Guitar in general, Misc, MK guitar style and licks, Recording, Understanding music

Sailing to Philadelphia to mix yourself

Today I want to feature a little software that was available as a free dowwnload on the official Mark Knopfler site some years ago. It is a flash mixer with individual tracks of the song Sailing to Philadelphia, in other words, a software mixer that does not only allow to listen to the individual instruments but also to adjust the volume of these. For this reason it was described as “Anatomy of a track”.

The flash mixer allows to listen to individual tracks and to adjust their volume
The flash mixer allows to listen to individual tracks and to adjust their volume

You only need to download one file (mixer.exe) and simply start it on your computer (it requires flash), the individual sound files for each track are already included. Unfortunately the sound quality is not very good due to a heavy compression, and it is only the first two minutes of the song. You will see individual mixer channels for drums, lead guitar, vocals (both Mark Knopfler and James Taylor on the same track), acoustic guitar, bass, and another track for both keyboards plus pedal steel guitar.

It is fun to mix the tracks as you want, and it is very interesting to hear the tracks alone. As effects are already included for each track, you can hear details like the reverb or delays on the lead guitar. And of course it is great to figure out what Knopfler actually plays. Unfortunately the tool does not allow fast forward / backward, so you always have to start from the beginning again.

A real gem is the acoustic guitar, a fingerpicking played by Knopfler that was later overdubbed. Note how his unique way of playing adds so much rhythm and groove to the song, something that unfortunately was never recaptured on live performances of this song. I also tried to play a similar picking on the video I made for another article of this blog, so you might want top check out this one again to see the fingering.

The white '64 Strat that was used for the lead in Sailing to Philadelphia
The white '64 Strat that was used for the lead in Sailing to Philadelphia

The lead guitar was the white ’64 Stratocaster that Knopfler played also on stage during the Sailing to Philadelphia tour. You can clearly hear reverb, compression and delay on this track, also note the deep bass, and the percussice attack.

Amps, Mark Knopfler gear

Music Man Guitar Amps

The history of the Music Man company began about 1971 when Tom Walker, Forrest White and Leo Fender started a company called Tri-Sonic. Walker and White had worked for Fender before. Leo Fender himself had to sign a 10 years non-compete contract  when he sold his company Fender Musical Instruments to the CBS Corporation  in 1965, so he remained in the background until 1975.

leo-fender
Leo Fender

In 1974 the company name was changed to Music Man, and in 1975 Leo Fender was named as its president.

Music Man started their amp line in 1974. It is not absolutely clear in how far Leo Fender was involved with the design of these amps, most sources say that alone Tom Walker was responsible for the amps, while Leo Fender designed the guitars and bass guitars.

The first Music Man amp – a head called Sixty-five – had already most  features of all later models.  In very short, these are:

  • A hybrid design with a tube output section and a solid-state pre-amp section
  • Overall look and control layout similar to Fender amps
music-man-amps-1977
The Music Man amp range in 1977, from left to right, front: 112 Sixty-five ; 410 Sixty-five, second row: 212 HD 130 ; 112 Sixty-five, third row: 410 HD 130 ; 212 Sixty-five, back: Sixty-five ; HD 130 ; Sixty-five ; HD 130

The hybrid design – Get that Fender sound with a solid-state design

Fender amps were basically built for a clean sound. The distortion that is created when a tube amp is overdriven was something invented by creative musicians or by chance when musicians tried to get as much volume out of their amps as possible. Fender didn`t  focus on the distorted sound, in the contrary, they even tried to avoid it. In the mid-seventies , the famous Fender Twin Reverb even  made use of some tricks often found in HIFI amps to reduce as much distortion as possible (the so-called ultra-linear circuit).

It is surely fair to say that  Music Man followed the footsteps of earlier Fender amps, so their amps were also aimed at the best possible clean sound. So it is not a big surprise that they used a solid-state design (ICs and transistors) for the pre-amp section. Solid -state requires lower voltage and less energy and thus causes less heat. For this reason it was considered as more reliable than tubes.

