Hello,

I know that Mark used a Crate Vintage Club 50 amp with EVM 12-L speakers (VC 5212) on that DVD but i have always wondered how he achieved that sound with the Pensa-Suhr and Les Paul. Did he use the overdrive channel of the amp, the poweramp distortion or the clean channel with an overdrive pedal?

I have got a Crate Vintage Club 50, too. So I am very interested how he achieved that sound.

Hi,

you are right these amps sound indeed wonderful. Mine has got a great clean channel but I don't often use the overdrive channel.

Let's take 'Sultans Of Swing' or 'Gravy Train' for example. It isn't a distorted sound, but neither it is a clean sound. That's why I thought it would be the power amp distortion for the Pensa-Suhr. On Going Home, Father and Son and Golden Heart there is a clean sound. On the Les Pauls there is a distorted sound but where does it come from? I meanwhile think there wasn't an overdrive pedal. So it must be the power amp distortion again or the overdrive channel. In my opinion it is the greatest sound of a Les Paul I have ever heard.

To my guitars:

I have got three strats (one of them with Seymour Duncan SSL 5 t pickups)

and a Les Paul of the 70's (with a Bare Knuckle The Mule on the neck position)

For the distorted sound I use a DIY Tubescreamer or a DIY Zendrive pedal. With these pedals I geat a great crunch sound which sounds more like Mark's 'new' Les Paul sound.

Greetings

TheWizzard29

if you look at the side of the crate theres a marshall cab ,which probably is connected back to a soldano slo 100 head back stage ,just an amp switcher and youve got the two channels of the soldano and two channels of the crate ,so 4 varying ammounts of clean/gain can be had, i reckon anyways

Hi,

If I read an old interview carefully, the A Night In London gig was the very first of the tour (or was it pre-tour?) and he used just the Crates through his trusty Marshall cabs (with Electro Voice speakers). Then the Crates proved to be unreliable and he switched back to the Soldano's…

I've watched Knopfler carefully on his last tour and noticed this: he's always very loud in the overall mix. He sets his amp(s) at a medium gain level, and because he is so damn loud he can adjust the volume controls on his guitar to set the maximum amount of gain. Finally he uses the volume pedal to control the overall volume ánd again, the gain. As you'll notice Les Paul's are louder and have more mids than Strats… in other words, they will overdrive the amp more. My main rig consists of a Les Paul and a Tele and when I switch from the first to the latter there's a big drop in gain just because the Tele lacks the mids and output of the Les Paul….

It's said that when Mark had his Komet rig, he had one for clean and one for a dirty tone. It could very well be that the same thing applies for his current Reinhardt rig or when he played through the Soldano's and Crates. Knopfler seems to have a fairly light touch so when he digs in he gets more gain. Thats imho the key aspect what a guitar player makes a great one, i.e. total control over your guitar. With the quieter songs, like Golden Heart, Going Home, the band is lower in volume as well you can cut the gain by lowering the volume control on the guitar and playing with a lighter touch…

Cheers,
Emiel