A BUSINESSMAN failed to buy David Gilmour’s famous Fender guitar when it went to auction.

Fender chief executive Andy Mooney tried to buy the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour’s 0001 Stratocaster guitar when it was auctioned in New York last year.

Despite placing a bid, the Scottish businessman was not successful.

The famous white Fender Stratocaster, which was played on Another Brick in the Wall, was sold for £1.43 million.

Andy Mooney, who has been Fender chief executive since 2015, told the American music magazine Guitar World that the guitar was his “holy grail.”

He said: “I tried to convince David for many years to at least give me access to it so we could do some Custom Shop replicas, but he was never willing to do it. Now I know why, looking at how much that guitar went for.

“I bid on it actually. I played it at Christie’s when they put it on a roadshow along with his black Strat. So at least I got to touch it and play it… but sadly that one will never make it into the collection!”

Hove resident Mr Gilmour sold his guitar collection for a record amount at auction to raise money to combat climate change.

The guitarist sold more than 120 instruments for a total of £17 million.

His 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster alone fetched £3.1million, setting a world auction record for any guitar.

The Black Strat was used on albums including The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon.

More than 2,000 bidders from 66 countries registered for the sale, which was held at auction house Christie’s in Rockefeller Centre in New York.

Mr Gilmour was raising funds for ClientEarth, a charity made up of environmental lawyers.

He said the current climate emergency was “the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face” and warned against the” irreversible” effects of climate change.

He said: “The choice really is that simple, and I hope that the sale of these guitars will help ClientEarth in their cause to use the law to bring about real change.

“We need a civilised world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”

At the height of their popularity in the 1970s, Pink Floyd consisted of guitarist Gilmour, Nick Mason on drums, Roger Waters on bass and vocals, and Richard Wright on keyboards.

The album Dark Side of the Moon went 14 times platinum in the UK and still sells hundreds of thousands of copies every year. They are one of the best-selling rock groups of all time.