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An Exclusive Look At The David Gilmour Guitar Auction

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The pre-sale exhibition features immersive multimedia. All images: Eleanor Jane

In January, Christie’s announced details of David Gilmour’s intention to auction over 120 instruments from his personal guitar collection in New York on 20 June 2019, with the sale proceeds benefiting charitable causes.

Sure to be the most lucrative guitar auction in history, the collection comprises guitars that the Pink Floyd star has used throughout his career, including his famous black 1969 Stratocaster aka ‘The Black Strat’. Other highlights include the all-gold 1955 Les Paul used for the solo on Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) and the white #0001 Stratocaster used to record the song’s rhythm part.

Gilmour purchased his 1969 Stratocaster at Manny’s in New York in 1970

Wednesday 27 March saw Christie’s host a special media preview of the pre-sale exhibition at its London saleroom. Featuring every instrument in the sale, the exhibition will be open to the public until 31 March. Entry is free, with timed tickets available via the auction house. Highlights of the sale will then be exhibited in Los Angeles from 7-11 May, before the collection is reassembled for the New York sale preview from 14-19 June.

Wish you were here?

This morning’s media preview event begins with the auction house’s musical instruments specialist Kerry Keane opening The Black Strat’s case in front of a scrum of photographers, declaring, “Here is the most iconic guitar in rock ‘n’ roll history.” After marvelling at the jaw-dropping array of guitars on display – including so many with voices familiar to millions of music fans across the globe – we sit down with Keane to find out more.

Kerry Keane from Christie’s unveils The Black Strat to the media

“It’s an extraordinary collection and it’s wonderful to be surrounded by guitars of this quality,” says Keane. “We have good expectations, as does Mr Gilmour. The important aspect there is the mission. The mission of this sale is for proceeds to fulfil those philanthropic passions that Mr Gilmour has.”

“I’ve had a few wonderful conversations with him and a day spent with him back last year, talking about the collection and talking about what excited him and the guitars that he’s passionate about,” Keane continues.

Gilmour’s white Stratocaster features the serial number 0001

“When I first started vetting the collection, it became evident that there are instruments here that exhibit a wide berth of guitar history, from the very early Rickenbacker [lap steel] to more contemporary guitars made maybe only 10 years ago.”

“In his instrument collection, when it concentrated say on Fenders, I was excited to find an extraordinarily pure Esquire, the magnificent ’52 Blackguard Telecaster, a couple of Broadcasters, a ’54 Stratocaster, that’s fun stuff.”

And it’s not just Fenders: “One turns their back and they look on the other side of the room and here’s this terrific ’55 Les Paul that gave that thick and rich solo to Another Brick In The Wall. What I find interesting is, it is obligatory for any rock guitarist to own a Les Paul, but they tend to gravitate towards humbuckers.”

This ’55 all-gold Les Paul was used for the solo on Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)

“Mr Gilmour is a single-coil man, and he loves P-90s. He described it as giving a ‘raunchier sound’. In his hands, that solo is spectacular. It’s rich, thick and lyrical. What he pulls out of that P-90 is quite phenomenal.”

High hopes

Although the likes of The Black Strat will inevitably grab the headlines, Floyd fans should fear not – there are guitars in the catalogue that are much more accessible. “There are instruments priced here from $300,” states Keane. “There’s all price points. When one looks at the Takamines, the very reasonably priced Ovations, here’s an opportunity for a collector or musician to buy a guitar that’s reasonably priced that David Gilmour played.”

This ultra-rare 1958 Gretsch White Penguin is estimated at $100,000-$150,000

“He’s obviously still touring and performing, so he has kept some guitars for that,” adds Caitlin Graham, pop culture specialist at Christie’s. “But I think we really have the most recognisable and significant guitars from his career in the sale.”

Acquired in 1984, this Strat was Gilmour’s main live squeeze for the next two decades

“There’s the Black Strat, the red Stratocaster that he played for 20 years when the Black Strat was retired for a period and some really lovely acoustic guitars that have been used in the studio since the 1970s. These include the Martin D-35 that has been David Gilmour’s primary studio acoustic since 1971.”

This sale is emphatically not an indication that David Gilmour is set to retire from music, but we’ll leave the final word to the man himself: “Many of the guitars in this sale are guitars that have given me a tune, so a lot of them have earned their keep, you might say,” Gilmour told Christie’s. “These guitars, they’ve given so much to me, it’s time for them to move on to other people who hopefully will find joy and perhaps create something new.”

Stay tuned for more from the David Gilmour auction pre-sale in the coming days.

Pink Floyd : The Later Years Boxset – Confirmed By Aubrey Powell

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Aubrey Powell recently confirmed in a Press release confrence for the opening of Pink Floyd – Their Mortal Remains in Dortmund, that not only is he working on the Animals 5.1 SACD release due early next year. He is infact working on a secret new box yet entitled The Later Years which is a elaborate box set of their collected work of Pink Flloyd between 1987 – to present (Roger Waters quit the band in 1986 and is not featured on the last 3 studio albums or acompanying tours)

It was Aubrey Powell himself who confirmed that he is currently working on not only the exhibitions “Hipgnosis – Daring To Dream” and “Pink Floyd – Their Mortal Remains “ , but also a still “secret” new box set, or two, and is keeping himself busy.

