NOTE: This website is frequently updated. Last update July 2020

DAVID GILMOUR TONE BUILDING - This website is about the guitar tones of my favorite guitarist, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. What do each of the pedals David Gilmour used do and how do you set them to get similar Pink Floyd tones? Which pickups, amps, and speakers work best for those tones? Here is a general guide to the gear and how to get many of the various tones throughout Gilmour's career. There are audio clips demonstrating building basic Gilmour tones using some of the same gear he used, designed to show what each individual piece of gear contributes to the sound. This is not a comprehensive song-by-song or album-by-album list by any means, just a general guide based on my research, and a deep dive into some of my favorite Gilmour tones. I also highly recommend you look at Gilmourish.com for a good album-by-album gear guide, detailed reference in areas not covered here, and some great gear articles and reviews.

GILMOUR PLAYING TECHNIQUES - All the gear in the world won't give you a Gilmour sound unless you study and learn David's playing style

PICKS and STRINGS - String Gauges and Picks

WHICH PEDALS TO USE - Covers Fuzz pedals (early tones) and Big Muffs (later tones), Compressors, Modulation, and Delays

SIGNAL CHAIN ORDER - A general guide to the signal chain order for effects in a Gilmour style rig

WHAT TYPE OF AMPLIFIERS TO USE - Amps that work best for Gilmour tones

WHAT TYPE OF SPEAKERS TO USE - Speakers that work best for Gilmour tones

ROTARY SPEAKERS, DOPPOLAS, AND THE RA-200 - David's rotary speaker cabinets and pedals that mimic the sound (coming soon)

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FUZZ FACE, BIG MUFF, TUBE DRIVER, RAT, and CORNISH PEDALS - Sound clips to illustrate the tone differences

GILMOUR'S INTEGRATED EFFECTS PEDALBOARD DESIGN - An article about Gilmour's early pedalboard design

DEALING WITH BIG MUFF NOISE - How to handle the hiss from these noisy high gain pedals

LINKED INPUTS - How to link Hiwatt inputs

AMP SETTINGS - Hiwatt and Fender amp settings

GILMOUR'S HIWATT SETTINGS - Gilmour Hiwatt settings from the 1970s to modern day

BIG MUFFS - An article About the various versions David has used

TUBE DRIVERS - An article bout the various versions David has used

POWER BOOST and OVERDRIVER - An article bout the Colorsound pedals David has used

DELAY / ECHO - Using delay and delay time settings

DELAY TIME LIBRARY - A song-by-song list of delay times used by David Gilmour

EMG DG-20 SA and Single Coil Pickups - Sound clips to illustrate the tone differences

1973 Dark Side of The Moon - The effects used and sound clips

1977 Animals - The effects used and sound clips (coming soon)

1979-81 The Wall - The effects used and sound clips (coming soon)

The Guitar Tones of Comfortably Numb - The effects used and sound clips

1984 and About Face - The effects used and sound clips

1984-1986 - The effects used and sound clips

1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason - The effects used and sound clips

1987-89 Delicate Sound of Thunder / AMLOR Tour / Venice Concert - The effects used and sound clips

1990-92 and the Knebworth Concert - The effects used and sound clips

1994 Pulse / Division Bell Tour - The effects used and sound clips

2006 On An Island / Remember That Night / Live in Gdansk - The effects used and sound clips

2015 / 2016 Rattle That Lock Tour - The effects used and sound clips (coming soon)

...... ...... . .... . .

Backing Tracks - A selection of backing tracks for practice to play along with or record covers

Assembling a Black Strat replica and Strat setup tips - Everything you need to know to creat your own Black Strat

The Electric Mistress and Big Muff Pi - The perfect combo for The Wall and Final Cut tones

Boosting a Big Muff - How to use an overdrive pedal to drive and EQ your Muff

Building a Pedalboard - A blog about building my all-eras Gilmour/Pink Floyd pedal board