Gilmourish

It was long a mystery what overdrive pedal David used 70’s but now we know that his secret weapon was the classic Colorsound Powerboost. The pedal has slowly regained recognition for its awesome tone and several clones have appeared in recent years. I recently got my hands on a Colordrive from Vintage FX.

Introduced in 1968 the Colorsound Powerboost soon became a favorite among many British guitarists for its powerful tone. The pedal was originally designed as a volume booster although many preferred to crank the gain and use it as an overdrive unit. The pedal is considered to be the first real overdrive pedal and a predecessor to the Tube Screamer and later the Tube Driver. In an era when one only had treble boosters and fuzz pedals the Powerboost gave the guitarist a whole new range of tones.

David was first seen using the pedal in early 1972 while premiering Eclipse - the suite that one year later would be released as Dark Side of the Moon. The pedal was David’s main overdrive/booster on Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals, mainly used as an overdrive on songs like Time, Money, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have a Cigar, Sheep and Pigs. The pedal was later replaced by Pete Cornish version the ST2 and in 1994 by the Tube Driver.

The first thing you notice about the Colordrive is the size. The pedal is housed a sturdy box similar to TRex pedals, about 1/3 of the huge Colorsounds (I’m always scared that I’ll stomp right through the fragile aluminum box on my old Colorsound). Originally the Powerboost only had three knobs: volume, treble and bass (the volume being basically a gain control). Like the current Colorsound reissue, the Colordrive features a master volume that allows you to use the pedal as a clean booster with about 30dB volume boost. The circuit is based on the Solasound (later Colorsound) schematic dated June 1971 with three BC109 silicon transistors and minor tweaks to make the pedal cleaner. The pedal is dead silent although a slight hiss appears when you max the treble, but you never really do that anyway. The pedal has a 9V adapter output for Boss adapters or similar but I strongly recommend 9V carbon batteries for a warmer and smoother tone (it really makes a difference!). And yes, the pedal has a true bypass switch.

Compared to the Colorsound, the Colordrive has a much wider clean range. On vintage style low output single coils (I tested the pedal with Fender CS69 neck/middle and Duncan SSL5 bridge) you can turn the gain up to 2-3:00 before it breaks, while the Colorsound starts to distort around 12:00. The treble and bass controls are also a bit more versatile acting more like passive EQ controls rather than boosters, as they do on the Colorsound (in essence, you can adjust the treble without it affecting the amount of gain). The overall tone is brighter than the Colorsound with a much more defined character and dynamics, which makes this pedal an excellent clean booster that really brings out the full potential of your pickups and amp and even smaller transistor combos at low volume (ideal for getting a bit more tone when you play at home). It’s also perfect for boosting that Big Muff for a tighter more compressed lead tone. The Colorsound is darker and warmer and lack the fine dynamics on clean settings but, in my opinion, it has a much better overdrive tone. Still, with the treble rolled off a bit both on the Colordrive and your amp, you can get great sounding overdrive ideal for that Dark Side and Animals stuff. For WYWH, or more recent tones for that matter, I prefer the Colorsound.

So, to sum it up. I feel that, although very similar to the Colorsound, these pedals are more like two cousins than identical twins. The Colordrive works much better as a clean volume booster than the Colorsound. The pedal fits nicely on the pedal board and the 9V adapter output is handy if you’re fed up with replacing dying batteries. Personally I’d like the pedal slightly warmer, which I think would also make the overdrive tones work better, but it depends on what you’re looking for. If you want a powerful transparent clean booster that works on both tube amps and smaller combos I recommend the Colordrive. I also want to add that Vintage FX offers fast shipping and excellent customer service. Check out their site and full range of pedals.

Last Monday David played guitar with Amadou & Mariam from Mali at the Crisis Hidden Gig held in the Union Chappel in Islington, London UK. The location for the show was revealed to the ticket holders the same day as a symbol of Crisis’ work for the homeless in London.

David played on all nine songs performed by the band (aprox 1hr 25 mins) including a version of No Way from his solo album from 1978, which has never been performed live other than the promo clip from ‘78. Read a full review of the Crisis show on Brian Damage.

David was seen using the Black Strat – confirmed by the Hendrix strap – while both the red Strat with the EMGs and the Gretsch Duo Jet was also spotted in the back but not used. The limited space on the rather cramped stage only allowed a small setup consisting of an Alessandro Bluetick 20w tube head (as seen on several 2006/07 performances) with matching cabinet. It also looked like he used an Fender Twin for monitor (note: an odd choice since he normally uses Bassman combos so this might be Amadou’s amp but it looks very much like there’s an Evidence Audio cable going into the amp, which indicates that David used it).

