54 Comments »

1. 

   Another good article Ingo. When you get a chance do you think you could do one on less high profile guitars like the Danelectros and others that seem to be appearing on more recent albums?

   There’s already some fantastic info on your blog… keep it coming.

   John

   Comment by John — 9. September 2008 @ 12:22

2. 

   Thanks for your comment, John. Will see with these rare bird guitars

   Comment by Ingo — 9. September 2008 @ 15:07

3. 

   This is pure “gold” what you know, and thank you ever so much for sharing this ;o)
   I’m in the proces of having a custom guitar (strat style) made for me. I am planning to order it with swamp ash body, and birdseye neck/fretboard inpired by these red schecter, but I am in so much doubt on which pick up to choose. What would you recomend Ingo? I have thought of duncans antiquity, but never thought of the SSL 1 (untill now that is)

   All the best and thanx again for you wonderful work on this blog

   Comment by Knopfleberg — 9. September 2008 @ 15:13

4. 

   I personnaly think that the wood and the pure sound of the guitar is a more important factor than the pick-ups. Here it depends on what you favour: old Schecter sound (F500T) or 81/83 sound (SSL-1) or the Alnico Pros in 1985.

   Swamp ash should be good for the Knopfler tone although in fact most of his Strats are other woods (only the ’54 and the Signature are swamp ash I think). I heard that the red Schecter was mahagony (!!) body, and the sunburst Strat was birch I think.

   Comment by Ingo — 9. September 2008 @ 17:16

5. 

   Ok, I thought that he’s old 60′ish strat (the red SOS strat) was ash body, and original with rosewood fretboard (changes to maple later)

   Comment by Knopfleberg — 9. September 2008 @ 18:46

6. 

   You mean the red Fender with the maple neck? I have never seen any info about the body wood anywhere, where have you?

   Comment by Ingo — 9. September 2008 @ 19:43

7. 

   I thought I just read it somewhere, but I might be mistaking it from reading the specs of the MK signature strat (which is a joke in my opinion, besides the colour it has very little to do with Knopfler IMO)

   Comment by Knopfleberg — 9. September 2008 @ 21:20

8. 

   I know his danelectro is called a DC-3, he probably got it from Rudy’s. The rosewood make a good bottleneck guitar. His 54 tele is probably ash body as is his 54 sunburst strat. Fender switched to alder late 1955 i beleive. On the newer albums he seems to use alot of his 58 gibson les paul. He pairs his LP’s with marshall amps to give it that classic tone. Eric Clapton is the master mind behind that. Gibson Les Paul + Marshall = Classic LP Tones. He plays his LP’s alot on the neck pickup. Early Clapton has very similar les paul tone. Listen to Cream and the Bluesbreakers.

   Comment by zach — 10. September 2008 @ 02:31

9. 

   About the red strat issue… I know that Hank Marvin’s red Strat was swamp ash. Mark Knopfler would have probably followed his footsteps. Though knowing Knopfler at the time he probably chose the strat more for the looks. Alot of his tone, I have found, comes from the MXR Analog Delay and by him just using his finger style. Your sound will change dramtically between studio(Clear,Exact Tones), to Live(Depends on the build of the club). So I think when we here his tone In the 78-80 time, it’s more due to Live vs. Studio. I have 2 Alder strats and they both sound similar to him. It is just a matter of whether you can play like him.

   Comment by zach — 10. September 2008 @ 02:46

10. 

    Indigo I have a question, what pots do you think knopfler would used in his candy red schecter strat? I was thinking maby 250 because it’s the standard. Also about the pickguard. Is it 1 ply or 3 and is it an 8-hole?
    Are the 2 knobs called dome knobs/Round Tops? The neck kinda looks flamed maple like, or even birdseye. Schecters now only use birdseye.
    Thanks Man.

    Comment by zach — 10. September 2008 @ 03:02

11. 

    Yeah, the ’54 Tele and ’54 Strat are swamp ash, so is the Signature. Noone knows what the red 60ies maple neck was (I bet not even Knopfler, he doesn’t have it anymore anyway).

    Don’t know about the Hank Marvin Strat, besides a maple neck Strat he had some red Strats with rosewood as well. One thing is sure: if we today (internet …) know that Hank Marvin played this or that, then it does not mean that this knowledge was availabe in 1977 when Knopfler got his Strats, he simply bought what he found in a shop in case he liked it.

    Comment by Ingo — 10. September 2008 @ 06:22

12. 

    AFAIK the Schecter have standard 250 kOhms pots, however there was a little cap and a resistor that bridged the volume pot to reduce treble loss when turning down.

    Comment by Ingo — 10. September 2008 @ 06:24

13. 

