I think Gilmour may have broken it out again because fans wanted to see it again. The guitar has its own book after all lol.
Google tells me the book came out
after the return of the black strat. Was there a massive clamoring for David to start playing it again? Where fans holding up signs and placards demanding he would play it again? Not to mention that plenty of people seemed to like the red strat and its active tone. Plenty people here seem to do.
In my experience, the only fans who fret about what guitar a guitarist of a famous band plays are guitar nerds. Which tend to be a very small percentage of any audience. This is why I always say, only 99% of any audience don't notice what gear and tone a guitar player has. I still think he reconnected to that guitar at Live8 and wondered why the hell he had even parted with it.
It’s like when a band does certain songs, has a certain stage setup again, costumes etc. Does the artist really like that stuff or do the fans want to see it ?
I reckon it depends on the artist and the show. Kiss obviously has to perform with the outfits and the makeup, that is what the fans want to see. Similarly with Slipknot. But that is also their own fault for having used that as a gimmick to get famous. Now they're stuck with it. The price you pay for using a gimmick.
In the other vein U2 has also used elaborate stage setups, but those were always thematically tied to the album they were touring for. So they weren't required to repeat those come the next tour. And even then costumes and stage setup are not the same as guitar, because guitarists have often switched gear and guitars between tours. I can't think of a single case where a guitar player had to absolutely use the same guitar for the same song for show reasons. Edge has used Explorers, Strats and Les Pauls for I Will Follow and back to Explorers again, depending on what he liked at the time. In the end costumes are instantly recognizable to everyone in the audience, guitars aren't, unless you are a guitar nerd. Which 99% of any audience isn't.
I’m sure he likes the guitar, but maybe he would of been equally happy playing anything else.... but the fans, they want to hear the black strat
Like I said, no, people were perfectly happy with the red strat. And isn't even the Pulse guitar tone, with the red strat, one of the holy grails of Gilmour live tones? Red strat, black strat, blue strat, white strat, as long as David had a great tone people don't care. He picked that guitar again because he wanted too, not because he had too. And that is why I find it telling that he's parting with it again.
Surely.
When I was early in my tonal conquest, I wanted the red one with lace sensors... Then I saw the price tag @ $5,400-5,900 and settled for a PRS.....
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...avid-gilmour-signature-stratocaster-nos-black
Craziness... It is awesome that he's donating it all to his charities though!
So mod your own guitar? For a tenth of that money you can probably create either your own red or black strat. Depending on the guitar youé going to mod of course. Loaded pickguards for both the red and black strats exist. EMG still sells and market them as if David still uses them.