He used the 2006 Pete Cornish board with an Ernie Ball volume pedal and the familiar looking Conn strobe tuner placed on top of the amp. As you can see from the pictures the board had tape over the on/off switches for the send/return effects (whammy, UniVibe, MXR delay) as the rack was not used. The small venue called for mild settings on the gain pedals (although very similar to the On an Island tour) and from what I can gather the settings was about this:

Demeter Compulator
gain 2:00, volume 1:30, compress (labelled ”sus”) 1:30
Pete Cornish G-2
sustain 100%, tone 10:00, volume 1:00
Pete Cornish P-1 (labelled ”muff”)
sustain 12:30, tone 10:00, volume 10:00
BK Butler Tube Driver #1
gain 8:00, lo 2:00, hi 2:00, volume 2:00
BK Butler Tube Driver #2
gain 2:00, lo 2:00, hi 11:00, volume 11:30

A handful of Gilmourish.Com friends very lucky to attend the show and has reported that it was a great night and a special treat to see David on a small stage so close to the audience. A big thanks to Darran, Richard and Liam for contributing pictures!

We’re all searching for the perfect pedal board with a dozen or two pedals to replicate David’s Animals or PULSE tones. But I often go back to the basics discovering the beauty of just a handful of classics for albums like Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother. I recently got my hands on a London Fuzz from MJM Guitar FX and here’s my review.

Fuzz pedals appeared in the mid sixties after guitarists had been experimenting with everything from pierced speaker cones to broken tubes. The fuzz pedal was designed to push the loud tube amps into wild distortion and by the end of the decade every guitarist used one.

It’s interesting to see how David and Hendrix represent the two (main) ways to use the fuzz pedal. Hendrix, mainly using dark sounding Marshall stacks already cranked for a mild overdrive, used the fuzz to further boost the amp. By controlling the amount of gain from the pedal with the guitar volume knob, he could get a wide range of tones from mild overdrive to saturated fuzz. This is basically the same thing Stevie Ray Vaughan did a couple of decades later when he used the Tube Screamer to crank his amps. David on the other hand relied on clean Hiwatts and used the fuzz to create crunchy rhythms and heavy leads. The tone isn’t that much different from Hendrix’ but David’s setup gave him a much wider range of tones and a bit more control.

David used germanium based fuzz pedals from 1968-71, when he switched over to silicon based units. The London Fuzz is based on the first generation Fuzz Face with two germanium transistors (also available as the London Fuzz II with silicon transistors). Compared to silicon transistors, which has a bright aggressive tone (Live at Pompeii, Dark Side of the Moon etc) the germanium produce a warm smooth fuzz (More, Atom Heart Mother).

What makes the London Fuzz stand out from the average germanium fuzz is that it’s got a bit more gain and a generally warmer tone, which makes it work nicely on smaller amps as well as your large tube heads. The pedal has rich fat lower end and smooth top and it sound huge even on low output pickups like the CS69. It’s extremely dynamic to both your picking and the guitar volume knob and by leaving the fuzz all the way up as your main setting you can control the amount of gain from near crystal clean to screaming fuzz, depending on your amp and pickups. Unlike silicon units, the germanium fuzz can often sound muddy and lose some of its character when you max everything but the London Fuzz stays remarkably “tidy” with a well defined attack and clarity.

Fuzz pedals and germanium models in particular are extremely sensitive to combinations with other pedals. Always place the fuzz in front of the wah wah and for the best tone I recommend a minimum of pedals in the chain and ideally no one with buffers. This will in some cases dramatically change the character of the pedal. Some pedals works better than others - buffered included - so eliminate those who do the most damage (I’ve recommended some setups below). Also, be sure to always use carbon batteries. No alkaline and no battery clip converters! This will alter the tone.

The London Fuzz is housed in a MXR style (slightly bigger) box with cool retro knobs and graphics. Every pedal is handwired with matched transistors.

Fuzz pedals can be a bit tricky to use on smaller amps and transistors and normally I wouldn’t recommend using one if you’re mainly playing at home on a 30w solid state. The pedal often sound too thin with a harsh, raspy tone far from what you wanted. As talked about above, the best match for these pedals is a powerful tube amp cranked really hard but you can compensate this by adding an overdrive pedal after the fuzz like a Boss BD-2, Tube Driver or Colorsound Powerboost. The essence here is to use a transparent pedal. A Tube Screamer as similar will colour too much. As talked about above, you should try to avoid using buffered pedals with fuzz pedals but some works better than others and here’s a setup that works nicely for me:

Roll the gain all the way down to get the least amount of gain possible and likewise with the tone, - fuzz pedals doesn’t like too much treble in combo with other pedals. Roll the tone all the way down on the BD-2 and leave the treble at about 9:00 on the Colorsound and 12:00 on the Tube Driver. You can also use the gain channel on your amp (instead of a pedal). I normally advice against this but if you set it with the gain as low as possible just to active the channel, the fuzz gets the basis it needs to sound its best.

