Just about everyone who picks up a musical instrument, regardless of the instrument, has a defining moment. They hear a piece of music that inspires them to attempt to recreate what they're hearing and start the process of making their own music. For me, it was AC/DC's Back in Black album. Later in the learning process, I started to notice the difference in guitar tones from one player to the next. One of the sounds that always stood out to me was the dry middle solo in Pink Floyd's "Money" from Dark Side of the Moon. It was such a raw sound—all of the attack, pops and clicks of a distorted electric guitar at its best.

The problem with aspiring to recreate a studio guitar tone is everything that happens between the recording sessions and the sound that comes out of your speakers. Speaker cabinet volume, microphone placement, compression, mixing, equalization and the sound engineer himself are just a few of the variables that can affect a guitar sound. I soon realized that it made more sense to try to replicate the sound from a bootleg audience recording than a studio recording. In a live situation, the process is simplified.

Harvested's release of Pink Floyd's June 28, 1975 performance at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, titled Steel Breeze was the bootleg that opened my eyes to this philosophy. This show had been circulated under many different titles through the years. In listening to the early versions of this recording, the guitar was a bit flat, lacking clarity. This is where the Harvested team made a difference. They were able to clarify the guitar and find nuances in the guitar tone that had been buried in the previous recordings until then. Harvested brought out the metallic edge of the Steel Breeze guitar tone.

The guitar tones in "Time" and "Money" are among my favorite guitar sounds. Gilmour achieved this sound primarily with a 1970 Fender Stratocaster with its original stock pickups, an Orange Treble & Bass Booster, a Fuzz Face distortion pedal, and a 1974 Hiwatt DR-103 amplifier. I made the investment in similar equipment, using the BSM OR treble booster as a modern day version of the Orange booster and a Chandler Tube Driver in place of the Fuzz Face, and I'm happy to say it has helped me achieve a very similar sound.

In comparison, the studio tones on both songs are not very distorted at all. The rhythm parts in both songs, for example, sound like a Strat into a Hiwatt. It's the high level of compression that makes it seem so edgy. Also, consider that the amount of presence used on each track is augmented by layers of heavy reverb. It's a sound that could have been difficult to reproduce live. By comparison, on the live recordings, the rhythm parts are sharp and edgy. The use of a distortion pedal is apparent.

If you're a fan of the sounds on the Animals tour, I highly recommend Harvested's Animal Instincts (revision B). This is a recording of Pink Floyd at the Oakland Coliseum on May 9, 1977. I should note that many Harvested released are upgraded as time passes and seeking out the revisions are worth the effort!

The same guitar and amp were used for the majority of the songs during the Animals tour. The exceptions were a Colorsound treble booster, which replaced the Orange unit, and an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff was starting to become Gilmour's favorite distortion pedal.

In the studio, the guitar tone on Animals was similar to that of Dark Side of the Moon. The distortion isn't quite as obvious. In fact, the rhythm guitar part played by Roger Waters in "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" doesn't seem to have much distortion at all. Like the studio versions of "Money" and "Time", the rhythm part seems to use compression more than distortion to get that edgy tone.

For someone who is interested in the guitar sound from the Division Bell tour, I recommend A Passage of Time from Torino, Italy on September 13, 1994. This appears to be a soundboard recording and in many ways, it seems to be what Pulse is not. I thought the guitar sound on Pulse was a bit too polished at times. This bootleg captures Gilmour's raw guitar sound beautifully.

If you like the soundboard guitar sound on the "Bootlegging the Bootleggers" feature of the Pulse DVD then just imagine listening to an entire show with that kind of sound quality.

It's been well documented that Gilmour used a variety of pedals for the 1994 tour. A Big Muff and a Pete Cornish Big Muff (also known as the P-2) was used for the heaviest guitar tones, while smoother, cleaner tones made use of the Pete Cornish Soft Sustain (SS-2) and a pair of original "B.K. Butler" Chandler Tube Drivers. In some cases, Gilmour combined these pedals to reach the desired effect. While the guitar changed to a 1957 re-issue with EMG pickups, the 1974 Hiwatt DR-103 amplifiers remained the same on all three of these bootlegs.

The Division Bell album used many of the same effects on a song-by-song basis, but the guitar is not as distorted from track to track as it was in live renditions. Does this sound familiar? I believe a minimum of distortion with maximum compression is used in the recording studio, while the reverse holds true in live recordings. For the typical player, either casually sorting out guitar parts or performing on stage, I think it's much easier to duplicate the distortion of a live recording than the compression of a studio recording.

So, what's your favorite Gilmour guitar tone? Your chances of achieving it might be easier if you set your sights on what you hear on a bootleg instead of what you hear on an album release.