Richard Wright (musician) - Equipment

Equipment

In the early days of the band, Wright dabbled with brass before settling on the Farfisa Compact Duo electronic organ as his main instrument onstage (in addition to piano and Hammond Organ in the studio). For a brief period in 1969, Wright played vibraphone on several of the band's songs and in some live shows, and he even played trombone on "Biding My Time" (also dating from this experimental period). During the formative years of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Wright relied heavily on his Farfisa organ, fed through a Binson Echorec platter echo, to achieve distinctive sounds that helped the band gain their "psychedelic rock" edge. He used a Mellotron on many Pink Floyd songs recorded in 1968, on "Sysyphus" and on "Atom Heart Mother". He started using a Hammond organ regularly on stage thereafter, and a grand piano later became part of his usual live concert setup when "Echoes" was added to Pink Floyd's regular set-list. For tours in the 1970s based around The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, the Farfisa was dropped (although it was brought back when Wright toured with David Gilmour on his On An Island tour), and an array of other instruments were added to the lineup, such as: Fender Rhodes & Wurlitzer Electric Pianos, Hohner clavinet, VCS 3, Minimoog, ARP String Ensemble and Prophet 5, Roland D-50 synthesizers. From 1987 Wright favoured Kurzweil digital synthesizers for reproducing his analogue synthesizer sounds, even though he still used his favourite Hammond C-3 organ. The one that he used with Pink Floyd at Live 8 and with David Gilmour, however, was a "portablized" version (stripped of unnecessary weight and put into a more compact casing by Keyboard Products of Los Angeles, Ca.). Throughout his career, Wright was also a proficient multi-instrumentalist. He also played violin, cello, bass, guitar, saxophone, and drums, amongst others.