Classic tone: Dogs

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.

– David pictured at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Long Island, New York 16 June 1975. At this point the ’62 Telecaster had a Gibson PAF humbucker.

While Have a Cigar and Sheep was two fairly basic rock songs, Dogs had much of the same structure as Shine On with elements stretching right back to Atom Heart Mother and Echoes. The earliest version even had a long choir part in the middle section, similar to what David and Richard used to do on the 4-piece live version of Atom. Throughout the 1974-75 tour Roger would rewrite the lyrics several times as David found it too hard to sing – there were just too many words (Musician, August 1992).

Sheep and Dogs revealed a heavier side of Pink Floyd. Although the band never fully entered the prog rock scene they used elements in their compositions blending it with their deep roots in blues and jazz. Dogs is perhaps one of the more prog oriented songs they’ve written with several tempo changes and various different bits and pieces pasted together rather than building dynamics on the same chords throughout as they often did on many of the earlier songs.

Recording sessions
Pink Floyd recorded Animals in their new studio Britannia Row between April and December 1976. David’s main setup included:

Fender Telecaster Custom
– 1959 two-colour sunburst ash body and rosewood neck
Ovation Legend acoustic steel string guitar
Hiwatt DR103 All Purpose 100W heads
– with Mullard 4xEL34’s power tubes and 4xECC83’s pre-amp tubes
WEM Super Starfinder 200 cabinets
– with 4×12” Fane Crescendo speakers
Yamaha RA-200 revolving speaker cabinet

All acoustic rhythms were recorded with an Ovation Legend steel string. There are two tracks paned to each side. A Telecaster was used for all electrics – both rhythms and leads – fed into a split between a Hiwatt 100w head with a WEM speaker cab and a Yamaha rotating speaker cab. On 1974-75 live performances the Telecaster had a Gibson PAF pickup in neck position that was later replaced with a Seymour Duncan custom Telecaster pickup for the Animals tour. It’s not documented if this was before or after the recording sessions but David is mostly using the bridge pickup anyway. Note that all guitars were tuned down one step to D G C F A D. This was also done on the live performances.

– David tuned down his guitars one step to D G C F A D. The Em would the sound like a Dm etc.

According to Pete Cornish, drawings for a new pedal board dates back to early 1976 while he began the work around early June. As it probably took some months to finish one can only assume that the board wasn’t used on the album as David might have recorded his guitars earlier on. In an interview with Guitar Player in January 2009, Phil Taylor says that he introduced David to the Big Muff as early as 1974 (Phil joined as road crew in June 1974 and bought a lot of new equipment for David during the summer months including new Hiwatts, WEM cabs and the Jedson slides) although there’s no sign of it in David’s 1974-75 rig nor can it be heard. It was also around this time when David and Phil started tracking down vintage guitars, some of which are still in David’s possession today like the ’55 Fender Esquire (as seen on the About Face cover), the #0001 Strat and the ’58 Gretsch Duo Jet (last used on Where We Start studio and live versions).

David used an Electro Harmonix 1973 ”ram’s head” Big Muff for all the leads, which were blended with the Yamaha rotating speaker giving his tones a nice swirling character. If you compare the fast solo between verse 2 and 3 with the bluesy solo in the mid section of the song you can hear how David uses the Yamaha to create dynamics between a wet swirling tone and by not using the effect a dry, earpinching tone.

Early live version 1974-75
The early version of Dogs is quite different to the version that ended up on the Animals album years later – both in terms of David’s playing and tone and the song’s structure. As with Shine On and Sheep, Dogs was a very rough diamond and didn’t really take shape until the North American shows in early 1975.

David’s tone is a huge contrast to the bright, earpinching Hendrix influenced Dark Side of the Moon tones. As on Shine On, David’s using a combo of the Colorsound Powerboost + MXR Phase 90 + Binson Echorec throughout the song – rhythms and all solos. His playing is much more blues oriented than what he later did on the album and bare strong resemblance to many of his influences like BB King and Peter Green. One can almost imagine that as much as the band is tired of playing the Dark Side of the Moon album, David is equally fed up with his screaming fuzz tones and has gone all old school bashing out Albert King riffs if they were his own. This approach also makes a nice contrast to the seemingly prog oriented structure of the song.

References:
”Manchester Day”, Manchester, UK 9 December 1974
– One of the earliest known recordings of Dogs. Check out the choir part in the middle section. Incredibly soulful.

”Ivor Wynne Suite”, Ontario, Canada 28 June 1975
– Great show and awesome playing from David and perhaps one of the best sources of the Colorsound Powerboost + MXR Phase 90 tone.

Album and 1977 tour version
Both Dogs and Sheep were ditched from the Wish You Were Here album and it took another two years for them to be released on what is often referred to as Floyd’s final escape from their psychedelic past. As the warm, organic almost comforting sound on Wish You Were Here is a powerful contrast to Roger’s lyrics about alienation and psychological absence, Animals is a throughout cold and sterile album underlining some of the most aggressive lyrics Roger has ever written.

– David replaced the PAF humbucker with a Seymour Duncan custom neck pickup prior to the 1977 tour.

Animals and perhaps Dogs in particular includes some of David’s most untypical and innovative work. Although the solos resembles those he played on the early version they’re now much more defined – and more solos if you will – rather than just random blues improvisation. David’s tone has also drastically changed from being warm and soulful as on the previous albums to a cold and bright presence. This only strengthens the aggressive feel of the album and David’s playing cuts through the mix like a sharp knife running right through your spine.

While the studio version includes acoustic guitars for the rhythms David would play this on his Telecaster as in 1974-75 only now with the Electric Mistress, instead of the Phase 90 (on the first 3-4 shows he would use the Phase 100). Both David and Snowy played the twin or duet solos.

Animals marks a new era in terms of David’s tones – an era that included his first solo album in 1978, The Wall and Final Cut and even the present On an Island album and tour. On the 1977 tour he would play all solos with a combo of the ”ram’s head” Big Muff boosted by the Colorsound Powerboost and coloured by the Electric Mistress with the MXR digital delay. David also used two Yamaha rotating speakers on stage adding a hint of that swirly tone from the album.

References:
”Dragged Down by the Stone”, Paris, France 22 February 1977
– Although not one of the best shows, this recording is a great reference to David’s tones in the beginning of the tour.

”Animal Instincts”, Oakland, USA 9 May 1977
– My absolute favourite version. David’s tone is simply out of this world!

Animals Pete Cornish pedal board
Click for bigger image
- The Pete Cornish effects board pictured during Pink Floyd rehearsals at the Olympia Exhibition Hall in London. Notice the addition of an Electric Mistress (left) and a Big Muff (right). The big pedal to the left of the board is a Morley EVO-1 echo unit and the little one in front is a footpedal for the Yamaha rotating speaker.
Pete Cornish pedal board Jan. – Oct. 1977
Effects as in chain;

Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (BC109)
Pete Cornish Custom Fuzz /P1
MXR Phase 100
Univox Uni-Vibe
Colorsound Power Boost
Cry Baby wah wah
MXR Dynacomp
(send/return for EH Big Muff and EH Electric Mistress)
Pete Cornish Tone pedal
Pete Cornish volume pedal
(send/return for delays, Binson II/Morley EVO-1/MXR DDL)
MXR Noise Gate/Line Driver

Between 1973-75 David had been using a fairly basic pedal board consisting of a Fuzz Face (silicon), Colorsound Powerboost, MXR Phase 90 and sweep pedals for volume and wah wah as well as a UniVibe including its control pedal and send/returns for the Binson units. The new Cornish board included most of these effects and a handful new ones. During rehearsals for the upcoming tour at the Olympia Exhibition Hall in London in January 1977 the board went through some changes. Some pedals changed places and the old Colorsound Power Boost was added. The board included a Pete Cornish P1 (or Cornish Fuzz as it was called at the time), which was a clone of David’s ”ram’s head” Big Muff. David also added the ”ram’s head” and an Electric Mistress that were placed on top of the board connected via send/returns. Both pedals were later built into the board. See this article for a complete in depth analysis of the Pete Cornish Animals pedal board.

Getting the Dogs tone
David used a Telecaster on the album and live versions but you can without problems use a Strat. I recommend vintage style low output pickups for this song such as Fender CS69 or Duncan SSLs or 50s and 60s pickups for the Tele. Modern pickups like US/MIM Standards or EMGs will sound a bit too boomy. If you’re playing in a band it can also be wise to have an additional guitar standing by for the special tuning.

Ampwise a Hiwatt, Sound City, Reeves etc would obviously be the best choice. The powerful clean tone is essential and since Dogs is THE Big Muff song from the era I would advice not to use amps that break up easily or the gain channel in any way. David also used a lot of different Fender amps in the 70’s and you’d get a great tone with a Dual Showman stack or combos like Twins and Bassmans. For smaller setups I recommend a Peavey Classic or something similar. Again, the rule is as much headroom as possible. Check out the Buyer’s Gear Guide for more tips.

Always connect your effects into the front inputs and set your amp to something like this: bass 50%, treble 50-60%, mids 40% and the master volume should be about 1/3 of the channel volume. I also recommend linking the normal and bright channel inputs for more presence (link the upper normal and lower bright and plug your guitar into the upper bright). Set the bright volume slightly lower than the normal volume.

– There’s not a lot of film available from the In the Flesh ’77 tour. Here’s a 8mm clip from Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria 1 Feburay 1977, which was the 6th show on the tour.

Effects
David’s pedal boards and racks may seem frighteningly huge but he rarely uses more than 3-4 effects for each song. I think the essence of Dogs is to use the right distortion pedal for your rig. Although David used a Big Muff you might find your self strugling to get the same bright, crispy tone and maintaining a smooth rich sustain. In some cases you should probably consider a different pedal – one that suits your rig better. Check out this article for more tips.

1. Early version 1974-75 tone
Colorsound Power Boost (clean boost/mild overdrive) – treble 10:00, bass 12:00, gain/volume 12:00 and master 2:00.
MXR Phase 90 – rate 1:00
Echo/delay – 370ms

If you can’t find or afford a Colorsound Power Boost, check out the Absolutely Analog Fist, ThroBak Overdrive Boost or Vintage FX Colordrive. You can also use similar sounding pedals like a BK Tube Driver, Boss BD-2 (preferably a Keeley model), Exotic RC Booster or the popular Fulltone OCD booster. If you can’t find or don’t have any of these you could also use a Tube Screamer or similar pedals although these do have a bit too much mid range for this specific song and it’s not the best pedal to use as a booster for your Big Muff.

I recommend a vintage style MXR Phase 90 unit. Compared to the standard block logo model, which has a nasty bright tone, the script model has a very warm smokey flavour. Do also check out the classic Electro Harmonix Small Stone too and the BYOC Script 90 Phaser.

For authentic analog echo I recommend the Electro Harmonix Memory Man, MXR Carbon Copy and Trex Replica. Of course, any delay unit will do.

