Just to say, I read the thread title and ignored everything else… was I some part of London the other week… And this was a cheap one!
I'll go for Gilmour's black Strat, auctioned for around $4M a few years ago. As used on “Money”, “Comfortably Numb” and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”, among many others. The one that blew me away though was the one he has with number #0001, I watched a BBC programme about the Stratocaster, Gilmour was sat there with one on his knee and casually flipped it over to show the number on the plate at the bottom of the neck. There is some controversy among guitar geeks about it, but I was impressed. We visited The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, there are a boggling collection of iconic guitars there, such as Hendrix's white Strat, on a wall next to a TV showing him playing The Star Spangled Banner on it at Woodstock, also nearby was several of the ones he smashed! Also The Byrds' Roger McGuinn's 12 string Rickenbacker with Mr Tambourine Man playing. https://mopop.emuseum.com/groups/guitars/results
Blistering write up on that guitar on his Wikipedia page….these instruments really do ‘live’ a life of their own don’t they?
According to lore, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Jimi Hendrix was asked, “How does it feel to be the greatest guitarist in the world?” He is believed to have answered, “I don’t know, go ask Rory Gallagher.” I visited that Wiki page, his Strat looks like it's been in a war! We saw him at The Apollo in Manchester, the stage power cut (whether accidentally or on purpose I don't know) and Rory came out with an acoustic, shushed the crowd, and carried on with an acoustic set (no mike) until the lights came back on. I don't know how many encores he did at the end, after the fourth we left, only to hear the music come back on as we were outside, getting on the motorbike!
I thought he said Terry Kath, but I'd bet he gave a few different answers to that one. I'd also bet his answer was never Eric Clapton. Have we done Niles Roger's "Hitmaker"? How about Leland Sklar who's played the same bass all his life. Don't think he named it though.
