On November 11, 2006, David Gilmour's website blog made an announcement that many Gilmour and gear fans have been waiting to hear for a number of years: there will be a David Gilmour signature line of Fender Stratocasters. The only surprise is that it has taken so long for this to happen. It's also interesting that the signature model will be based on the black Fender Stratocaster that Gilmour has been using most of the last two years.

As I've written in the past, this is a guitar with a storied history. Gilmour has indicated that the guitar originally had a maple neck and a white pickguard. During the summer 1974 French tour, this guitar was seen with its original white pickguard but with a rosewood fretboard. Before the British Winter Tour that followed in late 1974, Gilmour changed the white pickguard for a black pickguard. The guitar was used like this through the Wish You Were Here tour in 1975 to the Animals tour in 1977. Before sessions for The Wall, a Charvel maple neck (with a Fender decal) was added to the guitar. The guitar was used this way through all of the live performances of The Wall. The next time Gilmour was seen on stage, during his 1984 tour for About Face, the guitar had a 22-fret Charvel neck and a Kahler tremolo system added to the guitar. It reappeared during the filming of the Classic Albums DVD for the making of Dark Side of the Moon with its original tremolo back in place and a 1957 re-issue maple neck. Most famously, the guitar was used this way for Pink Floyd's reunion performance at Live 8 and most recently on David Gilmour's album and tour for On An Island.

Fender has confirmed that the guitar will be based on how it is configured now. I hope that Fender pays attention to the details and adds the small toggle switch on the guitar that allows the neck and bridge pickups to be used together. This switch, located between the volume knob and pickup selector switch, was added to the guitar around 1978 and answers a lot of questions about very unique tones that Gilmour has been able to achieve with this guitar. It's quite likely that the tone on the solo for "Comfortably Numb" is making use of this pickup configuration. Many fans (myself included) also believe that the outro solo on the song "On An Island" makes use of this switch as well. One of my favorite guitar tones is the start of the distorted solo in "Mihalis" on Gilmour's first solo album. The tone features a perfect combination of a cutting edge of treble with the warmth of the neck pickup. This is all just speculation on my part. It will be interesting to see how much of this kind of information Fender decides to detail when the guitar is released.

Another interesting addition would be a shortened tremolo arm. Gilmour has been using one for years. The shortened arm allows him to hold the bar in his hand as he picks. This is not common to Stratocasters and would be another way to make Gilmour's signature model unique.

I'm sure there are fans that will be disappointed that the signature model is not a replication of the Candy Apple Red Stratocaster that Gilmour favored through the 1980s and 1990s. A red '57 re-issue Strat, featuring the EMG SA pickups, SPC mid-booster and EXG high and low booster would be easy to reproduce. I remember asking someone at Fender about this a few years ago and I was told that the inclusion of EMG pickups and electronics would not be an issue. I was reminded that many Fender models are made with Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio pickups, among others. I imagine that if there is a sufficient demand for production, then Fender and Gilmour might consider releasing it. Through Fender's history, signature models have been changed to suit the preferences of the artist. One only needs to look at the Eric Clapton signature model to see how it's been altered through the years.

Speaking of Eric Clapton, Fender is making a replica of his famous "Blackie" Stratocaster. This is a Custom Shop project where the guitar will include all of the scratches, peeled paint and worn fretboard marks of the original guitar. Again, it would be interesting to see if a future Gilmour Custom Shop signature model will be produced. Imagine owning a guitar, an exact duplicate, where a simulated block of wood has been cut where the body had been routed to fit the Kahler tremolo!

Before we get too excited, we need to keep in mind that some outlets have set the tentative release date of the David Gilmour signature model for 2008. A lot can change between now and then. In fact, considering its history, the guitar could conceivably undergo another change during this time!