In 2019 David Gilmour decided to auction over 120 of his guitars, and donate the proceeds to the ClientEarth charity. He raised $21.5m (around £16.6m), of which $3.9m came from the sale of his Black Strat, which he’d owned since 1970 and used extensively with Pink Floyd. It sold again in March 2026 for $14.5m, breaking auction records. Before the initial sale, Gilmour talked Prog through some of the items he was letting go, including the Black Strat.
Let’s start with the Black Strat. How old is it?
The Black Strat – my main tool of the trade for the last... God knows how long. I believe it was made in 1969 and I bought it at Manny’s in 48th Street New York in 1970. And it’s been on most Pink Floyd recordings from then up into the 80s, when I put it out to pasture for a while. But then I brought it back again, and it’s still the guitar I play more than any other.
Article continues belowHave you always been that person in the shop gazing out across the various instruments, unable to stop yourself getting another one?
Quite a bit, yes. In Cambridge when I was a teenager and there was no way I could afford a Fender of any sort, there was a music shop called Ken Stevens; I used to spend a lot of time in it. There was a Stratocaster hanging in there for years, which we sometimes persuaded the guy in the shop to let us touch and play a tune or two on. But I could never afford it.
When you’re in a music shop, testing a guitar, what do you play – given people test guitars by playing your stuff!
I haven’t been into a guitar shop for quite a while – it’s not the way it works any more. My people talk to their people and the guitars come and you play them and put them back in the box and send them away. There are places in England where they have a range of beautiful old guitars that you can go and see and play and buy.
Many see Meddle as the template for the Floyd that came after that point. Did the arrival of the Black Strat affect that?
It didn’t feel like that guitar had created that change, no; that would be being a little sparing of the truth. But it became my main guitar, the one I used pretty much on everything, unless there was a reason to want a different sound. So that’s definitely on Meddle, it’s on Dark Side Of The Moon, Comfortably Numb. The four notes at the beginning of Shine On You Crazy Diamond popped out of this very guitar, because it was there and in my hands! What can you say? It’s definitely earned its keep.
If you look at the composite bits it’s probably only worth a couple of grand, but it’s got this status that you’re now using for a good cause. You wouldn’t call it a particularly iconic historical instrument, would you?
No, it’s a 1969 Fender Stratocaster, of which thousands and thousands were made. The actual lump of wood the body is made out of wasn’t always the same type – some are made of alder, some are made of other things. Sometimes you get a bit of wood that’s really light, sometimes you get a bit of wood that’s really heavy. They’re all different. If you pick one up without plugging it in and play it and it feels and sounds great, then it’s gonna sound great amplified, too. This one happened to be in the right place at the right time.
When you retired it, it hung on the wall of the Hard Rock Café in Dallas. Of course, it’s nice that people can see it – but did it grate you a bit thinking, “It’s not being played?”
I have a duality about it, about my affection for it, my teenage lust to have a Fender Stratocaster, and then having one and thinking, “Well you know, it’s a tool of my trade; it’s just a guitar. Get another one – what’s the difference?” And I did get the red one.
There’s a mythology around a strap that you’ve used on that guitar. Is it true?
The myth? Well, my lovely wife Polly Samson bought me a Jimi Hendrix strap; the strap he’s wearing at a lot of his later shows, and at the Isle Of Wight in 1970 – which I helped mix the sound for.
What do you recall from that gig?
I went down and I was camping in a tent, just being a punter, and I went backstage where our main roadie, Peter Watts, was trying to deal with all the mayhem with Charlie Watkins of WEM. They were very nervous; they were going to have to mix Hendrix’s sound. I did some mixing stuff in those days and they said, ‘Help! Help!’ so I did.
Did you chat to Hendrix much?
Not then. I had met him previous to that, once. I didn’t know him.
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