The whole pre-amp section is mounted on a printed circuit board, while Fender amps still used point-to-point wiring for their amps at this time.

music-man-112
A Music Man 112 Sixty-five from 1978

Tube power for warmth

The output section of the first Music Man amps used  6CA7 power tubes. A tube output section adds a certain warmth and subtle distortion to the clean sound. This is the opposite approach to the more modern approach of using a tube pre-amp with a heavy-duty solid-state power amp, a setup more suited for that singing, high-gain distortion.

The 6CA7 tube is pin-compatible with the EL34,  the tube that was made famous by Marshall amps, while Fender amps mostly used 6L6 tubes (or 6V6 for smaller amps). The 6CA7 can simply be replaced with EL34. As today hardly any tube manufacturer still produces the 6CA7, most Music Man amps meanwhile run on EL34s.

However, the circuit was rather different from Marshall. The power tubes in a Music Man amp operate at up to 700 volts at the plate. Fender or other tube amps – including Marshalls – normally have about 450 – 550 volts here.

About 1980 Music Man changed from 6CA7 to 6L6 tubes. Apparently this had not to do with tonal preference but with supply facilities at that time. Generally the amps kept their typical Music Man sound, no matter whether they had 6CA7/EL34 or 6L6.

The rectifier was solid-state (diodes) and not a tube rectifier like in many early Fender amps. A tube rectifier causes a drop in voltage during the moment the amp is driven to maximum output. Thus, the sound becomes softer, similar to a compressor. Solid-state rectifiers sounds punchier and slightly harder.

Originally there was one pre-amp tube – a 12AX7 – used for the phase  inverter stage of the amp. This is the stage between pre-amp and power amp. This way a certain amount of tube distortion was added. In about 1977 this tube was replaced with a solid-state version. The reason was that a certain malfunction of this tube could cause severe damage to the complete output section, including a damage to the power tubes and the expensive output transformer. The amps with the new solid-state phase inverter still sound very similar to the earlier models, but are nevertheless by some considered as sounding not as warm as before.

All Music Man amps can be switched to low power. This is not realized by switching off some of the power tubes like some other manuyfacturers do, but with a reduction of the voltages at which the power tubes run.

Music Man amps look very much like a typical Fender combo amp from the 60ies or 70ies. Like those black-face Fenders, they have a black control plate, a silver grill cloth to protect the speakers, and are covered with black tolex. The handle and the casters on some models are also very similar to Fender. Unlike Fenders, the Music Man amps never had those tilt-back legs that allow to tilt back the amp to adjust the speaker on the player`s ears instead on his knees.

From May 1979 on, Mark Knopfler played two Music Man 212 HD 130 on stage
From May 1979 on, Mark Knopfler played two Music Man 212 HD 130 on stage

Other features

All early Music Man amp models were 2-channel amps. The reverb and the tremolo effect affects the second channel only.

The reverb was based on a Acutronics reverb spring, similar to the one  in Fender amps. However, the reverb sound is different – thinner and brighter – than the extremely warm Fender reverb. This is rather due to the circuit design than to the spring itself. The tremolo effect is very effective, but also sounds different than on Fender amps.

The Music Man logos came in two versions: the original one was black on silver, while after 1980 it was silver on black. This way you can tell the older amps from later ones at first glance.

Most early Music Man amps had speaker made by Eminence, typically models with square alnico magnets. About 1980 they changed to round ceramic magnets, still produced by Eminence. However, some models with 10″ speakers always had ceramic magnets.

Other important players of that time who used Music Man were Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter or Albert Lee.

Eric Clapton, Music Man ad from 1976
Eric Clapton, Music Man ad from 1976

More information on Music Man amps can be found here. One of the next articles will cover the Mark Knopfler model, the 212 HD 130.

