David Gilmour, guitarist and vocalist of Pink Floyd, is revered for shaping progressive and psychedelic rock with his songwriting chops and transcendent solos on landmark albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall.
His “Black Strat” is perhaps his most notable guitar and the one that defined his signature tone – marked by soaring bends, vocal-like vibrato, sustain, and expansive delay.
His expressive solos across his repertoire, including those in pieces such as Comfortably Numb and Time, comfortably solidify his position in any “greatest of all time list,” including Guitar World’s. Beyond Pink Floyd, his solo work, including his latest, 2024’s Luck and Strange, continues to set the benchmark for emotive guitar playing.
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I attended the biggest guitar auction in history – and witnessed a new dawn in the value of the instrument
The monumental bidding wars that took place on the first night of the Jim Irsay Collection auction at Christie’s New York were a testament to the power of the instrument and the aura of the classic rock gods, and left attendees spellbound
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Fenders owned by Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, Martins belonging to Kurt Cobain and David Gilmour, and one independently made axe headline the list of most profitable guitars sold at auction
![The Jim Irsay Collection's three big stars of the night [L-R]: Kurt Cobain's 1969 Mustang, David Gilmour's record-breaking Black Strat, and Jerry Garcia's Tiger.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7b4qJRk85dSviaveTCjfAe-840-80.jpg.webp)
World record for most expensive guitar shattered three times in one night as Jim Irsay auction sees David Gilmour's Black Strat fetch $14.5m
On any other night, $6,907,000 for Kurt Cobain's Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang and $11,560,000 for Jerry Garcia's “Tiger” would have been world records. But this wasn’t any other night...
David Gilmour's Black Strat sells for record-shattering $14.5 million in the biggest guitar auction in history
We were live on the ground at Christie's auction house in New York as the world's greatest guitar collection went under the hammer
David Gilmour’s Black Strat could be about to break records all over again
It was the world's most expensive guitar when sold at auction in 2019, but as it goes under the hammer in the Jim Irsay Collection, there are a number of reasons to think it will claim another record
