Phil Taylor’s Signal Chain for Gilmour’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ Solo

Phil Taylor, David Gilmour’s longtime guitar tech, didn’t just hand him a tuned Strat for the “Comfortably Numb” solo — he built the exact signal path that gave those notes their slow, singing sustain. Taylor set up Gilmour’s black ’69 Fender Stratocaster into a vintage Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (the tall-font, Ram’s Head era version) and then fed that into a HiWatt Custom DR103 head running into a WEM 4×12 cabinet. The Big Muff added the creamy, violin-like distortion; the HiWatt kept the top end clear and punchy without breaking up too early.

Taylor knew Gilmour liked the amp at a specific sweet spot — volume around 7 or 8, presence slightly rolled back — so he’d mark the knobs with tape for consistency. During the sessions at Gilmour’s home studio (The Barn), Taylor was the one swapping cables and testing pedal positions to eliminate noise while keeping the midrange rich. That combination — fuzz into a clean-but-huge amp — became the blueprint for Gilmour’s definitive solo tone, and Taylor made sure every take had that exact chain locked in.