David Gilmour

Pink Floyd
Equipment Analysis

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Guitars
David Gilmour is most widely assosciated with the Fender Stratocaster, particularly his Black Strat which was purchased at Mannys 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

Seymour Duncan SSL-5 (bridge) pickup Custom Wound (middle) pickup Custom Wound Fat 50s (neck) pickup Custom Shortened vintage tremolo arm. Maple C Shape Neck 7.5 radius.1968 Alder Body On/Off Switch for neck pickup 21 Vintage frets Alder Body

Red Fender Stratocaster 1983 American 57 Reissue

1983 American 57 Reissue EMG David Gilmour signature active pickup set. Maple C Shape Neck 7.5 radius. 3-way pickup selector. Custom Shortened vintage tremolo arm. Alder body

The #0001 Stratocaster

Gold hardware and pick guard Although has #0001 serial number, is not the first Stratocaster. Believed to be a showpiece model or employee gift Ash white body 5-way pickup selector. Kluson deluxe tuners. 1960s Custom Seymour Duncan Pickups According to Seymour Duncan, Davids #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 60s blonde Telecaster, Late 1950s 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 MXR Phase 90 EHX Small Stone

Volume 7/10 Fuzz 10/10 Voume 6/10 Sustain 7/10 Tone 4/10 Volume 6/10 Tone 4/10 Sustain 10/10

Mix 5.5/10

Mix 5.5/10

EHX Electric Mistress

Pete Cornish ST-2

MXR Dynacomp

MXR DDL

Binson Echo

Color 4/10 Range 4/10 Rate 3.5/10 Treble Bass 4/10 5/10 Output 6/10 Sensitivity 4/10

Delay 1 370ms Repeats 6 Mix 3/10 Delay 2 1500ms Repeats 6 Mix 3/10

Delay 310ms repeat mode

Volume 5/10 Volume 7/10 (alt)

Univox Univibe

Pete Cornish Volume Pedal

Cry Baby Wah

MXR Noise Gate/Live Driver

Pete Cornish Tone Pedal

Volume 6/10 Intensity 5/10 Slow Speed 6/10 Fast Speed 8/10

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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 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. WEM Super Starfinder 200 cabinets with 412 Fane Crescendo speakers with metal dust caps.

1973-1977 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
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. Davids 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 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. Davids 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
During the Division Bell tour in 1994 Davids 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. 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 412 Fane Crescendo speakers and a Marshall JCM 800 400w cab with 412 Celestion G12M speakers. The left channel was coloured by a Boss CE-2 chorus for a wider stereo. 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 On the On an Island tour in 2006 David went back to the classic early 70s 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