Amps, Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos, Effects, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc

Gear on one of the first Dire Straits gigs on the Clapham Common bandstand

As promised in the comments on one of the last articles, I tried to find all pictures of one of Dire Straits’ first gigs – the one at the summer party for Charlie Gilett’s Honky Tonk Radio Show, on the Clapham Common bandstand, September 10, 1977. Unfortunately there are only 4 pictures it seems, not 5 or 6 as I hoped (the one on the sleeve of the Honky Tonk Demos compilation turned out  to be the same as the one in Michael Oldfield’s book about Dire Straits).

First the two pictures from the Vibrolux article again:

vibrolux-clapham

Knopfler is tuning his # 68354 Strat here (the ’61 with rosewood fingerboard), plugged into the brown Vibrolux. You cannot really see what the amp next to it is, but my guess is a blackface Fender Concert Amp, the same you can see in this article of this blog. I suspect it was borrowed from Mark’s Notting Hillbilly friend Brendan Croker. On the right side you can see the neck of another guitar: Mark’s ’59 Gibson Les Paul Special. The bass amp seems to be a …, well, a weird amp ;).

Picture number two:

vibrolux-clapham-2

John Illsley already has his Precision bass, and David seems to play the black Telecaster Thinline that Mark plays on Water of Love in later concerts. Both the picture above and this let us assume that David plays the Tele through the Concert amp, but theoretically it is possible that Mark plays through both of these amps (just like in the Roundhouse, January 29, 1978), and that David plays through an amp outside the picture, e.g. on the left side of these amps. There is absolutely no evidence for it, just a vague feeling …

The following picture is the one from the Michael Oldfield book. Meanwhile it  turned out that it is cropped  in the English version of the book,  while the French version includes a full-size version of the same pic (Thank you for sending me the pic, Jean-Francois) . The difference is just some mere 15 %  at the right side, but these 15 % just show an essential detail: the backside of the Strat.

clapham-3

… and a zoom:

clapham-3-zoom

Unfortunately you cannot really find any new information about the early Dire Straits Strat here, the resolution of this black/white picture pretends us from seeing any interesting details. I am almost sure that this is the same Strat as in the pictures above (the # 68354, which probably still was bare wood finish here), and that Mark plays the Les Paul Special. A lot of cables on the floor, why not some effect device never seen before which would finally tell us why Mark’s guitar sounded so beefy, warm and fat on some of these old recordings? Well, dream on…

… and here the fourth picture:

clapham-1

… and a zoom into it:

clapham-1zoom

I can imagine that it is taken just some seconds before or after the one before, so I think he plays that Gibson on both pictures. Note that pedal: a colorsound. This can be a volume pedal, but more likely it is a wah or rather wah/volume (most of the colorsounds you find are this combination). They came in different colors, like yellow, blue, silver, purple, etc. It is a bit noisy but sounds really fine otherwise, it has its own character, like most good wahs have. I even  remember reading somewhere that Mark used a wah on this or the very first gig they did on a lawn before their house in Deptford, London.

colorsound

Some other bands that played on this summer party gig were the Darts and Rico. In the evening of the same day Dire Straits played in the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington.

The photographer of all these pics is Andra Nelki.

Amps, Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos, Effects, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

Gear on Dire Straits’ first TV appearance at Old Grey Whiste Test

I recently watched the video clips of Dire Straits performing Sultans of Swing and Lions live on the British Old Grey Whistle Test again.  It is one of the earliest videos that exist, recorded in Manchester on May 15, 1978, about three months after the first CD.

Sultans of Swing

Lions

Let’s have a look at the gear we can see in this clip. Knopfler plays his red maple neck Fender (# 80470) with the greenish pickguard that originally belongs  on his other red Strat (click here for more info). The black volume knob is missing, just like on all pictures from early ’78. He had the brown guitar strap on all pictures before late October 1979, an easy way to tell the year an old Dire Straits picture is from. The intro and the middle solo of Lions are played with the middle pick-up it seems, the verses and Sultans of Swing with bridge & middle pick-ups.

