Live at Pompeii 2016

Read more: settings and setups

David Gilmour returned to the Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii in July 2016 almost to the day 45 years after Pink Floyd filmed their legendary concert film at the same location. It’s a spectacular performance, with classic elements of a Pink Floyd show, a super tight band and David delivering some of his finest playing and tones.

Rattle That Lock saw David return to some of his classic guitars and effect pedals, including the Black Strat, 55 Esquire Workmate and pedals like the Big Muff and Electric Mistress. As on previous tours, David experimented with new pedals throughout the tour and his rig saw many changes.

Effects, racks and additional units

Top of rack top row
Electro Harmonix ram’s head Big Muff
Lehle parallel L
Electro Harmonix 1976/77 Electric Mistress
1 Chandler Tube Driver
2 BK Butler Tube Drivers

Top of rack bottom row
Effectrode PC-2A Compressor
Demeter Compulator
Origin Effects Cali 76 Compact Compressor
Sovtek Civil War Big Muff
1 Boss GE-7 Equalizers
2 Source Audio Programmable EQ (one spare)
2 Providence Chrono Delays
2 Free The Tone Flight Time Digital Delays

A close-up of the pedal rack. (picture by The Guardian).

The Skrydstrup SC1 Midi System Controller and David’s notes.

Comments on the effect rack

– The Lehle parallel L mixer was assigned to the Electric Mistress controlling the volume.
– Each EQ unit can be used for multiple combinations and patches.
– Each Tube Driver is set for different amounts of gain, providing clean boost, overdrive and distortion. David would also use the guitar volume control to adjust the amount of gain further.

See the Rattle That Lock tour gear guide for more detailed information on the setup.

Additional units

Skrydstrup SC1 Midi System Controller
Skrydstrup XT+ Module
– main pedalboard, controlling the pedals and rack units, with options for either single effect switching or multiple effect patches.

Digitech Whammy 5
Peterson Stomp Classic tuner
Pete Cornish line selector (main guitars/slides)
Ernie Ball volume pedal main
Ernie Ball volume pedal for slides

Effect rack (left)
Skrydstrup MR10 Loop System
Univox/Shin-ei Uni-Vibe (custom rack unit)
Peterson Autostrobe 490 tuner

Effect rack (right)
Skrydstrup MR10 Loop System
Skrydstrup tuner splitter
Skrydstrup SC1 Interface
Skrydstrup Amp splitter / Interface

David Gilmour’s stage effect rack (Brighton, UK September 5 2015 – note that some of the pedals were swapped out during the tour – see list above).
Left rack: Skrydstrup MR10 Looper, MXR DDL II (not present at Pompeii), UniVibe, Peterson R450 Strobe Tuner
Right rack: Skrydstrup MR10 Looper, Skrydstrup tuner splitter, Skrydstrup SC1 Interface, Skrydstrup Amp splitter / Interface
(picture used with permission – Francesco Marinelli)

Guitars and amps

Fender Stratocaster The Black Strat
– 1969 black alder body with black pickguard, Fender 1983 57 reissue maple neck and Fender 1971 neck and middle pickups and a Seymour Duncan custom SSL-1 bridge pickup.
Gibson Les Paul Gold Top
– 1956 model with Gibson P-90 pickups and Bigsby tremolo system.
Fender Esquire Workmate
– 1955 sunburst ash body with black pickguard and maple neck. Fitted with a custom Seymour Duncan neck pickup.
Jedson lap steel
– Red, fitted with an EMG-H pickup. Open Em chord tuning (E B E G B E) for One of these Days.
Fender Deluxe lap steel (blonde)
– Blonde, stock pickups. Open G chord tuning (D G D G B E) for Great Gig in the Sky and A Boat Lies Waiting. Also used for High Hopes with an open Em chord tuning (E B E G B E).
Gibson Western 1959 acoustic steel string guitar
– With a L.R. Baggs M1 active pickup.
Taylor NS74 acoustic nylon string guitar

David playing his Black Strat and the ’55 Esquire “Workmate”.

David playing the blonde Fender Deluxe and red Jedson lap steels.

David with his 1956 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (picture from Wroclaw ,Poland June 2016 – the guitar was also used for 5 A.M. at Pompeii) and the 1959 Gibson Western steel string.

2 Hiwatt Custom 50W heads
– With Mullard 2xEL34 power tubes and 4xECC83 pre-amp tubes. Modified for linked normal and brilliance inputs. David’s only using one head. The other is a spare.
2 Alessandro Redbone Special 55w tube head
2 WEM Super Starfinder 200 cabinets
– with 4×12? Fane Crescendo metal dust cap speakers. David would normally have 3 cabinets in the setup.

Guitar and amp setup

David’s current stage setup is in mono with all effects fed right into each amp. One Hiwatt Custom 50 head (reportedly set at the edge of breakup to get more grit) and one of the Alessandro Redbone heads are always on in combination.

All pedals, racks and amps are connected with Evidence Audio Lyric HC cables. Guitars to pedalboard are connected with Evidence Audio Forte cables.

David Gilmour’s amp setup as seen at Brighton Centre, September 5th 2015. Two Hiwatt DR504 heads, with two Alessandro heads on top. The three WEM cabinets are each mic’ed with a Shure KSM 32 mic.

David’s using a wide range of different picks, depending on guitars, including Herco Flex Nylon 75s 1.01mm.

All WEM speaker cabinets are mic’ed with Shure KSM 32 mics slightly off centre of the cone.

Acknowledgements and credits
Official Rattle That Lock EPK, official David Gilmour live at Pompeii concert film and documentary, The Guardian (14 July 2016), Kit Rae’s David Gilmour tone building, and David Gilmour Gear Forum.