David Gilmour 1996

From NPF

Guitar Shop, December 1996

PINK NOISE and Words of the Tone Prophet

The essential guide to David Gilmour's mysterious, magical guitar tone-

There are great guitarists who are known for their chops, while others are famed for their stage presence or songwriting. But there are also a few esteemed mostly for their tone. Names like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King are among the greatest tone barons, but also essential to that list is Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, a man whose bluesy Strat solos established him as one of the finest rock leadmen to ever emerge from England. His classic leads are all over epics like Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals, but his fans always point to his soul-wrenching break in Comfortably Numb (from 1979's The Wall) as the ultimate Gilmour solo.

How did he get that perfect balance between of tonal girth and Strat earthiness? Magic, it seems. With that as our starting point, Guitar Shop set out on an odyssey to track down every last guitar, amp, and box that Mr. Gilmour has used over the last 30 years to create his spectacular tone. It's an amazing journey - one almost as intriguing as a trip to the dark side of the moon.

JOURNEY TO THE MOON

Born on March 6, 1947 [Ed.note-1946], in Cambridge, England, Gilmour began playing guitar at age 14 on a nylon-string acoustic. Eventually, the teenager moved on to Burns Sonnet and Hofner Club 60 electrics before getting his first Fender at age 21. This was a pivotal move. You should recall that most English guitarists of the pre-Hendrix era were already infatuated with Fenders, largely because of Hank Marvin's Strat work with the Shadows and James Burton's Tele string-bending with Ricky Nelson. When Hendrix arrived in late 1966, Strats were again the rage, surely influencing the 19-year old Gilmour even more on his choice of a Fender.(It's also no accident that he and fellow English picker Mark Knopfler have such a long-time fondness for *red* Stratocasters, since that's what Hank Marvin used during the Shadow's heyday. Furthermore, Gilmour has also gone on record as a big Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton fan - yet more great Strat heroes from which to catch the Fender bug.)

In high school, Gilmour met future Floyd members Roger Waters and Syd Barrett (for a while he even played with Barrett in a folk duo.) Bassist/vocalist Waters and guitarist/songwriter Barrett put together Pink Floyd in 1965 with keyboardist Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason. Within a short time, Pink Floyd was garnering a great deal of attention in London's underground psychedelic scene, primarily for their wild light shows and for Barrett's brilliance as a composer and rock visionary. In early 1967, the group put out their first album (The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn) and toured America. At the same time, Barrett became increasingly dependent on drugs, and would often simply stop playing - or play something different - during live shows. By the beginning of 1968, his position in Pink Floyd was on questionable ground.

Around the same time, a band called Joker's Wild would open for Floyd at various gigs - its guitarist was David Gilmour. In February 1968, Waters and Company decided to bring their old schoolmate Gilmour into the fold to support Barrett's sporadic guitar playing. Within two months, however, Barrett's mental state was such that he wandered away from the group. He was never formally fired and never formally quit - he just stopped showing up. Gilmour, who had been earning a living a male model, then became Pink Floyd's sole guitarist, although Barrett was expected to return at any time. Several albums ensued with Gilmour in the guitar seat. A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968), Ummagumma (1969), Atom Heart Mother (1970), and 1971's Meddle, as well as several movie soundtracks, each one progressively more electronic and ethereal than its predecessor.

Around the time of A Saucerful Of Secrets, Gilmour was playing a Telecaster through a Selmer 50-watt amp witha 4x12 cab and a Binson echo unit. The Tele was later stolen, so the guitarist replaced it with a Strat. The Selmer eventually gave way to Hiwatt amps, and soon a variety of effects pedals (fuzz, wah, volume pedals) were entering his setup. Like many guitarists, he had the problem of having a huge string of pedals wired together onstage, with