The amp is a silverface Fender Twin Reverb, probably the same he played with a Marshall cab on the two videos  from middle 1978 (a playback of Sultans of Swing and Wild West End from June 12, and Sultans of Swing in the Revolver show, July 9.) He actually had the Twin until October 1978 when he replaced it with the Music Man HD 130 212 .  David plays a Twin, too. There is another guitar amp: a small Peavey backstage amp, on the left side of the stage near the bass amp. I have no idea what it is intended for. On the mentioned playback videos of Sultans of Swing and Wild West End you can see it there as well (note that although these are only playback, the stage is properly built up with all their normal  gear it seems, maybe for the next day’s gig, Sheffield, June 13).

Knopfler definitely uses the Morley volume pedal here. And the green MXR analog delay can be seen on the right side of the microphone stand at the beginning of Sultans of Swing. What is strange however it that at the beginning of Lions Knopfler taps with his right foot on two effects it seems, first the MXR right of the microphone stand, then on something left of it (but right of the Morley). I have no idea what this is, but this article seems related here. Maybe a compressor or some boost?

The sound on both clips is fat and warm with some distortion. If you have ever played a silverface Twin this is a bit surprising because the Twin is rather associated with a crsip, cristal clear sound.

Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos, Misc

Two interesting live clips of Dire Straits Six Blade Knife

Jean-Francois wrote in a comment:

I didn`t know where to post this :
Somme years ago, I remember you talked on mKnews forum about Six blade Knife on 17/02/1979 in Cologne that has a longer solo in the middle than usual.
I`ve never heard it. It would be very nice from you if you could send it to me, or at least put it on your blog.
Also, I`ve never heard Six blade Knife from Split 85, but read great reviews about it (T.Molin or JVT). I know it isn`t complete, but I`m very curious to hear how it sounds.
Could you do to me(or to us) this favour please ?

No problem, here are audio clips from both. The first is from Cologne, February 17, 1979 – one day after the Rockpalast TV show. This was a radio broadcast for “WDR Nachtmusik” on Germany’s radio station WDR2. The broadcast was about 55 minutes and was recorded at the “Große Sendesaal” at WDR’s headquarter in Cologne – a room that had been well-known for radio concerts for some decades. Unfortunately they had some problems with hum from the lights so they decided to play without a proper light show (there was just a small audience).

I am not sure if it has to do with the right timing to fill exactly the given time frame, but Mark played the solo in the middle of Six Blade Knife longer than he normally did, and they started What’s the matter with you Baby differently (with a longer drum intro, something they did also in Rotterdam 1978 – another radio show).

There are a few different versions of this show around. There was a vinyl bootleg by the La Salle label which has the intro of Down to the Waterline but the last two songs are missing (a vinly LP only allowed about 45 minutes).The sound is alright but there are audible variations of the tape speed – in German we say “leiern”.

A few years later this concert was re-broadcasted and I recorded it myself on a tape cassette. The sound was good, but it was without the intro of Down to the Waterline and the last verse of Southbound Again. When I got my first CD writer, I made a CD-R from this tape and added the intro of the vinyl bootleg. I think this is still the version that is around among fans who collect bootleg recordings.

I also had a tape with the complete show (but in worse sound quality) that also had the end of Southbound Again, but this tape has disappeared somehow, I have not seen it for many years but I still believe it must be somewhere here.

 

The other Six Blade Knife clip is from Split, former Yugoslavia, April 25, 1985. This was the beginning of the Brothers in Arms show. They soon dropped the song so there are no further recordings of this different version. Unfortunately we only have an incomplete clip of it.

 

Amps, Mark Knopfler gear

Mark Knopfler’s Sultans of Swing amp – The brown Fender Vibrolux

Mark Knopfler got his first Strat only shortly before Dire Straits were formed. Before that time he had played a Gibson Les Paul Special through a Selmer tube combo amp in a band called The Cafe Racers. It is not clear if he owned the Selmer amp or if it was borrowed. What we know is that when he got the Strat, he plugged it into a Fender Vibrolux which probably belonged to Dire Straits’ bass player John Illsley. Today however, it is still in Knopfler’s possession.

