Gilmourish

It’s been awhile since I gave the Gear Guides an overhaul… too long actually and when I read through them during the Easter I saw that they needed some serious attention. New information has surfaced and they also needed to be a little easier to use. I have gone over everything, added new information, corrected and re-written some of the rather clumsy descriptions. I have also done some minor changes in the layout, although not too much. I hope that I’ve been able to eliminate as much false info as possible and that you find them a bit easier to use.

- Every Album Gear Guide is updated with new pictures and information about David’s gear.
- The “settings” pages on each guide are updated with more precise and accurate information.
- The gear guides for A Saucerful of Secrets, More and Ummagumma are updated according to the Early Years (part 1) article.
- The gear guides for Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and Obscured by Clouds are updated according to the announced Early Years (part 2) article.

I’ve also updated some of the Exploring David’s Gear articles, mainly The Red Stratocaster and EMGs, Slide Guitars, Alembic F-2B preamp and The Pete Cornish Animals effects board.

- The Hiwatt Amps & WEM Cabinets article is rewritten with new information and a more in depth look at David’s setups throughout the years.

Please keep in mind…
… that although I’ve tried to be as meticulous as possible with the Album Gear Guides, checking every detail with as many sources as possible, there might be some errors here and there. Pictures and video footage rarely lie but third hand information can be false. If you see anything that you find to be plain wrong, then please send me a note.

New article!
I’ve finally written an article about David’s legendary #0001 1954 Fender Stratocaster. I’ve tried to gather as much information as possible and also shed some light on the different theories about the guitar’s origins.

Although stamped with the #0001 serial number, it’s not the first ever-made Stratocaster. The unusual colour and the gold hardware indicate that it might be a showpiece made for a special occasion or for an employee.

Read more…

I give you a challenge!
I think… or would like to think… that I’ve covered most of David gear but there are a couple of items that keeps bothering me. The first one to identify these two objects gets a set of each of the new GHS David Gilmour signature strings (as described in this now ended competition)! I need hard evidence like a detailed picture with description of the item. No guessing :)

Meddle tour 1971.
This one looks like some kind of mixer, perhaps for mixing the blend between the Hiwatts and the Leslie cabinets. Or is it some kind of EQ unit? I really don’t know… There are very few pictures of it and none of them reveals too much details. As you can see by clicking the thumb for a larger picture, the unit sits on top of the Binsons. It might also be two different units if you look closely at the two pictures.

Animals tour 1977.
These looks like EQ units… perhaps something one would usually use in the studio. As you can see there are two in David’s rig. Again, there are very few pictures available but there must be some sources out there… The units are placed on top of one of the amps (on topMarshall on the b/w picture from the January 1977 rehearsals and on top of one of the Hiwatts during the tour). You can see, by clicking the thumb for a larger picture, that they’re slightly slanted. It’s hard to see how many parameters there are but it appears to be at least 10.

Please take the whole tour, delete your memory and reboot the system. I hope you enjoy the new updates and that you’re up for the challenge of finding the two missing pieces!

Cheers!

Some weeks ago several sites (including Gilmourish.Com) reported that Tim Renwick’s guitars were stolen. I recently talked to Tim and four of the stolen guitars are returned! Still missing however, is the sea-foam and a Martin electric acoustic.

I urge everyone to keep your eyes open and report if you see one of Tim’s guitars. They might appear on EBay or in some of the guitar shops around (Denmark Street in London particularly). The ones still missing are:

- Fender Stratocaster 60’s model, sea-foam green with serial number U035585
- Martin 000C16RGTE elecric acoustic with serial number 1140783

Check out my interview with Tim where he talks about the Live 8 reunion.

I’m happy to announce that Johann Åkerström from Gothenburg, Sweden, is the lucky winner of the David Gilmour replica strap. Well done!

Most of you got the answers right…

1) David is seen with a very familiar sunburst guitar during the rehearsals for the Royal Albert Hall shows in May 2006. Unfortunately he decided not to use it. The guitar is associated with one particular song from the mid 70’s. Name the tune.

- Dogs and/or You Gotta be Crazy. David is seen with the 1959 Fender Custom Telecaster at Bray Studios in May 2006 during the rehearsals for the Royal Albert Hall Shows. The guitar was used on the 1974-75 and 1977 tours for Dogs.

Some of you answered One of These Days, because David used the sunburst Strat for slides on the 1972 tour. A sunburst Strat is seen used on 2006 rehearsals, however this is not the same guitar as David’s old sunburst is a cheery with rosewood neck (the neck that was used on the Black Strat between 1972-1978) and the “new” sunburst appears to be a tobacco with maple neck. Also, the rehearsals took place prior to the tour in February/March 2006.

2) David is seen using a 1956 Gibson Goldtop with a Bigsby tremolo while performing This Heaven on the Remember That Night DVD. He also own a 1955 model sans the Bigsby, which he recorded one famous solo with in the late 70’s. Name the tune.

- Another Brick in the Wall (part 2). David recorded the solo straight into the desk with gate and compression. The signal was then fed into a Mesa/Boogie amplifier and again recorded.

