David Gilmour's Live 8 equipment
Written by Matt   
Wednesday, 10 August 2005

Further to our previous news story concerning HiWatt's claims on the equipment that David Gilmour apparently used at Live 8, we were contacted by Phil Taylor last night.

Phil, who has worked with Pink Floyd for 30 years and is David Gilmour's right hand man, has amongst his other jobs, responsibility for the day-to-day running of Astoria, David's studio houseboat which resides on the River Thames.

HiWatt claim that David used their DG-103 custom amp during the show. However, Phil assures us that David did NOT use this, and has never done so (even though they claim to have a model with modifications the same as his).

David was using the pair of Dave Reeves original HiWatts that Phil bought new for him at HiWatt in Kingston in 1974. These are the same two amplifiers that David has always used since then on any Floyd or solo projects (obviously, when he has been using his more powerful set up with separate amps / 4 x 12's - both in the studio, and for gigs).

At Live 8, one of his amps went into a WEM 4 x 12 cabinet with Fane Crescendo speakers, and the other into a Marshall 4 x 12 cabinet with Celestions.

We are delighted to set the record straight on David's equipment, and thank Phil for his time giving us the technical detail on it.