It was also stated in the confrence that  the elaborate box set should be available in November. He already has ideas for the cover.

Following this new information a member of Pulse and Spirit, our friends over at the german based fanzine posted that

“ I was in Wilhelmshaven on Sunday and there I had the opportunity to ask specifically! The LATER YEARS BOX should therefore be released in November 2019, including the complete concert of the Nassau concert in 1988 as part of the Delicate Sound Of Thunder tour … Also for the new ANIMALS cover he has become active, it will show the Battersea in the conversion with the construction cranes in the evening light! This should come in early 2020, whether as a boxset he could not or did not want to say … ”

We will of course keep you upto date as more information becomes available.

David Gilmour : Feature In April Edition Number 444 Of UK’s Guitarist Magazine

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Just hitting the shelves is a new edition of the UK’s Guitarist magazine with an issue number of 444, This is a very intresting edition that features an extensive coverage and anidotes from David Gilmour on his upcoming guitar auction.

Theres is some great photographs and background information on some of Davids key guitars and the alterations that some instruments have had to make them personal for Davids playing prefrences.

The new issue is currently on shelves in all major UK retailers but for those overseas dont panic you can order your copy online by Clicking Here.

 

David Gilmour : A Guided Tour Of The David Gilmour Guitar Collection

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A Guided Tour Of The David Gilmour Guitar Collection

Take a guided tour of The David Gilmour Guitar Collection with BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Matt Everitt.

The exhibition is open until 31 March, entry is free by reservation.

A tour of the collection is currently on view in Christies, London from the 27th to the 31st March.

Book your free ticket by clicking here

David Gilmour: My Life In Guitars

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As the exhibition of The David Gilmour Guitar Collection opens in London, the Pink Floyd singer and songwriter plucks some pearls of wisdom from his long history with guitars

“My next door neighbour was given a guitar when I was around 11 or 12. He probably hung onto it for around a year but I don’t think he ever touched it. We were friends and I asked him whether I could borrow it. I don’t think I ever gave it back.”

The Fred Gretsch Manufacturing Company, Brooklyn, 1957. A solid-body electric guitar, silver jet, 6129. Estimate: $6,000-8,000. Offered in The David Gilmour Guitar Collection on 20 June at Christie’s in New York

“There’s nothing more depressing than trying to learn the guitar on one that’s out of tune. My parents bought me the Pete Seeger Guitar Tutor record, which was a 12-inch vinyl record that came with a book that explained the lessons and showed you chord charts. The first lesson was how to tune a guitar using a pitch pipe.”

“The Stratocaster was my boyhood dream guitar. I loved Hank Marvin playing the Fender Stratocaster but I always wanted to sing and play.”

“As a teenager in Cambridge I used to spend a lot of time in a music shop called Ken Stevens. It was very narrow with guitars all the way down both sides. There was a Stratocaster hanging in there for years, which we sometimes persuaded the owner to let us touch or play the occasional tune on. I could never afford it though.”

“When I was young I copied every other guitar player. Copying is where you start and a big part of the way forward. After a while you find that all that stuff merges into something that becomes your own sound and style.”

“The first guitar my parents bought me was a Tatay. It was a classical type Spanish guitar. I think I’ve still got it somewhere.”

“I always had a fondness for Gretsch guitars. Maybe it’s because Duane Eddy played a Gretsch in his early years. You can hear a guitar on a track on the radio and you can usually tell when it’s a Gretsch.”

“My first electric guitar experience was with a Selmer Rex archtop guitar with F holes. They were popular with jazz guitarists and were designed with space for a pick-up to be added. I bought a pick-up, put it on and things moved on from there.

Gibson Incorporated, Kalamazoo, 1963. An acoustic guitar, Everly Brothers, J-180. Estimate: $10,000-15,000. Offered in The David Gilmour Guitar Collection on 20 June at Christie’s in New York

“I didn’t want to specialise in one area, I wanted to learn a bit of everything. I wanted to be able to play Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers songs but I also loved acoustic music, as well as Rock and Roll I loved folk music and I loved acoustic blues music. I was listening to Pete Seeger, to Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, who was one of my favourites and a great player of the 12-string guitar.”

“British radio was very haphazard when I was growing up. The strangest pieces of music in all sorts of different categories would follow on from each other. I rather liked that.”

“Someone counts, one, two, three, four and you’ve got to be there, you can’t stop. If you make a mistake, you can’t go back and fix it; you’ve just got to keep moving on. There’s nothing like being in a group of people who are playing something to improve your learning.”

“I don’t look back at my career and think this was a great solo and this one wasn’t. I just do them, and hope for the best.”

“Manny’s was a very New York experience. I bought the Black Strat from Manny’s in 1970. The shop was already legendary. It’s hard to describe but it was a wonderful place.”

“I helped mix the sound for Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. Not a lot of people know that.”

