It turns out that Gilmour uses a 30 y.o. Zoom 9030 (Rick Beato interview) (2024)

He records using (also) a zoom 9030 and he gets awesome sounds as usual.
That's outrageous

Tone is in the mind.

AFAIK and understand he uses it at home for making demos but sometimes demo parts leak into the records.
Live he has his usual rig.

In the interview he also say that he records stuff on his own (they talk about some piano parts or vocals) and the fact that his sounds are always stellar backups what I always say:
tone is the mind, in the brain.

Meaning that basically what you hear in your mind, what you imagine is what makes you sound as you sound.
Gear is just there to get you to the point (or get in the way, sometimes)

HotRats said:

AFAIK and understand he uses it at home for making demos but sometimes demo parts leak into the records.
Live he has is usual rig.

In the interview he also say that he records stuff on his own (they talk about some piano parts or vocals) and the fact that his sounds are always stellar backups what I always say:
tone is the mind, in the brain.

Meaning that basically what you hear in your mind, what you imagine is what makes your sound as you sound.
Gear is just there to get you to the point (or get in the way, sometimes)

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Watched it last night, and remember him talking about the Zoom briefly. I totally agree with you, tone is in the mind. Use what gets your point across. Funny thing is, when I listen to Gilmour, what he's using is not in my initial thoughts at all. It's the song, melodic structure and his phrasing that grabs me first. He's the secret sauce, not his gear.

The intro to “Coming Back To Life” has been a target of speculation/guesswork among Gilmour gear nerds for a while, the leads that pop up throughout are pretty easily identifiable as a Tele/Tube Driver, but after Gilmour mentioned he used the Zoom on some of the song, my assumption is that it’s the intro. It sounds like a direct signal more than anything else.

DrewJD82 said:

The intro to “Coming Back To Life” has been a target of speculation/guesswork among Gilmour gear nerds for a while, the leads that pop up throughout are pretty easily identifiable as a Tele/Tube Driver, but after Gilmour mentioned he used the Zoom on some of the song, my assumption is that it’s the intro. It sounds like a direct signal more than anything else.

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Yep, that's why I've always prefered the PULSE version tone on the intro then, always thought on the album was a quite sterile clean

DLC86 said:

Yep, that's why I've always prefered the PULSE version tone on the intro then, always thought on the album was a quite sterile clean

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That and the all the PULSE tones are god-tier!!!

I particularly love how he gets that feedback in the intro despite there being practically no dirt on the guitar.

Maybe he just made music with what he knew and loved, instead of buying and selling the same gear over and over...?

TSJMajesty said:

Maybe he just made music with what he knew and loved, instead of buying and selling the same gear over and over...?

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Lessons to be learned for sure.

DrewJD82 said:

The intro to “Coming Back To Life” has been a target of speculation/guesswork among Gilmour gear nerds for a while, the leads that pop up throughout are pretty easily identifiable as a Tele/Tube Driver, but after Gilmour mentioned he used the Zoom on some of the song, my assumption is that it’s the intro. It sounds like a direct signal more than anything else.

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As someone who owned and extensively used a Zoom device back in the 90’s I’m fairly certain he used one for the rhythm and solo tones. If you want to explore that idea, grab my Zoom IR from Axe-Change:

Edit: After listening to the track again, it sounds like he used one for the intro as well.

This would explain why a video I did 4 years ago is blowing up

2112 said:

This would explain why a video I did 4 years ago is blowing up

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2112 said:

This would explain why a video I did 4 years ago is blowing up
View attachment 33378

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I watched your short on it

Karl Houseknecht said:

Thought the POD sounded better.

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I agree it does!

FuzzyAce said:

It backs up what I've said a few times here-- in the studio, anything goes.

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But live, anything goes as well. At least as long as it's the right tool...

FuzzyAce said:

It backs up what I've said a few times here-- in the studio, anything goes. Not sure he uses it live though, doubtful.

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This is really the short of it. I can’t count the number of sessions I’ve been in where scratch tracks from a practice amp make it into the final recording, or we discover dropping a ribbon mic on a maxed out and boosted Marshall belt clip micro stack perfectly places the solo in the track.

My recommendation for guitar players is to find players that have a live tone you consistently love and chase that gear, not the stuff they say they use in the studio.

Sascha Franck said:

But live, anything goes as well. At least as long as it's the right tool...

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Yeah, I don't disagree. But you wouldn't want to necessarily bring all the gear used to make an album with you on the stage. At some point there has to be a compromise of sorts. Pedals and modelers are great for that as an example, and I don't mean that negatively.