I recently wrote various blog posts about ‘new’ pictures from some early Dire Straits gigs (e.g. here or here). Normally it happens only rarely that such new pictures appear – we are talking about a period more than 40 years ago, a time before digital cameras existed – but these days again someone pointed me towards another set of nine pictures on Flickr, this time from the gig in Hamburg, […]
Today I messed around with an audio player plug-in for WordPress (the software used to create this blog). In some other post I wrote something about the Hamburg concert (Musikhalle, Hamburg, Germany, Oct. 28, 1978) and mentioned that I slowed it down to the original speed (the concert around in some fan hubs or on torrent trackers runs almost ridiculously fast), so I added the audio player with a sample […]
Edit 2012: I had to correct myself. These pictures were probably from the next day, October 29, 1978, when they played in Berlin (compare this blog post). Unlike these days, when each concert is not only recorded on audio or video, not to mention all pictures made by a million people it seems, there are hardly pictures from those early Dire Straits concerts. Too bad digital cams were not invented […]
I already reported in two previous blog posts (here and here) about the difficult situation we are facing when buying or selling guitars with parts of Brazilian rosewood (e.g. the fingerboard on vintage Fender or Gibson guitars). Yesterday I was on Germany’s biggest vintage guitar show in Oldenburg. Last year the show was cancelled due to exactly this issue – the problems of displaying guitars with Brazilian rosewood in public. […]
Mark Knopfler’s guitar sound on the first two Dire Straits albums is firmly associated to the 1 & 2 position (bridge & middle) of the 5-way switch. This position causes a special, nasal “out of phase” sound. The term out of phase is technically incorrect as both pickups are still in phase but – similar to a true out of phase wiring – certain frequencies are cancelled or at least […]
I reported about the increasing problems concerning guitars with Brazilian rosewood (used e.g. for fingerboards on vintage Fender or Gibson guitars) last year (see here). As a consequence of this, Germany’s biggest vintage guitar show last November was cancelled, as the CITES restriction does not allow to display a guitar with parts of Brazilian rosewood in public without a special licence. With this short blog post I just want you […]
Please use the comment function at the bottom of the page to add any missing relevant info. Manufacturer: Fender Model: Stratocaster Year: 1961 Serial No.: 68354 Colour: stripped to bare wood when he got it, refinished to red in late 1978 (similar to fiesta red but more intense), finish cracked in early 90ies and was refinished again Woods: alder body / maple neck/ Brazilian rosewood fingerboard Pickups: two original pickups, […]
Contributors: Jean-François Convert, Ingo Raven Guitars There is hardly information available that tells us anything about the gear on the famous first Dire Straits album. Amps and effects on this album It seems likely that the brown Fender Vibrolux – an amp that originally belonged to Dire Straits’ bass player John Illsley – was used on this album. Mark Knopfler used this amp on stage before and after recording the […]
Before Knopfler changed to the Schecter Strat in 1980, he played two red Fender Strats with Dire Straits, one with a rosewood finger board (SN 68354) , one with maple (SN 80470). Rosewood Strat (68354) Maple neck Strat (80470) with white pickguard Maple neck Strat (80470) with the greenish pickguard of the rosewood Strat Have you ever wondered which of these guitars was used on which of the many bootleg […]