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More than half a century after arriving at Pink Floyd, David Gilmour will be auctioning around 120 iconic guitars that he has played both with the band and during his solo releases. "Everything has to go," he jokes. "It's the spring sale."
Among the instruments to be auctioned at Christie's New York headquarters in June are many of his signature instruments. He will sell the Black Strat – a guitar he played on "Money," "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Comfortably Numb" and enough other songs to create a legacy worthy of his own book – as well as his Stratocaster with serial number 0001, the 12-string string on which he wrote "Wish You Were Here" and the six-string Ovation on which he played "Comfortably Numb" in almost all his live performances.
"These guitars were very good for me," he says Rolling stone on a phone call from his home in England. "They are my friends, they have given me a lot of music, I just think the time has come to serve somebody else, I've had my time with them." of course, the money that they will ambad is going to do a lot of good in the world, and that is my intention. "
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Gilmour Charitable Foundation, which he has operated for decades. "The money will go to the greater needs of famine relief, roaming and moving people around the world," said Gilmour, adding that charities were both global and focused on the United Kingdom. "We are going to work on the best way and the best balance possible so that what is raised will do the most good on this planet."
In addition to helping the less fortunate than him, Gilmour considers the sale as a household matter. In fact, he planned to sell pieces of his collection since at least about 1987. A momentary failure of reason but did not succeed. "I did not want to be too old and have a lot of guitars doing nothing," he says. And frankly, too many guitars are guitars, I do not have time to play often enough. They will give joy to other people. "
What motivated the idea of selling these guitars? Were you looking around a room and thinking, "There are too many of them?"
It's something that has invaded me for quite a long time. I have already started a process and I fainted several times. This time, it will happen. I am sad to have lost some instruments and relieved to see that this case is settled and that it will do good. If I need a particular guitar, I'll buy another one. They are the tools of my profession. They gave me music, but in the end, these are the tools I use.
You sell about 120 guitars. What percentage of your collection is this?
To be honest, I do not know. There are some left. I'm going to hang on to some of them, either because they have been duplicated or because they are cases that I can not stand physically with. So I think I will probably keep 20 guitars.
I guess you're not superstitious to have "the right guitar" for a particular song?
The guitars are special in what they give you, but I am not too sentimental about the qualities that some people think to imbue with a particular instrument. The guitars I play often tend to be the ones closest to them.
Let's talk about the Black Strat. It must be hard to say goodbye.
You know something? For me, I can let go. That will get a lot of people to watch this sale and do this job. It's a beautiful guitar. It was just about every Pink Floyd album through the seventies. This is running Mingle, The dark side of the moon, I would like you to be here, Animals, The wall. I did my solo "Comfortably Numb" on it. The notes for the beginning of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" have come one day. It's about so much, but Fender has made replicas he sells, and I have two or three that are absolutely perfect. One of these could be my future guitar of choice or even, horror of horror, maybe even that I would change color.
What is the story of the Black Strat?
It's a 1969 Strat, which I bought from Manny's at 48th Street in New York in 1970. I made dozens of changes. I have changed the neck several times. I punched holes and did all kinds of strange things. But color is the only thing I have ever changed. It was always black.
Since you've changed so much, when did you get the sound you wanted?
I change it and then I return it. I added a small switch so that I could get a pickup configuration that you can not use on a normal Strat, which is the neck pickup and bridge together. This is something you can do with a two-sensor guitar. It has somehow the sound signature of a Jazzmaster Fender or a Jaguar.
Which songs or solos do you hear this microphone setup?
You know something? This Jazzmaster sound was something I had always dreamed of using and still wanted to use, but I do not think I really used it. It was experimenting, trying things. He did what I wanted: he got that different sound and, strangely, in the end I barely used it.
What did you do on the guitar?
At one point, I pierced a huge hole and inserted an XLR plug, for some crazy reason, that I then got rid of and filled up again. All these small changes. I shortened the tremolo arm because it suited me better. I really use it as established to try all kinds of different things over the years.
You retired from the Black Strat for part of the 80's and 90's when you gave it to the Hard Rock Cafe. Why do you do that?
I bought one or two other guitars at Fender. I went to their warehouse here in England and I tried 20 Stratocasters, and I think I bought four to protect myself against everything I needed. I think that at the time of Live 8 in 2005, I was thinking about going back to the Black Strat, and I got it somewhere at the wall of the Hard Rock Cafe. I lent it to them a long time ago. I have started using it again. I used it on my most recent solo albums.
What attracted you to Stratocasters first?
My childhood dream was to have a stratocaster like Hank Marvin in the shadows. It was the guitar that I always wanted. Many other players came and did nothing but submit to it. Hendrix was not bad on a Strat. It was the guitar of my dreams. When I was able to pay one, I got one. My first Fender, however, was a Telecaster that my parents bought for my 21st birthday.
Do you still have that one?
No, I shipped it to the United States around 1970, maybe 68, I can not remember very well, but TWA shipped it and lost it. I never saw him again. It's one of the lost and stolen guitars of my life, there are some of them. Not too much.
You are selling your "Number One" Strat, with the serial number 0001. Did you buy it from your guitar technician in the mid 70's?
That's true. He bought it and I really armed him to take it out, really. This one has to leave. It is a very beautiful instrument. I used it to play rhythm guitar on "Another Brick in the Wall", but I do not think I've used it that often. It always seemed a bit trickier to me than other guitars, and I did not want to be beaten when I went on the road, so it was never on tour.
It seems almost too valuable to play.
