{"id":926,"date":"2019-08-31T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/?p=926"},"modified":"2019-09-01T08:53:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T07:53:54","slug":"david-gilmours-black-strat-fetches-almost-4-mio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/david-gilmours-black-strat-fetches-almost-4-mio\/","title":{"rendered":"David Gilmour&#8217;s Black Strat fetches almost $4 Mio&#8230; and I wanna build one!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Schermafbeelding-2019-08-31-om-16.58.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Schermafbeelding-2019-08-31-om-16.58.04.png 354w, https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Schermafbeelding-2019-08-31-om-16.58.04-193x300.png 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/><figcaption>David Gilmour&#8217;s Black Strat<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>William, my trainer at the gym, is a huge Pink Floyd\/Roger Waters fan. Often on Sundays when we train alone, he puts on some Floyd album. So after training for over 3 years with him, I know the complete Floyd repertoire by heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Somewhere in sprong 2019 we came to talk about the auction of a collection of David Gilmour\u2019s guitars including his black Strat. William couldn\u2019t believe that someone would put down $150K for a guitar and he completely went mad when I told him that this guitar would easily fetch between 1 and 1.5 million dollar. Of course, I was wrong. Someone bought the guitar for almost $4 Million (excluding the auction fee which would also be around 10% of the purchase amount).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During training, I told him about the signature guitar market. William doesn\u2019t know that much about guitars but he became interested when I told him that you could buy a Gilmour signature Stratocaster for about $4500 in a regular (factory new) version or even in a road-worn \u201crelic\u201d version. But on the other hand, Thomas.de offers a similar guitar for less than $200. And on youtube I found a video of a guy painstakingly making an \u00fcber exact copy of this guitar. The video has disappeared from Youtube but recently it popped up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"David Gilmour Black Strat Replica by MCG\" width=\"910\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z2py0QOwTjY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> William checked this guy\u2019s website trying to find out what such a relic would cost, but couldn\u2019t find anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI can make you such an exact replica\u201d I responded boldly and from then on I have been doing some research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> Best way to start is the book that Gilmour\u2019s guitar tech Phil Taylor wrote in 2007 about this guitar called \u201cThe Black Strat\u201d. But this book is rare, out-of-print and second hand copies do around $400-$750 on eBay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More luck I had on the Christie\u2019s website. Super detailed photo\u2019s are available and they give you a good idea what has been done on this guitar over the years. I won\u2019t go into details, there are many sites that give the full history. And I finally managed to find a .pdf of the \u201cThe Black Strat\u201d book (in Russian, but Google translate is my friend).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My idea was to make a replica with the real parts (that\u2019s going to be expensive) and on the other hand make a replica with cheaper parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the new. The neck has been replaced multiple times but the neck installed now (the 6th neck) is &#8211; according to the book- a neck from a 1983 strat. But looking on the pictures from Sotheby and the book, I see differences in the logo. The Fender logo on the Sotheby pictures is clearly put on afterwards (look like it\u2019s done by a 5-year old kid). The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gilmourish.com\">www.gilmourish.com<\/a> website has some interesting headstock pictures but these pics are from before 2007, the year the book has been published (when was the book &#8211; written, how old are the photo\u2019s \u2026). Anyway, looking at the specs of the re-issue we can roughly determine the specs of neck:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Neck material: maple<\/li><li>Fingerboard: maple<\/li><li>Fingerboard radius: 7.25\u201d<\/li><li>Neck shape: Thin-Shouldered &#8220;C&#8221;&nbsp;<\/li><li>Headstock: Stratocaster regular (not the big 70\u2019s headstock)<\/li><li>Logo: Fender \u201cSpaghetti\u201d logo.<\/li><li>Frets: 21 &#8211; \u201cvintage\u201d. Probably this means they are Dunlop 6230.<\/li><li>Tuners: Gotoh vintage. I don\u2019t see locking tuners or staggered heights tuners so just the regular tuners. Hardly any wear on the knobs, only some dirt\/rust on the back of the tuners.<\/li><li>Nut: bone. The re-issue has \u201csynthetic bone\u201d nut but the Sotheby photos show real bone in my opinion.<\/li><li>Postion markers: black-small spacing<\/li><li>Strings: Fender NPS .010-.046 on the re-issue. From the book: Ernie Ball 10, 12, 16, 28, 38, 48 gauge. W\u2019ll stick to the Ernie Ball\u2019s.