How Phil Taylor Hot-Rodded Gilmour’s Black Strat for the 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2' Solo

The story of that solo starts with a soldering iron and a guitar tech named Phil Taylor. David Gilmour’s black Fender Stratocaster—normally a ‘59 model refinished in black—had its stock single-coil pickups swapped for a Seymour Duncan SSL-1 in the neck and middle, and a custom-wound Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in the bridge. That SSL-5 is hotter and fatter, and it’s the one Gilmour used for the lead at Britannia Row Studios. Taylor also rewired the second tone knob to act as a master tone control for the bridge pickup alone, letting Gilmour roll off a little top end for a smoother attack.

The effects chain was deceptively simple: a Binson Echorec II tape delay (owned by Taylor) and a Colorsound Power Boost pedal. The Power Boost was set to give a hair of overdrive and a volume boost, pushing the front end of the amp. That amp was a tweed Fender Twin—specifically a late-‘50s model with two 12-inch Jensen speakers, borrowed from the studio’s stock. Taylor later recalled that the amp was cranked to about six or seven, so the power tubes were just starting to sag. The delay was set to a single slap, not the multi-tap thing people assume. The result? A note that hangs, breathes, and sounds like it’s from another planet—but it’s really just a hot bridge pickup, a booster, an old tape echo, and a tired tweed amp in a damp rehearsal room. No tricks.