FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION, CORONA, 1989

This Stratocaster EC Signature was supplied directly to David Gilmour in early 1990 by Fender Custom Shop, after Fender’s Director of Marketing Dan Smith visited Gilmour at his Astoria houseboat studio and suggested he give their recently released Eric Clapton signature model a try. Hitting the market in 1988, the Eric Clapton was the first signature model to be released by Fender. Soon after receiving the guitar, Gilmour chose it for a guest appearance with John Martyn at the Shaw Theatre, London, on 31st March 1990, during Martyn’s The Apprentice Tour, joining him on stage for the final three songs of the set. The performance was filmed and released on VHS in August 1990, and later re-released on DVD in 2006 as The Apprentice in Concert. The footage included a brief introductory fragment where Martyn and Gilmour admitted they had barely rehearsed the performance. The following month, Gilmour played the guitar in a courtroom-based French and Saunders comedy sketch which saw him appear as a star witness alongside fellow guitarists Mark Knopfler, Lemmy Kilmister, Gary Moore and Mark King of Level 42, aired on the BBC on 19th April 1990. Later that summer, Gilmour used the guitar during recording sessions with Louise Goffin at his Astoria houseboat studio for her follow-up album project with Warner Music subsidiary EastWest Records. Rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky captured a number of images of Gilmour playing the EC Signature during the session on 26th June 1990, one of which was published in the April 1991 Q magazine photographic supplement Volume 7: in the studio and, years later, featured in the official music video for Louder Than Words, the concluding track on Pink Floyd’s 2015 album The Endless River.