On April 9, 1970, Pink Floyd kicked off their third American tour with a performance at the Fillmore East club in New York. While the band were in the city, 24-year-old guitarist David Gilmour purchased a 1969 Fender Stratocaster from Manny’s Music on West 48th Street, which fans across the US would see him play when the English band recorded a PBS TV special (An Hour with the Pink Floyd) without an audience at the Fillmore in San Francisco towards the end of the month.
The following month, on May 15 and 16, the quartet were in New Orleans, Louisiana for a brace of performances at The Warehouse club at 1820 Tchoupitoulas Street, and parked the truck containing their instruments and backline on a neighbouring street.
"And our truck, which was a big rented U-Haul truck, got stolen," Gilmour recalled in a 2022 podcast episode. "The whole truck just disappeared, all our gear, gone!"
The equipment stolen included four guitars (including Gilmour's new black Strat) an electric organ, a 4000 watt sound system, 12 speaker cabinets, five Italian echo units, microphones, two drum kits and ten miles of cables. The loss - estimated at $40,000 - meant that the group were forced to cancel shows in Houston, Dallas and Kansas City Missouri scheduled for May 22, 23 and 24, and had to remain in New Orleans while the local police investigated the crime.
"That was nearly a total disaster," Nick Mason told Melody Maker's Chris Welch. "We sat down at our hotel thinking, 'Well that's it. It's all over.' We were pouring out our troubles to a girl who worked at the hotel and she said her father worked for the FBI. The police hadn't helped us much, but the FBI got to work and four hours later it was found."
"The only things missing were four guitars," Gilmour recalled. "Two Strats and two basses. The police were very helpful and very friendly. We said, 'Should we reward anyone?' to the police guy. He said, 'Boy, let your conscience be your guide'. I don't know quite what he meant."
It's rumoured that the band 'gifted' the local force's benevolent fund a sizeable donation for their trouble before leaving NOLA.
With some free time ahead of the tour's final (rescheduled) dates at Chicago's legendary Aragon Ballroom, the quartet returned to New York, and Gilmour returned to Manny's Music to replace his stolen guitars. On this visit, he purchased the Black Strat that would become his main guitar, featuring on all the band's albums between 970 and 1983, including The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall.
"It’s definitely earned its keep," Gilmour acknowledged.
In September 2022, the guitar was one of 127 owned by Gilmour auctioned off at Christie’s in New York. It was valued at between $100,000 and $150,000, but sold for $3,975,000 to billionaire American businessman Jim Irsay, owner, chairman and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts. In March this year, when Irsay's guitar collection was auctioned at Christie's, the guitar sold for $14.5 million, becoming the most expensive guitar ever sold.