My favorite old school Gilmour setup:
MJM London Fuzz, Vox Wah Wah, Colorsound Powerboost, MJM Sixties Vibe, EH Deluxe Memory Man.

An honest review should include both pros and cons but I really don’t have anything to put my finger on when it comes to the London Fuzz. Fuzz pedals aren’t for everyone and shouldn’t be confused with a Big Muff or distortion like the RAT or Boss DS-1 but if you’re like me seeking the early Gilmour tones, Hendrix etc the London Fuzz delivers beyond my expectations. I also want to commend MJM on one of the best customer services I’ve encountered.

Visit MJM Guitar FX for more vintage clones and goodies!



 



In light of the recent “Examining Dogs” article, I thought it was time to shed some light on one of David’s secrets weapons - the rotating speaker.

Like many guitarists in the sixties and seventies David used rotating speakers as a part of his tone. The effect can be heard on many Floyd recordings and was an essential part of David’s live tone between 1971-83 and again in 1994.

Josh Szczepanowski, guitarist in the Canadian Pink Floyd tribute Pigs, has provided pictures, soundclips and technical info about the Yamaha RA-200 cabinet. In addition I have tried to document how David used the cabinet as well as shared some tips on how you can achieve a similar tone. Read the whole article here.

Be sure to check out the updated Hiwatt amps and WEM cabs and Leslies, Doppolas and Rovers articles.

After many requests I’ve made a fan page for Gilmourish.Com on Facebook. Other than the usual newsletter stuff and random nonsense there won’t be too much stuff happening there… at least for the moment… but please join up and tell your friends!

Official Gilmourish.Com Facebook page.

In past articles we’ve looked at classic Floyd songs like Echoes and Comfortably Numb, which both are favourites to many and the essence of David’s tone from two eras. Still, the song that brings out the enthusiastic grin on most of us is of course Dogs. For me it was what got me into this crazy hobby – trying to figure out how the hell David got his magical tone. In this article we’ll examine the history of Dogs, David’s tone and playing on the different versions and ways to get THE tone.

Dogs dates back to the middle of the Dark Side of the Moon tour. Pink Floyd had been performing Dark Side in its entirety since early 1972 – a whole year before the album was released and as they kept on adding new dates to the tour they badly needed new material. In October 1974, after a short tour in France in June, the band spent four weeks at the Elstree Film Studios and King’s Cross in London producing a brand new stage show for the upcoming British (British Winter Tour ’74) and North American tours. During the session they wrote two new songs – Have a Cigar and You Gotta be Crazy (later renamed Dogs). Roger’s lyrics dealt with his frustration and anger towards politics, the music industry and self-centred people who if needed would kill to get what they wanted - a theme he had also used for Shine On, Sheep and Have a Cigar. David wrote most of the music later stated that he was particularly proud of the chord progression.

Read more…

Please join me congratulating David with his birthday today!

Have a great weekend everyone and be prepared for the ultimate Dogs article on monday! Finally!

Cheers!

Over the last couple of months I’ve gone all old school and rediscovered the beauty of David’s early tones, especially from around 1970-73. I love the simplicity and raw power of just a basic fuzz and echo and of course later on David added a Colorsound Powerboost and a Univibe to his setup. The Univibe has always been one of my favourite effects and although David’s really hasn’t used it that much you can always put on some Hendrix or Trower and get blown away by the beauty of this effect.

Read more…

I always get a lot of questions about my gear, my bands and just this and that about all kinds of non-related Gilmour stuff. I have no idea why anyone would be interested in my cheap guitars and off the shelf stomboxes but I’m no stranger to placing myself in the spotlight bathing in my own self-indulgence!

Anyway, this blog will be a place where I’ll talk about guitar related topics that doesn’t fit into the main blog on this site. You will get to hear more about my bands (Airbag and The Pink Floyd Experience), - our activities and stuff like preparations for a show etc and just random nonsense about guitars and music.

CHECK OUT THE NEW BLOG! >>>

The other day I got the chance to try the David Gilmour NOS Stratocaster at a friend of Gilmourish.Com. It’s been a while since its release but I thought I’d share my thoughts on this long awaited and much discussed guitar.

Let me first point out that it’s obviously impossible to give an objective view. I have tried to approach it as if I was buying a new guitar looking for the features I prefer. Hopefully not too blinded by the fact that this is indeed a David Gilmour Strat. I tested the guitar on a Marshall tube head with a Mesa 4×12” cabinet and a bunch of all the classic gilmourish pedals.

Read more…