Category: MK guitar style and licks

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, MK guitar style and licks

Scarborough Fair – Three different lead guitars for Mark Knopfler sounds

Just like in my previous Youtube video, I am again playing different Knopfler-related guitars in my latest video. The tune is the traditional English ballad Scarborough Fair, made famous by Simon & Garfunkel.  There are four sections, each arranged differently and featuring a different guitar sound. Fender Stratocaster In the first and last section you can see my red ‘Part-o-caster’. While I am playing the bridge & middle pickup in […]

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, MK guitar style and licks

Dire Straits Guitar Sounds on Four Different Guitars

In my latest Youtube video I am playing four different guitars to a self-produced backing track. This backing track combines some Dire Straits flavours, a little inspired by songs like News, Single Handed Sailor or Once Upon a Time in the West (meter changes!), Tunnel of Love, plus some more. I am playing these guitars: Red Fender Stratocaster I used this guitar on many previous videos, however it has a […]

MK guitar style and licks

Guitar solo inspired by ‘Lady Writer’ – including backing track

This instrumental guitar performance was inspired by the Dire Straits song Lady Writer (from the Communiqué album). However, it is not a cover, nor is it a different solo over the same backing track. Instead I followed the chord progression of Lady Writer but created a backing track with a different tempo and a different rhythm, something more like Single Handed Sailor (from the same album). I played the solo […]

Guitars, MK guitar style and licks

Dire Straits Tunnel of Love licks and sounds played on two Schecter Dream Machine replicas

Check out my latest Youtube video where I am playing guitar over a backing track inspired by Tunnel of Love from the third Dire Straits album. I built both of these guitars myself, the one with the birch body is actually the very first guitar I built ever in my life. The specs of this guitar are like the stolen sunburst Schecter that Mark played on the Making Movies album. […]

MK guitar style and licks

Communique guitar sound – Knopfler-style guitar licks and improvisation over the A chord

In this Youtube video I played some licks and sounds taken from the Dire Straits song Communique, and from the song Lions (ending solo, live versions played around 1978-79). I blended these with some improvisation to a mixture-tune over a backing track. The guitar is my ‘Part-o-caster’ with early Japanese Squier neck and body. The pickup in the middle position is a DiMarzio FS-1. All effects and the amp simulation […]

MK guitar style and licks

Santana Cover Samba Pa Ti – On clean fingerpicked Strat

Watch me playing a version of the Santana classic ‘Samba Pa Ti’. The original stands for a distorted guitar sound on a humbucker guitar – so I tried with a clean guitar sound on my self-built Bubinga / Pao Ferro Strat instead. Santana normally plays with a pick – I played Knopfler-style fingerpicking here. But did you know that Santana also plays this song with bare fingers – at least […]

MK guitar style and licks

Lions – Intro and Solo Cover – On three different guitars

In his video I am playing the intro and the 1st solo of ‘Lions’ (from the 1978 first Dire Straits album) over a backing track. I am playing both parts three times, using a different ‘classic-Knopfler’ guitar each time. These are my ‘Partocaster’ for the Fender sound, a Suhr to represent Knopfler’s 90ies sound (no matter that Lions was never performed in the 90ies), and my self-built clone of a […]

Easy stuff for beginners, MK guitar style and licks

Simple trick to jam over major 7 chords

In this video I am explaining a simple trick how to improvize over major 7 chords using standard minor scales. I made a backing track with Fmaj7 and Cmaj7 chord changes and jammed over it using my self-built Dream Machine Strat. It is the very first I have ever built, with a flamed birch body and a birds-eye maple neck. I am also explaining how I got the guitar sound […]

Mark Knopfler gear, MK guitar style and licks, Recording

Money for Nothing – Riffs / Cover

I made another video some weeks ago where I talked about doubling guitar riffs for a fatter sound. I played a Japanese Erlewine Automatic, a very cool guitar with one humbucker, and dialed in a sound similar to the Dire Straits classic Money for Nothing. I did not try to get as close as possible to the original sound which is very much a typical 80ies sound, bright with some […]