<\/li><li>Finishing: nitro glossy<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The neck has the vintage style truss-rod which you have to adjust at the heel. This means you always have to remove the neck from the body in order to do truss-rod adjustments. I don\u2019t like that because it takes so much more time for adjusting a neck. The neck has the walnut skunk-stripe for filling the truss-rod route on the back like almost all fender necks have &#8211; whether it is needed or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something that occurred to me was the complete absence of wear on the back of the neck. The fingerboard has a lot wear &#8211; on almost all positions the lacquer is gone &#8211; but the back of the neck is perfect. How did that happen?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another thing, Gilmour is famous for his fantastic string bends, but with a 7.25\u201d fingerboard radius and small (dunlop 6230) frets\u2026. Is that going to work? OK, he is not a shredder so he might use a high action. I can\u2019t find any details so I stick with a fingerboard radius of 7.25\u201d and Dunlop 6230 frets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The neck is screwed with four bolts to the body with a regular metal neck plate (no plastic in between body and neck plate) which has serial number \u201c38979\u201d. Nicely worn as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td> <strong>Item <\/strong><\/td><td><strong> Expensive version<\/strong><\/td><td>\n<strong>Costs<\/strong>\n<\/td><td> <strong>Cheap version<\/strong><\/td><td>\n<strong>Costs<\/strong>\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nNeck\n<\/td><td>Warmoth<br>Vintage; quarter sawn <br>standard thin profile <\/td><td>\n$200\n<\/td><td>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/gitarre-bestellen.de\">gitarre-bestellen.de<\/a> strat kit\n<\/td><td>\n$105\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nTuners\n<\/td><td> Gotoh Vintage-style Oval Knob <br>6-In-Line Tuners (Nickel) <\/td><td>\n$45\n<\/td><td> J-55 6links Vintage <br>Kluson-Style oval <\/td><td>\n$22,50\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nLogo\n<\/td><td>\nSpaghetti\n<\/td><td>\n$10\n<\/td><td>\nSpaghetti\n<\/td><td>\n$10\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nNut\n<\/td><td>\nBone\n<\/td><td>\n$5\n<\/td><td>\nBone\n<\/td><td>\n$5\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nNeckplate\n<\/td><td>\nMetal\n<\/td><td>\n$5\n<\/td><td>\nMetal\n<\/td><td>\n$5\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nFinish\n<\/td><td>\nNitro\n<\/td><td>\n$25\n<\/td><td>\nNitro\n<\/td><td>\n$25\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td> String <br>retainer <\/td><td>\nStandard\n<\/td><td>\n$5\n<\/td><td>\nStandard\n<\/td><td>\n$5\n<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p>The body is made of alder &#8211; 1968\/1969. Originally it had a 3 three-tone sunburst but it was sprayed black later. I guess both the sunburst and later the black paint had a glossy clear coat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pick-ups is an issue. The following pick-ups are in the re-issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Neck: Custom Shop Fat 50<\/li><li>Middle: Custom Shop 69<\/li><li>Bridge: Seymour Duncan SSL5<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The neck and middle pick-up can only be bought in sets, so I have to find alternative pick-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pick guard is one-ply black with rounded edges, something I can easily make myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td>\n<strong>Item<\/strong>\n<\/td><td> <strong>Expensive version<\/strong> <\/td><td>\n<strong>Costs<\/strong>\n<\/td><td> <strong>Cheap version<\/strong><\/td><td>\n<strong>Costs<\/strong>\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nBody\n<\/td><td>\nWarnoth &#8211; Alder\n<\/td><td>\n$211\n<\/td><td>\nSee guitar kit\n<\/td><td>\n$0\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nPickguard\n<\/td><td> 11 screw black<br>rounded edges <\/td><td>\n$20\n<\/td><td>11 screw black<br>rounded edges <\/td><td>\n$20\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nFinish\n<\/td><td> Yellow, red, brown, <br>black, clear glossy <\/td><td>\n$100\n<\/td><td> Yellow, red, brown, <br>black, clear glossy <\/td><td>\n$100\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nTremolo\n<\/td><td>Fender standard 57\/62<br>steel saddles <\/td><td>\n$176\n<\/td><td>\nWilkinson vintage tremolo\n<\/td><td>\n$40\n<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\nPick-ups\n<\/td><td>Neck: Custom Shop Fat 50 <br>Middle: Custom Shop 69 <br>Bridge: Seymour Duncan SSL5 <\/td><td>Fenders not <br>sold <br>separately <br> <br> <br> $200 <\/td><td> Wilkinson Alnico IV <br>pick-up set. <\/td><td>\n$90\n<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p>We will need some other stuff, strap holders, vintage looking knobs, 5-way switch, jack-input, string tree holder, strings, some screws plus new frets for the cheap version (I will have to reshape the fingerboard to a different radius and put new frets in). Most stuff I have lying around so that won\u2019t cost me anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes the expensive version about $1000 (excluding shipping costs and taxes) and the cheap one $430 with lower shipping costs and possibly no taxes. A good guess would be $1500 and $500 altogether.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now it&#8217;s waiting till my other projects are finished&#8230;.I&#8217;ll keep you updated!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William, my trainer at the gym, is a huge Pink Floyd\/Roger Waters fan. Often on Sundays when we train alone,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guitars","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}