Kit’s Secret Guitar, Gear, and Music Page
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ON THE TURNING AWAY SOLO / PINK FLOYD - Here is my gear and attempts at this amazing David Gilmour solo tone. The original song is a classic and the solo ranks up there with David's Comfortably Numb outro solo. Gilmour likely used his Ram's Head Big Muff for the solos on the studio recording, from Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason album. He also used the RH Muff for the live 1987, 1988, and 1990 tour dates, captured on the Delicate Sound of Thunder album. David also had a Boss HM-2 at the time but I don't think that was used for the solos. For the later 1994 Pulse tour David switched to a Sovtek Civil War Big Muff, made in Russia.
For my rig I was going for more of the Momentary Lapse of Reason/Delicate Sound of Thunder tour tone. Any decent Big Muff type pedal with a darker tone, such as a 1990s Sovtek Big Muff, will work. The Red Army Overdrive, Civil War Big Muff, and green Sovtek Big Muffs are all perfect for that tone. A good high gain Muff clone like the DG-1 Drivegate, Absolutely Analog Green Russian, Skreddy Pig Mine, or Pete Cornish P-2 are good choices as well. Stay away from later Big Muffs, such as the USA and Russian Big Muffs made after 2000. I have a section on all of the Big Muffs HERE.
A Boss chorus like the old CE-2, CE-3, or later CE-5 is also needed for the smooth modulation you hear, and these units work perfectly with vintage Big Muffs, enhancing their tonal characteristics. Some compression and a booster pedal to add some gain is also a good idea to achieve this tone if you are using a Sovtek Big Muff, and a slight mids boost from an EQ to simulate the tone circuit of David's EMG pickups helps. For delay, I use a TC Electonic Nova delay with a warm analog setting, about 3-4 repeats, at 410ms to 440ms. Any good, warm sounding digital or analog delay will work. Some good ones are the old 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 Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man and MXR Carbon Copy delays are two other good analog delays that have a warm tape delay sound.
I used a 2008 American Standard Strat with Seymour Duncan SSL-5 bridge pickup into a clean '65 Fender Twin Reverb re-issue. The backing track is from Gilmourish.com, but I have extended it a bit to make a longer solo.
On the Turning Away Solo - MXR Dynacomp > Skreddy Pink Flesh > Boss CE-5 > TC Electonic Nova delay (The audio quality is kind of crappy in this clip, recorded with a camcorder)
COMING SOON - A few of my favorite versions of this song from Pink Floyd's 1987-1990 Momentary Lapse of Reason tour and the 1994 Division Bell tour.