Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Slow, bluesy Strat solos over layered keyboards and a four-note theme, each solo a step hotter than the last.
What is the Shine On You Crazy Diamond guitar tone?
The Shine On You Crazy Diamond guitar tone is slow, bluesy Strat solos over layered keyboards and a four-note theme, each solo a step hotter than the last, heard on Pink Floyd's 1970s prog rock recording. It is a clean solo tone, and Pink Floyd reportedly tracked it with David Gilmour's Black Strat, a 1969 Fender Stratocaster with a 1963 rosewood neck and 1971 Fender pickups, with a Hiwatt DR103 into a WEM cabinet, a Fender Dual Showman and a Leslie rotating speaker in his setup for the album, recorded at Abbey Road in 1975; Gilmourish credits the overdrive on the solos to a Colorsound Power Boost, his main overdrive since early 1972, set for a very mild crunch on the second solo and cranked with an MXR Phase 90 on the bridge pickup for the third, while noting elsewhere that some of the drive could be the amp, and puts the Phase 90 on the four-note theme it calls Syd's Theme and a Binson Echorec on the delays; how the opening solo was cut is told two ways, since Gilmourish's account of the sessions says it went straight into the mixing console, driven only by the desk's input compression, while its article on the song says straight into the amp on the neck pickup, and Wikipedia describes a heavily compressed sound with reverb; Gilmour says the band had to record the backing track again after someone switched the echo returns on Abbey Road's new desk onto the tracks, and the lap steel solo belongs to Parts VI to IX at the other end of the album. 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 clean channel on a modelling combo 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.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 2, Bass 5, Middle 7, Treble 5, Presence 5, Reverb 4, with the neck pickup on the early solos, bridge on the third.
- Gain 2
- Bass 5
- Middle 7
- Treble 5
- Presence 5
- Reverb 4
- Signal chain
- Colorsound Power Boost, from a mild crunch to full drive → MXR Phase 90 on the theme and the third solo → Binson Echorec delay
- The control that matters most
- The boost, a step at a time. Each solo in Parts I to V is a little hotter than the one before: the opening on the neck pickup with almost no drive, the second with a Colorsound Power Boost set for a very mild crunch, the third with the boost cranked and a Phase 90 on the bridge pickup. Start from a clean amp with plenty of headroom and raise a boost pedal between solos rather than turning up the amp's gain.
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 on the early solos, bridge on the third
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.
Published settings
What amp settings did David Gilmour use on Shine On You Crazy Diamond?
Guitar World's 2017 Tonal Recall feature gives a Hiwatt DR103 with linked inputs at normal volume 6, brilliant volume 4, bass 7, treble 7, middle 4, presence 6 and master 5 to 7, a Colorsound Power Boost at treble 2, bass 5 and volume 5 to 8, and an MXR Phase 90 at speed 6 for the drone notes and 4 for the solos, all on a 0 to 10 scale. Writer Chris Gill built them from old interviews and photos of the era and dialled them in on his own gear, so treat them as the magazine's reconstruction rather than Gilmour's notes from the session. The same feature hears the opening solo on the neck pickup with its tone control backed off slightly and calls a slow Leslie on the four-note theme likely.
Source: Guitar World: Tonal Recall on Shine On You Crazy Diamond
What gear did Pink Floyd use on Shine On You Crazy Diamond?
David Gilmour's Black Strat, a 1969 Fender Stratocaster with a 1963 rosewood neck and 1971 Fender pickups, with a Hiwatt DR103 into a WEM cabinet, a Fender Dual Showman and a Leslie rotating speaker in his setup for the album, recorded at Abbey Road in 1975; Gilmourish credits the overdrive on the solos to a Colorsound Power Boost, his main overdrive since early 1972, set for a very mild crunch on the second solo and cranked with an MXR Phase 90 on the bridge pickup for the third, while noting elsewhere that some of the drive could be the amp, and puts the Phase 90 on the four-note theme it calls Syd's Theme and a Binson Echorec on the delays; how the opening solo was cut is told two ways, since Gilmourish's account of the sessions says it went straight into the mixing console, driven only by the desk's input compression, while its article on the song says straight into the amp on the neck pickup, and Wikipedia describes a heavily compressed sound with reverb; Gilmour says the band had to record the backing track again after someone switched the echo returns on Abbey Road's new desk onto the tracks, and the lap steel solo belongs to Parts VI to IX at the other end of the album.
Sources: Gilmourish: classic tone, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Gilmourish: Wish You Were Here 1975, Guitar World: Tonal Recall on Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wikipedia: Shine On You Crazy Diamond
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.
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Shine On You Crazy Diamond tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Shine On You Crazy Diamond?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 2, Bass 5, Middle 7, Treble 5, Presence 5, Reverb 4, with the neck pickup on the early solos, bridge on the third. 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 slow, bluesy Strat solos over layered keyboards and a four-note theme, each solo a step hotter than the last from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Shine On You Crazy Diamond tone?
The boost, a step at a time. Each solo in Parts I to V is a little hotter than the one before: the opening on the neck pickup with almost no drive, the second with a Colorsound Power Boost set for a very mild crunch, the third with the boost cranked and a Phase 90 on the bridge pickup. Start from a clean amp with plenty of headroom and raise a boost pedal between solos rather than turning up the amp's gain.
Can you get the Shine On You Crazy Diamond tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with David Gilmour's Black Strat, a 1969 Fender Stratocaster with a 1963 rosewood neck and 1971 Fender pickups, with a Hiwatt DR103 into a WEM cabinet, a Fender Dual Showman and a Leslie rotating speaker in his setup for the album, recorded at Abbey Road in 1975; Gilmourish credits the overdrive on the solos to a Colorsound Power Boost, his main overdrive since early 1972, set for a very mild crunch on the second solo and cranked with an MXR Phase 90 on the bridge pickup for the third, while noting elsewhere that some of the drive could be the amp, and puts the Phase 90 on the four-note theme it calls Syd's Theme and a Binson Echorec on the delays; how the opening solo was cut is told two ways, since Gilmourish's account of the sessions says it went straight into the mixing console, driven only by the desk's input compression, while its article on the song says straight into the amp on the neck pickup, and Wikipedia describes a heavily compressed sound with reverb; Gilmour says the band had to record the backing track again after someone switched the echo returns on Abbey Road's new desk onto the tracks, and the lap steel solo belongs to Parts VI to IX at the other end of the album, 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 Shine On You Crazy Diamond a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a solo part with a clean 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.
