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 album in February 1978. Other amps that are commonly suggested here are a Roland Jazz Chorus and a Fender Twin Reverb. It was myself who set this into the world with my first Dire Straits Guitar Page. My source was an article in the Guitar Player magazine from around 1988. The writer of this article was Andy Brauer who runs a gear rental service in Hollywood. He wrote a column about legendary guitar sounds, and named these three amps together with the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor and a Fender maple-neck Strat as the gear used on this album.

Much later I had a short email conversation with Andy and asked him about his source for this info. He replied that these were the amps which Mark Knopfler rent from him for some rehearsal sessions for the recording of Randy Newman’s Land of Dream album, so not really a direct confirmation that this was used on the first album. However, maybe Mark told him that he wanted this gear in case they wanted to recreate some of those early Dire Straits sounds, or confirmed in some other way that these amps relate to the album, I don’t know.

Fact is that Mark Knopfler started to play a Fender Twin Reverb on stage about summer 1978. Also Rhett Davies, the engineer of the album, is known for loving the sound of Roland chorus devices, so it seems likely that they had a Jazz Chorus down at the Basing Street studios.

The echo on e.g. Down to the Waterline might have been added in the mix and was probably not a guitar device (Mark was asked about this in an interview and replied that it was probably something brought in by  Rhett Davies). Except reverb (most studios used plate reverbs back then) there are hardly any dominant effects. Of course Mark Knopfler used a volume pedal on some songs, probably a Morley.

Track 1 – Down to the waterline

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – left channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961  Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	bridge + middle	standard	compression/limiter, reverb	no info available
Guitar two – rhythm- right channel	David Knopfler [100%], strummed	probably Fender stratocaster (bare wood finsih, later refinished black)		standard	Phaser, reverb	no info available

Further notes:

Related blog posts:
Dire Straits Down to the Waterline explained: licks – chords – solo – no tabs

Track 2 – Water of love

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – slide solo – left channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle, bottle neck	National steel guitar [~100%], 1928 Tricone (source: …)	-	open tuning, most likely open G (d,g,d,g,b,d), capo’ed 7th fret (live: open A, capo’ed 5th fret)	reverb	-
Guitar two -  solo licks – center	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	acoustic guitar, no info available	-	probably standard tuning	reverb	-
Guitar three -  strummed chords – right channel	David Knopfler [>90 % ]	acoustic guitar, no info available	-	probably standard tuning	reverb	-

Track 3 – Setting me up

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – center channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~50%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470 or Fender Telecaster Thinline [~50%]	bridge ?	?	compression/limiter, reverb	no info available
Guitar two – riff – right channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Telecaster Thinline [~100%],	bridge	open A tuning	reverb	no info available
Guitar three -  strummed chords – left channel	David Knopfler [~100 % ]	possibly Fender stratocaster (bare wood finsih, later refinished black)		probably standard tuning	reverb	no info available

Track 4 – Six blade knife

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – left channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	bridge + middle	standard	reverb	no info available
Guitar two – rhythm – right channel	David Knopfler [~100 % ]	possibly Fender stratocaster (bare wood finsih, later refinished black)	…	standard	reverb	no info available

Track 5 – Southbound again

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – center	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	bridge + middle	standard	compression/limiter, reverb	no info available
Guitar two – riff – left/right channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	bridge + middle	standard or open G	compression/limiter, reverb	no info available
Guitar three  – rhythm – right channel	David Knopfler [~100 % ]	possibly Fender stratocaster (bare wood finsih, later refinished black)		standard	…	no info available
Guitar four – chords – center overdubbed G and D chords	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle or pick ?	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster # 80470			compression/limiter, reverb	no info available

Track 6 – Sultans of swing

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – center	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	middle + neck (FS1) ?	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar two – rhythm -left channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	middle	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar three – rhythm -right channel	David Knopfler[~100 % ]	possibly Fender stratocaster (barewood finsih, later refinished black)	…	standard	…	no info available

Track 7 – In the gallery

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – center	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	middle + bridge	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar two – rhythm -  left channel	Mark Knopfler [100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%], probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	…	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar three – rhythm – right channel	David Knopfler[~100 % ]	possibly Fender stratocaster (barewood finsih, later refinished black)	…	standard	…	no info available
Organ (during chorus only)	Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler or Muff Winwood (?)

Track 8 – Wild west end

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – center	Mark Knopfler[100%],MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%],probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	middle+bridge	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar two – rhythm – left channel	Mark Knopfler[~100%], MK fingerstyle	National steel guitar [~100%],1928 Tricone  or 1937 Style-O	-	…	-	-
Guitar three – strummed chords – right channel	David Knopfler[~100 % ]	acoustic guitar, no info available	-	…	-	-
Piano few notes at the start and just after “Chinatown”	Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler or Muff Winwood (?)

Track 9 – Lions

	Musician	Guitar	Pick-up	Tuning	Effects	Amp
Guitar one – lead – center	Mark Knopfler[100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%],probably 1961 Stratocaster #68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	middle	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar two – lead/rhythm -right channel	Mark Knopfler[100%], MK fingerstyle	Fender Stratocaster [~100%],probably 1961 Stratocaster # 68354 or 1961/62 Stratocaster #80470	middle+ bridge	standard	compression/limiter,reverb	no info available
Guitar three rhythm – left channel	David Knopfler[~100 % ]	Possibly Fender stratocaster (barewood finsih, later refinished black)	…	standard	…	no info available

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