David Gilmour

This has been David’s main guitar for many years now. He bought it at Manny’s guitar store in New York, in May 1970 during Pink Floyd’s North American tour, because he needed a new guitar after his old one was stolen along with the rest of Pink Floyd’s rig just couple of weeks earlier. This guitar has gone through many modifications. At this moment it is fitted with the Fender 1983 C shape maple neck, 1971 Fender pickups in the neck and middle, and a SSL-1C (SSL-5 Prototype) in the bridge. Original white pickguard has been replaced with a black one, and the body which is from 1969 has been repainted black (originally sunburst). The 3-way pickup switch has been replace with 5-way switch. Here’s a short interview with David Gilmour featuring his Black Strat (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVjFJFEQ_OU). In the mid '80s David replaced all his strats with Fender 1957 reissue models. He donated this particular guitar to Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas where it was on display until 1997 when David requested it back. It was refitted by his technician Charlie Chandler, and David used it ever since it has been played for the first time upon repair at Pink Floyd reunion in 2005. Pink Floyd’s technician Phil Taylor wrote a book about David’s iconic Black Stratocaster. You can check it here (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423492706/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1423492706&linkCode=as2&tag=ground09-20).

Gilmour’s main guitar during post-Roger Waters era with Pink Floyd. The body color is Candy Apple Red and it has a maple neck. David bought it at the London Warehouse where he also got several other ’57 reissue models. This guitar is fitted with three EMG SA active pickups.

David Gilmour can be seen playing this 1954 Stratocaster guitar in this video.

"I'll use the old Number 1 once in awhile. It's a beautiful, beautiful guitar, but, you know, it's been about, and it feels quite delicate. You wouldn't want to thrash that around, especially not on the road. I actually don't like taking any of the older ones out on the road because there's always the possibility that things like that get stolen. The Strats that I do use, which are sort of early 1980s and '57 vintage Strats made in California, with one or two minor modifications to them, are so good that I'm comfortable with them and they're all I use most of the time, even in the studio." - guitar.com interview done in 2015.

This was a custom made guitar by Dick Knight with standard Fender necks. David wanted to be able to play both normal guitar and slide on the same instrument, so the both necks on the guitar were 6 strings, but the lower neck had higher action on the strings for slides. The guitar was used during the spring US tour in 1972 but later abandoned.

This ’55 Esquire was used on the recording of David’s first solo album, and on the “The Wall” recording sessions. It has a custom fitted neck pickup which was installed by Seymour Duncan – who sold this guitar to David in the first place. David nicknamed this guitar “The Workmate” because of its worn color.

David Gilmour can be seen using this Telecaster while performing “Run Like Hell” in this video.

"Other guitars he used on the tour were two Telecasters which are both 52 reissues; the only difference between them is that one of them has the bass string tuned to D, which he uses for Run Like Hell. The other one, which is in regular tuning, he uses for Astronomy Domine." - Phil Taylor, David Gilmour's guitar tech.

This guitar has a ash body painted in brown sunburst with white binding, rosewood fingerboard and a white pickguard. At one point a Gibson Hambucker was mounted in the neck but was later replaced with a single-coil pickup.

"It has a stop tailpiece. For the last album, I wanted one with a Bigsby vibrato, but I didn’t want to change the old one I’d used to play, for example, the solo on “Another Brick In the Wall Part 2,” so I found another one. I suppose you could say that they are a little raunchier than Fenders."

David used it during Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon recording sessions.

"They made a run of only 90 of these particular guitars in 1984/85 and we've now obtained three. Dave just really likes them; they sound great and they're really lovely to play. I've had them modified, they've got EMG acoustic pickups in, but they've also got small Crown microphones in them too. So there are basically two outputs from each guitar, two separate radio transmitters on them with two different signals. Then there's a Gibson Chet Atkins electro-classical which he uses on High Hopes and the two steel guitars which we talked about earlier." - Phil Taylor, David Gilmour's guitar tech.

David’s main acoustic during 2001 and 2002. One such instance of him using this guitar is on an Unplugged performance of "Wish You Were Here".

This guitar was used on the Comfortably Numb recording sessions.

David Gilmour can be seen using his Gretsch Duo Jet in this 2002 performance from the Royal Festival Hall.

"I’ve got an old black Duo Jet I’ve had for a very long time. I actually used it on a couple of tracks on my first solo album in 1978. It’s quite hard to play, but it’s a real beauty, and it’s a beautiful-sounding instrument that fits perfectly for some things. I played it on “Where We Start.”" - Guitar Player interview.