2. Album and 1977 tour tone
EH “ram’s head” Big Muff – sustain 2:00, tone 11:00, volume 1:00
Colorsound Power Boost (clean boost/mild overdrive) – treble 10:00, bass 12:00, gain/volume 12:00 and master 2:00.
EH Electric Mistress – rate 10:00, range “off”, colour 10:00
Echo/delay – 370ms

There are many different Big Muffs to choose from and you can get a great tone with almost any of them. Personally I find the more modern units like the Sovteks, Cornish P2 etc to be a bit too dark and boomy for the Animals era but you can tweak these for a brighter tone. David’s used a “ram’s head” model so an original or a clone would be the best choice and I also recommend a “triangle” model for slightly more sustain and just an overall smoother tone. As discussed above a Big Muff might not be the best choice for some amps and pickups and in that case I’d get something a bit more versatile like a RAT, which is ideal on smaller amps with little headroom or humbucker pickups. You could also go for a MXR Distortion +, Marshall Shredmaster or a Keeley/Analogman modified Boss DS-1 (stay away from the stock model).

The Electric Mistress is a must for the 1977-83 period but if you for some reason don’t have one or want one you could go for a MXR Flanger or a chorus of any kind, preferably an analog model. David used a ’76 model but there’s very little differnece between this and the present Deluxe model. I don’t recommend using the new stereo version for this song… or any Gilmour tones.

By 1977 David had started using digital delays, which has a brighter more accurate tone compared to the darker sounding echo. Any Boss unit will do fine or you can check out some of the more refined models like the Eventide Time Factor or TC Electronic Nova Delay.

On both versions above you could also add a compressor, preferably a MXR Dynacomp or similar for a bit more attack and smoother lead tones.

My stage setup
Fender CIJ ’62 Custom Telecaster reissue with Fender Custom Shop 62 pickups
Sound City 50w amp with linked inputs – bass 50%, treble 50%, mids 40%
Gollmer Composus – comp 1:00, sustain 1:00, volume 2:00
BYOC Large Beaver “triangle” – gain 2:00, tone 11:00, volume 1:00
Colorsound Power Boost – treble 10:00, bass 12:00, volume 12:00, master 2:00
EH Deluxe Electric Mistress – rate 10:00, range “off”, colour 10:00
Boss DD-2 – level 11:00, feedback 2:00, time 12:00

I’m using a set up similar to David’s with some minor variations. As a basis for all my tones I use the Colorsound Powerboost to get a more dynamic clean tone and for boosting the Muff. I’ve also added a compressor for a bit more attack on the rhythms – turning it off on the “twin” and “dry” solos. We use acoustic guitar on the verse, so I’m playing the random strums and picking as heard on the album version.

For all leads I’m using a BYOC Large Beaver “triangle” model clone. I find this a bit smoother than the “ram’s head” David used but there’s not a huge difference between the two. Since I’m using the Colorsound as a booster the Muff is set fairly mild just between overdrive and mayhem. For the “twin” and “dry” solos I roll off the guitar volume just a bit to better tame the tone and create dynamics.

I keep the Mistress on throughout the song except for the “twin” and “dry” solos, where I like a bit more tidy tone. I love David’s nasty jet tone from the later US shows and to get that I’ve set the range at 9:00 on the Deluxe for a slow sweep.

So, hopefully we’ve cover most of the song now. The fast tempo makes you want to just hit every pedal and bash out all the cool licks from every bootleg you’ve heard but although David’s using powerful tools he’s playing is incredibly soulful and sensitive so you need to really tame your tones and find the right balance between gentle distortion and juicy sustain. Please feel free to share your favourite Dogs setup!

Sources:
– “Animals”, original recording 1977
– “Machester Day”, Manchester UK, 9 December 1974
– “Ivor Wynne Suite”, Ontario Canada, 28 June 1975
– “Animals Tour Debut” Dortmund West Germany, 23 January 1977
– “Dragged Down by the Stone” Paris France, 22 February 1977
– “Animal Instincts” Oakland USA, 9 May 1977
– “Echoes – The Complete History of Pink Floyd” by Glen Povey
– Animals official song book 1977
– Guitar World magazine, December 2006
– Musician magazine, August 1992
– Guitar Player magazine, January 2009
– Guitar World magazine, February 1993

131 thoughts on “Classic tone: Dogs”

  1. Hello Bjorn, thanks for your work.
    When I look at your list of gilmour pedals used on dogs live, you never list the compressor (dynacomp). Is that cause he didn’t use it or why? I thought he did on dogs pigs etc.

    1. There are no sources that indicates how he might have used compression on those late 70s and eraly 80s tours so it would only be a guess.

  2. Yes, I also agree ! From the Animals tour, David’s sound on stage is very different from the studio albums. To me it sounds like he couldn’t reproduced the subtle and richer studio sound in those huge arenas, mainly because the album is strongly mixed and produced.
    Hearing a studio interpretation from a professionnal cover band on stage is very boring to me, and I prefer approaching it with my own playing like Doyle Bramhall during Roger’s “In the Flesh” tour. He doesn’t emulate Gilmour and his playing is recognizable even if he is covering classic songs.
    Thanks for all the tips, they helped me having faith in my gear and personnal sound choices. Like you said, capturing the essence of different eras from the same gear is rewarding since it opens a lot of new possibilities for other projects, and preserves the player’s identity.

  3. Hi Bjorn,

    I’ve tried every combination, followed almost every tone guide here, but for me the veil is still cast on the Animals studio lead tones.

    My dry leads in Dogs mid section and Pigs outro both lack of punch and grit, even with exaggerated playing or gain settings. even worse, my “wet” solos tones in Dogs are dark and narrow, the Eleclady is too dominating, and doesn’t sound “liquid” enough.

    I think there’s something wrong with the muff which brings the main tone, maybe I’m not boosting it the right way, or maybe I’m confused with all the volume controls available on the pedals/amp.
    Compared to Dark Side tones which are easier to reproduce thanks to the Sunface BC109, there is clearly something missing here.

    Here’s my actual setup : Mxr Phase 99->Large Beaver Ram’s head->Buffalo 18v Powerbooster->Tree of Life->ElecLady->Echorec (with lots of other pedals) into two loud Hiwatts, one fed by a strymon lex for a dry/wet setup. I’m using different fenders with different french boutique pickups and I play at “band rehearsal” volume.

    I’m close to giving up on the Beaver for the muffuletta or the vick audio ram’s head, but I’m not sure if it will change anything. I need a hand on this :)

    Thanks !

    Stéphane

    1. There’s nothing wrong with that setup and you should be able to nail the tones. Strat > Beaver > delay > Hiwatt is really all you need. The rest will be icing on the cake so it comes down to how you set everything up. Check out this feature for some amp setup tips and this one for Big Muff tones. Let me know if you need more help.

      1. 100% true, after all those pedals added recently, I needed a gear detox ! Plugging the guitar straight to the amp was the right thing to do, it helped a lot setting the guitar, and the muff tones (as advised in your guides) with the amp volume, especially the (linked) bright channel.
        I’m still struggling somehow with the dry solo sound which doesnt cut through the mix, but it’s much better for the fast solos, with the Byoc>Buffalo Booster>Eleclady.
        Adding some delay adds a lot of presence in the rehearsal mix for the fast solos sound which are hard to reproduce without the fatness of the rotating speakers. But in the end it was a matter of amp tone and volume.

        Volume knobs are often overlooked on amps and pedals, and you can go wrong very fast since it drastically changes the sound. When you play songs from different eras, its sometimes hard to change settings between two songs with a bunch of pedals with volume knobs (5 or 6 pedals on my board got a volume knob).

        In my humble opinion, having a constant volume with that “sweetspot” guitar sustain during a whole show or rehearsal is way harder than reproducing any classic tone. That’s what I’d really call “knowing” your gear ;)

        1. Agree. Trying to replicate each tone 100% is impossible anyway because you’d have to replicate a studio and stage environment as well. What David does is that he’s using somewhat similar pedals to what he used when he recorded the tracks and does his best to capture the vibe but also to make it blend with the newer sounds and the sounds of the current band and stage production. I guess you could go further than he does, by using more accurate pedals and a more authentic selection of modulation pedals in particular but I think it’s much more efficient to capture the essence of each era than to really break your neck in trying to do it 100%.

  4. Hi Bjorn,

    Just wondering when you play Dogs do you tune a step down? For example in the TD-X review 2 you play the main solo in Dogs. I have no issues with playing the solos in standard tuning but I prefer to play the rhythm parts in DGCFAD.

    I have never quite transposed the solos in DGCFAD. It was easier to figure it out in standard tuning.

    Thanks,

    1. The backing track I use, which I’ve recorded my self years ago, is done in standard tuning for convenience. When we did the Floyd tribute act years ago, we tuned down. You don’t have to but it sounds different and better, in my opinion.

  5. Great article and great site!

    One question has been bugging me – do you have any idea why Gilmour had the Marshall in his Animals live rig? Was it perhaps set for a distorted tone and brought in at certain parts or was it just blended in with the Hiwatts, set for a clean(ish) tone? It could have also been used for a talk box but apparently the live version of Pigs did not have a talk box anyway…

    1. Thanks! No, he did not use a talk box during that tour. The intro was playback. I have tried to figure out the mysterious Marshall myself but with no luck. Hard to tell why he used one. Those old Super Leads has a lot of headroom so I assume that he used it clean. Whether or not he actually used one, for what or if it was a spare amp, I don’t know.

      1. I *have* to assume that the Marshall was Snowy’s – … at least, I guess, that is the “most likely” explanation!~! LOL!! I would think that each guitarist really wanted to hear each other, to get the “harmony solo” to sound best/correct…

        1. They would hear eachother in the front stage monitors. The Marshall was David’s but it is not known how or if it was used. Snowy used Fender heads at that point, either Twins or Showman.