This amp was a Fender Vibrolux from the early 60ies  – from the brown-tolex era. Internally Fender called this model 6G11 (first revision), or 6G11-A (second revision, the more common version to be found).

The brown Vibrolux is a really wonderful amp: with about 30 watts from two 6L6 tubes it has enough power to be played in a band with drums and bass, yet it is  small and light. It has one 12″ speaker (an Oxford 12L6 or 12M6)  and a tremolo effects. Unfortunately it has no reverb (a feature Fender introduced with the later black face series, the only brown amp with reverb was the 2 x 10″ Vibroverb from about 1963), with reverb the Vibrolux might have been the ultimate small combo amp. The rectifier is also a tube.

The controls are pretty much standard: One channel with Volume, Treble, Bass, the second channel with Volume, Treble, Bass, and two tremolo controls (Speed, Intensity) which affect both channels. There are no bright switches – another feature introduced with the black face amps. However, the second channel is called “Bright” as a small condenser across the volume poti adds some treble – the same circuit as a bright switch, just not switchable.

The Vibrolux does not have a Fender logo on the front grill cloth – the one on Knopfler’s amp is not original.

From the time of Golden Heart - Note that the Fender logo is not original. It is that far in the corner of the front grill because there is no wood under the grill cloth to hold any screws.
From the time of Golden Heart – Note that the Fender logo is not original. It is that far in the corner of the front grill because there is no wood under the grill cloth to hold any screws.

Knopfler played this amp live in 1977 and early 1978. There is only a limited number of live pictures  from 1977, and most do not show any amps.  We have the following sources from this period that mention the Vibrolux:

a) Knopfler himself said in a an interview that Sultans of Swing was first written in open tuning on a National steel guitar, but it was totally changed when he got his Strat and played it through the Vibrolux.

b) There are two pictures from an early live gig at the bandstand on Clapham Common, London, September , 1977 (two months after recording the demo of Sultans of Swing, five months before the recording of the first album in February 1978)

One of the earliest photos of Dire Straits - note that Knopfler uses the bright channel of the Vibrolux
One of the earliest photos of Dire Straits – note that Knopfler uses the bright channel of the Vibrolux
... and another picture from the same gig
… and another picture from the same gig

c) Two pictures from the Roundhouse, London, January 1978 (more info).

d) One picture from the Marquee, March 1978

vibrolux-marquee

e) A personal interview with Chas Herington who was the engineer on both the demo and the single version of Sultans of Swing (both recorded at Pathway studio, July 1977 and April 1978, the song was re-recorded two months after the recording of the first album because the record company wanted more of a rock sound for the single). He also told me that it was mic’ed with a Neumann mic.

There is no evidence that this amp was played on the Sultans of Swing version of Dire Straits’ first album (recorded in February 1978). Possibly different amps were used here (Twin Reverb, Jazz Chorus, and the Vibrolux). In about May 1978 Knopfler started to play Fender Twin Reverbs on stage. The Vibrolux reapperad with the Notting Hillbillies and is still frequently used these days in Knopfler’s British Grove studio.

This is NOT the Vibrolux but Knopfler's Vibroverb (4 controls instead of three on second channel, one more for the reverb)
This is NOT the Vibrolux but Knopfler’s Vibroverb (4 controls instead of three on second channel, one more for the reverb)

I know that Knopfler’s amp does not have the original Oxford speaker anymore. I talked with Knopfler’s guitar tech Glenn Saggers about this amp some years ago on on a Notting Hillbillies gig, and he told me it had a Celestion speaker. Unfortunately he did not remember which model (they can sound very different) so I gave Glenn a self-addressed postcard and asked him if he might send it to me after checking the amp the next time. I did not really expect he would remember it, or find the time, but some months later I in fact  got a card with the answer: a Sound City speaker  -these were often produced by Fane (Thank you Glenn if you ever read this 🙂 )