David Gilmour is seen playing his custom Stratocaster. More about the guitar can be found here

"Gilmour used a prototype Martin D-28 with a cutaway for the Bonus Tracks from January 2002. The electronics are the same as the other acoustics except for a Seymour Duncan sound-hole pickup, which ran through the Cornish board for electric guitar tones. A 1956 Fender tweed Twin amp was used for the additional shows. This setup was used for 'Dominoes.'"

via Spare Bricks

David is seen with a blonde early 1960’s Fender with an ash body, white pickguard and rosewood neck. David told Guitarist in July 1995 how he got the guitar “(…) my parents gave me a Telecaster for my 21st birthday, which was when I was living and working in France.” This is the same guitar David brought with him when joining Pink Floyd in January 1968 and continued to use throughout the spring until an airline company lost the guitar on the band’s tour in the US in July.

In this interview with Guitar World, David Gilmour's Martin D-35 is mentioned:

"David Gilmour is a renowned guitar collector. Over the years, with the help of his right-hand man, Phil Taylor, he has acquired such rare gems as a Gretsch White Falcon, a Gretsch Penguin, a Plexiglas Dan Armstrong, a '55 Fender Esquire, a Martin D-35 acoustic."

In this interview with Guitar World, David Gilmour's Plexiglas Dan Armstrong is mentioned:

"David Gilmour is a renowned guitar collector. Over the years, with the help of his right-hand man, Phil Taylor, he has acquired such rare gems as a Gretsch White Falcon, a Gretsch Penguin, a Plexiglas Dan Armstrong, a '55 Fender Esquire, a Martin D-35 acoustic."

In this interview with Guitar World, David Gilmour's 1961 Fender Telecaster is mentioned:

"Gilmour also travels with a '61 Telecaster with a Charvel neck, which was pictured on the cover of his 1984 solo album, About Face, as well as a '52 vintage series re-issue Tele for the song 'Run Like Hell.'"

Avant le Floyd (jusqu’à 1968)

David Gilmour, né le 06 mars 1946, commence la guitare grâce à des disques d’enseignement réalisés par le Folksinger Pete Seeger (qui a été membre des Weevers avant la seconde guerre mondiale) ; ce dernier préconise avant tout un travail sur l’oreille du guitariste. Il a alors 15 ans et s’entraîne sur une guitare classique empruntée à son voisin de palier qu’il n’aurait – semble-t-il – jamais rendue.

Puis il se procure une guitare avec ouies en « f » sur laquelle il installe un micro ; Par la suite, il achète une Burns Sonnet épouvantable selon ses dires et une Hofner Club 60 qu'il utilisera avec Joker Wild. Sur quelques photos, on le voit avec ce premier groupe avec des amplis Vox AC-30 mais ce ne sont peut-être que des amplis prêtés ou en location.

On the picture right we can see Gilmour playing a Gibson Es 355.

In this video David appears to be using the Guild F-512 12 string except for in sunburst finish.

Use in the tour Rattle That Lock

One of the first acoustics that David was seen playing. This was around the time of “Atom Heart Mother” album in 1970, and David can be seen playing in on one of the gigs in San Francisco that same year. He started using it again on the On An Island Tour and now on the Rattle That Lock Tour

He is using this guitar on stage , most of the time. I'm not sure when he got this guitar but i can say that he used it on the recent tours , for example On an Island and Rattle That Lock . It's a great guitar . From 1959

At 3:51 you can clearly see him playing his famous studio distortion rig which he describes in an interview for guitar world in 1988 where he reveals his use of a Steinberger guitar.

“That very nasty distortion you hear at the beginning of the song is basically the result of the Steinberger going through two little amps in the studio—a Fender Super Champ and a Gallien-Krueger. I use a Boss Heavy Metal distortion pedal and a Boss digital delay pedal, which then goes into the Fender Super Champ. And that in combination with the internal distortion on the Gallien-Krueger was how I got that particular sound."

Link to the interview: http://www.guitarworld.com/pink-floyds-david-gilmour-discusses-his-technique-and-gear-1988-guitar-world-interview

Here is a link to a site where you can see Gilmour holding his Steinberger and next to it you can see it being revealed as being the GMT-six: http://jeffbabicz.com/steinberger-sound.htm

At 3:51 you can clearly see him playing his famous studio distortion rig which he describes in an interview for guitar world in 1988 where he reveals his use of a Steinberger guitar.

“That very nasty distortion you hear at the beginning of the song is basically the result of the Steinberger going through two little amps in the studio—a Fender Super Champ and a Gallien-Krueger. I use a Boss Heavy Metal distortion pedal and a Boss digital delay pedal, which then goes into the Fender Super Champ. And that in combination with the internal distortion on the Gallien-Krueger was how I got that particular sound."

Link to the interview: http://www.guitarworld.com/pink-floyds-david-gilmour-discusses-his-technique-and-gear-1988-guitar-world-interview

Here is a link to a site where you can see Gilmour holding his Steinberger and next to it you can see it being revealed as being the GMT-six: http://jeffbabicz.com/steinberger-sound.htm