An auction of 127 instruments from Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's personal collection sold yesterday at auction, raising millions for charity.
The instruments raised a total of $21,490,750 for Gilmour's charitable foundation and set several records for sales of guitars.
The centerpiece of the Gilmour Collection was his iconic Black Strat, his primary guitar both on stage and in studio for Pink Floyd's classic albums from the 1970s. The heavily-modified black Fender Stratocaster is itself a symbol of Pink Floyd's groundbreaking progressive sound and a tool that provided him no shortage of inspiration.
The Black Strat set a world record for the highest-ever price for which a guitar has sold at auction, eclipsing (pun intended) the $2.41 million price of John Lennon's "Love Me Do" Gibson acoustic from The Beatles' Ed Sullivan Show performance in 1964.
But there were to other guitars in Gilmour's collection that also broke the $1 million mark. Gilmour's white and gold '54 Stratocaster with the serial number 0001 fetched $1.815 million.
And his personal favorite '69 Martin D-35 acoustic sold for $1.095 million. Gilmour says he's done more songwriting on his Martin than any other guitar he's ever owned — he was loathe to include it in the sale until the last opportunity.
Gilmour's collection set several records for sale prices of guitars by specific brands, including Fender, Martin and Gibson.
His gold top '55 Les Paul, on which he recorded the guitar solo for "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" sold for $447,000.
You can look at the entire Gilmour collection here.
Gilmour has clarified that just because he's selling so many of his guitars doesn't mean his retiring anytime soon. He added that he hopes the people who bought his guitars will make music with them, just like he did.
Photo: Getty Images