Money
A three-part fuzz guitar solo in 4/4, between verses in seven over a cash-register loop.
What is the Money guitar tone?
The Money guitar tone is a three-part fuzz guitar solo in 4/4, between verses in seven over a cash-register loop, heard on Pink Floyd's 1970s prog rock recording. It is a distorted solo tone, and Pink Floyd reportedly tracked it with David Gilmour's Black Strat, a late-1960s Fender Stratocaster that by then had a 1963 rosewood neck and an extra switch for more pickup combinations, and a custom guitar by Bill Lewis of Vancouver with 24 frets, two full octaves on the high string, which let him reach notes a Strat cannot; Gilmour cut three solos, the first through a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Binson Echorec, double-tracked, the second dry with no reverb or delay, and the third with the first one's settings on the Lewis, doubled with artificial double tracking, which is also how Guitar Player places the two guitars, while Gilmourish has the Lewis on the first and the third; the amps are told two ways, since Gilmourish lists Hiwatt DR103 heads and a silverface Fender Twin Reverb for the sessions, with engineer Alan Parsons remembering a Twin so loud that everyone had to leave the room, and Guitar.com names a Hiwatt DR103 into a WEM 4x12; under the verses Gilmour plays a stuttering tremolo rhythm part, the song is in seven apart from the solos, which switch to 4/4 over a twelve-bar blues in B minor stretched to 24 bars, and Roger Waters wrote the riff on an acoustic guitar; the band cut the backing track at Abbey Road in June 1972, mix supervisor Chris Thomas says he had Gilmour double the descending riff at the end of the solo and the bass riff on guitar, and The Dark Side of the Moon came out in March 1973. Sustain and ambience carry these parts, so the delay and modulation settings shape the sound as much as the amp does.
You do not need that exact gear to land in the same place. What carries this sound is the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup choice and the order of the effects, and all four can be rebuilt on equipment that costs a fraction of the original. The numbers change from amp to amp, because a high-gain head and a small practice amp reach the same voicing from different knob positions. That translation is what Tonelify works out for the rig you actually own.
Money amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 5.5, Bass 5, Middle 8, Treble 5, Presence 5, Reverb 4, with the neck pickup for body, bridge if the lead needs to cut.
- Gain 5.5
- Bass 5
- Middle 8
- Treble 5
- Presence 5
- Reverb 4
- Signal chain
- Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face → Binson Echorec on the first and third solos → Artificial double tracking on the third solo (mix)
- The control that matters most
- The fuzz, then taking the echo away. Gilmour played the solo in three parts, the first with a Fuzz Face and a Binson Echorec, the second completely dry and the third back on the echo, so put a fuzz into a loud, clean amp and switch the delay off for the middle section. The last part climbs past the top of a standard Strat neck, which is why he played it on a 24-fret guitar, so some of those notes may have to come down an octave.
These positions are free and they are a starting point. A Katana, a Spark and a valve head reach this voicing from different knob positions, so Tonelify rewrites every value above for the amp and guitar you own. Your first match is free with an account, and needs no card.
Adapt these to my amp- Pickup
- Neck pickup for body, bridge if the lead needs to cut
These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. If you tell Tonelify which amp you own, it rewrites every value above for the controls that amp actually has.
What gear did Pink Floyd use on Money?
David Gilmour's Black Strat, a late-1960s Fender Stratocaster that by then had a 1963 rosewood neck and an extra switch for more pickup combinations, and a custom guitar by Bill Lewis of Vancouver with 24 frets, two full octaves on the high string, which let him reach notes a Strat cannot; Gilmour cut three solos, the first through a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Binson Echorec, double-tracked, the second dry with no reverb or delay, and the third with the first one's settings on the Lewis, doubled with artificial double tracking, which is also how Guitar Player places the two guitars, while Gilmourish has the Lewis on the first and the third; the amps are told two ways, since Gilmourish lists Hiwatt DR103 heads and a silverface Fender Twin Reverb for the sessions, with engineer Alan Parsons remembering a Twin so loud that everyone had to leave the room, and Guitar.com names a Hiwatt DR103 into a WEM 4x12; under the verses Gilmour plays a stuttering tremolo rhythm part, the song is in seven apart from the solos, which switch to 4/4 over a twelve-bar blues in B minor stretched to 24 bars, and Roger Waters wrote the riff on an acoustic guitar; the band cut the backing track at Abbey Road in June 1972, mix supervisor Chris Thomas says he had Gilmour double the descending riff at the end of the solo and the bass riff on guitar, and The Dark Side of the Moon came out in March 1973.
Sources: Wikipedia: Money (Pink Floyd song), Guitar Player: a listening guide to The Dark Side of the Moon, Gilmourish: Dark Side of the Moon gear, 1972 to 1975, Gilmourish: the Bill Lewis guitar, Guitar.com: the gear David Gilmour used on The Dark Side of the Moon
Tonelify reads that chain and translates it to the amp and guitar you already own, returning gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values along with a pickup position.
How do you get the Money tone on your own amp?
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AI researches the original tone of Money
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Money tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Money?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 5.5, Bass 5, Middle 8, Treble 5, Presence 5, Reverb 4, with the neck pickup for body, bridge if the lead needs to cut. These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. Tonelify rewrites the same values for the specific amp and guitar you own, because a high-gain head and a small solid-state combo reach the same three-part fuzz guitar solo in 4/4, between verses in seven over a cash-register loop from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Money tone?
The fuzz, then taking the echo away. Gilmour played the solo in three parts, the first with a Fuzz Face and a Binson Echorec, the second completely dry and the third back on the echo, so put a fuzz into a loud, clean amp and switch the delay off for the middle section. The last part climbs past the top of a standard Strat neck, which is why he played it on a 24-fret guitar, so some of those notes may have to come down an octave.
Can you get the Money tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with David Gilmour's Black Strat, a late-1960s Fender Stratocaster that by then had a 1963 rosewood neck and an extra switch for more pickup combinations, and a custom guitar by Bill Lewis of Vancouver with 24 frets, two full octaves on the high string, which let him reach notes a Strat cannot; Gilmour cut three solos, the first through a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Binson Echorec, double-tracked, the second dry with no reverb or delay, and the third with the first one's settings on the Lewis, doubled with artificial double tracking, which is also how Guitar Player places the two guitars, while Gilmourish has the Lewis on the first and the third; the amps are told two ways, since Gilmourish lists Hiwatt DR103 heads and a silverface Fender Twin Reverb for the sessions, with engineer Alan Parsons remembering a Twin so loud that everyone had to leave the room, and Guitar.com names a Hiwatt DR103 into a WEM 4x12; under the verses Gilmour plays a stuttering tremolo rhythm part, the song is in seven apart from the solos, which switch to 4/4 over a twelve-bar blues in B minor stretched to 24 bars, and Roger Waters wrote the riff on an acoustic guitar; the band cut the backing track at Abbey Road in June 1972, mix supervisor Chris Thomas says he had Gilmour double the descending riff at the end of the solo and the bass riff on guitar, and The Dark Side of the Moon came out in March 1973, but the parts that define the sound are the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the effects order. Those translate to other equipment, which is what the adaptation step does.
Is Money a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a solo part with a distorted character, from Pink Floyd's 1970s prog rock catalogue.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
Your first match for your own gear is free with an account, and needs no card. After that both plans start with a 7-day free trial: Stage is $6.99 a month for 20 matches, Headliner is $10.99 a month for unlimited matching within a fair use limit of 150 new matches a day, and yearly billing works out cheaper on both. Reading this page and the rest of the library costs nothing and needs no account.
