NOTE: This website is frequently updated. Last update May 2022
GETTING THE TONES - In general, the Ratle That Lock and The Endless River album tones are similar to David's On An Island tones. Beautiful compressed clean tones, and bright overdrive tones. The overdrive tones sound like Tube Drivers, which were David's favored effect for rhythm and leads. There is very little of the lush and beautiful modulations that colored David's tones of the past, but it is there low in the mix.
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5AM - One of my favorite guitar tones on the RTL album is heard is the instrumental 5AM. David beautifully finger picked this song on his 1956 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top with P-90 pickups and Bigsby tremolo. Here is the guitar pushed up front in the mix.
5AM lead guitar
I don't hear any modulation in the studio track, but buried in the mix is a modulated lead guitar track. The guitar signal was probably sent to a separate amp at the same time the main lead track was recorded. It sounds like it may be an Electric Mistress flanger, but it could be David's Leslie or RA-200 rotary speaker cabinets.
After hearing David play this live at Madison Square Garden, I became obsessed with this tone and bought a gold top Les Paul with P-90 pickups and a Bigsby. I made several attempts at matching the tone, but something never sounded right with my finger picking. Here are a few early tries at that tone through my Reeves Custom 50 with a Boss CS-2 compressor and Ibanez CP-9 compresors, with some light overdrive from a Tube Driver. They sound OK, but the tone is not right and the unique coloration and expression of David's fingerpicking is missing.
After examining videos of David playing it I realized he primarily only uses his index finger, like a pick. He uses his thumb every now and then, but mostly it's just the index finger. I basically had to re-learn my finger picking style all over again, but the way you finger pick is definitely where the tone and expression comes from for this track. A lot of what I thought was compression was just in the way the strings were picked and plucked. I also learned David used an Alessandro amp for this sound. I switched to my Fender Bassman amp instead of my Reeves because it sounded closer to the live tone. Below is my second try, which is much closer to the tone I heard at DG's MSG concert in April 2016. P-90 Les Paul, Boss CS-2 compressor, 1987 Tube Driver, Boss GE-7 EQ, and TC Nova delay.
At the end of that track I noodle around finger picking the same phrases over and over, just changing how hard I pick and how I roll the strings off my finger to illustrate the range of color you can acheive.
The backing track of the song includes volume swells of sustained chords with long delay to create a dream-like feel. Here is that part isolated.
Below is David playing similar volume swells during a rehearsal on the RTL tour.
David is playing the low cello-like chords on a keyboard first, then the delayed guitar comes in over that, starting about 13 seconds in. He had the delay set for about 1000ms, 7-8 repeats, delay volume 80-90%, with a volume pedal placed before it. He also probably a compressor and some type of modulation effect, like a chorus/flange or rotary speaker.
With the volume pedal off, you strum a chord, then slowly raise the volume up to let the sound ring on, then bring the volume pedal slowly back down. You don't hear the strum, just the chord swelling in volume and being sustained by the long delay. As that sound continues by the echo repeats, you repeat the process for the next chord, which plays over the sustaining previous chord. That is the backbone of David's sound-on-sound effect. It allows each chord to fade in and out, like a synthesizer. Here is a rough demo of that effect.
It's a really beautiful effect. Some of it gets covered up in places by the orchestra in the studio track, but in the extended version on the RTL Deluxe Blu Ray you can hear it clearer. It's subtle, but if you take that out, the whole dreamy, trance-like feel of the song is diminished. If you listen close to the album track, the delayed notes David plays mimic certain notes he plays on the Les Paul, making it sound like a huge reverb effect.
There is also a similar effect used on A Boat Lies Waiting.
David has been doing this type of effect for many years. The first time I remember hearing it was the synth-like chords in the beginning of Waiting for the Worms from The Wall and the beginning of the Bryan Ferry song, Is Your Love Strong Enough? He used a much shorter delay time on those, but it's the exact same type of effect.
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In Any Tongue - One of the stand out tracks of the RTL album is the very Pink Floyd-like song In Any Tongue. David played the outro solo with his Black Strat and a Tube Driver. It's a bright and trebly tone, with just a hint of modulation. It's a bit too bright and trebly for my taste, but I still like the studio version. Here is a breakdown of different elements from stems of the multi tracks.
Here is an isolation of just the modulation used on the guitar. This may be the Electic Mistress seen on David's Medina studio pedalboard. It is very subtle in the final mix.
Here is an isolation of just the backing guitars. The acoustic guitar sounds like David's high strung Ovation acoustic with "Nashville" tuning that he used on Hey You and Comfortably Numb. The overdive guitar sounds like a Tube Driver with a Uni-vibe effect or a rotary speaker effect.