    I was just wathing the SOS from Alchemy video, where MK plays his res schecterwith the white pickups. Do you think that was the SSL 1 or 5 Ingo?

    Comment by Knopfleberg — 10. September 2008 @ 17:27

14. 

    Not the SSL 5, I would think these were in that 2nd red Schecter Strat (with black pick-ups, no covers, see article), so SSL1 or maybe the Alnico Pros which he had later. I don’t know when he changed these, you might email Seymour Duncan support to ask which year these were introduced.

    Comment by Ingo — 10. September 2008 @ 17:40

15. 

    I’ve been talking alot lately with Schecter, and they mentioned that at one point mark knopfler had schecter monster tone pickups in his schecter. They guaranteed this 100%.

    Comment by zach — 11. September 2008 @ 03:22

16. 

    Personally if your going to have a guitar made, talk to Rudy’s music in New York about it. They built his schecter guitar as well as his pensa’s and even probably all he plays with today. I’ve talked to schecter,Pensa,Rudy’s,Suhr,etc… who should you trust, the comapany or the craftsman.

    Comment by zach — 11. September 2008 @ 03:26

17. 

    Hey Indigo, What wood is, (the main axe)mad from. And also what kind of neck wood is it?
    -alder
    -ash
    -maple
    -swamp ash
    -hard rock maple
    -basswood
    -flamed maple

    Comment by zach — 11. September 2008 @ 03:30

18. 

    Sorry I meant the red schecter strat or even the red tele
    any add. info on the tele would be helpful

    Comment by zach — 11. September 2008 @ 03:31

19. 

    The red Schecter Strat is said to be mahagony body, neck is obviously birds-eye maple. Don’t know about the red Tele.
    BTW, my name is Ingo, not Indigo
    The first pick-ups were (AFAIK) F500T which were similar to the monstertones but not identical. Dermot, can you confirm?

    Comment by Ingo — 11. September 2008 @ 05:36

20. 

    I did a little research and the only thing I could find out was schecter started making their own guitars in 1989. 1 site suggested Monster Tones came out around that time. Maby Mark has them in some studio guitar. So you think that Mark probably know has the alnico pros in? I went and saw Mark in concert in about late july, and I was wondering how he gets his gibson’s to sound like that. From what all I could see he only had an erney ball volume pedal. I was also wanting to find out any add. electronics in the schecter. I know he has that 3 mini switch to activate the pickups individually. Any add. info would be great. I’m trying to save up money and custom make one like Mark’s. This may be to much to ask, but could you send a list as if you were going to make your own guitar of all the things that were in Mark’s schecter, like body wood, neck, pickups, etc… Thanks

    Comment by zach — 11. September 2008 @ 13:53

21. 

    The original Schecter company (by David Schecter and Tom Anderson) started in the late 70ies. They ware a supplier of quality replacement parts, and also build their own guitars from these parts. Mark’s is from this time. The last info I have it that in the mid 80ies he has Alnico pros.
    The three mini switches were originally to switch on/off or to tap the pick-up (each had three positions, on, half, full coil) but neither the SSL1 or the Alnico Pros were tapped, the Schceter F500Ts were.

    Comment by Ingo — 11. September 2008 @ 18:54

22. 

    I learned cool trick w/ the volume pedal that you mentioned. That sure saves alot of money. I have a Boss FV-500H, probably an average type of pedal. I paid around $60 for it next to the $120 Erney Ball. You do loose a little treble at high volume, but works great at medium softer volume. My pedal is a little more noisy though. How do you solve a noisy pedal? PB Blaster?

    Comment by zach — 12. September 2008 @ 03:27

23. 

    I have a question ingo, does, nowadays, Mark use any other effects besides his ernie ball volume pedal?

    Comment by zach — 13. September 2008 @ 03:43

24. 

    There are no (or hardly any) foot pedals, but there is still a rack full of 19″ stuff.

    Comment by Ingo — 13. September 2008 @ 07:08

25. 

    Do you know what makes up his rack? I heard his money for nothing sound is a wah-wah built in to it.

    Comment by zach — 13. September 2008 @ 22:17

26. 

    in addition to my question above, mark’s 61 red strat’s had staggered pickups right?

    Comment by zach — 13. September 2008 @ 22:42

27. 

    Zach, see http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/3399/ for the rack effects, and yes, the 61 PUs are staggered

    Comment by Ingo — 14. September 2008 @ 08:07

28. 

    You are an alchemist; make gold of that.

    Comment by how to make fast money — 12. October 2008 @ 20:29

29. [...] at Rudy’s Music Stop in New York. These were two red Strats (see my article about these here), one blue Strat, a black Telecaster, and a wonderful sunburst Strat. The last was the guitar that [...]

