David Gilmour’s 1969 Martin D-35

David purchased this guitar from a guy who was apparently just selling it on the street in front of Manny’s Music Shop in NY. This was in 1970, a year after David purchased his Black Strat.

I bought it in New York in ’70 off a guy in the street outside Manny’s in order to do “Grantchester Meadows” at the gigs we were performing that week. I can’t remember why I needed another guitar — I don’t know if one got lost — but we needed it for that, since it’s a quiet, acoustic-type of song with nothing in the way of drums or anything.

David Gilmour : Interview with Rolling Stone on Why He’s Selling 120 Guitars: ‘Everything Has Got to Go

Usage

David first used the guitar in the studio on the tracks “Wot’s… Uh The Deal”, “Childhood’s End” and “Free Four” from the album Obscured by Clouds released in 1972. From that point, it was used as sort of an “idea guitar” during the studio sessions for Dark Side of the Moon – a guitar that David and Roger would use to come up with songs. However, there were no acoustic tracks on the final release of that album, so the guitar was not present on any of the releases.

On the Wish You Were Here album, the guitar was used to record the solo on the title track, while David used another Martin, a D12-28, to record the intro and the verses.

I guess it would be my Martin D-35. I used it on Wish You Were Here, and I’ve been using ever since. In fact, it’s in my sitting room right now.

January 2003 – Guitar Player Magazine, A SAUCERFUL OF STRINGS (David Gilmour’s Chamber Odyssey) by Darrin Fox
David playing his Martin D-35 in the studio.
David playing his Martin D-35 in the studio.

On the 1977 Pink Floyd album Animals, Gilmour recalled using the guitar on “Dogs” although by that time he was also using a couple of Ovation guitars. He also used the guitar on the album The Wall for the songs “Mother” and “The Show Must Go On”, and on the song “Terminal Frost” from Pink Floyd’s 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

David also used this guitar on his 1984 solo album About Face, 2006 album On An Island, and his 2015 solo album, Rattle That Lock.

Most of this information comes from Christie’s – an auction house behind the sale of many of David’s guitars in 2019, which included this 1969 Martin D-35. This guitar was among the top three as far as the price for which it ended up selling ($1,095,000), surpassed only by David’s Black Strat, and his 0001 Strat.

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