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PINK FLOYD'S COMFORTABLY NUMB TONE |
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 amp you use, your guitar, and pickups, and fingers :) .. The Wall studio album cover, Gilmour with his Black Strat in 1980, and the live Is There Anybody Out There? CD cover art The two guitar solos in the studio version of Comfortably Numb from Pink Floyd's The Wall album are among the finest examples of guitar solos in rock history. The guitar tone is considered by many, including me, to be one of the most incredible tones ever put on record. Several guitarists have cited those solos as the reason they wanted to play guitar. This song was what got me into playing guitar, and what got me hooked on Pink Floyd in the first place. The first solo is elegantly composed and fluidly dances around the chord progression of the chorus. The second solo is a tour de force of Gilmour's incredible playing and songwriting that takes you on an emotional journey - considered by many to be his finest solo. Here are clips from the official release versions. FIRST SOLO - I have a page with clips about the first solo "wet" tone and modulation here. OUTRO SOLO - From The Wall studio album 1979 OUTRO SOLO - From Is There Anybody Out There?, live performances from 1980-1981 (released in 2000) OUTRO SOLO - From The Delicate Sound of Thunder, live performances from 1987-1988 OUTRO SOLO - From Pulse, live performance from 1994 OUTRO SOLO - From Live 8 Pink Floyd reunion in 2005 OUTRO SOLO - From the Remember That Night live DVD 2006 OUTRO SOLO - From David Gilmour Live in Gdansk 2006 The Big Muff - It is well worth purchasing each of these Pink Floyd albums and DVDs just to have every official release version of Comfortably Numb, as all are very different. The original song was recorded in 1979 with David Gilmour's black Fender Stratocaster using a DiMarzio FS-1 bridge pickup and David's very special Ram's Head Big Muff. There are many theories about exactly how this tone was achieved, and conflicting reports of what was used in the studio. The primary element for the tone is definitely David's Ram's Head big Muff. I have a huge section about Big Muffs HERE. Phil Taylor, David Gilmour's guitar and gear tech, had this to say about David's Ram's Head Muff - "I introduced David to the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi in 1974. He liked it, and he has continued to use one ever since. David has tried many of the different incarnations and models over the years, but his original has often been preferred for most things. Finding another that sounds the same is not easy, I have even placed six in a row that externally appeared to be identical to his original, and they all sounded different. Often, when you look inside, some components and values are different..." The Playing - The outro solo was mixed together from several takes recorded on a sixteen track recorder. The playing is very fiery, with some fast finger and whammy bar tremolo work in places, and some slight harmonics that happen just at the right moments, all of which adds to the intensity of the piece. The best parts of each take were combined into one solo, which was the typical way David created solos in the studio. David, or possibly engineer James Guthrie (various sources say one or the other), mixed them into one solo for the final version. "I banged out five or six solos. From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and make a chart, noting which bits are good. Then, by following the chart, I create one great composite solo by whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase until everything flows together. That's the way we did it on Comfortably Numb." - David Gilmour from Guitar World 1993
Gilmour's Black Fender Stratocaster - 1969 body with Charvel 21 fret custom maple neck and DiMarzi FS-1 bridge pickup used for The Wall studio recordings The Modulated Tone - Much of the tone and big ambient hall sound in the song may simply be studio magic at the mixing board, with compression, EQ, and reverb added. There is not much documented about the exact gear and recording of this song, but there is a good article about all The Wall studio and live gear over at Gilmourish.com. The modulation you hear on the two solos is likely a mix of the Big Muff signal going to two separate amps - an Alembic F-2B preamp powering a Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker cabinet for the modulation, and a Hiwatt DR103 head with WEM cabinet housing Fane Crescendo speakers for the unmodulated tone. David used a similar setup for Pink Floyd's previous album, Animals. The modulation may also be a mix of an Electro-Harmonix 18v green Electric Mistress flanger going to one amp and the unmodulated signal going to another amp, though Bob Ezrin, co-producer of The Wall, confirmed in 1993 that Comfortably Numb was cut using a combination of the guitarist's Hiwatt amps and Yamaha rotating speaker cabinets. David had an Electric Mistress at the time, and he did use it for the live performances of The Wall with the Big Muff. Regardless, whichever modulation was used, it is low in the track mixes, unlike The Wall live tone, which is dominated by the Electric Mistress. Here is another live clip with the Mistress from 1980. OUTRO SOLO - From The Wall live 2/28/1980
