in this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview about the contents of Astoria and Medina.

Left to right: 1958 FENDER Tweed Twin, 1976 Yamaha RA200 Rotary speaker with Alembic preamp, 1970s Hiwatt SA212, Alessandro Redbone Special, Leslie Model G27 cab

“These were David’s main amps on The Endless River,” comments phil Taylor on the beautiful array of vintage and modern amps in the studio’s live room. “He also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”

(...) The Hiwatt SA212 combo is a staple of Gilmour’s recording rig. powered by a brace of el34s, it is fitted with Fane crescendo drivers.

Used for The Division Bell and The Endless River, as reported by Gilmourish. The Rover was the basis for Gilmour’s Doppolas speakers, which replaced it on tour.

The Doppolas

David had been using a Maestro Rover rotating speaker on the Division Bell sessions and this inspired Phil Taylor and Paul Leader to design the Doppola speakers that featured on the 1994 tour. These were custom built rotating cabinets with two 6″ 100W speakers in each powered by – and running in conjunction with – the Hiwatts. Leslie cabinets or the old Yamahas might have seemed the obvious choice, but Gilmour was after a slightly different sound and something a bit lighter to carry around.

The Maestro Rover

The Maestro Rover rotating speaker is a small rotating cabinet mounted on a stand, featuring a 6″ 35w speaker and controls for volume, speed and a foot control for switching the unit on/off. The Rover was reportedly employed by David during the Dark Side of the Moon recording sessions in 1972, although no footage can confirm this.

The Rover was featured in David’s 1993 setup for the Division Bell and Endless River recording sessions. The rig consisted of a duplicate combination of Fender Bassmans and Hiwatt SA212 amps, with the Rover standing on top mic’ed for stereo.

David Gilmour began incorporating the Fender '59 Bassman LTD into his live rig around 1991 and continued using it for session work through the early 2000s, as confirmed by Kit Rae in the resource "David Gilmour Tone Building" on Kitrae.

Two were used on Gilmour's Yamaha RA-200R for The Endless River, as is visible in this photo from this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview with guitar tech Phil Taylor about the contents of Astoria and Medina.

Left to right: 1958 FENDER Tweed Twin, 1976 Yamaha RA200 Rotary speaker with Alembic preamp, 1970s Hiwatt SA212, Alessandro Redbone Special, Leslie Model G27 cab

“These were David’s main amps on The Endless River,” comments Phil Taylor on the beautiful array of vintage and modern amps in the studio’s live room. “He also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”

Taylor also mentioned a single KM 86 being used on The Division Bell for the same purpose in this September 1994 Guitar World interview by Brad Tolinski, one of a trio from the same issue.

GW: What about microphones?

PT: It varies, but primarily Neumann U-87's and Shure SM-57's. We've also used a Neumann KM-86 on his rotating speaker.

Used on Gilmour's Yamaha RA-200R for The Endless River, as is visible in this photo from this February 10, 2015 Music Radar interview with guitar tech Phil Taylor about the contents of Astoria.

On the gif you can see David Gilmour with Sony MDR-7506 headphones.

Heard most famously on WYWH ('Have A Cigar') and the middle section of 'Dogs', from 'Animals'.