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Hey guys, does anyone have any reccomendations to get that great Floyd tone? I've seen Gilmour's rig diagram and so I was wondering what other's recommend in terms of trying to that tone. Everyone says start off with the EMG DG pickups and mid boost, and others say vintage sounding pickups are fine. Any other thoughts? Amps? Pedals?

USA '57 vintage reissue Strat with rosewood fretboard I think. I'm pretty sure he uses EMG SA pickups though, not DG's. He fits an EXG expander and an SPC Mid-Pressence

Saw him on TV lastnight...he had a killer tone and I didn't see an EMG for miles!

get a Strat, 57 reissue will do, if you don't want to dump $1400.00, get a Jimmy Vaughan, these are killer guitars that are more playable out of the box then a 57 reissue, get a HiWatt or something damn close and a **** load of FX pedals...Start with a good delay and an Electric Mistress flanger, I have also heard that David uses a Big Muff, but Im not sure about that...good luck

Gilmour's guitar on the latest Live 8 show shows him playing his well worn Black strat again that he used in the late 70's early 80s Floyd stuff..... It had a locking Trem bar at one point and you could see the wood had been filled back in and a vintage style strat bridge put back in..... It looked like he had single coils in that strat and not the EMG's he had in his 1984-94 Floyd era guitars...... I figure a stock USA 57 reissue strat would be a fine guitar to start the gilmour sound from...... If you don't have that money then look at the Mexican reissue i guess....

Amps.. Gilmour loves Fenders!!! Bassmans and Twins... He mostly has a pair of them in stereo. His amps have been tweeked!

His smaller older Cornish Pedalboard is what he did most of the vintage 70s Floyd tours with... Try and find some pedals to get those sounds and you are on your way..... He is one of the few guitarist that prefers pedals for his OD and Distortion sounds over amp od.....

WhoFan

USA '57 vintage reissue Strat with rosewood fretboard I think. Definately with the DG 20 package.

Amp-wise I think he's used everything. Though particularly Hi-Watt heads with Marshall 4x12's with Celestion speakers.

Effects is where things get interesting though. I heard somewhere that the whole routing idea came about because of his use of so many effects. Budget wise though, I think this list will get you in shouting distance:

Boss CS-2 (compressor)
Pro Co Rat 2 (distortion)
Boss GE-7 (EQ) (He uses loads of these I think)
E-H Big Muff (Fuzz)
Chandler Tube Driver (Overdrive) (Very expensive as well)
Uni-Vibe
E-H Electric Mstirss
Arbiter Fuzz Face (Not sure if you can still get these)

Plus loads more. I've not sure what he uses for time based effects (reverb, delay etc) but I'm pretty sure it's rack gear.Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Benja

The thing I'm finding hard is the switch in tones he can get. For example, the intro to Sorrow doesn't sound anything like a single coil (that I know of anyway) yet the beginning to Coming Back to Life sounds very glassy. Then there's the lead tone What do you want from me - amazing array of sounds. I thought I'd start off with Texas Specials in my strat but now think that maybe they're too dark sounding.

You should PM Thames or Joe Belley, since they're in Canada's best Floyd tribute band. I'll bet those guys have torn apart Gilmour's work, for both tones and 5 way strat positions.

Have you seen the Roger Waters DVD? His guitarist gets a pretty decent semblance using a Yamaha digital amp

Yeah, I wasn't expecting it...

try they might be able to help.


Originally Posted by stevie_beestry they might be able to help.

1


Originally Posted by stevie_beestry they might be able to help.

Good call, that is a very good site, lots of info on rigs, album by album too.

Hey Jonesy .. thanks !

Seraphial... ok there's no hidden secret :

- A Strat, preferably, with med output single-coils. The DG20 is perfect if you want the post-Waters tone, otherwise, they're not necessary. I personaly use Dimarzio VVs and my bandmate JoeB has Fender HOT Noiseless. A TBX tone control or other kind of EQ on the guitar is a good addition.

- A clean amp, Fender or Hiwatt is the standard. BUT not limited to that. I play thru a Laney GH50L, which IS actually a hidden treasure . I plug in the LOW input, for max headroom. This amp, IMO, is a cross between Hiwatt/Marshall, modern version, very simple design, no channel switching, no reverb, and great features (6L6/EL34 switch, series/parallel/off EFX loop, toroidal PT, damp switch, all film caps, etc.). I like the cristal clean of this amp, and I can kick in the add. switchable gain stage for solos. The JJ E34L is a fine match in this amp for cleans IMO. A Fender Twin Reverb and Blues Deville (bandmate) are fine amps too, but a FX loop is necessary.

EFX : I'd personaly avoid any TS-style drive. Mid-humps arent the thing with gilmour. A smooth Fuzz (eg. Fulltone '69), a heavy fuzz (BigMuff or Soulbender), and clean boost and a sweet overdrive. A good Dynacomp style compressor. A good analog chorus. Electric Mistress is interesting but not necessary. A phaser, really important (EHx Small Stone). A vibe, leslie-in-a-box thing (Voodoo Lab MicroVibe). A good reverb, and delay.

That should cover it!

More to come later!

At one point he was using a Boss Metal zone for some solos. You can get a pretty good Gilmore tone out of those, amp; they're about 40-60 clams used.

Every time I see info about his rig, he always seems to have something new in it.

He used a Boss Metallizer exactly, maybe during MLOR, and About Faces (solo album). But it is NOT an essential piece at all.

I didnt found gilmourish.com really impressive. Yes, he put alot of work on, but his suggested settings sound strange...

I heard a guy get great floyde tone from a strat thru a line 6 amp. it had all the processing stuff on it and the strat did the rest. it wasnt perfect but it sure sounded close.

I've got a couple of settings on my old Zoom 3030 that get by for me. Again not perfect, but then me neither!!!

since rading this thread and seeing Floyd on TV I got curoius...I went on a trek to see how close I could get. I grabbed my Jimmy Vaughan Strat loaded with Duncan pickups, my Sound City head, my old Big Muff, Samall Stone phaser, Electric Mistress flanger, Boss DD-5 delay, Duncan pickup booster, and tweak fuzz...I was able to find a whole stash of Gilmour tones!!! I would also like to add that with a few tweaks to the pedals these tones were also able to be had with my Fender Twin reverb!

I should also add that a UniVibe of some description would have been a welcome addition, but I never use one, so I don't have one...

Guy on Fire, you got it right dude! Gilmour tone looks complicated, but with the right basic stuff (clean amp, strat, some boxes) and, of course, technique, you're 90% there.