Category: Vintage guitars

Vintage guitars

No Vintage Guitars with Brazilian Rosewood at the Frankfurt Music Fair

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 […]

Guitars, Vintage guitars

Mark Knopfler’s Martin Acoustic Guitars – Signature, Vintage, different models

Mark Knopfler played a lot of different acoustic guitars in his career: different borrowed ones on the first Dire Straits albums (e.g. a David Russel Young on Love over Gold, or a Greco on Bob Dylan’s Infidels), different Ovations (e.g. Custom Legend, Adamas), Gibsons (e.g.  J45, or a Southern Jumbo), Guild, and many more. These days he uses mainly Martins on stage, and also a lot in the studio. If […]

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

The hang tag shadow on vintage Les Pauls

Today’s blog article is just about some little detail you might have noticed on Mark Knopfler’s vintage Les Pauls. I wrote a blog post about the fading red dye on old Les Pauls some time ago, so it is something like common knowledge that the old Les Pauls from the late 50ies came in a colour called cherry sunburst and the red faded when exposed to sunlight, resulting in a […]

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

Playing on the Holy Grail of Electric Guitars: 1960 Les Paul Standard

Some time ago I had the opportunity to play on a real “Burst”, a 1960 Les Paul Standard. You will probably know that Les Paul Standards between 1958 and 1960 are something like the ‘Holy Grai’l for guitar players and collectors, with prices ranging over $ 200,000. (And yes, Mark Knopfler has even two of these!) As you might guess from the surrounding in the video, the guitar belongs to […]

MK guitar style and licks, Vintage guitars

Down to the Waterline on 1961 Fender Stratocaster Sonic Blue

When I had the opportunity to play on Mark Knopfler’s sunburst Schecter Strat some weeks ago, I could also try out some other great guitars over there. Here is a video of a 1961 Fender Stratocaster in all original sonic blue that really impressed me. Some slab board Stratocasters from the very early sixties can have a rather dark or even muddy sound, that’s why some players prefer Strats after […]

Misc, Vintage guitars

Brazilan rosewood and German authorities

Brazilian rosewood is one of the greatest woods for fingerboards. Unfortunately this tropical tree – Dalbergia nigra – is  on the CITES list of endangered species so that strict restriction were put on trading this wood in 1992, the reason why Brazilian rosewood was found on many vintage guitars but hardly on new guitars (which often use Indian rosewood as a substitute).    Vintage Guitar Show cancelled Germany’s biggest vintage […]

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

What are Mark Knopfler’s vintage guitars worth?

This week I visited the Frankfurt Music Fair, the world’s leading trade fair for the world of music. On one floor it featured a special vintage guitar exhibition where you could see lots of wonderful guitars, even most valuable guitars like Fenders and Gibsons from the fifties. I took many pictures of all kind of guitars, but with this blog post I would like to feature those which are similar […]

Guitars, Vintage guitars

Mark Knopfler Signature Strat with lipstick pickups played on Forever Young (duet with Bob Dylan)

The recent Mark Knopfler & Bob Dylan tour ended with the show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on November 21, 2011. The last encore played that day was a duet of both masters – the song ‘Forever Young’ (from Dylan’s 1974 album Planet Waves). A new guitar appeared on this song – a Mark Knopfler Signature Strat with lipstick pickups. The original lipstick pickup The lipstick pickup was the pickup […]