“I bought the Martin D-35 acoustic from a man on 48th Street in New York. I was going to Manny’s to buy an acoustic and this guy came up to me and said, ‘What do you want? What are you getting? Then he pulled out this guitar. I had a strum and said, ‘Okay, that will do.’ It was very nice then and still is gorgeous.”

Fender Electric Instrument Company, Fullerton, 1952. A solid-body electric guitar, Telecaster. Estimate: $35,000-55,000. Offered in The David Gilmour Guitar Collection on 20 June at Christie’s in New York

“My first Fender was a Telecaster. My parents gave it to me for my 21st birthday. They lived in New York and had a friend of theirs, who was coming to Paris where I was living at the time, deliver it to me. It was an enormous thrill.”

“The Stratocaster tends to enhance the personality of the person playing it. People playing Fenders are more recognisably themselves than people playing some of the other well known guitars.”

“The Black Strat was just a guitar. It was my guitar; it was the one I used. What can you say? It has earned its keep.”

“I’d always kind of wanted a Gibson Les Paul. We used to be sent various circulars of guitars that were on sale throughout the world. There was one guitar trader in New Jersey who had the 1955 Les Paul on his list. It was all gold — the back and the sides and the back of the neck, and it looked great. I bought it and had it sent to LA where we were working on The Wall album. Not long after it arrived I used it for the solo on Another Brick in the Wall, (Part 2). We injected it straight through the desk and onto tape, not through any amplifier at all. I’ve always loved that guitar.”

“Back then, for someone like me, travelling in the States was like going into a candy store. You could go into an old junk shop and among all the AK47s and other terrifying things for sale there would be guitars, old guitars. Several of the guitars that I own were bought in second hand stores around the United States, and in Seattle particularly. In London they were harder to track down.”

C.F. Martin & Company, Nazareth, 1971. An acoustic guitar, D12-28. Estimate: $5,000-10,000. Offered in The David Gilmour Guitar Collection on 20 June at Christie’s in New York

“Pieces of music often present themselves when you’re strumming. A couple of notes can make a little connection in your mind so you play them again and then they expand a little bit. Ninety per cent of the little tunes I play, later on don’t seem to have any particular meaning or magic. And then you play something else and it has a magic to it and you hope that magic will work for other people too. There’s no real way of explaining that or understanding quite how that works.”

“I didn’t hunt for the notes on Shine On You Crazy Diamond, they found themselves. I was sitting playing my Black Strat with the chaps in a rehearsal room in King’s Cross and somehow they fell out of the guitar.”

“There are fortunate moments when someone has told you something and you’ve got it wrong. I had some friends who were working at Abbey Road on an album. Bruce Welch, the rhythm guitar player in The Shadows, was producing them. They had put down a couple of acoustic tracks and he said he wanted to put a high strung guitar on as well to thicken the sound of the acoustics. I didn’t know what that was but it sounded interesting and I decided to work on my own version, so I put some thin gauge strings onto one of my Ovations. I found out later it wasn’t remotely what the normal high strung tuning was, but it worked for me. I wrote what became Comfortably Numb on that guitar with that tuning. It has remained in that tuning ever since. “

Ovation Instruments, New Hartford, 1976. An acoustic-electric guitar, custom legend, 1619-4. Estimate: $3,000-5,000. Offered in The David Gilmour Guitar Collection on 20 June at Christie’s in New York

” I like the older guitars. It feels like they have been played a lot over years, and the vibrations of the different pieces of wood that make up the instrument have melded into one overall sound that’s beautiful. “

” I once used a Jedson guitar to break my way out of a room I was trapped in. I lived in a house in the country that had a little guitar room with old fashioned studio doors that clamped shut. Late one night the door handle broke and I couldn’t get out. I was trapped inside with nothing but a load of guitars. This was long before mobile phones, so I took the leg off a slide guitar and used it to break out.”

” Guitars are always there and I doodle on them every day. Often I’ll take out my iPhone and record the doodles. I have hundreds. They give me ideas for songs. One of these days I will have a listen through them and decide on some to take further. “

“These are instruments that have served me very well. They’ve given me music and I’ve loved them, but now it’s time for them to go off and be part of someone else’s musical life. I’m hoping they’ll inspire music in other people.”

“All these guitars have their individuality, their own tone and some element of magic about them. I hope that I can do some good by selling them and using the money to help to make this world a slightly better place.”

David Gilmour : The David Gilmour Gilmour Guitar Collection Promo Video

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The David Gilmour Guitar Collection Promo Video

This June, Christie’s presents The David Gilmour Guitar Collection: the personal guitar collection of the rock ‘n’ roll legend David Gilmour — guitarist, singer and songwriter of Pink Floyd.

With more than 120 guitars, including his preferred Fender models of Broadcasters, Esquires, Telecasters and Stratocasters, the auction on 20 June marks a rare opportunity for guitar aficionados, musicians and collectors to explore one of the world’s most comprehensive groupings of guitars that hooked generations.

In advance of the New York sale, the entire David Gilmour Collection will be exhibited at Christie’s London followed by highlights in Los Angeles and will conclude with a full preview in New York. Estimates start at $300 with proceeds to benefit charity.

The David Gilmour Guitar Collection Preview opens in London on 27 March. Are you ready?