I am more interested in the live 2015/2016 tour tone for the IAT solo, but I play the album version of the solo using a Demeter Compulator, Tube Driver, and Deluxe Electric Mistress. I am not sure what amplifier David used, but I tried several different amps and speakers. I get a similar sound with my Reeves and Bassman, but not exact.
As I said, I like live 2015/2016 tour tone for the IAT solo better than the album version. This song deserved a massive Big Muff outro solo, and that is exactly what David did when he performed it live. I picked my favorite parts from various performances and combined them into one epic solo using an EXH Green Russian Big Muff reissue into a Fender Bassman and Reeves Custom 50. This is a Strat with EMG-SA pickups, SPC on maximum. Tube Driver into the Green Russian, with a 1990s Deluxe Electric Mistress.
Below is a clip that is more like the 2016 Live at Pompeii sound. This is just the Green Russian Big Muff into a Reeves Custom 50 with some delay. I used a Strat with a Seymour Duncan SSL-5 bridge pickup.
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Louder Than Words - This song had a short and simple Tube Driver solo. Like In Any Tongue, it also deserved a big, long epic guitar solo, but I really like the album version. Here is the dry guitar track and modulated guitar tracks isolated from the 5.1 mix of the album. The modulation sounds like an Electric Mistress to me.
Here is my take on it with a Demeter Compulator, Tube Driver set for light overdrive, Deluxe Electric Mistress (70% mixed in with a blend pedal), TC Nova delay (48oms) into a Reeves Custom 50.
Here is another take with a Boss CE-2 instead of a DEM, and a Fender Bassman instead of the Reeves.
(left)My DEM with blend pedal on left and Boss FA-1 FET Amplifier on top to fix the volume drop.
(middle, right photos) David's Electric Mistress running through a Lehle Parallel L, which lets David set the mix level to 70% and fix the volume drop
I run my Deluxe Electric Mistress through a blend pedal so I can dial in how much of the effect I want to hear in the mix. I usually mix it between 50-75%, and I use a FET amplifier to correct the volume drop inherent to old Electric Mistress pedals. David does the same thing with his Electric Mistress in his Medina studio and in his live 2015-2016 tour rig. He uses a Lehle Parallel L mixer to both correct the volume drop and set the mix level.
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Ebow - The Endless River features an ebow effect used with an acoustic guitar and steel strings. Both Things Left Unsaid and Ebb and Flow have some beautiful ebow melody playing by Gilmour. This very unique sound can also be heard on Take It Back and Keep Talking from the Division Bell album, which came out of those same 1993 recording sessions. The way an ebow vibrates a steel string on an acoustic guitar creates some unique harmonic tones that are different from what an ebow sounds like with an electric guitar. Below is the isolated ebow from Things Left Unsaid and Ebb and Flow.
It is generally not a good idea to let the ebow actually touch the string you want to vibrate on an electric - unless you like horrible screeching sounds! However, on an acoustic, letting the bow lightly touch the string is part of the jangly effect, but it takes a lot of practice not to overdo it. You can use any string, but it sounds best on the B string, which is what I think David used.
I love this sound and wanted to try my hand at using it in a song. I took the original demo track for the song Calling on The Endless River and decided to do my own version of it with acoustic ebow effects on my Ovation Celebrity acoustic with a built in pickup.
Here is one of my ebow tracks. This is my Ovation acoustic through Fender Bassman RI. TC Nova delay and plate reverb from FTT Ambi Space pedal.
Here is my complete Calling Part II track. I multi tracked several passes for the ebow parts.
I used my Ovation for the ebow and regular acoustic guitar parts. I used a Strat with EMG-SA pickups with a Boss CE-2 chorus and Tube Driver for the solos. There is a bit of backwards wah-wah seagull effect in a few places. I used my TC Nova delay and plate reverb from the FTT Ambi Space on everything, all through my Bassman reissue with the old Eminence blue frame speakers.
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Solo Breakdowns - Most of the The Endless River and Rattle That Lock solos sound relatively dry, with a bit of delay. When I examined the stem channels from the 5.1 surround sound versions of the albums I found that there is both a dry track and another track with modulation for most of the guitar solos. These are buried low in the mix, so there is only a hint of modulation actualy heard. The effect used is probably the rotary speakers from David's Yamaha RA-200 or his Leslie speaker cabinet. It could also be his Electric Mistress flanger.
Below are some extractions of both the dry and modulated solo tracks.
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