Here are some detail pictures of a 1961 Vibrolux:

1961 Brown Fender Vibrolux

Guitar in general, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc

Red – redder – the reddest: fiesta, dakota, candy apple, hot rod, and more Fender colours

A red Stratocaster has always been one of THE rock’n’roll logos – something that started with Hank Marvin, guitarist of the Shadows, who had the first red Strat in England. He started a desire for exactly this guitar among thousand of English kids in the early 60ies, one of these was a kid named Mark Knopfler. In fact it was rather coincidence that Hank Marvin got a red Strat: he wanted a guitar like his idol James Burton (guitarist for Ricky Nelson) but unfortunately nobody knew for sure what guitar Burton played except that it was a Fender – no internet, hardly magazines, only little information in the 60ies.  So Marvin ordered the most expensive Fender (Cliff Richard bought it for him) from the catalogue – and this was a maple-neck Stratocaster with gold parts and custom colour – fiesta red. (James Burton played an ‘ordinary’ Telecaster by the way.)

Hank Marvin with a fiesta red Strat (here a later reissue)
Hank Marvin with a fiesta red Strat (here a later reissue)

Hank Marvin soon became a synonym for the red Strat. The next picture shows him with a fiesta red Strat with rosewood fingerboard. There is even a rumour that Selmer (Fender’s UK distributor back then) could not satisfy all demands for red Strats and thus simply refinished sunburst Strats in their own factory. (There is contradicting information about if this is really true and to what extent.)

The Shadows - Hank Marvin (left) and Bruce Welch (right) both with a fiesta red Stratocaster
The Shadows - Hank Marvin (left) and Bruce Welch (right) both with a fiesta red Stratocaster

In fact, Fender did not only offer Fiesta red but also some more, different kinds of red. One is Dakota red which is darker than fiesta and closer to the firebrigade red .

And a third one was a metallic red called candy apple red which looks similar to Dakota on many pictures that often do not justice to that metallic look. Candy apple red means the guitar is finished in silver or gold first before a translucent red finsih is added. For this reason there are two different variations around (over silver and over gold), the one over gold looks warmer. Mark Knopfler’s red Schecter is an example of this finish.

The following pictures (courtesy of curtisnovak.com) show the different colours in direct comparision.

All Fender custom colours from the 60ies, the three red samples are from left to right: candy apple, Dakota, fiesta
All Fender custom colours from the 60ies, the three red samples are from left to right: candy apple, Dakota, fiesta
Candy apple red (metallic)
Candy apple red (metallic)
Dakota red
Dakota red
Fiesta red
Fiesta red
A '65 Strat in candy-apple-red (left), a '58 in Dakota red (center), and fiesta red (right)
A '65 Strat in candy-apple-red (left), a '58 in Dakota red (center), and fiesta red (right), picture courtesy John Peden
Cimarron red - a rare Fender custom colour, here on a '55 Strat and a Tele
Cimarron red - a rare Fender custom colour, here on a '55 Strat and a Tele, picture courtesy John Peden
Original fiesta red (left), the refinished Strat in the middle is similar to hot rod red, the fiesta red Squier (right) is more towards an orange-red
Original fiesta red (left), the refinished Strat in the middle is similar to hot rod red, the fiesta red Squier (right) is more towards an orange-red
The Schecter Strat in candy apple red
The Schecter Strat in candy apple red

The two red Fender Stratocasters that Mark Knopfler played in the late 70ies when he started with Dire Straits were both refinished. As at that time noone refinished to any exact vintage Fender specifications, they were simply ‘some’ red, both did not not meet any of the original Fender colours. The one with the rosewood board (S.-No. 68354, he still has this one) was lighter and more of an orange, and closer to fiesta red than the one with the maple fingerboard (S-No. 80470), which was darker and more towards Dakota red. However, the 68354 was ‘redder’ than fiesta red which sometimes has a tendency towards tomato soup, while the 80470 was lighter and brighter than Dakota red.

