Well...just bought one. Put a tune on it...set up perfectly. WOW! What a credit to the custom shop! Wonderful tone and awesome action! I'm a very happy man!

That's good to hear. They are a fine instrument. Enjoy!!

Pics... or it didn't happen....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

^^This^^

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2008 MIA Standard Strat 3-tone Sunburst
2007 Taylor 310 Acoustic
Fender Blues Junior NOS Amp
Digitech Bad Monkey OD pedal

Hi. What changes from the normal American Strat
does Fender apply towards the David Gilmour Strat?
Toppscore

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Lots - it's a replica of Gilmour's "The Black Strat" as it exists today (or at least as it existed in say 2008/2009 - Dave likes to tinker with this one).

Spec-wise it has the neck shape of the early 80s CBS/Fender '57 Reissue Strats - it's not a V-neck like the current ones; its what they call a "small-shouldered C" neck, which means it's kind of in-between a C and a soft V but closer to a C. They are also pretty thin (.790" at the 1st fret and .870" at the 12th fret) - the deal was as Gilmour and his tech were restoring "The Black Strat" when they got it back from the Hard Rock Cafe they first tried a current AV '57 neck on it and Dave didn't like it as well as his 1983/84 Reissues so he pulled the neck off of a vintage white one he used on tour (with either Paul McCartney or used it for that Pete Townshend's "Deep End" concert) and put it on "The Black Strat"; they are copying that specific neck for the CS model. Just as an FYI Fender used that same shape on both the '62 and '57 Reissues back then (and also the early FMIC reissues once they restarted production); the only difference was that the '62 had a rosewood board.

The guitar has different pickups - a Duncan SSL-5 in the bridge postion, a CS '69 in the middle position and a CS Fat 50s in the neck position. Actually the SSL-5 started out as a custom-wound pickup for Gilmour; it was put in "The Black Strat" either while they were recording "The Wall" or after recording but before the tour and was only offered by Duncan several years after the original went to Gilmour. It has a 5-way switch plus a 2-way toggle that combines the neck and bridge pickups together.

The OP has the Relic version (they have Relic and NOS); the Relic is black over sunburst finish (Fender used to do that back in the day - if someone wanted a black one and all they had were sunburst bodies they would just paint over it; "The Black Strat" started life as a basic black/maple neck '69 Strat that Gilmour bought in NYC) and the Relic even has the wood repair and odd routing that the original has - the repair is to fill in the routing from the Kahler trem Gilmour had on it in the 1980s (probably circa 1983/"The Final Cut" or 1984/"About Face"); it had a 22-fret Charvel-built neck and the Kahler on it when it was loaned to the Hard Rock Cafe (the neck and middle pickups on the original are from an early '70s Strat and the bridge pickup is the original custom Duncan). Also I believe there is the chisled out space under the pickguard where Gilmour had a Gibson humbucker installed in between the middle and bridge pickups (so it had 4 pickups) - that would have been in the guitar from 1972-1973; the humbucker was removed before they recorded DSOTM. The NOS version of the Gilmour just has a normal black finished Strat body.

The site http://www.gilmourish.com has all the excrutiating details about "The Black Strat", that candy apple red '57 Reissue with the EMG pickups, and a few other of Gilmour's guitars.

Man. I'd like to get a "SHSS" Stratocaster. Cool.

Thanks for the Gilmour info.
It is down to the pickups and wiring.
Take care. Toppscore

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A good description of the Gilmour models John, as usual of your posts, well thought out and written!!

May want to buy the book on it or read some info here:
http://www.theblackstrat.com/The_Black_ ... ome...html

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

A co-worker of mine had the first edition of the book and let me borrow it one weekend - it is a really cool book on the history of the guitar and the recordings made with it.

I wasn't aware that it was up to the "expanded 3rd edition"; maybe it's time I add that one to my guitar book library.

Thanks, Tyronne. Never knew a whole book could be written
about an artist's guitar. Article, yes. Book
I thought Gilmour's sounds changed with Dark Side of the Moon.
But, the book says he used the black Strat starting with Meddle.

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Gilmour used several guitars on Dark Side of the Moon besides "The Black Strat" - including a 24-fret guitar with humbuckers for the solo on "Money" and he probably changed up things along the way. Also by Dark Side "The Black Strat" had the pickups from an early 70s bullet truss rod Strat that he was using as a backup (sometimes called "the other black Strat").

The book is very cool - it goes into a year-by-year chronology of how the guitar was modded and what songs it was used on for various tours; it was written by his tech who has been with him since he joined Pink Floyd.

It's had at least 6 necks on it that I know of:

1. Original neck (large headstock, maple board)
2. Early 60s Strat neck (swapped out with another Strat he owned)
3. Charvel-built maple board 21-fret neck (Wall-era)
4. Charvel-built birdseye maple 22-fret neck (Final Cut era)
5. American Vintage '57 neck (when first restored)
6. 1983 Fender '57 Reissue neck (current neck)

I've listed it as one neck but there is photographic evidence may have been 2 or 3 different Fender '57 Reissue necks in between the 22-fret Charvel neck and his final decision to use the neck from one of his 1983/84 '57 Reissues.

Interesting. How can one tell if a pickup came from a strat with or without a truss-rod?
Unless, during a certain year all the Strats had a truss-rod?
Or, truss-rod Strats' pickups are different sounding/built than non-truss-rod Strats?
Just wondering. Thanks. Toppscore

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All Strats have truss rods; what I meant is that "The Black Strat" was a '69 so its original neck was a 4-bolt style with the truss rod adjuster at the heel. Fender changed construction on the Strat to the 3-bolt neck attachment with a metal truss rod adjuster at the headstock that looked like a bullet - hence "bullet truss rod" as a short-hand for that style neck.

Gilmour owned another black Strat (purchased as a backup) that was either a '71 or '72 that had the 3-bolt neck with that bullet-style adjuster at the headstock. When Gilmour and Phil Taylor pulled out that 4-pickup set from "The Black Strat" they wound up putting the pickups from that '71 or '72 Strat into the black pickguard they had made instead of using the ones from 1969 that were originally on "The Black Strat" - the only reason I know that is the change is documented in the book and on the gilmourish site. I've never played ones from that era, but some who have say there are some slight differences in the pickups between '69 and '72.

Yes. I sold my 1970/71 Hardtail Stratocaster a few months ago.
It had a 1969 Serial Number and a three bolt neck.
Probably on of the first three bolters made in late 1970.

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