          1. Hi Bjorn! Thanks for the reply. I have been learning from you for at least 5 years and I’m just so thankful for all your hard work and the enthusiasm for your site! Your info about the fact that Dave & Snowy would hear each other through the stage monitors is quite logical.
            I do believe it is *possible* that Dave’s wedges (& Stage Monitors) had a sparse mix – perhaps “only” his GTR and VOX & back-up VOX(s) & maybe some drums, Bass, & Keys & Tapes.
            I believe that, in those days, that they likely used a less-is-more approach with regard to their monitoring.
            Although I can’t cite any info, every fiber of my being tells me that Dave did NOT use that Marshall!! LOL!!
            I also believe that Dave and/or the Band did NOT want Snowy and Rog’s GTRs to sound like (or as good as) Dave’s HiWatt/Yamaha Backline.
            I know I’m speculating, but, I’d like to think it is an “Educated Guess”!!
            (an aside: As a Soundman and Guitarist, I often have problems with the phase/polarity of mic’ed amps being out-of-phase with the actual GTR-Amp-Cabs. This can lead to improper sustain of the guitars and/or only certain frequencies “wanting” to feed back. My Amps usually *have to be* so loud – for feedback & to keep up with the Drum Volume – that none of the GTRs can be in the monitors, for clarity’s sake and because most stages are to small (- which obviously wasn’t the case for a Stadium Tour!! LOL!!).
            Correct me if I’m wrong, but, we have absolutely no info on: 1) Exactly what was in Dave’s monitor mix (though your info makes sense), 2) whether or not Dave was actually using that Marshall, and 3) whether or not it is *possible* that the Marshall(s) were for Snowy and/or Roger.
            I believe that we can assume that Roger wanted a bare-bones rig for the 2 numbers – Pigs (3d1s) and Sheep – that he DID play rhythm GTR on.
            (It is certainly possible that Rog used a Strat (or Tele) and a Marshall, for the Pigs (3d1s) demo (assuming a Demo was made, which I suspect is VERY likely..)).
            Have you ever gotten any info on Snowy’s *actual* Animals rig? How about Rog’s Animals Guitar Rig? Is there any evidence out there of what Amp(s) Rog & Snowy used?
            This tour fascinates me the most. I crave more info about this “In the Flesh” Tour.
            It is my understanding that Snowy had been using Marshalls at this time.
            Maybe the Marshall was not used, and was there just to throw everyone off!! This “missing piece of information”, is probably one of the most annoying questions I’d love to get to the bottom of!! LOL!!
            Cheers!!,
            Mike

            1. If Snowy was using Fender Amps, then maybe Rog was through the Marshall?
              Are there any pictures of Snowy’s ’77 Rig? or pics of Rog’s ’77 GTR Amps?

            2. Hard to tell what David might have been hearing in his monitor. I can only speculate based on my own experience as a touring musician and I would suspect that he would change whatever he needed from venue to venue. Possiby what and who he wanted to hear and certainly how much, depending on the acoustics and resonance of that particular venue. In any case, he would want most of his guitar and vocals.
              The Marshall was his and it makes no sense that his rig would carry an amp for either Snowy or Roger. You can find lots of images from the tour showing Snowy’s two Fender Showman heads and Rogers’s two Hiwatt heads. Keep in mind that those old Marshall Plexi heads, were very similar to the Hiwatts and the Fender Bassman combos David would emply, and still do, in the 90s. Also, the fact that it was sitting in his rig, doesn’t mean that he used it. He would always carry a spare Hiwatt head and only use two. The Marhsall could have been set up in combo with one Hiwatt head or, be used as a spare.

  6. Hi Bjorn, I’ve been trying to learn ‘Dogs’ recently (now that I have my upgraded Squier Tele Custom!). I came across this at Brain Damage: http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.15.21.2/mto.15.21.2.cohen.html – an in-depth analysis of the song with transcriptions of all three solos, albeit in standard notation (I posted this link on your FB wall too). I find learning the 1 and 3 solos over the main riff/chord progression challenging because the chords aren’t all centred on Bb/Dm. What do you think?

    Just also wanted to say that the main riff/chord progression – Dm9 – Bbadd4 – Asus2sus4 – Absus2sus#4 – is very playable in standard tuning if you don’t want to tune down (or it’s a pain cos of a vibrato on your guitar). I used Chorderator.com to find fingerings.

    1. Thanks for the tip on the article :) Dogs is very untypical for both Gilmour and Floyd. The chord progression differ from the usual blues patterns and scales. I had a hard time learning those. The “slow” solos however, are closer to David’s reportoir and should be easier to pick up :)

  7. HI Björn,
    I’ve been searching for days on your site were your explain the pros and cons on the ProCo RAT. -No succes. I have the RAT II with the LM308 chip as you highly recommended. I just can’t make it work for Animals tones. I think it is hard to dial the sweet spot and in my opinion it is too “muddy” and lack in the bright sequences. Should I stick with it and be patient or do you recommend something else?
    Kind regards Mathias

    1. Hi Mathias. The RAT and similar clones is one of the most versatile distortion pedals out there. You can pretty much nail any tone with it. However, it is not a Big Muff. Nor a fuzz so for the authentic tones you might want to consider getting the real deal. I manage to get some pretty convincing Animals tones with the RAT but it require some tweaking and that your amp is up for it. A dark amp might make the RAT sound even darker and it can be hard to dial in the tones you want. I usually set three the controls at 2:00 and try to find the sweetspot around that. You might want to set the tone closer to noon.

      1. I’ll give another try. My amp is pretty small (fender 57 deluxe – which also is very hard to dail in sweet spot) But I will give the RAT a second chance.
        Thanks a lot Bjørn.

        1. Very nice amp, very tricky. Mine has Mercury Magnetics FatStack, better headroom (still not enough, but better). I use it in T3,Vbright3, Vnormal1, Input Bright 2.
          Please post your sweet spot when you can, after all, is a nice amp and David used too

          REGARDS FROM CHILE

  8. Hi Bjorn. I was listening to Gilmours use of the phase 100 in 77 in Germany, and I really dig his lead tones using it. I got am idea for my own tones. As you know they do not make a script reissue but would the current block version do any good? I can’t really find any comparisons of the two. Any info you have would be appreciated! Thanks!

  9. Hey Bjorn! Nice to hear from you. It’s nearly Christmas and it must be awfully cold where you are! Thanks for the update, hope to see the review very soon. Keep warm and have a safe and merry Christmas!

    [It’s freeeeezing! Merry christmas and enjoy the holidays :) – Bjorn]

  10. Hi Bjorn,
    Great to hear that your daughter is into Kiss from this age. Good one mate! Hope this season sees you in good health. I was wondering when can we expect a review of the the much awaited Vick Audio OVERDRIVER pedal as well as the much promised article on Big Muff tones, please?
    Please mate- it’s been a while… Let’s get those articles and reviews up again?
    And btw: a very merry and safe Christmas to you and your loved ones!

    [Hi Debargho! Yeah, my daughter has a bright future :) The Vick review will be up this week. Te Muff tutorial will need a bit more time. I’ve been so busy lately and had to prioritise other things. It will be up soon! – Bjorn]

  11. Bjorn I added the Throbak booster to my pedals. Where would be the best place to put it in the chin?

    Thanks again, Im getting closer to the tone I would like. Just waiting on my SSL-5 to throw into the bridge position with the other 2 CS69s.

    [I’d place it last among the gain pedals and in front of the modulations. – Bjorn]

  12. Thanks a lot Bjorn, that really helped. Now playing round but I have got some good tones using your advice so Im quite happy!

    All good, I understand you have a busy life so no problem with waiting for replies. ;-)

    Love your Money solo, you play it beautifully. Something for me to aim for, getting there!
    Ive been learning “What do you want from me?” recently (I love the all the stuff in that song the power chords, fills etc), perhaps you could throw up some tips on nailing the tone? Which of the pedals in the Division Bell lineup is he actually using on it? What pickup?

    [I think he used the RAT for that one, with chorus, delay and the Doppola speakers of course. Sounds like most of the fills or leads are with the neck, while rhythms are done with the guitar volume rolled back and the bridge pickup. – Bjorn]

  13. Bjorn, i would really appreciate if you can tell me how to set up my loop (order of pedals, which pedals from what I have etc) as Im relatively new to using pedals.
    I have the following gear/pedals:
    Laney Lionheat L5T, Strat Custom shop with CS69s
    OCD V1.4, Effectors Musket, Boss CS-2, Boss CE-2, Mooer ElecLady, and a TC Nova system

    When you say
    “Always connect your effects into the front inputs and set your amp to something like this: bass 50%, treble 50-60%, mids 40% and the master volume should be about 1/3 of the channel volume. I also recommend linking the normal and bright channel inputs for more presence (link the upper normal and lower bright and plug your guitar into the upper bright). Set the bright volume slightly lower than the normal volume.”
    ….Can this kind of thin be applied to a the L5T, and if so what to connect where and which settings (low/hi input, and various controls).

    Thanks for anything you can contribute. I really appreciate all the hard work you put in for us Floyd/Gilmour freaks! ;-)
    Cheers

    PS Where do I find your jam channel to check out some of your playing?

    [Hi Paul! Sorry for my late reply. Check out the Amp Tone setup feature for some tips. This should apply to the Laney as well. I’d use the Hi input for passive pickups and the bright channel. Be careful with the treble and tone though. You may want to lower these quite a lot. You can’t link the inputs though, as described for a Hiwatt above. I’d set the amp clean and run all the pedals into the front (hi) input. The loop is intended to be used if you’re using the amp for distortion. Try this: guitar > CS2 > Musket > OCD > Mooer > CE2 > Nova. Hope this helped. Check out my YouTube channel here… – Bjorn]

  14. Hey Bjorn, I’ve set up my amp and pedals, but it still sounds a bit too round (if you know what I mean).

    My setup is as follows:

    Fender Classic 50’s Strat (1998 model); bridge pickup
    BYOC Large Beaver Ram’s Head (Vol at 1:30, Sus at 2:00, Tone at 11:00)
    Budda Zenman OD/Clean boost (used mainly for the “boost” function)
    Vox V847 (not used, but I feel that any non TB pedal used alters the tone a tad)
    MXR Phase 90 Script (LED model)
    TC Electronic Flashback (set for EXTREMELY short delay; Delay is *just* below null and I’m using the tape setting. I have this turned on because on the album, I hear a very tiny delay which probably adds to the coldness of the track)
    Fender ’65 Twin Reverb (first edition) Vibrato channel; Treble is at about 5.5, Mids are at 6 and bass is at 4. Volume is at 3 because I live in a house with 2 other people with poor sound dampening and the bright switch is on).

    Anything I could do to eliminate a lot of the roundness?

