David Gilmour Pink Floyd
Equipment Analysis
David Gilmour Page 1
Guitars David Gilmour is most widely assosciated with the Fender Stratocaster, particularly his “Black Strat” which was purchased at Manny’s in New York City and has accompanied him throughout his entire career and has scene many alterations following the initial acquisition. Although, this black Fender Stratocaster is the instrument with which he is most commonly assosciated, it is actually his second black Fender Stratocaster, his first having been stolen on tour.
Signature Fender Stratocaster “The Black Strat” t Seymour Duncan SSL-5 (bridge) pickup t Custom Wound (middle) pickup t Custom Wound Fat 50’s (neck) pickup t Custom Shortened vintage tremolo arm. t Maple C Shape Neck 7.5 radius.1968 Alder Body t On/Off Switch for neck pickup t 21 Vintage frets t Alder Body
Red Fender Stratocaster – 1983 American ’57 Reissue t 1983 American ’57 Reissue t EMG David Gilmour signature active pickup set. t Maple C Shape Neck 7.5 radius. t 3-way pickup selector. t Custom Shortened vintage tremolo arm. t Alder body
The “#0001” Stratocaster t Gold hardware and pick guard t Although has #0001 serial number, is not the first Stratocaster. t Believed to be a showpiece model or employee gift t Ash white body t 5-way pickup selector. t Kluson deluxe tuners. t 1960’s Custom Seymour Duncan Pickups t According to Seymour Duncan, David’s #0001 Stratocaster has a 1957 light mint green ash body and a 1957 neck, from two separate guitars
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Assorted Fender Telecasters Early 60’s blonde Telecaster, Late 1950’s brown Telecaster, 1959 Custom Telecaster, 1955 Esquire, 1952 Reissue Telecaster, Custom Shop Telecaster
Assorted Gibson Les Pauls Gibson Les Paul “TV Special”, Gibson Les Paul “Black Beauty”, Gibson 1955 Les Paul “Gold Top”, Gibson 1956 Les Paul “Gold Top”
Strings
Picks
GHS Signature Boomers 10-46
Herco Heavy Gauge
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Effects Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (109)
EHX Big Muff 1973 Ram Head
Pete Cornish G-2
t t Volume 7/10
t Voume 6/10
t Volume 6/10
t Fuzz 10/10
t Sustain 7/10
t Tone 4/10
t Tone 4/10
t Sustain 10/10
EHX Electric Mistress
Pete Cornish ST-2
MXR Dynacomp
t t Color 4/10
t Treble
4/10
t Range 4/10
t Bass
5/10
t Rate 3.5/10
t Volume 5/10
t Output 6/10 t Sensitivity 4/10
MXR Phase 90
EHX Small Stone
t
t
t Mix 5.5/10
t Mix 5.5/10
MXR DDL
t Delay 1 – 370ms Repeats – 6 Mix – 3/10 t Delay 2 – 1500ms Repeats – 6 Mix – 3/10
Binson Echo
t t Delay – 310ms “repeat” mode
t Volume 7/10 (alt)
Univox Univibe
t Volume 6/10 t Intensity 5/10 t Slow Speed 6/10 t Fast Speed 8/10
Pete Cornish Volume Pedal
Cry Baby Wah
MXR Noise Gate/Live Driver
Pete Cornish Tone Pedal
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Amplifiers Settings (current) – Bass 10:00 Middle 11:00 Treble 12:00 Presence 1:00 Normal Volume 2:00 Brilliant Volume 1:00 Master Volume 11:00
1969-1972 t Hiwatt DR103 All Purpose 100W heads with Mullard 4xEL34 power tubes and 4xECC83 pre-amp tubes. Controls for normal volume, brilliance volume, bass, middle, treble, presence and master. t WEM Super Starfinder 200 cabinets with 4×12” Fane Crescendo speakers with metal dust caps.
1973-1977 t David had over ten Hiwatt heads on the Dark Side of the Moon tours in 1973-75 and he always performed sound check on them all himself to make sure they sounded right.
1979-1982 t The setup for The Wall was pretty much the same as both Dark Side and Animals with the custom rack including three Hiwatt heads (two mains and one spare) powering four WEM cabs. He also had a Mesa/Boogie head, which he used as a pre-amp for overdrives set up in a send/return chain to the pedal board. t David’s Hiwatts were now modified with combining the normal and brilliance inputs. A common trick to make the rather dark British amps sound a bit brighter without loosing the lower frequencies.
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Amplifiers Settings (current) – Bass 10:00 Middle 11:00 Treble 12:00 Presence 1:00 Normal Volume 2:00 Brilliant Volume 1:00 Master Volume 11:00
1994 t The setup for The Wall was pretty much the same as both Dark Side and Animals with the custom rack including three Hiwatt heads (two mains and one spare) powering four WEM cabs. He also had a Mesa/Boogie head, which he used as a pre-amp for overdrives set up in a send/return chain to the pedal board. t David’s Hiwatts were now modified with combining the normal and brilliance inputs. A common trick to make the rather dark Brit ish amps sound a bit brighter without loosing the lower frequen cies.
1994 t During the Division Bell tour in 1994 David’s rig consisted of overwhelming six Hiwatt heads in two separate racks, – not mentioning all the spares he travelled with. All heads had the preamp section either removed or disconnected as in 1988-90 with the Alembic serving as the main preamp for the rig. t Rack 1 consisted of the classic three DR103 heads modified with norm/brill input combo and preamps disconnected. One head was a spare, while the two mains powered each a WEM Super Starfinder 200w cab with 4×12 Fane Crescendo speakers and a Marshall JCM 800 400w cab with 4×12 Celestion G12M speakers. The left channel was “coloured” by a Boss CE-2 chorus for a wider stereo. t Rack 2 consisted of three STA-100 slave heads (no preamp section). One powered the Heil Talk Talk box, while the two remaining powered the Doppola rotating speakers
2006 t On the On an Island tour in 2006 David went back to the classic early 70’s three Hiwatt heads setup, now using the preamps in the heads. Two heads were powering one WEM cabinet each and the third head was used for the Sound On Sound delay effect with a third WEM cabinet.
Work Cited
www.gearofthegodz.com www.gilmourish.com www.pink-floyd.org
Paul Joseph Stewart