Bonehead question: Which pickup does Gilmour use for leads?

[BABMusic]

I was listening to David Gilmour's song Scattered and I became aware that I've never known which pickup Gilmour uses when doing his solos. It doesn't sound like a Strat bridge or the neck, so is he using the bridge / middle option? His lead tone seems to be fairly consistent when he's using more of a high gain tone. His lead tone sounds amazing on The Final Cut too. Say what you want about that album, but his lead tone still sounds great.

I'm sure one of you guys know.

 

[rsm]

I'm pretty sure he uses his bridge pickup for leads, but what pickup it is has changed a few times, and may be different in different guitars?

FWIW, not chaisng Gilmour tones


JAM pedals made a Gilmore inspired board:

https://reverb.com/item/41693234-jam-pedals-pink-flow-multi-effect-pedalboard

 

[BABMusic]

I'm pretty sure he uses his bridge pickup for leads, but what pickup it is has changed a few ties, and may be different in different guitars?

FWIW, not chaisng Gilmour tones


JAM pedals made a Gilmore inspired board:

https://reverb.com/item/41693234-jam-pedals-pink-flow-multi-effect-pedalboard



View attachment 464178

Really? I wonder if he had a way of combining the bridge with the neck. It sounds like there's a rounder bottom to his lead tone. Just trying to get a clue on what he's doing. Thanks

 

[RaceU4her]

Really? I wonder if he had a way of combining the bridge with the neck. It sounds like there's a rounder bottom to his lead tone. Just trying to get a clue on what he's doing. Thanks

maybe the dynacomp fattening it up a little

 

[rsm]

Let's ask google:

 

[eero]

I was listening to David Gilmour's song Scattered and I became aware that I've never known which pickup Gilmour uses when doing his solos. It doesn't sound like a Strat bridge or the neck, so is he using the bridge / middle option? His lead tone seems to be fairly consistent when he's using more of a high gain tone. His lead tone sounds amazing on The Final Cut too. Say what you want about that album, but his lead tone still sounds great.

I'm sure one of you guys know.

I absolutely agree

 

[Anje]

I don't know the details of this particular song, sounds pretty much strat as I remember the live version; but important to keep in mind that David's main "black strat" has had a switch to add the neck (or is it the bridge?) pickup to any other pickup combination since the 70's. This gives a couple additional great tone options to a strat-style guitar (Neck + bridge and all 3 pickups).

 

[BABMusic]

I don't know the details of this particular song, sounds pretty much strat as I remember the live version; but important to keep in mind that David's main "black strat" has had a switch to add the neck (or is it the bridge?) pickup to any other pickup combination since the 70's. This gives a couple additional great tone options to a strat-style guitar (Neck + bridge and all 3 pickups).

Ah, so maybe that's it. That's something I want to do on my guitar.

 

[Anje]

Definitely worth it to me; I've done the mod years ago on a '69 strat, and had a few 80's Charvel / Schecter "superstrats" that had independent pickup on/off switches, loved those additional tone options.

 

[Anje]

+ his main black strats have also had multiple different stronger bridge pickups since the 70's too; especially the early Dimarzio FS-1, later replaced by Duncan's own version that became the SSL-5 if I got my Duncan numbering correct. Definitely is a key part to his strat bridge tone.

 

[eero]

I remember an old interview with Gilmour where he talked about the studio recording of The Final Cut, where he said he used a Hiwatt combo with his standard pedalboard assembled by Pete Cornish.
IMO, along with the Pulse live version, it’s his absolute best sound.
On Pulse he used EMG SAs with SPC and EXG pickups, with modded Alembic preamp in Hiwatt heads return, always with a Cornish pedalboard and his rack

 

[ChurchHill]

I was listening to David Gilmour's song Scattered and I became aware that I've never known which pickup Gilmour uses when doing his solos. It doesn't sound like a Strat bridge or the neck, so is he using the bridge / middle option? His lead tone seems to be fairly consistent when he's using more of a high gain tone. His lead tone sounds amazing on The Final Cut too. Say what you want about that album, but his lead tone still sounds great.

I'm sure one of you guys know.

Have you seen https://www.gilmourish.com/ - no affiliation but it seems to be a great source of Gilmour tone chasing. Specifically, https://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=11032 covers Luck and Strange. Could it have been a Duo Jet? This site says he used that, a Les Paul with P-90s, and reissue NOS Black Strat, and a 335, but doesn't cover specifics for Scattered.

I absolutely agree about The Final Cut. I think those are Gilmour's best tones and best solos. The album is a lot of Waters' whining, but whatever was going on between them at the time, Gilmour's frustration with the situation led to some incredible emotion on those solos. I particularly like Your Possible Pasts and The Final Cut. The tone isn't much different from The Wall, but the playing is much more raw.

 

[Shevek]

Have you seen https://www.gilmourish.com/ - no affiliation but it seems to be a great source of Gilmour tone chasing. Specifically, https://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=11032 covers Luck and Strange. Could it have been a Duo Jet? This site says he used that, a Les Paul with P-90s, and reissue NOS Black Strat, and a 335, but doesn't cover specifics for Scattered.

I absolutely agree about The Final Cut. I think those are Gilmour's best tones and best solos. The album is a lot of Waters' whining, but whatever was going on between them at the time, Gilmour's frustration with the situation led to some incredible emotion on those solos. I particularly like Your Possible Pasts and The Final Cut. The tone isn't much different from The Wall, but the playing is much more raw.

Once in a while I really like The Final Cut. I used to have it on cassette in high school..no way to skip a track. I can enjoy quite a few of those tunes.

 

[ChurchHill]

Once in a while I really like The Final Cut. I used to have it on cassette in high school..no way to skip a track. I can enjoy quite a few of those tunes.

Yeah, me, too, along with The Wall, Animals, and WYWH. Took me forever to really appreciate DSTM and it's still not my favorite. Even when I got them on CD, I never skipped a track.

Gilmour's phrasing is sublime. Waters whining about how unfair Kind Old King George took his father away is, well, something else. War is always a tragedy and, no, it wasn't fair but think about all the stuff he'd have to bitch about if we'd lost that one. Personally, I'm extremely grateful for his father's and his family's sacrifice, I'm just sick of hearing about it.

To be fair, The Final Cut does have some good songs on it. Thinking about Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert, When the Tigers Broke Free, or The Gunner's Dream, or The Fletcher Memorial Home, among others.

 

[BABMusic]

Have you seen https://www.gilmourish.com/ - no affiliation but it seems to be a great source of Gilmour tone chasing. Specifically, https://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=11032 covers Luck and Strange. Could it have been a Duo Jet? This site says he used that, a Les Paul with P-90s, and reissue NOS Black Strat, and a 335, but doesn't cover specifics for Scattered.

I absolutely agree about The Final Cut. I think those are Gilmour's best tones and best solos. The album is a lot of Waters' whining, but whatever was going on between them at the time, Gilmour's frustration with the situation led to some incredible emotion on those solos. I particularly like Your Possible Pasts and The Final Cut. The tone isn't much different from The Wall, but the playing is much more raw.

So, it's like if the Wall is the BE100, the Final Cut is the Jose. I have seen that Gilmourish site, but had forgotten about it. I know Gilmour has used neck pickups on occasion for leads (Another Brick in the Wall 2, Gibson neck). I bet he was feeling like, "I will play as angry as possible, because this album sucks" when recording the Final Cut. It's not a bad album, but it's so depressing that I just can't listen to it all the time. Some of the songs have music that doesn't really match the lyrics. Take that last track, Two Suns in the Sunset.

If I get some kind of rejection, it's a good album to listen to.