    [Not sure what you mean by “roundness”. Could you try to elaborate on that? – Bjorn]

  15. Hey Bjorn, figured since I’m working on Animals, this was a good of a place as any to post this. Now I know this site is about guitar tones, and specifically David Gilmour’s tones, but I’m trying to work out some of Rick’s keyboard tracks, and the voices he used. Do you know of a site that is similar in it’s mission, but is for Rick Wrights Keyboard tracks? I’d love to know what keyboards he used on this song, or that, and then I’d be able to easily find voices, or edit the couple of thousand I have, to perfectly emulate the sounds he made. Of course not having played piano since college, where as a music major, keyboard skills were required, I’m still relearning how to actually play, but like anything, learning a second time is much easier than the first. Although I hadn’t touched a piano since 1985 until I bought my MX61! So, if you think of a site where I can find some info on Rick’s stuff, I’d be grateful!
    Peace my friend, Keith

    [Sorry for my late reply, Keith. Check out this link for a list of all of Rick’s gear :) – Bjorn]

  16. Thanks alot, that’s exactly what I thought, so my ears must still be working. Not bad considering I’ll be 52 next month, LOL. However, I don’t look a day over 50, but at times I feel 90! Hope I can make a great clip of a pedal I have a great feeling about. I sure hope it’s a home run, for the nicest builder I’ve gitten to know, and I really hope you get one. The price is right, but if it goes into production, he’s gonna have to go up a bit, as I think he isn’t making anything off this 15 pedal run.
    MERRY Gilmourizing! KEITH

    [Looking forward to the clip, Keith! As you are aware, mics and mic positions are crucial. I don’t have any sources on what mics David used at the time but I’m guessing either the Shure SM57 or more likely a Sennheiser MD 409. I don’t think they used condensers at the time and my ears, for what its worth, are hearing that slight top end roll off you get from the mentioned dynamic mics. David usually set the mic fairly centered about 4-5″ off and slightly off axis. Personally I prefer mic’ing Muff tones even further away but slightly off center as well allowing the tone to breathe a bit more and rolling off those heighs. Oh, and another thing. Be sure to kill the presence on your Reeves completely or you’ll only get fizz… Anyway… :) – Bjorn]

  17. Hi Bjorn, as I’ve told you, I’ll be getting the V2 next week, and have chosen the “dry” solo for my clip. I have gotten very close to what my ear is hearing, but as it’s called the dry solo, it seems to me to have a mild modulated delay sound, likely added in mixdown. Do you hear it that way too? If so, do you think a short delay on the echorec, with its tape modulation would get that sound, or should I mix in a hair of RT-20, and a short delay? Obviously theres reverb, and delay from the console, but I do hear a mild out of phase sound, not a totally dry sound at all, just not a heavy modulation like the other solos. I can use all the help I can get, to avoid spending days, or more, getting as close as humanly possible to the album tone. I want to do Stuarts pedal justice, and make a great clip.
    Merry Christmas, Keith

    [Hi Keith! All of the electrics on Dogs were recorded with the 59 Tele into the ram’s head and a split between the Hiwatts and a Yamaha RA200. Obviously there are some clean tones there as well, without the Muff. The Yamaha was alywas mixed on a separate track and as you can hear, some of the leads have more than others. The fast played solos between the verses has lots of rotary, while the twin solo has little but it’s there. The so-called “dry” solo has just a hint but also much less echo and revber, which adds to its presence. As you suggest, just a hair of the RT20 would do the job. You don’t really want modulation as such but rather a fatter tone :) – Bjorn]

  18. Hi Bjorn,
    I love the website, and now i’m well on my way to being a tone-freak as well.
    Dogs is what made me fall in love with Gilmour, his tone, and his style.
    But one problem that i’m having doesn’t really have anything to do with amps or pedals,
    But rather his playing. In Dogs, the guitar is tuned to D standard, but in the final solo,
    He hits a note that can’t be (easily) played on a 21 fret neck. So I have to know,
    How does he do it? I’ve got the entire song down except that last part. Please help, any and all information is helpful. Thank you!

    [It’s possible but you need to bend like mad on the last fret. Keep on practicing and you’ll get there :) – Bjorn]

  19. @ Matteo, I have a very small amount of experience with harmonizers from my days of doing live sound, and if you get a so called “Smart Shift” harmonizer, it will do hamonies in thirds, fifths,etc. and some have a pedal to switch between intervals, thus making it possible to totally recreate double leads. However, it works much better if you run it so the hamonized signal has a very, very short delay, and is 100% wet, so the original, un-delayed signal doesn’t come through on the harmonized signal. Also, add some different level, or rate of modulation, or eq’ing of the harmonized signal helps so that it doesn’t sound exactly like the guitar part you’re actually playing. I hope this helps, I’ve been thinking about adding this setup to my rig for things such as the Dogs solo. If done the way I suggest, you can pretty much nail it live, without a second guitarist!!!
    Peace, Love, and Gilmourish, Keith

  20. Hi Bjorn…
    Harmonizers are not my cup of tea, but I was considering getting a Digitech HarmonyMan to be able to play the solos live without a second guitarist….It’d be useful for the little solos on Another Brick in the Wall p.1 as well….
    Have you got any experience with harmonizers at all? and what do you think about this idea?
    Thanks!!
    Matteo

    [I don’t have much experience with it so I can’t really comment. Sorr\y. – Bjorn]

  21. Hey Bjorn, on Animals, are the solos recorded in the alternate tuning as well? Or is it just the Rythym that uses the alternate tuning? Before seeing Gilmourish, I learned the solo before, ” and when you lose control” playing along with the record in normal tuning, I would imagine to play it live, I’ll need to learn it in the alterbate tuning, or play the rythym in nirmal tuning, in a different key. Just curious.
    Thanks K~

    [As far as I know, based on interviews with David, he recorded Dogs with a D tuning on the Tele. I assume he did the solos too. The solo you mention has a low D in it. Could very well just be a drop on the E but the whole solo has a very dark twangy character to it, which is what you get from tuning down a Tele one step. Besides, he did all the solos in D on the 1977 tour. PLaying all of the solos in a D tuning, requires an Em scale on the fretboard, which, I guess, is what David prefers anyway. – Bjorn]

  22. A great modulation pedal to get any phaser, flanger, uni-vibe or chorus sounds like the ones mentioned here is the Line 6 mm4 pedal. You can set 4 presets of any modulation you want. I’ve found it great for playing Floyd songs. It models the old pedals quite well and is fully adjustable. I highly recommend it. Better than having a bunch of different pedals lying around too. Great article on Dogs, great site on Gilmour. Awesome job!

    [Thanks for the input. Yes, the MM4 does the job :) – Bjorn]

  23. Hi Bjorn!!

    How well the current version of the Deluxe Mistress handles David’s tones, so how does it work with cleans and distorian pedals?
    Thank you!!!!

    [It works pretty well. I find it a tad darker and not as dynamic as the early 90s reissue. – Bjorn]

  24. Hi Bjorn!
    I found out that there are five different versions of the Electric Mistress Deluxe, so are all these recommended for Gilmour’s tones, or is some of them way too different compared to each other?
    Thank you!!!!!!

    [You can use them all for David’s tones. There are some minor differences though… I’ve only tried the early 90s reissue and the current US model. The US is considerably darker and not as dynamic I think. – Bjorn]

  25. Bjorn do you have an opinion regarding the 6 stage Keeley Phaser as a potential replacement for the 74 Phase 90 reissue?

    [I haven’t tried it so I can’t really tell. – Bjorn]

  26. Hi Bjorn!

    Little off topic, but I have a question about Maxon PT999, is it true bypass? And how would you compare it to Whirlwind’s Orange box?
    Thank you!

    [No, it’s not true bypass. The signal still runs through the circuit. There’s very little if any tone loss though. The Orange Box is a true clone of the 74 Phase 90. All three are very similar but the Phase Tone is perhaps best described as a mix between the Phase 90 and the Small Stone. Very smooth like the Small Stone but that little bite and slightly darker tone of the Phase 90. – Bjorn]

  27. Hi Bjorn,
    Per your request to Matteo above regarding a song consideration for another Classic Tone article, I think Sorrow would be an interesting choice. It’s a different era than your Classic Tone essays to date, and I think iconic in it’s own way. What I have read about how it was recorded is a little different than David’s more traditional methods (a little GK amp recorded and then run through a large arena PA if I recall) and this would make discussing and recreating it with a more traditional and readily accessible setup would be fun. I know you already have some good info about it throughout the site, but a dedicated article would be of interest to me and likely quite a few others. I guess the main question is…would it interest YOU?
    Thanks again for creating one of my favorite resources!

    [Thanks for the tip! Sorrow is definitely a great candidate for a feature! – Bjorn]

  28. Just a question, Bjorn, did you actually changed your pickups on your 62 reissue Japanese telecaster or are they the original ones from the factory? Thank you, by the way are you gonna open some other “Classic Tone” topics in the future?
    See ya and thank you for your answer on my other comment.

    [I’ve had different pickups in it. I think it came with Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials. I had a custom wound SSL5-ish bridge pickup but it was too hot and the guitar had a nasty microphonic feedback. Now it features a Cream T Nocaster neck and a TTS custom wound 7k bridge. I don’t have any Classic Tone features planned but give me some tips and I’ll consider it :) – Bjorn]

  29. Hi Bjorn,
    we’re planning to play “Dogs” live with my band and I’m currently working on the right setup:
    well basically it’s just Pig Hoof + BD2 + El.Mistress + DD20 into my Hiwatt cabinet and then I split my signal using a RT20 on my VOX Valvetronix 60w Tube amplifier. In this way I can get a stereo setup similar to what David used to do in a certain way. I’m planning on adding the MXR dynacomp as you suggested in the article in order to get more sustain.
    Anyway what I wanted to tell you, I don’t know if some other guy suggested it here on the site, but with my band we’re playing the whole Dark Side of the Moon and I found myself struggling to get a convincing tone for “Any Colour You Like” because with the stereo setup the RT20 is not predominant enough to get that swirling tone. This applies also to Eclipse of course. So I added a Boss LS2 (Line Selector) between the DD20 and the RT20, both of them have stereo inputs and outputs. so simplifying here’s how I linked them all together
    DD20 OUTPUT 1 —> LS2 A LOOP —-> Hiwatt
    DD20 OUTPUT 2 —> RT20
    RT20 OUTPUT 1 —> LS2 B LOOP —-> Hiwatt
    RT20 OUTPUT 2 —> Vox 60w amplifier
    in this way when I press the LS2 I can choose which signal send to the hiwatt: with loop A all the pedals and the delay included with NO RT20 which anyway is going to the 2nd amplifier (Vox).
    With loop B I can send all pedals INCLUDING RT20 to the Hiwatt: the only way to get that dominant Leslie effect. With LoopB the RT20 is going to Vox amplifier as well, cause it’s a stereo pedal of course.
    Actually I don’t know which setting I’m gonna use for Dogs…probably LoopA.
    Since I read on Facebook, you are writing some stuff about pedalboards and settings I hope this might have been of your interest. See ya!

