hi,
i have an american deluxe ash and was thinking about changing pups to get more of a Gilmour sound.my guitar has the SCN pups and the s1 switch but if i had to eliminate the s1 thats fine.any advice would be great.

Read this: http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=66

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Thanks that is great but an awful lot of info for me to take in.I need a more simple explanation of what pups i would need.

Fender neck and middle pickups dated 1971 (installed the whole pickguard assembly from a ‘71 bullet truss rod Strat in June 1973) and a Seymour Duncan custom wound SSL-1C bridge pickup (he used a Dimarzzo FS-1 on the wall) (SSL-1C installed late 1979 post wall)

Plus an additional pickup switch. This was added sometime during the recording of David’s first solo album in ‘78 combining the neck and bridge pickups

As KTM points out below, the strat is just one brick in the wall. His sound is the sum of several factors (mainly the man himself)

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

A HIWATT amp, lots of reverb, compression, a TBX tone control, generous use of a $30,000 Pete Cornish custom pedal board and of course the best hands in the business. Get that and you'll pretty much have it nailed. It's easy.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

The last I heard/read, Gilmour uses EMG SA pu's. He said it wasn't necessarily for better tone, but it eliminated the noise he would get from he elaborate lighting used at PF shows.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Gilmour sounds like Gilmour no matter what he plays. I'd look more towards effects and technique than pups.

He did use a red strat with active emg's until reclaiming the black strat from the Hard Rock cafe.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

You need,
1. Fender Fat 50 in the neck position
2.Fender Hand Wound Pickup (69's) in the middle
3.S.D. SSL-5 in the bridge
4. Toggle switch to turn neck pup on/off
5.Good tube amp and effects that can be seen on www.gilmourish.com

That's a start!!

The Gilmour tone is great, but he likes to wash down his tone with effects. I don't think pu's alone will be enough ton nail that tone

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

First off, I'd think long and hard before pulling out those SCNs and S-1. Those are some nice features, and doing so will kill the value of the guitar. But that is just an opinion...

As for going after Gilmour, I agree with going after effects. Remember that Gilmour goes thru his huge rack, too. You are going to need some chorus, delay, and compression -- with some rich distortion.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

True enough but the OP asked specifically about pups.
But I would not dismantle an American Deluxe to get there. Only my opinion!

Or you could do like Hop and score the bad@$$ CS replica! I'm soo jealous of that stick!

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Or you could do a partsocaster with a 70's style body , a 57 ri neck, and a loaded Gilmour pick-guard.

Keep what you have and get a superior graphic EQ.

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You dig?