Guitar Tricks Insider February/March Digital Edition | Page 28

COVER STORY

David also tries to shake things up in the studio
when trying to find a creative spark on the
guitar. “First, I try to get silly. I’d much rather
just be wild and forget any sense of ‘getting it
right.’ Out of those wild moments come good
ideas I develop further. Most of the solos start
with doing ten different tracks and I punch in
quite a bit. I wind up taking parts from three
of them and sticking them together. I look for
certain moments, and if these moments match
up with other moments that are right, those are
the bits I keep. I’m looking for feel and a sense
of movement. Performing live, you try to get
it rough and also try to be brave – it doesn’t
matter if you drop a clunker. The record lasts,
the performance is transitory. I’m an enormous
fan of Jeff Beck because he is not afraid to screw
up. People who are afraid tend to get boring.”

“When I was starting
out, I was trying
to learn 12-string
acoustic guitar like
Lead Belly. At the
same time I was trying
to learn lead guitar
like Hank Marvin, and
later, Clapton.”

TONE
Like his heroes Hank Marvin, Clapton, Jimi
Hendrix, and Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy,
Gilmour has largely used a Fender Stratocaster,
taking advantage of the Strat’s dynamics to
deliver everything from subtle chord arpeggios
to blazing solos. He also tools around from time
to time on Telecasters, Gibson Les Pauls, and
various Martin acoustics, as well as a variety
of pedal steel and lap steel instruments. David
especially tears it up on lap steel on tracks like
“One of These Days” and “High Hopes.” The
former Pink Floyd frontman also owns one of the
very first Fender Strats – a 1954 plank with the
serial number #0001.
Like the innovative Syd Barrett, his predecessor
in Pink Floyd, David isn’t above using heavy
effects to deliver an idea. Whereas Barrett used
the early Binson Echo-Rec echo box, Gilmour
has used a swath of Fuzz Face and Big Muff fuzz
boxes, echo, Univox Uni-Vibe, Vox wah-wah, MXR
Dynacomp, Electro–Mistress chorus, MXR Phase
90 phase shifter, and Leslie rotating. This barely
scratches the surface of his monster rig, which
also involves many amps, preamps, and speaker
combinations. If you had to sum up Gilmour’s
sound in one word, it would be “wet.” David isn’t
afraid to ladle gobs of echo and phase shifter
over his Strat tone to create an otherworldly
texture. One of his coolest tricks is a sort of
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