    [Thanks for the tip Matteo! Good luck with your shows! – Bjorn]

  30. Gee, thanks for rubbing it in! Haha. If I cried over all of the vintage gear I pawned, or just plain lost,( as is the case with the Golden Throat), I’d spend all of my time in regret! But just out of curiosity, are they really that hard to find, and expesive, and if so, why don’t they RI it? Like I said, it’s probably the simplest stompbox ever made! Just as an example of how bad I was at hanging onto my close to 100 guitars I’ve owned, many of which would be worth over $10,000 now, I sold that ’71 ES 335 I stole for $900.00, for $850.00, the purchaser sold it the next day for $2400.00. That was in ’97, wonder how much it’d be worth now. I also lent a ’63 SG Special, that Steve Angela claimed when he explored the history for me, that it had once belonged to Pete Townsend. My friend had a party, and the guitar was never seen again. Once again, a mint guitar, with all original three p-90’s, and Bigsby, that I bought for $300.00, and I’m quite sure would be worth a fortune now. There aren’t deals like those anymore, but I’ll never sell so much as a plectrum I own, ever again! What would that GT be worth now? ( I probably will cry, but tell me anyway!).
    Peace Obi Wan, Keith

    [I have noe idea what it may be worth. Seems that there aren’t many left. Looked kind of strange though, don’t you think? The Heil box seems to be a stayer :) – Bjorn]

  31. Hey Obi-Wan, I just remembered a pedal I used to own back in the late ’70’s, and I believe it was made by Mike Matthews, at E-H. It was a talkbox, called a Golden Throat. I had forgotten about it entirely, until I started looking for a reasonably priced one for the Animals stuff. Do you know of this pedal, and while I’m sure E-H no longer makes them, do you ever see them up for sale on EBay? I imagine it would be an easy enough pedal to build, considering it just cuts the signal to the amp, and drives a small speaker, or piezo, through a plastic tube. Just a memory, and a curiosity. God how I wish I’d saved my old stuff, I actually had the old Mike Mattews Dirt Road Special Amp, and I think all my first pedals, (That I never used, cause I didn’t know how to play yet.) were Electro -Harmonix, as they all came from a store called Harmony Hut, and the sold Gibson Firebranfds, then called, “The Paul”, and only EH effects. Anyway, just waxing nostalgic.
    Peace, My Jedi Master, Padawan Keith :)

    [Nice story :) The Golden Throat is one of the holy grails so you should have kept it :) – Bjorn]

  32. I just re-read your post on David’s equipment and it was a revelation to me that he may have had a Gibson PAF in the neck position of his tele at the time he recorded Dogs. That might explain some of the humbucker sizzle I think I am hearing. David recalls using the neck pickup on the tele, but seems to think it was a strat pickup installed in the neck position. However he allegedly only put the strat pickup in later, sometime during the Animals tour. Cool stuff these little mysteries…

    [I haven’t seen any confirmation on when the humbucker was replaced with a single coil. He could have used it during the session but either way the pickup was replaced before the tour… not during. – Bjorn]

  33. I am going to throw out possibly one of the most contrioversial comments out here, and contadict David himelf. Trying various guitars, and I know a storm of debate will ensue, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the man played a Les Paul on the bridge pickup for the solo. Been chasing it for a while, especially with the tele neck pickup. Try it yourself. All I’m saying…
    Give it a shot.

    [Possibly… However, I think it’s virtually impossible to recreate a studio tone 100% since you’ll have no idea how they really did it… mic positions, mixing, studio trickery etc. I’m pretty positive he used a Tele but it is possible to get very close with a Strat, P90s and buckers as well. – Bjorn]

  34. i thoroughly enjoy your research and insight into Davids gear and sound using historical pics and recordings to accentuate your musical points and statements…..but i witnessed my early guitar teacher (alex aguilar formerly of Aguilar Amplification (circa 1974) get tones equal to Gilmour,Santana,beck,clapton and Buchanan etc. all with a 61 telecaster (stock) and an early mesa boogie amp (mark 1 i think)……tone is mostly in the fingers and the soul of the player more so than all the technical advantages in the world,however i find my self reading on and being fascinated at your thorough and devoted investigations.just don’t forget to mention the tone comes from the player first,equipment second…..best JK

    [Thanks for the comment JK. You’re absolutely right and I think that’s mentioned more than once on this site :) Most of my features and articles is a documentation of David’s gear and how to get similar tones but tone is very subjective and it depends on so many things. It’s true that a lot of the tone is in the fingers but it’s also experience and knowing how to utilize the gear. David sounds like him self regardless gear but that’s also because he knows how to manipulate any amp or pedal to match his needs. I’m sure that’s the case with your teacher as well :) Cheers! – Bjorn]

  35. Hello Bjorn.

    So, yesterday we’ve had our final rehearsal and it worked out great!
    I did as you said: split the signal after the delay and used my modulation effects as normal.
    It’s a bit tricky to find the right balance between my main amp and the Yamaha, but i guess that will be up to my friend the sound-guy :)
    But it gives a wonderful spacial dimension to my sound. And i am very happy that the Yamaha sounds very good with distortion…

    The only thing i am still somewhat unsure about, is speed selection.
    Slow speed is very subtle and fast gives a nice shimmer, but when to use what?
    For now i keep it mostly on slow and only when it is obvious i switch to fast.
    Maybe it’s an idea to add that info to the gear guides? (if there is any off course)

    thanks for the help Bjorn.

    [Glad it worked out! I haven’t tried a Yamaha my self so I can’t really tell whether you should use a fast or slow rotary. Based on some clips I’ve heard I would imagine that David used the fast more often than you’d think and mix it lower than the Hiwatts. – Bjorn]

  36. Hi Bjorn.

    Yesterday i got myself a Yamaha RA100.
    Wednesday we’ll have a rehearsal and Friday the 2nd we have a gig at a place that allows me and even welcomes me bringing my Yamaha.
    So now i need to figure out in 1 go, how to incorporate it into my setup… because we will be playing Dogs.

    I think i have read your entire website now… maybe a couple of times, but there is one piece of the puzzle missing. Maybe you can help me out.

    Should i not use other modulation effects (like with Dogs the Mistress) while the Yamaha is on?
    Would be a shame, because i love my mistress and phaser tones.
    And where then do i split the signal going to my main amp and Yamaha?
    In case i do use modulation, should i then split before these and after overdrives/distortion?

    Maybe you have some experience?

    Anyway, thank you very very much for this wonderful website! It has made me the gear-junkie i am today :)

    greetings from Holland.

    [Congrats on your new amp! David always used modulations with the Leslies (UniVibe/phaser), Yamahas (Mistress) and Doppolas (UniVibe/chorus). The Yamaha should be considered as any other amp amplifying your main signal, so use a splitter at the end of your chain that goes to the Yamaha and your amp rig. See this feature for more details. Let me know if you need more help and good luck with your show! – Bjorn]

  37. hi bjorn, i recently was watching one of your videos, the “dry solo” of dogs, then on the related videos this shown up, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtfYHXAzUiM&feature=related , i saw your comment down there, so i think you have already watched it, but my cuestion is, If you can tell me if one can get a sound like this with a fairly small gig? THANKS!

    [You need to ask him how he gets his tone :) Check out this feature for some Dogs tone tips. Cheers! – Bjorn]

  38. Great article Bjorn! Why exactly do you keep emphasizing to get a modded Boss Blues Driver? What’s the big difference?

    [Thank you! The stock Boss pedal is OK and will do the job. The modified versions, such as the Keeley and AnalogMan has an overall warmer tone, more compression, fatter lower end and a smoother break up. The BD2 is a very versatile pedal and a good mod makes it just as good as any high end booster. – Bjorn]

  39. really great site: articles, materials and infromation. im too a great lover of David’s work and getting his exact tone and feel and a huge challenge for me so i find this site a great place to learn.
    thank you very much from Israel :-)

    [Thanks Yaron! – Bjorn]

  40. Hi Bjorn,
    Nice upgrade of your site, with a search function, great!!

    I just bought the WYWH Immersion box with a superb version of you gotta be crazy.
    Really love his guitarsound here.

    [Thanks! Yeah, the live tracks sound awesome! – Bjorn]

  41. Hello Bjorn,

    Maybe I missed one step and everyone here know that, but I think I just understood today what was for me a real mystery in the sound of David in “Dogs”, in the dry solo (on studio album and live). I wanted to share it, in case of…

    So, I just couldn’t understand how David could create a sooooo deep and powerful “bass” tone with his telecaster when playing the first E string during the solo. I new the guitar was tunned down but I was not completely satisfied whith my solos attempts. So Iwatched videos on Youtube and found this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d77z60bCiO8. The sound is a bit too “modern” for me but the part arround the low e string is interesting and so close to the sound of David and the deep effect he reached on this solo. I’m pretty sure the guitar is tuned like this: D D (and not G) C F A D. The “double” D strings gives an incredible dimension to the sound !

    Do you think I’m wrong ?

    Thanks !

    [Hmmm… It might be. I’ve never thought about that but then again, I see that this guy plays the solos very different from me. There’s no good tabs available and we’ve never seen David perform the song so it’s hard to tell how he played it. I might be wrong too… On the live versions though, he did use the D G C F A D tuning since he also played the chords. The solos sounds just like the albums. I think it’s more about tone than tuning… – Bjorn]

  42. Hi Bjorn,
    Can you tell me what the delay setting are?
    I think that he uses a kind of slapback delay setting.
    What’s your opinion?
    THX in advance
    Ruud

    [Hard to say. The ’77 live version is about 370ms but the studio could be a slap back or perhaps more likely just an ambience mic in addition to a close mic on the cabinet. This will add a slight delay effect. – Bjorn]

  43. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9iIr6B8n5I

    found this actual decent clip from a 1977 show on youtube, for anyone who wants to get a great idea of the way this peice truly sounded

    [Thanks! This is Dogs from Montreal July 6 1977 but I’m not sure about the clip. Definitely not Dogs – David was using the ’59 Custom Telecaster – but it looks like Shine On You Crazy Diamond 6-9 from one of the many 8mm tapes from the ’77 tour. Cheers! – Bjorn]

  44. Hi Bjorn

    great article as always. just one question… all the bootlegs I have of the 74 version seem to sound in Em – were these early versions in standard tuning? I wonder if they took it down a bit the following year to make it easier to sing?

    Ta!

    [No, they tuned down on the earlier version as well. The last chord is a Dm9 I think and Waters is playing an E on the very last note to underline the 9. – Bjorn]

  45. Hi Bjorn,something about the Squier Classic Vibe 50’s in Olympic White and with the anodized pickguard.It’s such an unbelieveable (for a “0001-Fan”) “Baby” for a price that’s unnormal!Tjis guitar is fantastic playable and the workmanship is marvelous!!!The only differences to the “0001”(along with the differences of symptom of old age) are that the tremolo and the jack are only chrome and not goldplated.Normally it will be very fast taken off the market,cause this guitar could be a “problem” for Fender Strat’s,first of all for the MIM’s,cause of the price!!!
    For all “0001-Fan’s” without a fat purse,it fulfils all wishes!!!

    Bye
    Dirk

    [Thanks for the tip! – Bjorn]

  46. What settings cold you get this tone at on a MXR Distortion+?

    (Brilliant artice! my fave song and tone! thank you a lot for your time)

    [Thanks! I’m not sure. It’s been awhile since I’ve used a Dist+. Gain pedals depends very much on your amp and pickups but the Dist+ has a fairly mild character so I think I’d set the volume at about 1:00/2:00 and the gain at around 3:00/4:00 based on vintage style single coils. You might also want to add a booster behind it set to a mild volume boost. – Bjorn]

  47. Wow, many thanks Bjorn for pointing to Animal Instincts! I didn’t know about it before, but found it and burned the CDs and now I’ve been listening to it for days. Great concert overall!

    [Yeah… one of my all time favourites. – Bjorn]

  48. Yesterday i was listening to one of the bootlegs of the mini tour they did prior release of WYWH, dating from 1975/04/26 in LA, amazing show, great setlist:
    -Raving a Drooling, You Gotta be Crazy (A.k.a. Dogs), shine on I-IX, have a cigar and the Dark side of the moon along with echoes.