3) During his first months as a member of Pink Floyd, David toured with two identical white Telecasters. Only one was his own. Who owned the other guitar?

- Syd Barrett. During his first few months with Pink Floyd after Syd had been asked to leave, David is seen with a spare white 1960’s Telecaster in addition to his own identical. The guitar was later reclaimed by Syd during the Saucerful of Secrets sessions.

Thanks to everyone for participating!

Although David had already established himself as a vital force in Pink Floyd it was on Echoes that he would really shine and create some of his most memorable moments. In this article we’ll look at the signatures and some of the many variations.

Echoes was written during a period when Pink Floyd were constantly touring and at the same time trying to write new material that would (hopefully) free them from the Barrett era and the old songs they’d been playing to death. The song was written during several studio sessions in January and February 1971 and played live for the first time in Norwich, UK, April 22. 1971, - seven months before the release of Meddle.

David’s guitar tracks were recorded in May and June 1971. Little is documented from the sessions but he did use the Bill Lewis guitar to record the main solo and the Black Stratocatser on most of the rhythm parts. The effects used were a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (BC109), Vox wah wah and the Binson Echorec II.

Read more…

The competition has now ended. See announcement above.
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Ever since the first photos of David from the last tour started to appear there was one question we all asked ourselves: “Where can I get that guitar strap?!?” David was wearing a beautiful new strap with his legendary Black Stratocaster and later we learned that this was in fact a gift from his wife Polly on his 60th birthday in March 2006 and the strap once belonged to none other than Jimi Hendrix!

Now YOU can win a replica of this strap by entering this competition! All you need to do is to submit the answer to these three questions - you’ll find the answers buried deep in this site of course.

1) David is seen with a very familiar sunburst guitar during the rehearsals for the Royal Albert Hall shows in May 2006. Unfortunately he decided not to use it. The guitar is associated with one particular song from the mid 70’s. Name the tune.

2) David is seen using a 1956 Gibson Goldtop with a Bigsby tremolo while performing This Heaven on the Remember That Night DVD. He also own a 1955 model sans the Bigsby, which he recorded one famous solo with in the late 70’s. Name the tune.

3) During his first months as a member of Pink Floyd, David toured with two identical white Telecasters. Only one was his own. Who owned the other guitar?

The replica strap is made by Martin Pryce. It’s an exact replica of the one Jimi Hendrix wore and which David is now using with his black Stratocaster. Made from leather and suede the strap is adjustable by three press studs at the back of the strap. The straps can be bought from Martin, custom made to your specs, for only $125. He can be contacted on e-mail or see his eBay page (a web site is soon ready).

Please note that the strap for this contest is already made. It might not be your size but at least you’ll have something nice for your guitar.

The winner will be announced Wednesday April 9. Good luck!

Today is David’s birthday and I though it would be great to celebrate with a new article, - part 1 of “The Early Years”. Hope you enjoy it and do feel free to share your birthday greetings with a comment!

Although David’s rig was pretty basic during his first five with Pink Floyd, both his tone and technique played a significant role in shaping the band’s sound after Syd’s departure. In this first of two articles I’ll look at David’s guitars, amps and effects between 1968-1969 and how he created his tone.

The article includes YouTube clips. Please allow a couple of seconds for them to load. You may need to refresh your browser if you’re experiencing any problems.

The Hiwatt/WEM article and the gear guides for A Saucerful of Secrets, More and Ummagumma are also updated with this article. Be sure to take the tour!

Part 2 of this article will be posted in a month or so. Then we’ll look at David’s rig and tone from 1970-72.

Since the early 70’s David Gilmour’s been using rotating speakers to make his sounds fatter and more three dimensional. Recently I got my hands on a Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble. It’s difficult to capture the natural sound of something as unique as a rotating speaker but the RT-20 sounds remarkably close. Here’s a little review.

The RT-20 was introduced in 2005 housed in the new dual pedals from Boss. Featured controls are:
- Mode: allows you to switch between 4 different modes. 1 is the normal Leslie type. 2 and 3 is a combo of a Leslie and a Marshall amp with a bit more gain on mode 3. Mode 4 is a very bad sounding Uni-Vibe clone…
- Rise Time: controls how fast you want the right pedal to switch between slow and fast rotary.
- Effect: controls the level of the rotary effect.
- Direct: controls the blend of the effect and your guitar. By turning the Effect all the way to the left and the Direct all the way to the right you’ll get a clean tone equivalent to switching off the pedal.
- Balance: placement of the microphone on the Leslie cab. More amp or more horn.
- Overdrive: thin and fuzzy… don’t use it!
- Slow: rate for slow mode.
- Fast: rate for fast mode.

The left pedal switches on/off the effect and the right pedal switches between slow and fast settings. A cool display – the “virtual rotor” – indicates the rate setting of the horn.

The pedal works equally well on keyboards with a mode setting for impedance on the back. Sounds great for Hammonds and that Wrightish Echoes piano.

