Guitar Effects Shaped The Sounds Of Pink Floyd

There was great excitement in May 2011 when the three remaining members of Pink Floyd joined together on stage in Manchester during the run of Rogers Waters' gigs. The bad feeling between the members which was temporarily put aside at the Live 8 concert has always meant that a permanent reunion is very unlikely to happen but any small gathering has always been well received by the fans. There were many people that made Pink Floyd the band they are and were and it would also be fair to say that guitar effects also played a crucial role in the music of the group.

The initial musical sound of Pink Floyd was tied to the psychedelic era of the mid to late 1960s and Syd Barrett was at the front of the creative side of the group. Barrett was a genius, providing the drive and inspiration for the group's first major singles and albums but it was becoming clear that he was becoming an unstable influence and factor in the group. The guitar effects that dominated their early sound may all have come from Barrett's experimentation but over time, he became more unreliable and was eased out of the group.

Dave Gilmour was Syd's friend, initially brought into the group to hopefully calm Syd down but Gilmour eventually replaced Barrett as one of the creative forces in the group. Gilmour was also known to use a lot of guitar effects in his music but he favoured the chorus and flanger pedals, bringing a softer and sweeter sound than the adventurous music that Syd would deliver to the group. There was a notable change in the music created by Pink Floyd and even though some early fans drifted off as the music became more mainstream, many new fans came on board.

Dave Gilmour was not the only creative force in the band and Roger Waters played a major part in the musical direction of the group. Waters was the driving force behind "The Wall", a phenomenon which transcended the album, both on tour and on film. Guitar effects were also central to the success of this album, underpinning many of the songs and making many tracks come to life. This album was another major critical and commercial success for the group but it played a large part in the breakdown of relations between the members of the group.

The power struggle between Waters and Gilmour was evident to most people but after "The Wall", it was becoming increasingly clear that both could not operate in the same band. Waters eventually left the band, leaving Gilmour and his box of guitar effects at the head of the group. Pink Floyd soldiered on, selling out huge tours across the world and making huge selling albums. Creatively, the band were not on the same planet that they had been in previous incarnations but fans, both old and new, had a fondness for the new material of the group, propelling it to the upper reaches of the chart with every release.