    Listening this early version of Dogs is epic, i’m telling you. The thing is, i can clearly hear two guitars in harmony in the first solo, didn’t the floyd started to play with Snowy on the animals tour?, who played the other guitar is beyond me, Dick Parry?, Rick?, sampler? no idea, any thoughts?

    Keep Rocking!

    [That’s Richard playing the moog synth. – Bjorn]

  49. Thanks for a great read about the soulful tone of David on this song. I’ve read that David is a fan of Roy Buchanan, and “Dogs” has always reminded me of Roy’s tremendous bending. Just wondering if you were familiar with the version from Boston 6/27/77? Although the sound quality isn’t quite as good as Oakland, the solos are unbelievable. Thanks again for a great service to us DG fans/players.

    Steve

    [Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the article! Yeah, the Boston show is one of my favourites. I got one called Curse of the Pig I think. Awesome tone. – Bjorn]

  50. @Pavan
    Ahh.. thanks a lot for the info! I had no idea Parry played the keyboards. Well that explains what I’m hearing.
    I guess I should really get around to read Masons book.

  51. Hi Bjorn, as I expected, Hiwatt did not answer to my request about the ending of “David & Hiwatt” marketing campaign…but I want to investigate till the end, stay tuned =)
    Another request…where can I find the story so far of the Pete Cornish’ All Tube Pedals Board (’cause it was removed from his site)? I was just curious to see how he managed to fix the individual chips and circuits of single pedals in one unit…
    Sorry for my boring questions :D

    P.S Majestic work on Dogs analysis, as usual!!! When an “Echoes” introduction? Thanks again

    Rick

    [I think the article is take off his site. I’ll send you the pictures. – Bjorn]

  52. Some rather interesting developments on the Squier front, Bjorn.

    I dunno if the Squier Classic Vibe Strats have made it across the ocean yet, but they’ve been rather shockingly good guitars, higher in quality than the average MIM Standard Strat anyway…

    I bring it up now because they’ve finally gotten more colors out there (previously just two-tone sunburst for the “50s” version, and 3-tone for the “60s” version), and one of the 50s versions in particular is of interest to us Gilmour fans.

    Take a look at this.

    =)

    [Cool! Thanks for the info! – Bjorn]

  53. @Kristoffer
    Don’t forget that Dick Parry also played Keyboards on this tour, though he was out of sight. I believe it may have been mentioned in Mason’s book. Thats what I think explains it. If you also look at the Remember That Night credits, he is also credited with playing keyboards as well…

    [Yeah, I didn’t think of that. Looking at pictures of Rick’s rig on the tour there’s no way he could play piano and the minimoog at the same time. Both are placed behind his main rig, the piano far right and the mini moog over at the far left. I’d guess 2-3 meters apart. The moog is facing backwards with an additional chair for Mr Parry. – Bjorn]

  54. Hello, Bjorn.

    I have quoted the passage about the erasing of the solo by memory and it was not quite accurate, since I read it about 12 years ago.

    To put things straight, I went to the books once again.

    On Cliff Jones’ “Another Brick In The Wall – The Stories Behind Every Pink Floyd Song” (this is the US name; in the UK the book was called “Echoes”), we read the following (p. 116):

    “(…) Once ensconced in their on studio, Brittania Row, where they were not under the usual time constraints, the band worked on the song. Despite the fact that they were still getting to grips with the new studio when the original parts were recorded, Gilmour delivers some of his most accomplished solo guitar, and, to this day, he rates it as one of his greatest, most evocative lead parts.

    “The solo is doubled, and was the result of two passes Gilmour did on the track. Unfortunately, Waters, unfamiliar with he exact configuration of the new studio, left the tape machine in ‘record’ mode when Gilmour came to do his second pass at the solo, and the original tape was accidentally wiped. Gilmour maintains that the version on the final album, though good, never quite managed to eclipse the transcendent original. The solo was Gilmour’s attempt to recreate the snaping and gnashing of a dog, and was a combination of the two remaining passes he did”.

    Well, this book is said to contain a lot of mistakes and to have been taken out of the stores because of David’s legal action…

    In a similar way, though, on Bruno MacDonald’ “Pink Floyd – Though The Eyes of … The Band, its fans, friends and foes”, Gilmour is quoted as saying (p. 204):

    “I did one or two very nice, slightly different guitar solos on it that I was quite pleased with… It’s two-part in the melody sections, but the last line of the first solo, I believe, is a three-part descending augmented chord. Which is quite nice and I was very proud of it; I thought it was very clever. Then Roger went and wiped it out, by mistake, and I had to recreate it.”

    Those are really interesting books that I’ve read so long ago.

    On the more recent “Inside Out” (which I haven’t read throughly yet – shame on me), Nick Mason says that “Snowy remembers arriving in the control room at an unfortunate moment. While Brian [Humphries, engineer] was on a break, Roger and I had assumed engineering duties, and successfully erased David’s recently completed guitar solo” (p. 223).

    On the other hand, on Nicholas Schaffner’s “Saucerful Of Secrets – The Pink Floyd Odyssey” (p. 214) David is quoted as saying that the song was “not one of my real favorites”, which is quite surprising considering that it’s one of the all time favorites of so many hardcore fans (like us) and the guitar work is outstanding.

    Hope I have helped and sorry for another long post.

    Cheers,

    Luciano.

    [Thanks for the input Luciano! – Bjorn]

  55. [Which version are you referring to? I don’t think they used any backingtracks but I know David did some Hammond stuff on Great Gig and Shine On in 1974-75. – Bjorn]

    I was referring to the bootleg from the Oakland gig at the 77 tour (77-05-09). I suppose it’s the one called “Animal instincts”. Listening again I suppose he could have played the piano with one hand and had the Moog lying on top of the piano. But then you hear a really quick transition to the Solina. Was that on top of the piano as well? Or is Rick really really fast on his feet around the collection of keyboards? Anyhow, great rendition of the song.

    PS: I ordered, and am currently building, the Large Beaver. After a moment of hesitation I went with the triangle-version over the Ram’s head. Hopefully it’ll turn out good.

    [I’m listeing to the show now. Everything from the last “Shine!” and onwards is two hands, – one on the Rhodes and one on the Moog. Then there’s a warm pad entering, which can easily be triggered and sustain with a hold control. After that it’s a bit tricky. It sure sounds like there’s two hands on the piano on part 9 and one on the Moog. It could be that he’s fast but I’m not sure. I have read that he played the moog solo with pedals, but I don’t think this is correct. Sound like the others are playing their instruments too and I have never seen any info on one of them playing keyboards on this section. It’s always hard to tell from bootlegs but I’m really not sure here. – Bjorn]

  56. Hello Bjorn,

    as I’ve writen on my previous message that got deleted accidentally, it’s a great article, as always.

    Dogs is definitelly one of my favorites.

    In fact, with an article about “Time”, you will have covered my “top five”.

    I must say that I’ve always felt quite disappointed by the fact that David has negleted Animals for so many years now. It’s been said that he once thought about playing Sheep, but declined after realizing he could not sing it with “Roger’s venom”.

    I’ve also read (I believe that in that Nicholas Schaffner book), that Roger had erased accidentally the take David thought to be his best for the track and never got truly satisfied with the one that came to record (in fact, I don’t find it too different from “You Gotta Be Crazy” live recordings).

    Could this be one of the reasons why he never played the song again since 1977? Or would it be just because it was too long to fit in the setlist? Who knows?

    Well, I must say that I got really pleased when Roger played it on his In The Flesh tour, and even more pleased to get to see it both live and on the DVD. IMHO it was na excellent rendition.

    On the other hand, I need HELP in an offtopic subject: do you have any experience with the Mesa V-Twin pedal? Do you think that it is usable as substitute to, say, a tube driver or a tube screamer?

    And would its clean channel be good to “put some tube flavor” on a solid state amp?

    Or is it only good for thrash metal (meaning: useless)???

    Thanks and sorry for the long post.

    Cheers.

    Luciano.

    P.S.1: Just got an used Ibanez FC-10 Fat Cat, Ibanez attempt on the Rat. Haven’t got the time to test it throughly, but it’s been said to have a faithful tone (I couldn’t tell myself, since I’ve never played through a real Rat). Do you have a say on that?
    P.S.2: On my deleted post, I sent you a delayed Happy Birthday. Guess it’s more delayed now. :)

    [Thanks for posting again. Don’t know what happened. Thanks for the birthday wishes :) I agree that Roger’s version of Dogs was great… in my opinion of of the few Floyd songs he does well. Doyle does a great job with the solos. I also enjoyed Sheep on the last tour. I haven’t heard about any tracks being erased but I’ve read many times that David’s very fond of the song and proud of his work. I guess the reason why they haven’t played the song or any of the other Animals songs for that matter on the latest tours is that they’re too Waters… if you know what I mean. Although Dogs is very much David, I don’t think it’s as much him as Echoes and Shine On. Besides, tours like Delicate and PULSE was more about bashing out as many hits as possible rather than pleasing the hardcore fan.
    Never had any experience with the Mesa pedal. Anyone else? – Bjorn]

  57. I see…I guess you’re right, maybe David just didn’t want his name or image being use without autorisation…I’ve sent an email to their staff, asking the reason…let’s wait and see if they answer…

    [Cool! – Bjorn]

  58. This article really made me listen a lot to the 77 bootleg from Oakland. Gilmours playing is superb as has already been noted. But I can’t help but getting really impressed with Rick Wright as well. I think he plays fantastic on these songs. I know Snowy went along as a second guitarist but I’ve never heard of anybody playing second keyboards. But listening to some of the songs I find it hard to see how Rick manages to get so many sounds on top of each other. Sometimes I seem to hear organ, solina and Moog on top of each other. This was midi-syncable synths (the organ doesn’t have midi anyways). Has the guy got more then 2 arms?

    I’m listening to Shine on parts 6 – 9. I hear some pretty advanced Rhodespiano while a a mooglead is going on. Ok, that could with two hands I suppose if you’re good. But then (around 17:20 on my version) I hear what definitelysounds like two-handed acoustic piano while there is a moog lead on top of that. How does that happen? Has Gilmour gone over to Rick to play the moog for that part? If I hear correctly (I’m not sure) you only hear Snowy for a while there and some time after the Moog lead disappears you hear Gilmours guitar again.

    [Which version are you referring to? I don’t think they used any backingtracks but I know David did some Hammond stuff on Great Gig and Shine On in 1974-75. – Bjorn]

  59. Hi Bjorn, just few minutes ago, I’ve noticed Hiwatt Official Site has removed every recall to David…Did something happen about which we did not know?

    Rick

    [This happened a while a go. A year or so. I’m not sure why but as far as I know, David has never been a part of the claimed signature model or supported it in any way so there might be some legal issues… I really don’t know. – Bjorn]

  60. On Comfortably Numb, I was playing through a Black Muff reissue going into my Tube Works Tube Driver 310 (its the three model one) and then into the CE-2 and DE-7.