So by now I guess you’re wondering “didn’t Bjorn ditch all his Boss pedals?”. “Didn’t he say that they messed up everything?”. Well, kind of… I never threw away my Boss pedals but I didn’t want too many of them on my stage board because their buffers didn’t go well with especially the Colorsound PB and the Sun Face (read more about that here and see where my Boss pedals ended up here). I once had a DD-20 digital delay, which sounded quite nice but the pedal was noisy and it totally ruined my signal. I was very sceptic to the RT-20 and I’ve tried all sorts of combinations with my pedals. The result is that it sounds very nice indeed and it doesn’t seem to colour my tone as much as the DD-20 and some of the other Boss pedals (especially CE-2, CS-2, GE-7). It’s very quiet and clean.

The RT-20 is in essence an amp simulator and you’ll get a distinct volume boost when the effect is switched on. I took some time to figure how to avoid increasing the volume too much especially since all my sounds are either based on the Colorsound PB or the BK Tube Driver but it works very well for chorus sections and solos where you normally would want a little boost. On the more quiet parts you just have to use the volume pedal.

Keep in mind that a real rotating speaker acts just like a tube amp, - it’s almost alive and very “organic”… if that term can be used on electronics. Also, the Doppler effect that the horn creates needs something to bounce off on. The closer you place a rotating speaker to a wall, the more dramatic the effect will be and that’s near impossible to simulate. What you’ll get is something very similar. This isn’t a distortion effect but a simulator.

I haven’t been able to a/b test the pedal against a real rotating speaker but I’ve played through them enough to say that the RT-20 is extremely close. It adds a wide 3D effect to your tone and with some delay or echo it sounds just incredibly rich and fat. You can hear the horn swirl around adding that tyical almost scratching or swoshing tone (listen to the effect loop on On the Run). I would like this to be a little more audioable but with a mild overdrive in front it sounds very nice. I strongly recommend using an additional overdrive. The one featured in the RT-20 doesn’t sound any good.

Soundclip: Raise My Rent
On this song David used a Yamaha rotating speaker on both the rhythms and solo. The RT-20 captures that swirling, slightly unpredictable tone and works very well on the solo too.
- Custom 69 pickups > Sovtek (green) Big Muff > Boss RT-20 > GarageBand with a clean British type amp sim and a hint of delay and reverb.

Soundclip: Us & Them
On Dark Side of the Moon David played this song through a Leslie 900 (also seen on the DSotM documentary). With additional overdrive the RT-20 sounds very similar to the tone David had on the 1973-75 tours.
- Custom 69 pickups > Boss CS-2 > Maxon OD808 > Boss RT-20 > GarageBand with a clean British type amp sim and a hint of delay and reverb.

I’m very pleased with pedal. Surprised actually. I’m a huge fan of both Steven Wilson and John Wesley from Porcupine Tree and they both use this pedal frequently (see John Wesley’s presentation here - select “video” in the menu). I will mostly use the RT-20 with my band Airbag but certainly for Floyd stuff too. Recommended!

Every now and then I get kind requests from friends of Gilmourish regarding how one can support the site and the work that’s put into it. I have set up a donation service that’s easy and safe to use for those who feel like contributing and helping out with the growing costs of running this site.

I want Gilmourish.Com to stay free for everyone and I also want to make the site better with new features like different “showrooms” for effects with soundclips, YouTube tutorials, gear reviews etc. I have to upgrade my servers and like everything else in life, it costs money.

No one is obligated to donate and please know that a donation, however large or small is much welcome and most appreciated! You’ll find the Paypal Donation button on the right sidebar of this blog.

You can also contribute by recommending topics for me to write about, sending me notes about some cool pedals or guitars I need to check out, providing interviews, pictures and anything that might be of interest. Just anything…

Thank you!
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I’m currently updating some stuff on the site. Nothing big but hopefully for the better. Please also check out the updated Gear Gallery. It’s quite inspiring to look at all those amazing collections of pedals, guitars and amps! If you haven’t submitted your picture already then don’t be shy!

Next up will be a review of my newly acquired Boss RT20 rotary speaker simulator! Stay tuned!

Not much happing in camp Gilmour these days. While we anxiously await a new album… a new tour… David is working on the announced live album recorded in Gdansk in 2006. The album was due this March but is moved back, in true Floyd tradition, to September… earliest. Anyway, the Gdansk concert was a huge event and although Dave started the tour with the intention of scaling things down, the show turned out to be one of the biggest he’s ever played!

So what’s up with the Black Signature Strat from Fender? NAMM would have been the proper place to reveal and release the guitar but it didn’t happen and judging from a new interview with David’s technician Phil Taylor, the guitar is still on the operating table with no definitive outcome. Perhaps a bummer for those who can’t control their urge but a clear statement that David won’t release any crap. Again, a true Floyd tradition. I think we’re looking at an autumn release at best.

If you still haven’t bought Phil’s book about the Black Strat be sure to check the March issue of Guitar and Bass Magazine, which features the interview with Taylor and nice shots of the guitar. You can also read the whole article on David’s site.

Sound on Sound recently reported that Tim Renwick’s guitars were stolen. Among them was the metallic silver Strat he used on PULSE. Tragic news that hopefully gets solved. Keep your eyes open!