I think none of them are too precious to be played. I play a lot and I have it at home most of the time. It's also on a song called "Mihalis" from my first solo album. There is a kind of homage to Hank [Marvin] moment on this track, for which I used this guitar.
You played a Gibson Les Paul from '55 in "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2". Do you sell that one?
Yes. I bought it around 1978, because I wanted a beautiful Les Paul but with P-90 pickups; I love those more than I care about humbuckers. Sure The wallwe plugged it directly into the desktop – not into an amplifier – so that the sound is fed directly to the tape during the solo. Then, because we decided that it needed a little more dynamism, we replayed it in the studio and with the help of an amplifier, then we remixed it to give it a little weight and a benefit.
You sell the Martin D-35 that you used on I would like you to be here. I think it's the one you never wanted to tour with.
Yeah. To win on the road in the modern era, where drums, bbad and everything else trains, you'd have a hard time amplifying it. Electronics should be integrated and I really did not want to lose it. It's such a beautiful guitar that it's really bad karma to abandon it, so you can take it on the road. I never wanted to do that.
When did you get it?
I bought it in New York in 1970 from a guy on the street outside Manny's to play "Grantchester Meadows" at the shows we were performing that week. I do not remember why I needed another guitar – I do not know if it had gone astray – but we needed it for that, because it's a silent, acoustically soundless song nothing.
You also sell the guitar on which you wrote "Wish You Were Here"?
I wrote it on a Martin 12 string. I bought it from a friend at about '72 or '73, I suppose. It's also in the sale. I once wrote "Wish You Were Here" in the management of Number Three Studios at Abbey Road. This riff dragged out of this guitar and it became "Wish You Were Here". He did not go on the road either. Around 75 or 76, we had Ovations whose electronics were very powerful. They did not react too badly. One of Ovations, the one on which I opted for a very elaborate tuning, became the guitar on which I wrote "Comfortably Numb". This one is also going into the sale. I think it was played pretty much in all live versions of "Comfortably Numb".
Do you sell the Fender Esquire 1955, on the cover of About the faceyou nicknamed "The Workmate"?
The co-worker does not go there. I'm afraid I can not do it.
Is the work buddy your favorite guitar these days?
When I'm in the studio, the Workmate is the one I'll often pick up or a Black Strat [replica]. I have one or two of my more recent Fender Black Strats, which are brilliantly good, and I'm happy when they jump on my fingers. Sometimes I can not even tell if I play the first original or the others.
But I am much more often on the acoustic guitar when I am at home. There may be some acoustic problems, but I do not tend to play electricity at home. I have a very nice nylon string guitar that I play quite often and that my daughter plays. I have a very beautiful guitar that my wife bought for me and that was built by Me & Ro in America [a Me&Ro Ebony Anniversary Guitar]. It's a very beautiful guitar.
Are you going to include anything other than guitars in the auction, like your Big Muff pedal?
I do not think there is a Big Muff. But maybe there are some amps.
What does your family think of you purging all these instruments?
I think they are, like me, very happy to do good. The proceeds from this sale will do a lot of good in the world and we can do something positive in this rather negative world in which we live.
The guitars here will benefit your foundation. When and why did you start?
I think it goes back to the 70s, maybe the 80s; this has developed from another that I had before. I am not sure. I've had a lot of luck in life. I had a lot of success on the artistic and financial side. Many years ago, I felt that I had to do something good with my good fortune. This will be another huge boost for what our abilities are.
How much money do you hope to ambad?
You know something? I did not think about that at the second. I do not have a clue. I'm sure some people will look at what will be sold and make badumptions about money. But I will not be that person.
Are you worried that people will see you sell all these instruments and think you are retiring?
I am neither retired nor planning things right now. I'm sure I'll get something someday, but it's a big commitment.
Have you written new music?
I write all the time, that is to say that I come with a little phrase in the head, on the guitar or the piano, that I write them on my phone and that I record them all more later. And then, I think, "I'll listen to them someday and see if I like anything." That's where the process starts next time.
When do you know it's time to make a new album?
It does not really work like that for me. I'm just going to my little studio and playing with those things. Sometimes I build a drum track on machines and start turning these little demos into something slightly more substantial, then they go through two or three levels of construction until they sound like a song. When I have enough songs that sound like songs, I decide when and how to create an album. It's like pushing a snowboard on a hill: it's gaining momentum.
What kind of music is coming to you lately?
It's very difficult to talk about the writing process and how I record and use small snippets. Sometimes I hear a piece of music as it is broadcasted on the radio or on television, and I record it for 10 seconds, just for one small thing in particular and a rhythm or something that attracts me. I will come back on this little moment to say: "What has attracted me in all this and what can I … not fly, but pay homage to it or extract a feeling? " [the ideas] are things played on the acoustic guitar or the piano. Ninety percent of them, I will not understand why, on earth, I have noted and recorded them, but I have several hundred. I will find something good in there.
Looks like you're too curious about music to retire.
Retiring is not a hard and fast thing for me in my life. I do not really need to retire. I do not have to say those words. I do not have to indicate that they have retired or something like that. If I retire, it will be a silent and imperceptible process at some point. But I'm not at this moment.
Do you consider this sale as closing a chapter on Pink Floyd or the past?
I do not. I do not think I'm doing that. I will obviously be sad to lose some of these instruments, but I will also be a little relieved to lose the weight of all these instruments and not know what will happen to them or where they will go. I want them to move on. I have been their caretaker for a number of years and it is now up to someone else to have them and use them, to create with them.
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