David performing Comfortably Numb high on top of the wall in the original live performances To Boost or Not to Boost? - For the studio version, the Big Muff may have been boosted by a Colorsound Power Boost or a Pete Cornish ST-2 treble/bass booster, which is a Power Boost clone. David may have simply used the Muff used all by itself. David has used all of this gear in the past, and likely had these in the studio for The Wall recordings. Some sources say David used an Orange Treble & Bass booster for The Wall in 1979, including the comprehensive Fitch and Mahon book, Comfortably Numb. Orange was a small company making pedals in the early 1970s, but I have found no evidence that they ever made a "treble & bass booster", and this myth appears to be someone mistakenly interpreting Gilmour's gear tech saying David used an "orange treble and bass booster" in 1979. I believe this was actually a literal description of the Colorsound Power Boost , which was a bright orange colored booster pedal, featuring TREBLE and BASS knobs. David had used it on the last Pink Floyd tour prior to The Wall. Some sources say that David had Pete Cornish replace the Power Boost, which had been his standard gear since the early 1970s, with the Cornish ST-2 Power Boost clone in his touring effects board just prior to The Wall recordings. David likely had one or the other in the studio. Delay - It is hard to hear a clear delay echo in the final studio mix of the song, but it is there. Listening to the dry track from the 5.1 surround mix the delay appears to be 480 milliseconds long, with two or three repeats. If the delay was recorded live it was likely parallel mixed with the dry signal, or was simply sent to a separate "wet" amp when recording. The delay may have been added in post, at the mixing stage. David had a rack mounted MXR Digital Delay System 1 in the studio and for The Wall live shows. It is a very warm sounding delay, close in sound to David's Binson Echorec analog delay, and it is possible he used the MXR for The Wall recordings. Though there is also some reverb heard in the recording, David never recorded with spring reverb. Reverb tends to soak up your tone, and it does not work well with a Big Muff for Gilmour tones in my experience.
1973 Electro-Harmonix "Ram's Head" Big Muff distortion/fuzz, MXR Digital Delay rack unit, and Electro-Harmonix 18v green Electic Mistress flanger
Colorsound Power Boost and a Pete Cornish ST-2 Power Boost clone
Alembic F-2B preamp that fed the Yamaha RA-200 "Leslie" style rotating speaker cabinet
Hiwatt DR-103 head and WEM speaker cabinet
David Gilmour with the Black Strat performing The Wall live in 1980 and 1981 |
WRITING COMFORTABLY NUMB and DEMOS |
Comfortably Numb started off as a rough demo created by David Gilmour during the making of his first solo album David Gilmour, recorded in 1977 and 1978. It was just an instrumental idea at this stage, with David strumming some chords on a high strung guitar and humming along with the music. "I actually wrote the chord sequence for it while I was in Super Bear doing my first solo album, right at the end. I didn't intend, I mean, I never was going to actually record it then for that solo thing. It was one of the things I'd just put down one day and stored away with my other demos." - David Gilmour 1984 Here is that original demo, recorded in early 1978. It sounds like a phaser or an Electric Mistress is used for the modulation. The vocal melody in the chorus sections is the same as the final song, but the melody in the verse sections was altered quite a bit in the final song. COMFORTABLY NUMB ORIGINAL DAVID GILMOUR DEMO - 1978 When it came time to record The Wall David brought in this demo music to use for the doctor section of The Wall story line. Roger wrote the lyrics, but initially, according to producer Bob Ezrin, Roger did not like the music and did not want to include it in The Wall. The song was titled The Doctor at this point and featured very different verse lyrics to the final version. "Roger and I had a good working relationship. We argued a lot, sometimes heatedly - artistic disagreements, not an ego thing. I don't think we argued over who would take lead vocals. Roger was not over-bothered who sang - but overall we were still achieving things that were valid. Things like "Comfortably Numb" are really the last embers of Roger and my ability to work collaboratively together - my music, his words. I had the basic part of the music done. I gave Roger the bits of music, he wrote some words, he came in and said, 'I want to sing this line here, can we extend this by so many bars so I can do that,' so I said, 'OK, I'll put something in