GUILD, TAKOMA, 2006

This guitar was one of two Guild 12-string guitars supplied directly to David Gilmour by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in May 2007. At Gilmour’s request, Fender installed a second wound G string on this guitar, in place of the usual smaller octave G string, and tuned it D to D prior to shipping. Gilmour liked the richness of the sound and kept the guitar for studio use. Gilmour can be seen playing a portion of the title track of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album Wish You Were Here on this guitar during an interview on his Astoria houseboat studio for a three-part documentary The Story of the Guitar, hosted by Alan Yentob and aired on the BBC in October 2008. Gilmour had recorded the original intro to Wish You Were Here on a 12-string guitar. In response to Yentob’s question Why would you use a 12-string? Gilmour strums and replies: Well, just listen to that and you tell me. Gilmour later used this guitar during solo recording sessions at his East Sussex recording studio in 2013, which developed into his first solo project in almost a decade, the 2015 album Rattle That Lock.