Popular rock guitarist David Gilmour is emotionally (and financially) preparing to part ways with over 100 guitars from his personal collection this summer. The former Pink Floyd member will sell 120 guitars at a public auction at Christie’s in New York City on June 20th, with sales proceeds going to benefit charitable causes. Some of the guitars included in the enormous mix of instruments to be sold as part of “The David Gilmour Guitar Collection,” include a prized selection of his trademark instruments which were played on classic Pink Floyd albums back in the 1970s and 80s.
Gilmore will sell his 1969 black Fender Stratocaster which was played while recording Pink Floyd hits including “Money”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, and “Comfortably Numb”. Other highly sought-after axes to be sold in the collection include a 1954 white Stratocaster with a serial number #0001 which was played on “Another Brick In The Wall (Parts Two and Three)”; A candy apple red 1984 Stratocaster 57V used during the recordings of 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and 1994’s The Division Bell; A 1969 D-35 Martin which became his main acoustic guitar for studio work; And a 12-string which Gilmour used to write the main riff on “Wish You Were Here”. The black Strat alone is expected to sell for an estimated $100,000 and $150,000.
Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here”
[Video: chartrand]
“These guitars have been very good to me,” Gilmour told Rolling Stone to go with Tuesday’s announcement. “They’re my friends. They have given me lots of music. I just think it’s time that they went off and served someone else. I have had my time with them. And of course the money that they will raise will do an enormous amount of good in the world, and that is my intention.”
“By auctioning these guitars, I hope that I can give some help where it is really needed and through my charitable foundation do some good in this world,” Gilmour continued. “It will be a wrench to see them go and perhaps one day I’ll have to track one or two of them down and buy them back!”
The collection will initially launch at Christie’s showroom in London starting on March 27th and running until March 31st. From there, the collection will head to Los Angeles (May 7th-11th) before arriving in New York for display on June 14th-19th ahead of the June 20th auction.
It will certainly be interesting to hear what the total earnings of the auction will end up being, considering Gilmour’s elite status as an influential guitarist during the prime years of rock in America back in the 1970s and 80s. It’s worth pointing out that Jerry Garcia‘s famous “Wolf” guitar sold at auction for a mind-blowing record of $3.2 Million in 2017.
[H/T Rolling Stone]