there.' " - David Gilmour from a 1999 Mojo Magazine article Pink Floyd recorded several demos during The Wall sessions in 1979. Here is an early demo with a heavy sounding electric guitar over the verse sections. David preferred it to the lighter final mix with the orchestra. He would later add the heavier guitar when he played this song live, notably heard on the Momentary Lapse of Reason and Division Bell tours. The first solo was already established at this point, and it sounds like a green Electic Mistress was used for the modulation here. The outro solo already has a few phrases that will later appear in the final mix, but it is quite different sounding from the final version. The modulation appears to be a phaser, likely an MXR Phase 90, which was in David's pedal board at the time. There is also either a very short delay, or the track was duplicated with one track running slightly out of sync with the other. "THE DOCTOR" PINK FLOYD DEMO - 1979 Roger Waters and David Gilmour each had different ideas on how the final mix of the song should sound. Here is a quote by David from a Mojo magazine article in 1999. "We went to LA with two versions of it - we recorded one backing track, just the drums basically, which Roger (Waters) and Bob (Ezrin) liked a lot but I felt was a bit loose in places so we did another take which I liked better - and we had quite a large row about which of these two versions we should use. In the end, we used bits of both, and I'm not at all sure if you played me one of those backing tracks and then the other one I'd know the difference now, but it seemed incredibly important at the time. You can divide "Comfortably Numb" into dark and light - the bits I sing, "when I was a child..." are the light, the "hello is there anybody in there" that Roger sings are the dark - and on the dark stuff I wanted to have a bit more of the grungey guitar element, while Roger and Bob wanted it just drums and bass and orchestra. We argued vociferously about that and I lost on that occasion, and I still feel I was right. On-stage I would always add the grungier tone." ...and another Gilmour quote from Guitar World 1993. "Well, there were two recordings of that, which me and Roger agrued about. I'd written it when I was doing my first solo album. We changed the key of the song's opening the E to B, I think. The verse stayed exactly the same. Then we had to add a little bit, because Roger wanted to do the line, "I have become comfortably numb". Other than that, it was very, very simple to write. But the arguments on it were about how it should be mixed and which track we should use. We'd done one track with Nick Mason on drums that I thought was too rough and sloppy. We had another go at it and I thought that the second take was better. Roger disagreed. It was more an ego thing than anything else. We really went head to head with each other over such a minor thing." Here is another quote about the song, this time from Roger Waters. "What happened is Dave gave me a chord sequence, so if you wanted to fight about it - and I don't want to fight about it - I could say that I wrote the melody, and all the lyrics, obviously. I think in the choruses he actually hummed a bit of the melody, but in the verses he certainly didn't. That's never been a problem for me, I think it's a great chord sequence." This what Bob Ezrin, one of the producers and collaborators on The Wall, had to say about the song. "Comfortably Numb started off as a demo of Dave's - a piece in D with a lovely, soaring chorus and a very moody verse. At first Roger had not planned to include any of Dave's material but we had things that needed filling in. I fought for this song and insisted that Roger work on it. My recollection is that he did so grudgingly, but he did it. He came back with this spoken-word verse and a lyric in the chorus that to me still stands out as one of the greatest ever written. The marriage of that lyric and Dave's melodies and emotionally spectacular guitar solo - every time I hear that song I get goosebumps." |
There is a very good article examining Comfortably Numb by Bjorn Riis on the Gilmourish.com website, HERE. |
EXAMINING THE MIX |
Examining the 5.1 mix of the tracks used for the film version of The Wall, it seems it was standard procedure to record from a "dry" amp and separate "wet" amp when solos were recorded. Much of the film soundtrack was created directly from the original studio tracks recorded for The Wall album in 1979. The dry amp would have no effects, or just modulation, and the wet amp would have delay added. The wet effects could have simply been added in post, but I know Gilmour sometimes records wet from interviews, so I think there there were likely always two amps being recorded. I have found the same thing with the 5.1 mix of Gilmour's On An Island CD. Even the live Remember That Night and Live in Dgansk DVD 5.1 audio sounds like a dry track was recorded there as well. Having the dry track gives more options in the mixing room later.
