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  • 10 hours ago
Delve into the fascinating history of David Gilmour's iconic Black Stratocaster. This video explores its numerous modifications, from its original sunburst finish to its seventh neck, revealing why this heavily-used instrument became a rock legend.
Transcript
00:00This is a 69 older body, I believe, 68-69, and the modifications kind of go from there, really, because,
00:09as you can see, there's this bit of forearm wear that reveals that it was originally a sunburst, and so
00:15the black finish, which is so iconic, isn't the original.
00:19The scratch plate that kind of makes that look work with the white pickup covers came in 74, and it's
00:26actually a really thick single-ply example, and it kind of goes on and on from there.
00:33I mean, what I find fascinating about it is, you know, David Gilmour is known for his tone, and when
00:38we talk about, like, high-end luthiery, we talk about, you know, instruments that really sing, we think about them
00:45as being lovingly crafted and sort of unsullied,
00:48but this thing has had so many quite sort of rough modifications made in the field, as it were, on
00:54it.
00:55So I think you can see that where there was a rack for a Kaler trem, of all things, right
00:59here, that's reverted back to the sort of bent steel saddle fender unit with, of course, the short vibrato arm
01:06there.
01:07And there's a sort of raft of things which are harder to spot, like, for example, the three-way selector
01:13that would have been original,
01:14so the guitar got changed in 85, so the far more practical five-way.
01:19It's really interesting and entirely predictable for such a well-played guitar, but it's really interesting to see all the
01:25playwear here.
01:25It's got about 100 dings and, you know, in the best possible sense.
01:31And even the neck, which, you know, sometimes stays original on Fenders, has been changed quite a lot, hasn't it?
01:38I think this is its seventh neck.
01:39Was my guy on that dánded up you oot in the rightウónus?
01:39It's thier quil deÄźup, but nobody's made.
01:39So we didn't even make.
01:40Let's take...
01:40Hola.
01:40Okay, so good data from past,.
01:41got a little bit... ...
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