There are hardly any pictures that show both of Knopfler's Strats together. Left the 80470 and right the 68354.
There are hardly any pictures that show both of Knopfler's Strats together. Left the 80470 and right the 68354.

When Fender built something like a reissue of Knopfler’s red Fender with the MK signature model, it seems they copied this red and called it hot rod red. Note however that as it seems meanwhile Knopfler’s 68354 Strat was refinished again as the old finish cracked (see picture below) so it can’t be said with certainty if this hot rod red is the same as that Dire Straits red.

The 68354 Strat - In the early 90ies the finish was damaged
The 68354 Strat - In the early 90ies the finish was damaged
MK Signature Strat in hot rod red
MK Signature Strat in hot rod red

All kinds of red are generally photo reactive which means they easily fade when exhibited to light, something that was especially true for vintage laquer. Especially some fiesta red guitars today look rather pinkish so that names like Salmon Pink are also common. As said, this is the same as fiesta red, there has never been an official name like this in Fender’s ‘official’ custom colour chart.

Guitar in general, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc, Misc

Guitar refinishing – nitro vs poly and how to remove a polyester finish

Over the last days I was working on a Strat project. I had some parts from a 70ies Japanese Strat copy, which together with an American Fender neck and a loaded pickguard should make a nice part-o-caster.

In the seventies many guitars were finished with polyester. This finish is like a coat of hard plastic (actually it is rather a resin). It is easy to apply because you can sand it without much danger of sanding through. This was Fender’s main reason for changing from nitro to polyester in about 1968. Before, a finish that was sanded through had to go back into the production process and had to be repainted, one of the reasons why it was common to find a finish over some other colour.

As far as sound is concerned, almost everyone agrees that a thin nitro finish that allows the body to vibrate much more than the thick plastic-like polyester  allows a better  sound with clearer treble. This might  surprise those who think that an electric guitar is  like a blog of wood and the sound depends only on the pick-ups and not on the acoustic qualities of the wood or other parts. But this is really the case, I can definitely hear how a Strat or any other solid-body guitar sounds from playing it without amplifier.

So it makes sense to remove a polyester finish and replace it with a nitro finish. Many modern guitars are finished with polyurethane by the way, which is a bit similar to polyester but thinner so the sound is not that much affected.

Removing polyester is tricky. The problem is that chemical paint strippers in most cases will not work. There are some types that are said to work more or less but the ones I tried did not. I solved the task twice some yeasr ago by sanding down the finish, but believe me this is nothing that you ever want to do. It takes ages to sand through such a thick plastic coat.

This time  I tried something else, something that was recommended in a guitar forum: heat. I used a cheap heat gun and a scraper, and with these tools the finish was off in about 2.5 hours, including the control cavity. I did not heat  until the resin bubbles (which others have described) because then I could only remove rather small pieces. With less heat it was possible to move the scraper under the poly coat and to run it between the wood and the poly so that I could remove rather big pieces of the poly coat. The wood was not hurt and looked almost untouched. I can imagine that if a guitar was refinished with poly over an existing nitro finish, it might be possible to restore the original finish this way.

All the poly chips had a weight of about 125 grams (4.4 ounces), and in the case of one of those jobs I did a few years ago it was even 200 grams (7 ounces), so the guitar becomes noticably lighter.

removing-poly-finish-1
After applying heat the polyester finish could be removed with a scraper
This way the finish came off sometimes even in big pieces
This way the finish came off sometimes even in big pieces
The body after the job
The body after the job
The poly coat had a weight of about 125 grams (4.4 ounces)
The poly coat had a weight of about 125 grams (4.4 ounces)
This picture gives you an idea of the thickness of the polyester coat
This picture gives you an idea of the thickness of the polyester coat

Sound differences

As said, there is definitely a difference, but it depends on the thickness of the poly coat, and it is still a subtle difference. The high end is clearer while the poly sounds more compressed. Some years ago I made a sound sample to document the difference between the poly finish and the bare wood so you can decide for yourself. The sound difference when playing the guitar yourself appears even bigger than on this clip. The sample was recorded with the same strings and the same setup, one time before the job, and again immediately after. What you hear are the harmonics at the 12th fret. You can click into the blue status bar to a/b compare it at different positions.

