When Kurt Cobain’s Fender Mustang guitar, the late legend played on “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, brought in $6.907 million at an auction at Christie’s, many wondered if and when this record would be broken. Now, the answer is in: David Gilmour’s legendary “Black Strat,” the guitar that the Pink Floyd star played on such songs as “Money,” “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and his legendary solo on “Comfortably Numb,” sold at the same auction house for $14,550,000, including the buyer’s premium. The guitar’s new owner was not identified. At the 2026 auction, the “Black Strat” had a pre-auction estimate of “just” $2,000,000 – $4,000,000.
Gilmour purchased the 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster in 1970 at Manny’s on West 48th Street in New York. “The Black Strat” quickly became his primary performance and recording instrument for the next 15 years, and it was extensively modified to accommodate Gilmour’s evolving style and performance requirements.
Gilmour’s guitar was key to the development of the Pink Floyd sound and was instrumental in the recording of landmark albums such as Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979), and the band’s 1973 masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon.
The guitar can also be heard on Gilmour’s solo albums, including David Gilmour (1978), About Face (1984), On an Island (2006) and Rattle That Lock (2015).