OUTRO SOLO - Wet track. From the 5.1 surround mix of The Wall film soundtrack OUTRO SOLO - Dry center track mix. From Remember That Night DVD 5.1 surround mix Most of The Wall studio recording solos have modulation in the dry track and there is definitely heavy modulation in the 5.1 movie soundtrack clips. I did not expect it to be this heavily modulated as I do not hear it clearly in the wet final mix, but it is there and it sounds like a rotating speaker, not an Electic Mistress, though both can sound similar low in the mix. This tone is likely a mix of the Yamaha rotating speaker cabinet and a Hiwatt amplifier as has been stated in interviews. This solo is also artificially double tracked (ADT) on the album mix, and the ADT is even more evident on the film soundtrack version. Another key to the second solo tone is the chord progression played under the solo on an electric guitar, possibly with a Fuzz Face pedal. It fills out the space and makes the solo sound larger. There is also a bassy Prophet 5 synthesizer, played by David Gilmour, thickening the bass notes under the chords that really impacts the ominous feel of the solo. Here are some interesting breakdowns of the tracks, extracted from the 5.1 sourround mix created for The Wall film. COMFORTABLY NUMB - Dry mix channel Compare The Wall film version to the original album version of Comfortably Numb and you will find the solos are mixed more up-front in the film version, with more apparent artificial double tracking. Here are a few other extractions from the mix. SYNTHESIZER - Prophet 5 synthesizer played by David Gilmour under the outro solo ORCHESTRA AND SCREAM TRACK - The orchestra and "scream" sound effects tracks from the second verse |
GETTING THE TONE |
Here are my suggestions for getting the Comfortably Numb outro solo tone. You need a vintage sounding Big Muff or Muff clone, a chorus or chorus-like modulation, and a delay. David has changed the tone over the years when playing these solos live, but at the heart is always a Big Muff. It's almost cliche to say this, but majority of his "tone" does come from his fingers and playing. You really need to invest the time to learn his techniques and phrasing. You can have David's exact gear, but you won't get the tone if you do not not examine and learn his techniques and style. Study his solos, the subtle phrasing, smooth note bends, and subtle pinch harmonics and tonal variations done with his pick and thumb. The thumb affecting the tone when picking the string is key to much of the note coloring. Finger and whammy bar tremolo is also extremely important. Gilmour's tremolo speed usually matches the song tempo. It is very smooth and David can go from finger tremolo on one note to whammy bar on the next, and sometimes he switches in the same note! David never lets a note just sit still. It is always moving or changing. Much of what people think is the gear making a solo sound good is simply the fingers making the gear sound good. Muff's tend to be a bit harsh and fizzy, but when you add some fluidity to your playing it brings something out of the Muff that you can't get with any other fuzz pedal. Add a sweet chorus and some long delay over that and you are in tonal heaven. BIG MUFF - A good Ram's Head Big Muff, early V3 Big Muff, or Civil War Big Muff are the ultimate pedals for this tone. For The Wall studio recording tone use a Ram's Head type Muff and for the Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse era tones use a Civil War or green Russian Big Muff. There is a "magic" area for the Gilmouish tone knob setting on a Muff, and that is around 35-40% /10:30-11:00 from true zero. It will vary depending on how bright your amp and other gear is set. There are other pedals with Muff based circuits that work as well, such as the BYOC Large Beaver Muff clone, Stomp Under Foot RHM Fuzz, VRH Fuzz, or CWM fuzz, Pete Cornish P-2, Skreddy Pink Flesh, and Skreddy Pig Mine. The ProCo Rat is a decent Muff substitute, but something like the Boss DS-1 is a bit too thin to get close to that tone. A modern USA reissue Big Muff, Little Big Muff, or Tone Wicker Big Muff will not handle creating this tone very well either. David has used a vintage Ram's Head Big Muff, a Pete Cornish P-1 Ram's Head clone (prior to The Wall recordings and in 2006), a Pete Cornish P-2 Muff clone, a Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff, and in 2006 an old Traingle Big Muff.
