DAVID GILMOUR IS AUCTIONING OFF HIS GUITAR COLLECTION

“These guitars have been very good to me,” Gilmour told Rolling Stone. “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.”

Gilmour noted that the money “will be going to the larger needs of famine relief, homelessness and displacement of people throughout the world. We are going to work on the best way and the best balance of making what this raises do as much good on this planet as it can.”

The guitarist made a new video in which he talks about some of the instruments, such as the 12-string acoustic he used to write “Wish You Were Here,” the black Fender Stratocaster (dubbed “Black Strat”) heard on nearly every song he recorded between 1973 and the mid-’80s and a 1954 Strat with gold parts and serial number 0001 that was a gift from Leo Fender. Gilmour believes he used that instrument to play the rhythm part on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2.”

You can watch the video below.

The David Gilmour Guitar Collection

Subscribe to Ultimate Classic Rock on 

Even though he occasionally played a Gibson Les Paul — the solo to “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2,” to name a well-known example — the Strat has always been Gilmour’s go-to guitar. “My dream and ambition was to have a Fender, preferably a Stratocaster,” Gilmour says in the video. “I loved it from the beginning. Buddy Holly played one. Hank Marvin played one. And that was enough for me. I just wanted a Strat.”

The auction will be held at Christie’s in New York on June 20; the collection will also be on display at Christie’s locations in London (March 27-31), Los Angeles (May 7-11) and New York (June 14-19). The auction house believes the Black Strat and the original instrument will sell for anywhere between $100,000 and $150,000.

You can see those guitars and more at Christies’ website.