    Pingback by Mark Knopfler’s stolen sunburst Schecter Strat of Tunnel of Love | Mark Knopfler Guitar / More Knowledge about the guitar — 18. October 2008 @ 20:34

30. 

    Mark never used SSL-5s and neither did he Monster Tones. If Schecter says so, they lie, and that’s possible as the current Schecter company is part of ESP Guitars and has nothing to do with the Schecter of the 70s and 80s.

    The truth is that Mark bought his Schecters with Schecter F500T (tapped) pickups. He replaced the ones on his main axe with SSL-1s. His second red Schecter still got the F500Ts. Around 1985 he replaced the pickups on his main red Schecter again, now with APS-2s (Alnicos).

    Comment by Eric — 19. October 2008 @ 13:07

31. 

    I forgot to ask something, Ingo, you said the SSL-1s on Marks main Schecter weren’t tapped, so, what became then the function of the 3 toggle switches?

    Comment by Eric — 19. October 2008 @ 13:13

32. 

    Eric, please read my article again, I also wrote that he got the F500T in them, and replaced them with SSL1 and later APS-2 in the main Schecter. Note that the other also had staggered pole pieces on the picture above (F500T was flat), and read the reasons why I suspect these are SSL5.

    The SSL1s were in fact not tapped, they were the reissue of a 50ies Strat pick-up. I guess the toggle switch then only switched between on and off.

    Comment by Ingo — 19. October 2008 @ 15:42

33. 

    Hi Ingo, wow reading all this is like work ha ha, what a can of worms! Yes Mark’s red and sunburst Schecters were Schecter 500T pickups, they were never monster tones (also made by Tom Anderson), they were introduced after the first Schecter sale in 1983. Also just to confirm Ingo’s comments, Tom also said the following on a forum years ago ..

    “i had a hand in that guitar. it was indeed mahogany, and i remember it being so dark sounding that we thought he would hate it. his first schecter [Sunburst Stolen] was made with a birch body and he loved it. it was stolen and the red one was the replacement. ”

    Tom still made pickups for Schecter even when it was sold to a Japanese company they were called Superrocks.

    On the old maple fender sultans strat (my fav) John Suhr said the following ..

    “Mark told me at the time when I met him in the early 80′s that that was the original guitar (Maple neck) that he had used, I assume Sultans era. The Body wasnt a Fender and the neck was a fingerboard maple neck that looked sketchy, it had been planed so flat it was terrible so we put a Schecter neck on it. The whole guitar was a basket case. My memory could be failing but that is what I remember (pretty clearly). Basically Mark could pick up the most unplayable guitar in the shop but it never mattered, he always could play it and get his tone.”

    Now there you go, obsessed? you bet!.

    Comment by Dermot O'Reilly — 21. October 2008 @ 15:27

34. 

    I don’t even know,fellow!) continued to write in the same vein, it is interesting people!

    Comment by cheescini — 4. November 2008 @ 16:35

35. 

    I own a red Schecter strat. It is serial #18. I am the second owner. I know there’s many that were cobbled up from parts, but it has a Schecter logo on the headstock like I have seen described.

    Comment by Picoshark — 9. December 2008 @ 23:21

36. 

    Hello.

    Yes, nothing like that SCHECTER red.
    Here’s mine

    http://pgo01.neuf.fr/1.jpg

    http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=dwoKNlBpZ18

    See U.

    Comment by nahotchan — 24. December 2008 @ 16:19

37. 

    just a question about Shecter PUs :
    as they can be activate indivually, are thes combinations possibles :
    - bridge + neck
    - the 3 PU together

    and if so, are they DS songs with these combinations ?
    Once upon a time on Alchemy always sounded strange to me : it seems neck, but sometimes no. Could it be neck + bridge, or the 3 together ?

    and another one : on strat, Mark used to switch between 1+2 to neck, as we can see on Sultans-Chorus 78. But did he switch on shecters ? I’ve never seen him doing that on videos, but on Where do you think….wiesbaden 81, the end solo sounds neck, while the rest of the song sounds 1+2.

    Comment by Jean-François — 31. December 2008 @ 09:08

38. 

    Yeah, the end of where do you think you’re going on that concert is neck PU, but there is a part before (at the beginning of the last solo that seems in fact to be PU 1& 3. OUATITW sounds like neck PU to me.

    Comment by Ingo — 31. December 2008 @ 17:10

39. 

    so, the combination 1+2+3 exists on shecter guitars ?
    What does it sound like ?
    any examples ? (DS or others artists)
    I have read on Gilmourish that Gilmour’s strat has a 1+3 switch. And indeed, Gilmour live solos sounds sometimes both dark (as neck) and bright (as bridge at the same time.
    But I don’t know any examples with the 3 PUs together.