(top) Gilmour's Ram's Head and Electric Mistress in 1977 (bottom left to right) Gilmour's Cornish P-1 "custom fuzz" Ram's Head clone from the Animals era and On an Island tour, Ram's Head Big Muff from his 1986 board, his Civil War Big Muff from the Pulse board, and both Ram's Head and Triangle Big Muffs on top of his On an Island 2006 board COMPRESSION AND BOOSTING - I always like to add some compression from a Boss CS-2 compressor/sustainer with my Big Muffs to punch up the clarity and smooth the Muff fizz out. An MXR Dynacomp also sounds good with a Muff, but I think the CS-2 is the best combo. Some people like to lightly boost their Big Muff with a driver like the Colorsound Overdriver or BK Butler Tube Driver. David Gilmour has done this live and he may have used a booster in the studio. I get a remarkably similar tone to Comfortably Numb when adding the Colorsound with drive at 90% before the Muff with its sustain at about 45%. I also get the Muff to sound very close by itself, simply by turning the sustain up to around 80%. The Civil War and green Russian Big Muffs sound really good with a Tube Driver on low boost placed before the Muff for a smooth distortion, or after it for more attack and dirt. David has used the Dynacomp, CS-2, and Demeter Compulator for compression. For boosting he has used the Colorsound Power Boost, Colorsound Overdriver (similar to the Power Boost, but more gain), Pete Cornish ST-2 (Power Boost/Overdriver clone), B.K. Butler/Chandler Tube Driver, and later B.K. Butler Tube Driver. MODULATION - David's Comfortably Numb tone is almost always modulated and "wet", starting with what was likely rotating speakers in the studio recording, then a flanger, chorus, and in 2006 Gilmour stopped using modulation altogether. I think the Boss CE-2 chorus gives the best modulation to match the studio album tone, though the Boss CE-5 also works very well and it features a mix knob to keep the modulation from being too dominant. I typically run the CE-2 to a separate amp, but for the clips below I use a loop mixer to mix the chorus about 60/40 with the original signal. For the really heavy live Wall era modulation, use an old green Electric Mistress, or a Deluxe Electric Mistress. The various modulated effects David has used live are: Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker cabinet - The Wall studio recordings and live 1980/1981 - a very dominant effect unless parallel mixed. 18v green Electic Mistress flanger - The Wall live tour 1980/1981 - a very dominant effect unless parallel mixed. In the settings David used it almost sounded like a chorus. Boss CE-3 chorus - About Face tour 1984 - Not the best sounding Boss chorus, but David managed to make it sound good in his rig. Boss CE-2 chorus - A Momentary Lapse of Reason and Division Bell tours 1987 - 1994. This is perhaps the best chorus ever made, though it is a very dominant effect. David had a separate amp dedicated for the CE-2. Doppola rotating speakers - Division Bell tour 1994. I think this was used with the CE-2 on some songs. The Doppolas were basically heavy duty rotating speakers that created the "doppler" effect of a smaller Leslie speaker, but the Doppolas were larger with more output volume, and more suitable for live use. DELAY- An essential part of the Gilmour "wet" sound. The studio recording is 480ms. Live delay times varied, but generally David liked to use long delays for the outro solo - 470ms to 480ms, though really long delays of 500-550ms sound good too, with around 3-4 repeats. David used the MXR digital delay to simulate the sound of his old Echorec analog delay around the time of The Wall. I have used various digital delays over the years, including the Boss DD-2, DD-3, DD-20, Ibanez DE-7, and the TC Electonic Nova delay. All are good, warm sounding digital delays, with the old DD-2 being my favorite. The Elecrto-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man and MXR Carbon Copy delays are two other good analog delays that have a warm tape delay sound. Some people are tempted to add amp reverb, but reverb will suck and color all the "Gilmour" out of your tone. If