    Its rather surprising how much the Tube Driver adds to the tone. I use it as a volume boost and over drive. It’s always on whenever I play, and I use the volume knob on the guitar to control the gain. With the drive at 1’0clock I can go from clean boost to Overdrive, at full, i can go from Mild Overdrive to Marshall-like distortion. Its great being able to use the volume knob like that. As far as I’m aware, I haven’t seen any of our fellow gilmourish players take this approach. I’ll post a clip on to YouTube next week to illustrate what I mean.

    Yeah, I wonder why Gilmour decided to drop all of the modulations. Though it seems to me that Modulation in general has fallen out of favor across the board.

    ~Pavan

    [Using the volume knob to control the ammount of gain adds a nice dynamic touch to your playing. You can see David adjusting the volume all the time on both rhythms and solos to get just the tone he wants at any given time or passage. Yeah, modulations like flangers and chourus was kind of the big 80’s thing and I can understand it to some extent. However, I don’t think a tone like a Mistress ever goes out of fashion. I use it all the time for my Airbag sounds :) – Bjorn]

  61. I wonder if you can guess what Distortion I’m using on Comfortably Numb!
    Anyone for that matter.
    You may be very surprised with what it actually is!
    I wonder what Dogs would sound like through the current cornish board!

    [Hm… I have no idea. HM2? David’s Animals tones are very much based on the same type of effects that in his latest board. They’re very similar and it’s fun to see how true he’s been to the setup over the years… with certain variations. The biggest difference of course is the Yamahas and the Mistress. – Bjorn]

  62. Great post Bjorn!
    I love the Live Animals stuff personally. I’m sure that there are some recordings of that tour sitting somewhere in the Floyd warehouse on London just waiting to remastered by James Guthrie!

    I also just posted some more YouTube videos of me playing Breathe, Comfortably Numb, and two attempts at Eruption (lol)
    The link should be in my name.

    Let me know what you think!

    Cheers, and keep up the good work!
    ~Pavan

    [Thanks for sharing the clips Pavan! Nice tone :) – Bjorn]

  63. Kelton Gomes (Brazil)

    +1 on animals as the pf’s white album.

    dogs is amazing, and its solos were my gilmour favs for a long time, but one day i decided to give final cul a chance. now, i think tfc has david’s most powerful solos, even if the songs don’t stand up for the pf classics all the time.

    final cut would be the pf let it be? :)

    [Yeah… Let it Be. The last – well Beatles’ second last – album that’s sometimes overlooked but has some beautiful moments. Yes, I agree. I love Final Cut. Always have and I think David does an amazing job although he sounds more like a session player than a leading figure in the band… which was the case too. His solo on the title track is incredibly soulful. – Bjorn]

  64. Excellent!! A great history lesson. A fine excuse to restring the Tele and put the Mistress to work. I appreciate the settings and all the hard work. So are you planning to do a lot of touring to promote the new album?
    Many thanks,
    Jae

    [Glad you liked the article Jae :) We’re in the middle of working on a new album, so I don’t think we’ll spend too much time playing shows. Identity will be a compilation of our two previous EPs with lots of rerecordings etc, so in essence we’ve promoted the album over the last two years :) We’re excited to get everything released properly and everything sounds so much better. Cheers! – Bjorn]

  65. Reading “Inside out”, Mason’s book, last nite, aninals were when things started to get sour for David i guess, Mason says, David expresed to the them that he tought they were done like “a band”. You could hear all this frustration in David aggressive playing, or maybe he wanted something different for a change. Whatever it was, animals is “the other floyd” i think, and to me its my favorite era.

    [Yeah. I’ve always looked at Animals as Floyd’s White Album. There’s a point in every band’s carreer when they’re experienced one or two huge successes and something happens on the last tour. They grow beards and start buying funny looking clothes :) I guess Beatles wanted to do something completely different on White Album and Animals is very different to the previous albums. They’ve matured both as musicians and and human beings and dare to step out of that “safe” formula. I think that David was frustrated with Roger mostly. Roger wanted to write songs and produce albums while David still enjoyed playing live, acting more as a band. His playing on Animals has an incredible presence and a feeling that he’s never had before or since and I think that’s a combination of having grown as a guitarist and being confident with his role in the band but at the same time feeling frustration towards Roger and the alienation between the members. – Bjorn]

  66. Amazing article! Great reading,Dogs is a terrific song, and I all so didn’t know any of this history.
    Learning so much from gilmourish website
    This is the best site.

    Thank’s

    [Thanks Wesley! – Bjorn]

  67. Hi, Bjorn, congrats for this nice new article!!
    Regarding the Deluxe Electric Mistress and the “in-famous” volume drop, I’ve been thinking of tweaking the inside far right trimpot as I read someone posted over here, saying it’d fix the volume drop by setting it 1:00 o’clock.
    My other choice is to run the pedal through a looper.
    Has anyone tried to tweak the mentioned far right trimpot with a minimun guarantee of success?
    I wouldn’t like to ruin the pedal…
    In other terms, just wanted to say I got myself a 1st gen green sovtek muff and it’s really awesome!!! Finally I’m starting my own Floyd tribute band and it’s a great moment for me!!
    Cheers, keep up the good work, Love and Peace
    Pablo

    [Hi Pablo. I don’t have any experience modding the Mistress but I know there’s also a couple of bboster mods you can do. Perhaps someone else here can help? Good luck with the band! – Bjorn]

  68. Hi Bjorn,

    i love your site and gratulation of your debut album! Now, i have a question. I´m looking for the right sound to play “It´s definitely” from David´s first solo album. Can you help me to find a solution to get this tone? I know he used the “Animals” Pete Cornish effects board. And another one: Can you tell me your settings of the voodoo lab sparkle drive? Thank you very much and greetings from germany.

    Peter

    [Thanks! The rhytms on the intro is just a mild overdrive with the Colorsound Powerboost (or Cornish ST2 that he used at the time – Colrosound Powerboost clone). For the solo he’s using an Electro Harmonix “ram’s head” Big Muff with signal split between the Hiwatts and a Yamaha rotating speaker (Leslie). This is the same setup he used to record Comfortably Numb, only here with a bit more ambience. You can replace the Yamaha with a, Electric Mistress or chorus of some sort.
    I mainly use this setting on the Sparkle Drive: gain 100%, tone 0%, blend 0% (overdrive) 100% volume boost, volume 50% (overdrive) 60% (volume boost with the blend all the way up). – Bjorn]

  69. Oh.. perhaps I should’ve written what equipment I used for the recording of the clip in the previous post. The chain was an American Peavey Predator with Seymour Duncan SSL-1 in to T-rex Mudhoney (mild overdrive), V-fx Colordrive 2 (channel 2 max gain), homebuilt Moodysound echo pedal (310 ms) into a Hughes & Kettner Tubeman preamp set for clean with speaker emulation. Recorded in Reaper with backing track from this site.

    [See my answer below. I think the tone you’re getting is very similar to setting a Tube Driver for max distortion. Compared to a Muff it’s almost there but not quite… – Bjorn]

  70. Well hello again!

    I couldn’t get the thought of the Big muff out off my head after this article so I decided to record a little test to see how close I come with the stuff I’ve already got. I figured that would help me decide if it’s worth the money to get a muff or not.

    I set up my pedals a little bit different than usual. Instead of using my T-rex Mudhoney as the hi gain sound and boost it with the V-fx Colordrive 2, I instead used the second channel of the Colordrive 2 (it’s a higher gain version of the usual colorsound boost) for the high gain sound and boosting it with a mild setting from the Mudhoney. I thought the sound sounded closer to the Muff then before.

    I thought that maybe if you could listen to my short clip, then you could tell me if you would be fooled in thinking it was a Big muff? Or does it sound more like a BC108 fuzz face?

    The clip I recorded is the first solo from Comfortably Numb (commenting this article I should have rather have played Dogs I ;) ). I don’t really know this solo and I played it without really listening to the song before so I don’t really play it right. Also my timing is a bit off at times but please ignore the performance and listen to the sound if it bothers you. :)

    Here is the clip.

    Listening to the Wall now I seem to hear that Gilmours sound is slightly warmer and more “hollow” somehow so maybe I’m not that close to the Muff after all. Anyways, take care and thanks again for the article.

    /Kristoffer

    [I think you can get away with it but as you already have pointed out the typical Big Muff tone is warmer. In any case I definitely recommend getting a Muff. Not just because David’s using it but it’s such a great distortion pedal on it’s own. Unfortunately the new reissues aren’t any good so I’d check out some of the clones available like BYOC Large Beaver or the Absolutely Analog Green Russian. – Bjorn]

  71. Hi, Bjorn

    On the version of “You Gotta Be Crazy” on Azimuth Coordinator:

    When you listen with headphones to that recording– which is actually in stereo, you’ll hear Gilmour’s guitar shift from one speaker to the other ala a doplar effect… it sort of sounds like it’s 360 degrees… Or you’re surrounded by it…

    Wouldn’t that be the rotating speaker? Or is it a univibe/phaser?

    Or have I lost my mind and I’m hearing things? ;)

    Jared

    [If you’re referring to the middle solo or the “dry solo” as I like to call it, then I think what you’re hearing is the guy who taped the show moving around. This is not a soundboard recording and it sounds like he’s waving those mics around for some reason. You can hear that it’s not just David’s guitars but the whole band shifting from one side to the other. So that’s not David’s Leslies. The Leslies wouldn’t have made that effect anyway as they’re static in the way that they’re shifting the tone in the stereo range not between each speaker. However, if you listen David’s solos on Money and the ending riff on Sheep from the Animals tour, you can hear that his guitar is moving around in the venue, sounding like it’s bouncing off the wall creating strange echoes. That’s the quadrophonic 360 mix Floyd used since late 60’s. The badn is centered while David’s guitar is “traveling” between all four speaker towers for a dramatic surround mix. Thay also does this on the money effects on Money, helicopter on Another Brick etc on PULSE. – Bjorn]

  72. I got the iMac and it is freaking awesome. When you plug your guitar straight into it, what do you use? The USB port?

    [I’m using a mini jack converter plug on the guitar cable and plug the guitar into the audio line in. With the Line 6 POD I’m using USB. – Bjorn]

  73. Been awhile since i’ve checked in and what do I find? Awesomeness, that’s what.

    – Whalen

    [Thanks Whalen! Always appreciate you stopping by :) Hope all is well. Cheers! – Bjorn]

  74. Thanks a lot for the great article Björn!

    It was very inspirational to read the text while listening to the bootleg from the Oakland concert.
    The only problem with this article (and this website in general) is that it makes me want to buy so much gear. I already bought the Colordrive from Vintage-FX as a result of reading this site. This time I’ve got a big craving for a Big muff. I’ve got a T-rex Mudhoney for my lead tones (boosted by the Colordrive) but listening to Dogs it’s really tempting to buy a Muff clone as well. The Ronsound Hairpie seems nice.