    Yes Once upon a time sounds neck PU, but not as darker as a “normal” neck PU. And sometimes, it sounds like middle PU to me. But as I don’t see Mark switching during the song, it must be neck (but a thin neck )

    Comment by Jean-François — 5. January 2009 @ 18:24

40. 

    well, it sounds … good.
    A bit like the in-between positions but warmer and not as nasal as bridge & middle.

    Comment by Ingo — 6. January 2009 @ 19:43

41. 

    I have a theory that the second schecter that Hal Lindes played had a brass nut. You can see pictures of Mark holding it and I thought it was his main red schecter before the pu’s were changed but seems that jis #1 main red schecter has a white (bone/plastic?) nut. In the picture top you can also get a glimpse of the blue schecter – wonder where that is now?

    Comment by Dermot O'Reilly — 5. February 2009 @ 16:10

42. 

    and on the pic, we can see that the 2 strats don’t have the black knobs, so maybe the original fender poti was already back ?

    Comment by Jean-François — 6. February 2009 @ 21:56

43. 

    Dermot, isn’t the blue one the fernandes instead of a shecter ?

    Comment by Jean-François — 7. February 2009 @ 22:48

44. 

    I was wondering, which lacquer did Schecter use (tell me of Mark’s CAR and Sunburst Strat for example), nitro or poly?

    Comment by Erik — 28. March 2009 @ 14:25

45. 

    As far as as I know, the Schecters were nitro.

    Comment by Ingo — 28. March 2009 @ 16:02

46. 

    ive got an original tapped monstertone pickup from the early 80s if its any good to anyone? fenderlogo@gmail.com

    Comment by simon — 18. April 2009 @ 10:46

47. 

    If you watch Alchemy it seems that Once Upon a Time in the West is played with the same guitar as Sultans of Swing and Local Hero. But the guitar on OUaTitW sounds the same as LH whereas SS sounds a lot thinner. The guitar used on SS sounds like Fender pickups and the others more like DiMarzio. In my opinion you couln’d get that much more thinness by switching amps or effects. So one reasonable explanation is that he had two identical guitars, one with Fender and the other with DiMarzio pickups.

    Comment by Martin — 1. May 2009 @ 16:52

48. 

    Right, the same guitar is played on all these songs – the same guitar with the same pick-ups (seymour Duncans, probably SSL-1). The Fender / DiMarzio pick-ups were in the red Fender Strat he played before he changed to the Schecter.

    The pick-up combination was different (neck on OUATITW, bridge&middle on Sultans, neck&middle I think on Local Hero), and there was possibly a different amp setting for each song.

    Comment by Ingo — 4. May 2009 @ 16:53

49. 

    Hi,

    did Schecter mix more gold colour into the CAR lacquer? I have got an Fender Classic 60 in Candy Apple Red and it looks quite brighter and more different than the red on the Schecter strat.

    Comment by TheWizzard29 — 7. June 2009 @ 17:37

50. 

    There was no gold or silver mixed into the laquer to get CAR. Instead, the guitar is first painted gold (or silver) and then covered with a tranparent red laquer. Some CAR guitars have golden undercoat, others silver, and look different for this reason.

    Comment by Ingo — 8. June 2009 @ 17:33

51. 

    By the way Ingo, why did you never have much interest in Schecter guitars (anyway that’s what it appears to me) or even own one?

    Comment by Eric — 13. November 2009 @ 21:16

52. 

    When I became a DS fan in 1979 I was mad for the sound of the Fenders. The first concert I have seen was a Rock Pop TV show from Dortmund here in Germany in 1980 when he had just changed to Schecters , and the guitar sound was nothing compared to what it was before. That crisp warm tone was gone (though I admit this might have to do with all the other new gear he started to use then).
    I meanwhile like the sound of the red Schecter much more, but it seems I was not destined to own one.

    Comment by Ingo — 14. November 2009 @ 09:00

53. 

    When I think of Mark with a guitar I always get that red Fender Strat with maple neck and that weird black knob picture in my head. It just has some kind of magic to it. I do not own a candy aplle red with maple neck guitar but i thinking of buying one. Now i try getting the strat tone with my line 6 variax and it works but it looks so ‘boring’. It doesn’t have to be a Fender as long as the tone is good en the looks. Maybe any suggestions about a strat model that doesn’t empty my bank account??

    Comment by danny — 14. November 2009 @ 13:47

54. [...] it looks and sounds similar to the Seymour Duncan SSL1s or APS-1 that Mark Knopfler played in his red Schecter dream machine Strat. But that’s not all, the VFS-1 has also a second outer coil to create  fatter sounds, [...]

    Pingback by The VFS-1 – New pick-up for our Schecter-style pickguards | Mark Knopfler Guitar / More Knowledge about the guitar — 18. November 2011 @ 18:17

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