NOTE: This website is frequently updated. Last update September 2023

LATEST UPDATES - I finally completed the 2015/16 Tour/Live at Pompeii section in August 2023, hopefully with everything you ever wanted to know about David's live rig, signal chains, and guitar tones. Isolated Gimour guitar sound clips and signal chains added to the Delicate Sound of Thunder page and isolated guitar clips added to the Knebworth 1990 page in September 2022. A few updates and isolated guitar sound clips added to the Momentary Lapse of Reason page in August. Section added in July about David's (and Syd's) Early Pink Floyd Selmer amp sound. Gear updates added in April to DSOT section and to the OAI Tour section.

LATEST SOUND CLIPS AND VIDEOS

Echoes Instrumental Part 2 - Part 2 of an instrumental video, demonstrating various pedals to achieve the fuzz tones

Echoes Instrumental Part 1 - Part 1 of an instrumental video, demonstrating various pedals to achieve the fuzz tones

Dogs Instrumental - Dogs instrumental video demonstrating the Yamaha RA-200 and other Gilmour tones from Animals

Dogs solos 1 - Testing out a new Dogs backing track with a Colorsound Power Boost and 1973 Big Muff

Time solo - Pulse style - replicating David's Sovtek Big Muff and Uni-vibe sound from the 1994 Pink Floyd tour and Pulse

More Blues - Demonstrating the Thorpy Scarlet Tunic emulating David's early Selmer amp sound

Dramatic Theme - Testing out how the Thorpy Scarlet Tunic replicates David's early Pink Floyd sound

Lucifer Sam - Testing out how the Thorpy Scarlet Tunic replicates Syd Barrett's Selmer Treble N Bass amp tone

Fat Old Sun solo - Live In Gdansk/Remember That Night style

Comfortably Numb Outro solo - Another test of the PastFX Elastic Mattress with a Ram's Head Big Muff for The Wall tones

DAVID GILMOUR TONE BUILDING - This website is about the guitar tones of my favorite guitarist, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. What do each of the pedals David Gilmour used do and how do you set them to get similar Pink Floyd tones? Which pickups, amps, and speakers work best for those tones? Here is a general guide to the gear and how to get many of the various tones throughout Gilmour's career. There are audio clips demonstrating building basic Gilmour tones using some of the same gear he used, designed to show what each individual piece of gear contributes to the sound. This is not a comprehensive song-by-song or album-by-album list by any means, just a general guide based on my research, and a deep dive into some of my favorite Gilmour tones. I also highly recommend you look at The Tone from Heaven website for some excellent information on David's 1994 and 2006 tour rigs and his Pete Cornish rigs. Gilmourish.com is another great resource with a comprehensive album-by-album gear guide, detailed reference in areas not covered here, and some great gear articles and reviews.

GILMOUR PLAYING TECHNIQUES - All the gear in the world won't give you a Gilmour sound unless you study and learn David's playing style

PICKS and STRINGS - String Gauges and Picks

STRATOCASTER SETUP - How to set up your Strat to work best for Gilmour style playing and tones

WHICH PEDALS TO USE - Covers Fuzz pedals (early tones) and Big Muffs (later tones), Compressors, Modulation, and Delays

SIGNAL CHAIN ORDER - A general guide to the signal chain order for effects in a Gilmour style rig

WHAT TYPE OF AMPLIFIERS TO USE - Amps that work best for Gilmour tones

WHAT TYPE OF SPEAKERS TO USE - Speakers that work best for Gilmour tones

DAVID'S EARLY PINK FLOYD SOUND - Replicating David's Selmer amp tone used in the early Pink Floyd

ROTARY SPEAKERS, DOPPOLAS, AND THE RA-200 - David's rotary speaker cabinets and pedals that mimic the sound (coming soon)

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FUZZ FACE, BIG MUFF, TUBE DRIVER, RAT, and CORNISH PEDALS - Sound clips to illustrate the tone differences

GILMOUR'S INTEGRATED EFFECTS PEDALBOARD DESIGN - An article about Gilmour's early pedalboard design

DEALING WITH BIG MUFF NOISE - How to handle the hiss from these noisy high gain pedals

LINKED INPUTS - How to link Hiwatt inputs

AMP SETTINGS - Hiwatt and Fender amp settings

GILMOUR'S HIWATT SETTINGS - Gilmour Hiwatt settings from the 1970s to modern day

GILMOUR'S BIG MUFFS - An article About the various versions David has used

TUBE DRIVERS - An article bout the various versions David has used

POWER BOOST and OVERDRIVER - An article bout the Colorsound pedals David has used

DELAY / ECHO - Using delay and delay time settings

DELAY TIME LIBRARY - A song-by-song list of delay times used by David Gilmour

EMG DG-20 SA and Single Coil Pickups - Sound clips to illustrate the tone differences

ALBUM AND TOUR ARTICLES

1973 Dark Side of The Moon - The effects used and sound clips

The Guitar Tones of Comfortably Numb - The effects used and sound clips

1984 and About Face - The effects used and sound clips

1984-1986 - The effects used and sound clips

1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason - The effects used and sound clips

1987-89 Delicate Sound of Thunder / AMLOR Tour / Venice Concert - The effects used and sound clips

1990-92 and the Knebworth Concert - The effects used, sound clips, signal chains

1994 Pulse / Division Bell Tour - The effects used, sound clips, signal chains

2006 On An Island / Remember That Night / Live in Gdansk - The effects used and sound clips

2014-2015 Endless River / Rattle That Lock - The effects used and sound clips

2015-2016 RTL Tour / Live at Pompeii - The effects used, sound clips, signal chains

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Backing Tracks - A selection of backing tracks for practice to play along with or record covers

Assembling a Black Strat replica and Strat setup tips - Everything you need to know to creat your own Black Strat

The Workmate Esquire - An article on David's Fender Esquire that he calls the Workmate

The Electric Mistress and Big Muff Pi - The perfect combo for The Wall and Final Cut tones

Boosting a Big Muff - How to use an overdrive pedal to drive and EQ your Muff

Building a Pedalboard - A blog about building my all-eras Gilmour/Pink Floyd pedal board

NOTE - I have listed the gear and settings I use in most cases, for reference, but note that the tones may not exactly match your rig, depending on which amplifier and speakers you use, your guitar, pickups, and fingers.

Kit’s Secret Guitar, Gear, and Music Page
Guitar stuff, gear stuff, soundclips, videos, Gilmour/Pink Floyd stuff, photos and other goodies.
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