 

Should I or shouldn’t I?

The question if the amount of work and the costs are worth the increasement of sound or not cannot be answered generally. First it must be said that refinishing an original Fender – even if it is one of the least desired, heavy 70ies Strats – drastically decreases the value of the guitar! Even those Japanese vintage guitars like the first Squiers, Tokai Springy Sounds, Grecos and so on, will be worth more with the original finish, even if it is poly (the more expensive ones were sometimes nitro anyway).

If you however have a guitar that was refinished anyway, you have not much to lose. If you are not sure if your finish is nitro or poly (polyester or polyurethane) you can find it out with the following trick: take some ordinary paint thinner and apply it to a tiny spot of the finish (e.g. under the pickguard or near the tremolo springs). If it solves the finish (paint is removed or it becomes dull) it is nitro, if not it is poly.

I think almost all of Mark Knopfler’s guitars are nitro, at least his vintage guitars, the Schecters, the Pensas and the MK signatures are. I can’t think of one that might be poly, maybe his blue Fernandes (but maybe not), but I don’t know about some of the odd ones like his Teisco Spectrum, the Eco on “Song for Sonny Liston”, and some more. His two red Fenders from that early Dire Straits days were both refinished but these do not seem to be poly, either.

Guitar in general, Misc

Recommended artist: Chris Rea – some rare video clips

Most people who like Mark Knopfler might know Chris Rea, who has been popular especially here in Europe since the 80ies. Due to health problems, he ended his active career some yeasr ago.

I first heard of him in 1983 when a friend of mine who was also into Dire Straits at that time told me about a concert he was at with the then super-group SAGA. It seemed he did not like them that much, but he was enthusiastic abouth the support act that noone had heard of before, a guy who played a clean guitar sound similar to  Dire Straits on an old fiesta red Stratocaster: Chris Rea. It was the same week when Rockpalast broadcasted a Chris rea concert from a small club in Bochum (very near to the place I lived then here in Germany), so I did not miss this concert (and even taped it with  a cassette tape – this was before people had video recorders). I recently found a few clips from this and other concerts concerts on youtube and want to share them with you.

The first track was the first one of the concert, so the first I ever heard. It is called “Nothing’s happening by the sea“. Chris plays his red Strat which is tuned to open E through a clean silver-face Fender Twin Reverb (and a brown Fender Bandmaster for distorted sounds).The bass is also cool: a fretless Steinberger, note how it interacts with the guitar licks. Unfortunately the uploader of this clip disabled embedding so I cannot show it directly here on this site, instead click here to open it in a new window on youtube.

A second early track that never made it to a hit is Candles. This time Chris plays a Strat in standard tuning. This clip is from an open-air Rockpalast concert on the famous Lorelei Rock above  the river Rhine in Germany, a place where Dire Straits also played on a festival in 1979.

And finally, one of my all-time favorites of Chris’ setlist, the song Steel River from the same concert as the one before. It is amazing how the song develops through different stages from a slow ballad to the rock outro. Also that break at 4:30 is pretty cool. Have fun!

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitar in general, Misc

Backing tracks player to jam with at JamCenter.com

loop-playerI recently surfed into a nice site called JamCenter.com where you find a “jam machine” – an online loop player that plays backing tracks to jam with. Simply choose a key in the left sidebar, scroll down (the loop player appears at the very bottom of the page), select one of the styles (rock, cool, metal,…), and the player will play a loop of a certain length. The chords are displayed so you know what is being played. The sound of the recordings is alright and the styles are often tasteful and fresh. Have fun!

If you ever need an online guitar tuner or a metronom, these can be found there as well.