you must use it, keep it dialed in low. I have reverb in my Fender Twin, but never dialed above 2 or 3. AMPLIFIER - For amplification, you need a clean amp with lots of head room. "Clean" meaning the amp does not break up or have any distortion when you turn it up. Sending a Muff signal into a slightly dirty amp generally sounds bad for Gilmour tone from my experience. Solid state amps will work, as long as they are clean, but real tube amps sound better. Having the amp fairly loud is also important with a Big Muff. The hotter the tubes get in the amp, the more saturated and smooth the Muff tone gets. I use a Fender Twin Reverb 100w amp, volume around 4-5. A Hiwatt DR-103 would be the ultimate amp for this tone, and that is David's main amp. He has also used a varierty of other tube amps, including Fenders. MY COMFORTABLY NUMB CLIPS - Below are examples of my take on the Comfortably Numb studio recording tone with my rig, using various pedals. Signal chain: American Standard Strat with Seymour Duncan SSL-5 bridge pickup -> Muff -> modulation -> delay -> clean '65 Fender Twin Reverb RI. Backing track is by Jani Ovaska from Gilmourish.com. FIRST SOLO - I have a page with clips about the first solo "wet" tone and modulation here. MESSING AROUND WITH ARTIFICIAL DOUBLE TRACKING - Here are a few clips I made taking my Ram's Head Big Muff dry solo tone, copying the track and panning left and right, with both slightly out of sync with the original by a few milliseconds. I added reverb and delay to the copied tracks, trying for a bigger sound like you hear on the studio recording. This is not exactly a true ADT, but close. I'm not sure this got any closer to the ADT sound of the original recording, but there is definitely some artificial doubling of the solo track on that version. |
PEDAL SETTINGS: Settings for the clips above are shown here. Settings may vary on your rig depending on your gear. AMP SETTINGS: Below are the typical settings I use for the Fender Twin Reverb amp used in most of my clips. I always go into the reverb channel, though I use very little amp reverb, and I never use the bright switch. |
Here are some older clips. The audio is not that great on these, but you can hear the basic Muff + modulation tone. |
BOOTLEGGED LIVE VERSIONS |
Here is a collection of live bootleg recordings of Comfortably Numb from 1980 to 2006. I suggest not listening to these in one sitting unless you want to get sick of this song! David Gilmour has used a wide variety of tones for the solos throughout the years. Some performances are better than others, but all of these are good. David never plays it the same twice, but there are key phrases from the original solos and phrases for live versions that David often repeats and mixes around to keep it interesting. I think he gets better at playing this on each tour because knows it so well, and the 2006 performances were incredible and full of energy. David has said that if you hear him play the outro solo note for note it is because he was not inspired that particular show, but when you hear him deviate and create something new, that's when the magic happens. Enjoy!
Nassau Coliseum, NewYork 2/28/1980, with the Black Stratocaster
Earls Court, London 6/17/1981 - Last Wall Show
Hammersmith, London April 1984
About Face Tour 1984 (exact date and venue unknown)
JFK Stadium, Philadelphia 9/19/1987
Wembley Stadium, London 8/5/1988
Superdome, New Orleans 4/14/1994
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"It think it's just pretty much him. He is obviously using a couple of effects, like a Big Muff and a delay, but it really is just his fingers, his vibrato, his choice of notes and how he sets his effects. I find it extraordinary when people think they can copy his sound by duplicating his gear. In reality, no matter how well you duplicate the equipment, you will never be able to duplicate the personality. - Gilmour's gear tech, Phil Taylor, on how Gilmour achieved his great tone on Comfortably Numb |
This article was written in October of 2009. Got any interesting info to add? Email me. |
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