The first Floyd material the Black Strat appeared on is Meddle – the album many see as the template for the Floyd that would come after that point. So this guitar comes in at the same time. Did it feel like that?
It didn’t feel like that guitar had created that change, no; that would be being a little sparing of the truth. But it became my main guitar, the one I used pretty much on everything, unless there was a reason to want a different sound. So that’s definitely on Meddle , it’s on Dark Side Of The Moon , Comfortably Numb . The four notes at the beginning of Shine On You Crazy Diamond popped out of this very guitar [he plays a short part on it], because it was there and in my hands! What can you say? It’s definitely earned its keep.
If you look at the composite bits it’s probably only worth a couple of grand, but it’s got this status that you’re now using for a good cause. You wouldn’t call it a particularly iconic historical instrument, would you – apart from your association?
No, it’s a 1969 Fender Stratocaster, of which thousands and thousands were made. The actual lump of wood that the body is made out of wasn’t always the same type of wood – some are made of alder, some are made of other things. Sometimes you get a bit of wood that’s really light, sometimes you get a bit of wood that’s really heavy. They’re all different. If you pick one up without plugging it in and play it and it feels and sounds great, then it’s gonna sound great amplified, too. This one happened to be in the right place at the right time.
When you retired it, it hung on the wall of the Hard Rock Café in Dallas. Of course, it’s nice that people can see it – but did it grate you a bit thinking, “It’s not being played?”
I have a duality about it, about my affection for it, my teenage lust to have a Fender Stratocaster, and then having one and thinking, “Well you know, it’s a tool of my trade; it’s just a guitar. Get another one, what’s the difference?” And I did get the red one, which has EMG pickups on it, which are battery-powered – it doesn’t react to all the gear, hums and buzzes. Throughout our early time touring, one of the biggest problems was hums and buzzes that the guitar picked up, single coil particularly.
That’s why humbucker pickups are called humbuckers, because they buck that hum. Single coils pick up everything. You’re constantly moving the guitar around two inches, pointing it this way and having to play whole songs that are pointing a certain angle, because if you’re doing it three inches that way, this hum would come up.
Every time you turn on an effects pedal that hum is magnified by 20. And with all those light rigs and stuff that we toured with, it was a constant battle. Our guys would be there in the daytime setting up the gear and they would spend hours trying to pinpoint everything that could make a hum or a buzz and get rid of it, but it was a nightmare. Getting these different electronic pickups got rid of all that in a second, so it made touring life for them and for me much easier.
Did you ever have that Spinal Tap moment where you picked up a local radio station or something?
Yeah! And taxis – people asking for a taxi, they’d come straight through the guitar.
There’s a mythology around a strap that you’ve used on that guitar, more recently on your last tour. Is the myth true?
The myth? Well, my lovely wife Polly Samson bought me, as a present, a Jimi Hendrix strap, that you can see. The strap that he’s wearing at a lot of his later shows, at the Isle Of Wight in 1970 – which I helped mix the sound for. Not a lot of people know that. From the side of the stage on WEM Audiomasters with Charlie Watkins.
What do you recall from that gig?
I went down and I was camping in a tent, just being a punter, and I went backstage where our main roadie, Peter Watts, was trying to deal with all the mayhem with Charlie Watkins of WEM. They were very nervous; they were going to have to mix Hendrix’s sound. I did some mixing stuff in those days and they said, ‘Help! Help!’ so I did.
Did you chat to Hendrix much?
Not then. I had met him previous to that, once. I didn’t know him.
Leave a Reply