Gilmour, Guitars & Gear
Gilmour, Guitars & Gear
In The Flesh Tour Equipment
In this column, I'll be examining Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's gear and playing techniques from a musician's point of view. Please feel free to e-mail me with questions and ideas for future articles if you feel you have an idea that readers of Spare Bricks might find of interest. Past articles are now posted at http://web.tampabay.rr.com/richm/sbarchive.htm
In this issue, I will be taking a look at the various guitars and amps used by the touring musicians from Roger Waters' 1999, 2000, and 2002 In The Flesh tours.
Doyle Bramhall II - Bramhall, who toured with Waters in 1999 and 2000, played two custom-built Stratocaster copies (one red, the other blue) a majority of the time. As a left-handed player, Bramhall's rosewood guitar necks would be strung upside down (a right-handed neck with the thin strings on top, thick strings on the bottom.) The Strat bodies would be the same as a left-handed guitar. In 1999, for "Comfortably Numb," Bramhall would sometimes use a sunburst hollow-body electric guitar. In 2000, he switched to a vintage pre-CBS sunburst Fender Strat with a rosewood fretboard as his third guitar. Bramhall used two Yamaha Amp heads into two 4 X 12-inch Marshall speaker cabinets. He would also use an acoustic guitar on occasion.
Jon Carin - Carin played a Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar during "Dogs" and used a lap steel guitar for "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Breathe" in 1999 and 2000.
Andy Fairweather-Low - Fairweather-Low played a heavily customized Fender Stratocaster. Two of the three single coil pickups were replaced by humbucking pickups in the bridge and middle positions. Fairweather-Low would play Waters' Fender Precision Bass when Waters would play acoustic guitar. On "It's A Miracle," Fairweather-Low played a sunburst Fender Jazz Bass. He played a Danelectro guitar during "Every Strangers Eyes" and in 2002 he added an Eric Clapton signature Fender Stratocaster to his collection of guitars. He also played acoustic guitar.
 Chester Kamen |
Chester Kamen - Joining the band for the 2002 leg of the tour, Kamen used a creme Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood fretboard and a sunburst Stratocaster with a rosewood fretboard. Kamen also ran two amp heads--an Orange and Hiwatt--into a pair of 4 X 12-inch speaker cabinets.
 Roger Waters |
Roger Waters - Waters used a Fender Precision Bass (black with maple fretboard) that appears to be the same bass he's used since the 1977 Animals tour. He played a Washburn RR300 Acoustic Guitar for the songs "Mother", "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert," "Southampton Dock", and "Pigs On The Wing (Part 1)". For "Comfortably Numb," Waters would play a high-strung sunburst Washburn Acoustic Guitar with a single neck pickup. A high-string guitar has the 5th, 4th and 3rd strings strung an octave higher like a 12-string guitar and a 1st string sits in place of the guitar's 6th string. This was Waters' setup from 1999-2000; though in 2000, Waters also played a red Fender Stratocaster during "The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range." In 2002, Waters used his own signature Washburn acoustic guitar, the RW300, in place of the RR300. He also used a high-strung Washburn for "Comfortably Numb," but a black guitar replaced the sunburst guitar.
Snowy White - For the majority of the show, in 1999, Snowy White played a sunburst Paul Reed Smith guitar into two Hiwatt amp heads with a 4 X 12-inch Marshall speaker cabinet. White also had a second Paul Reed Smith guitar. White would use a red Fender Stratocaster for "Dogs." For acoustic songs such as "Wish You Were Here," White would play an Ovation acoustic guitar. White played Waters' high-strung Washburn on "Welcome To The Machine." In 2000, White overhauled his equipment using a Gold-Top Gibson Les Paul with a pair or Vox AC300 amplifiers. In 2002 White's guitar line-up included a round back acoustic guitar, his Gold-Top Les Paul with two Fender Stratocasters. One of the Strats was black with maple fretboard, a 70's styled Strat, with the large headstock and logo, indicative of the CBS era Stratocasters.
 Snowy White (left) and Waters |