When browsing Adrian Boot’s Dire Straits photos, I found one from early 1980 that allowed a very rare view on Mark’s 1961 “Sultans” Stratocaster: a view on the back of the guitar. As the tremolo cover plate is missing on this guitar – back then and still today – we can see the inside of the tremolo cavity. From some other pictures or video stills, I already got the vague […]
While Mark Knopfler is strongly associated with playing fingerstyle, we know he always used a pick occasionally as well. Before he started Dire Straits, he did a lot of fingerpicking- e.g. on his National resonator guitar – but also used a pick much more than he did later. With his band before Dire Straits – the Cafe Racers – he mainly played with a pick on his 1959 Gibson Les […]
Adrian Boot is one of Britain’s best-known music photographers. You might know his name from pictures in magazines (e.g. in NME or Melody Maker) or books – e.g. from the Dire Straits book by Michael Oldfield which features a lot of his pictures. While searching the web for unknown Dire Straits pictures, I recently found a website – urbanimage.tv – which has about 65 pictures of Dire Straits / Mark […]
Aa I included the Tone King Imperial amp settings of the last tour (Get Lucky, 2010) in this blog post, I did not want to miss the opportunity to take a photo of the amp on this tour (I was in Cologne on July 3). Of course the Reinhardt amps are used for most songs, and the Tone King only on some songs, mostly with a clean Fender-like sound (e.g. […]
I added a gallery where all customers can upload pictures of the guitar they build with mk-guitar.com products, mainly with the loaded pickguards. I started with some pictures that satisfied customers sent me during the last months, but uploading is easy for everyone, not even a registration is required. So don’t be shy and show us your Dream Machine. You can also add a description for each picture, with e.g. […]
This blog post is about the next step in my Tele Dream Machine project – the wiring of all controls. The main difference to a standard Fender Telecaster wiring is due to the tapped Walk of Life pickups (or Schecter F521T / F520T in the original) Unfortunately the original Omni Pots, those square conductive-plastic potis with the push-pull switch that Schecter used in the Van Nuys era, are no longer […]
Mark’s Privateering tour has started, and they played the first 8 concerts around south-east Europe and Italy. One song that has been played on some of these – compared to previous tours they vary the setlist a lot – is Gator Blood. I saw the picture of Mark with the white Strat – it seems to be the 1964 of Sailing to Philadelphia – some days ago and was wondering […]
I recently watched this video on youtube and felt to share it with all readers of my blog. It shows Abigail Ybarra winding a pickup in the Fender custom shop. In case you haven’t heard of her, she started to wind pickups at the Fender factory in 1956, and again does so at the Fender custom shop today. She is the mother of pickup winding so-to-say. The youtube video […]
After the Walk of Life pickups – a reproduction of the Schecter F520T / F521T sound – are availabable now, I can continue with the next steps of my Dream Machine Tele project (see part 1 here). I meanwhile found a vintage Schecter brass Tele bridge some weeks ago, so – with my own highly-ploshed brass Tele pickguards – I have nearly all essential parts for one guitar together now. […]
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 […]