In this column, I'll be examining Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's gear and playing techniques from a musician's point of view. Please feel free to e-mail me with questions and ideas for future articles if you feel you have an idea that readers of Spare Bricks might find of interest. Past articles are now posted here.

As you can tell by the header of this issue of Spare Bricks, we're concentrating on the worst of Pink Floyd. So the thought occurred, "is there a worst Gilmour guitar moment?" Obviously, every solo can't be the caliber of "Comfortably Numb". But, it's certainly fair to say some moments are better or worse than others.

Most of the tones and playing outlined in this article are average tones but as fans of David Gilmour, we tend to expect the extraordinary. So, when one hears an average Gilmour guitar moment, it tends to stick out like a sore thumb.

Gilmour used a Steinberger on his 1987 "Saturday Night Live" appearance.

The Steinberger period

It was the 80s. Steinberger guitars and EMG pickups were very popular. But Gilmour's familiar combination of EMG single coil pickups never sounded as good on his Steinberger guitars than they did on a Stratocaster. It certainly sounds like Gilmour, but it sounds like Gilmour on a guitar that's not making full use of his abilities or bringing out the best of the details that make his playing so distinct.

"Lost For Words" is too similar to "Wish You Were Here"

It's not enough that this is the same guitar progression in a different key. It's in the way the song is played with a capo on the 5th fret. The fingerings are identical to the intro to "Wish You Were Here". Yes, Gilmour wrote the original guitar phrase, and he can do anything he wants with it. Perhaps I expected more after the 7 years between A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell.

P*U*L*S*E (1995)

Watered down mix on Pulse

Many times a perfectionist such as Gilmour strives for perfection in an imperfect environment. It's not a widely known fact that Pink Floyd videotaped every show on the 1994 tour with a small number of cameras. Two songs of each show (usually "Learning to Fly" and "What Do You Want From Me") were distributed to the various local television stations that covered each show of the tour. The sound clips on the video footage that were used every night sounded extraordinary. It's most likely that the guitar sound on these shows were recorded by simply sticking a microphone in front of Gilmour's guitar speaker cabinets. In a recording studio environment, there are so many knobs with which to experiment that sometimes the core of the guitar sound is lost in the process. For the record, this applies to the CD version of Pulse, not the video release.

"Let There Be More Light" solo

Take heart Gilmour fans! This is about as directionless a solo as one could ever imagine from Gilmour. The idea is well thought out, a solo over a repeated sequence. While the individual guitar phrasing is solid, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere or saying anything, something that would become Gilmour's trademark. For those of us who strive to reach Gilmour's standard of excellence, it's good to point out that even Gilmour went through his growing pains.

Richard Mahon is a staff writer for Spare Bricks.