    And then I’ll have to buy the Electric Mistress; and then it’s time for a NKT analogman Sun face; and then another delay pedal. Does it ever stop? ;)

    BTW… first time posting after months and months of extensive reading.

    [Well that’s the blessing and the curse! All this stuff you wanna buy… Thanks for posting! Cheers! – Bjorn]

  75. Might I recommend the DiMarzio FS-1 for this song. I use this, through a Dynacomp, BYOC Large Beaver Triangle, Tube Driver, Deluxe Electric Mistress, Small Stone Nano, and an Ibanez DE7 for this song and the FS-1 puts the whole package together.

    This is a really great article, Dogs is my favorite Pink Floyd song and Animals is my favorite tone era so this is extra dope. I particularly like David’s tone and playing during the third solo of SOYCD from the Animals tour.

    I think I can sum up Dogs in one sentence: Crank your amp to 11 and stomp on the Big Muff.

    [Agree :) – Bjorn]

  76. Bjorn:
    Love the article; Dogs is a terrific song, and I didn’t know any of this history.
    Question: Where would you suggest looking for the bootlegs and rare concert audio that you mention? I’ve got Live at the LA Colosseum, but that’s it….

    Thanks!

    [Try the Yeeshkul hub. – Bjorn]

  77. hi Bjorn
    nice article as always

    I would only specify which harmonies Dave is using in the song..

    mostly a third above in the slow solos, and in the end of the second “fast solo” Dave plays an (amazing) lick based on the whole-tone scale harmonised in major 3rds which ends on a Dm (or Cm in real terms)
    cheers
    Fed

    [Thanks for the input! – Bjorn]

  78. :O!!!
    Nice Article Bjorn as always.

    @Kelton Gomes
    I think the best way to emulate the leslie effect of pulse is using another amp in a stereo setup. You can use the chorus ensemble or divide the signal in 2 and put some leslie sim in one of the amps with a lower output volume.

    Keep rocking!

  79. Hi, Bjorn…

    Fine work once again…

    BTW, did you ever listen to the version of “You Gotta Be Crazy” on the “Azimuth Coordinator” from Vancouver circ ’74-’75?

    What did you think? You can really hear the rotating speakers on that one…

    I have to admit, THAT is my favorite version of all… Somewhat polished as a piece of music, but still very raw and SO good…

    [It’s been awhile since I’ve heard it, hence my late reply, but yeah it’s a really cool version. Soulful playing from David. I’m not sure if you can hear the Leslies but the Phase 90 is there. Cheers! – Bjorn]

  80. Hey Björn!

    I haven’t been here in a good while. I’ve been on a huge Van Halen kick and decided to drop by today to see what’s going on.

    Very nice article, man. Dogs is definitely a favorite. I think the Animals album is probably the hardcore Gilmour fan’s favorite Floyd record. What Gilmour lover can’t love his tone on this album? Or even better – his live tone from this tour.

    Also, the new iMac we’ve ordered will be here Thursday. I’m
    so pumped. GarageBand should be awesome! Thanks for your time!

    Collin

    [Congrats! I think you will be very pleased with the iMac. Garageband – although limited in some ways – is a great tool for just fooling around making rough demos etc. Let me know if you need any help. – Bjorn]

  81. Hi Björn, you don’t have the chords quite right. The first has an open D string if I remember correctly, and the second should have an F at the 3rd fret on the D string.

    Great article though & I’ve loved this song since I bought the album the day it was released. It’s a shame that David is not interested in performing anything from Animals in concert, particularly Dogs, which is, along with Sheep, for me the highlight of the album (amusingly both written for WYWH). Matt

    [Hm… I don’t think the first chord should have an open D. Doesn’t sound right. You’re correct about the second chord though. My mistake. I know it’s an F on the D. Thanks! – Bjorn]

  82. hey bjorn.hope you dont mind but a bit off topic and im sure some of your visitors might appeciate knowing,even yourself.if you click on the links section and go into brain damage there is a sale of all old 2007 08 dark side of the moon merchandise,all the t shirts are 5 dollars,yup they are cheap,just thought somone would be pleased to know……….

    [Thanks for the tip! – Bjorn]

  83. Kelton Gomes (Brazil)

    Great work, Bjorn, as aways… Could we expect for some clips in the near future? In fact, I just remembered that you’ve already posted a clip for the ‘dry’ solo on your Youtube channel. Anyway, the other two would be awesome, too! ;-)

    Last weekend I ‘discovered’ something that might be useful for someone who’s trying to emulate the ‘wetness’ found on the studio version of Dogs and on most of the Division Bell/PULSE stuff.

    Here it is: I borrowed a vintage Boss CE-2 from my guitar tech and tried it with my rig. Well, I dialed it for a subtle swirl and placed it BEFORE the od/dist/fuzz pedals. The result was a less evident chorus effect, which I instantly associated with the discrete doppolas effect heard throughout PULSE. I believe doing this and placing some sort of univibe thing AFTER the gain stuff could deliver a tone very close to the studio version, where the leslie effect is more audible.

    Hope that trick help somebody get THERE! LOL

    []’S

    [Thanks for the tip! What you get is a milder chorus but since it’s before the gain pedals it will also distort so IMO it’s perhaps not the ideal solution. The Cornish Chorus has a blend control that allows you adjust the amount of chorus – a feature that most digital processors has but it should be included on common stompboxes as well. One of my favourite guitarists Zakk Wylde uses the gain channel on his amp and both flangers, chorus and phasers/Univibes between the amp and an overdrive for even more boost. Much like what Hendrix did with his UniVibe. Cheers! – Bjorn]

  84. Bjorn,
    Great Stuff. One of my favorite songs! I’m working on all the different parts and have them down except for the final solo. It’s just a pain to have to have an acoustic and electric tuned down a step. I have a RAT II and modified it myself with the Monte Allum mods because I play through a Classic 30, but do you think I may have some success with the BYOC Triangle? Or does that pedal really only give you the sound on the larger, higher headroom, rigs? BTW, I am pleased with the RAT so far.

    thanks, BRAD K

    [If you’re cranking the amp really hard then maybe. If not I’d stay with the RAT. – Bjorn]

  85. João J. Francisco

    GOD!!

    Are you sure you weren’t there in the seventies?

    Amazing article!!!

    [Cheers Jọo! РBjorn]

  86. Jason Dolinski

    Bjorn,

    As always, a great in depth look into this great song and the “tones” behind it. Keep up the good work!

    Jay

  87. benoît planès

    hi Bjorn,as always,another deep into the David’s tone!i have a Dice Works Muff Diver made by Erich,what do you think about this pedal?to me,this pedal is so versatile!More infos on Harmony central.Thanks for your differents blogs,you help us everytime !!

    [Thanks! Never tried the Muff Diver so I can’t tell. I’ll check it out though! – Bjorn]

  88. Great research Bjorn! I’ve seen Animals live in 77 and it’s still my favorite concert of all time. Dave’s great sound inspired me and that concert was one of main reasons for me as 17 a year old boy to pick up the guitar. Animals is one of my favourite albums and Dogs has such a great atmosphere with the detuned chords. You can”t get that atmosphere playing in normal tune.

    [You’re very lucky having experienced one of the shows! – Bjorn]

  89. Hi Bjorn, I love your site. I am currently using the DG EMG’s I do enjoy them very much, but I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to start a new strat project. I am looking for that delicate vintage sound. I know you generally recommend the CS69’s. I would also like the SSL-5 bridge sound. I have found it is cheaper to by the vintage staggered SSL-1’s (neck and middle) along with the SSL-5 (bridge). Do you know How the SSL-1 vintage staggered compare to the CS69’s in the neck and middle??? Sorry this is a little off topic But animals always makes me think great vintage sound.

    [The SSL1 is slightly hotter than the CS69 so you might want to check out the antiquity models. Anyway, personally I think the CS69 has a lot more body and a more punchy tone that the Duncans. – Bjorn]

  90. Hey Bjorn
    Amazing article, “Dogs” is what made me fall in love with “Animals”!

    I can’t wait for “Time”

    -Jared

  91. Great article Bjorn. I have been listening to a lot of the ’77 bootlegs lately and messing with my rig to get that tone. The live tones from that tour are one of my favorites. Simply amazing. I’ll have to try some of your settings with my Colorsound and Ram’s Head. I have been messing around with the Colorsound and Sunface, but not quite getting the tone I want.

    We need sound clips of your Animals setup!

    [It’s hard to record any clips because this tone depends so much on cranking the hell out of your amp but I’ll give it a go. – Bjorn]

  92. Great article man, but im always satisfied with your analysis! Im so glad i bought myself a Peavey Classic 50 many months ago, it seems like you really approve of it. I am blown away by the sound of it and the tubes haven’t been replaced since 2000 (i bought it used)! Well thanks again i cant wait until you write the Time article!
    -Marcello

    [Glad to hear that you’ve found your tone! – Bjorn]

  93. Hi Bjorn – great article. This is the song that turned me into a major tone-freak as well.

    As you know, I have a Yamaha RA200 which I use for this tune, but for those who don’t (ie, most of us) I would also like to recommend the Maxon Phase-Tone PT999 phaser – it is designed to be very similar to an original Phase 90, and it sound fantastic. Very highly recommended, and much better sounding than the current MXR re-issues.

    [Funny you should say that. I tried the pedal last week and did an a/b test with the MXR Phase 90 ’74 reissue. As far as I could tell there’s no difference at all. They’re identical and both pedals are waaaay better than the MXR script reissue – which as far as I know – is the same pedal as the EVH phaser… I love Maxon pedals. You can’t go wrong. – Bjorn]

  94. bjorn reading this article answered my question regarding a booster pedal about the echoes fills on a solid state,so thanks…..im still gonna hassle you over that clip on the fills though,cheers.

    [Cheers Dave! – Bjorn]

  95. Man…..one of your best articles to date! Absolutely Dogs is one of my favourite Floyd tunes….

    BTW Im using a script MXR Phase 100 for this particular tune and I love how it sounds…do you know of any bootleg in which David is using his phase 100?

    Cheers!
    Leandro

    [Thanks! Check out the one called “Animals Tour Debut”. He’s using the Phase 100 on Dogs, Pigs and Shine On. – Bjorn]

  96. Damn great article! Say Bjorn, have you ever thought about publishing this site’s materials in some guitar magazine or probably compiling them into a small book? That’d be cool.

    [I’ve thought about it but don’t you agree that it’s better to offer everything for free here on the site :) – Bjorn]

  97. Good Stuff! Lots of good info here. If I had one request it would be a couple soundclips with your versions of the two different tone :-)

    1. I use my Mesa boogie studio preamp > volume pedal > MXR flanger / doubler > delta Lab DL – 4 > Lexicon Digital reverb> into a Mesa Boogie MK II C+ > ampeg 2 x 15″ (dark cabinet) and a 4 x 12″ (Bright cabinet) to achieve any David Gilmore tone..

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