Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour announced back in April that he would auction off over 100 guitars from his prized collection with sales proceeds going to benefit charitable causes. Some of the notable instruments included in “The David Gilmour Guitar Collection” at the auction, which was held in New York City on Thursday, included his 1969 black Fender Stratocaster which was played on Pink Floyd hits including “Money”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, and “Comfortably Numb”.
According to reports, the black Stratocaster broke the world record for any guitar sold at auction, as it sold for an astounding $3,975,000. The sale broke the previous record held by Jerry Garcia‘s “Wolf” guitar, which sold for $3.2 million in 2017. Gilmour also used the black guitar over the years while playing in on solo albums including About Face, On An Island, Rattle That Lock, and his 1978 self-titled solo debut.
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The report goes on to state that Gilmour had made notable modifications to the instrument over the years, including amendments to the neck, electronics, and cosmetics, in addition to removing the XLR jack.
Gilmour spoke of the black Stratocaster during a recent episode of his three-part podcast series which focused on the guitars sold at the June 20th auction. Listen to the segment from the episode below.
David Gilmour Talks About His Iconic Black Strat
[Video: David Gilmour]
One of Gilmour’s other favorite guitars from his collection, a C.F. Martin & Company Nazareth 1969 D-35 acoustic, also sold for an astounding $1,095,000. The Martin acoustic became his main studio axe starting in 1971, and was used for the writing and pre-production of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon and the recording of ‘Obscured By Clouds’.
Gilmour’s white Stratocaster, which was used on the recordings of “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)” also broke Garcia’s “Wolf” record by selling for $1.82 million.
All the proceeds raised by the sales of Gilmour’s guitars on Thursday will go to benefit the environmental-based charity ClientEarth.
“The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible,” Gilmour said in a statement about his auction initiative. “As Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist said in a speech earlier this year, ‘Either we choose to go on as a civilization, or we don’t.’ The choice really is that simple, and I hope that the sale of these guitars will help ClientEarth in their cause to use the law to bring about real change.”
The legendary Black Strat achieves $3,975,000, establishing a new #WorldAuctionRecord for any guitar sold at auction #GilmourGuitars https://t.co/pVR93GBhFz pic.twitter.com/Hs0He9TMIn
— Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) June 20, 2019
[H/T NME]
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