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.

Easy stuff for beginners, Understanding music

Understanding songs – chords and structure analysis of True love will never fade

Have a look at the following chords, these are all chords for the song True Love Will never Fade, the opener of  Mark Knopfler’s latest album Kill to get crimson. Each chord is played for one bar:

C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G F G  C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C Dm G C Am F G F G C F Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C Dm G C Am F G F G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G F G  C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C Dm G C Am F G F G C F Dm G C C F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm  C C F F C C Dm G C Dm G C Am F G F G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G C F Dm G

Theoretically it is no problem to play the song from this list of chords, you simply have to follow the list and try not to get lost 😉

One way to avoid getting lost is  writing the chords next to the corresponding words of the lyrics, something that is common among  singers who accompany themselves. You surely have seen this approach, it might look like this:

true-love-lyrics-with-chords2
Unstructured chart with lyrics and chords

Finding structure

The solution above is common but not ideal because it does not reflect any structure.

You might ask yourself  how you can play such a song without a paper, like professional musicians do on stage? How can you learn a list of 126 chords by heart?

The answer is easy: you need to be aware of its structure, of the patterns and logic it is built up with. Without structure, understanding is not possible. Without understanding, learning and remembering is extremely difficult. It is similar to understanding a huge mixing desk: you might wonder how someone knows what to do with so many knobs and controls, there are actually hundreds of them. But when you have a closer look, you will see that there are several channel strips that all have an identical set of controls. And the controls of each channel strip are structered again in e.g. the EQ section, the aux controls for effect sends, the monitor section, and so on. As soon as you understand it, the number of controls is no problem anymore, and you can find the right knob for each job within short time.

structure-tlwnd
Structuring the chords into corresponding groups is essential (picture from the making-of DVD of Kill to Get Crimson)

Let’s apply the same logic to this song now. First we arrange the chords in groups, or sections. The first group is the intro of the song, and it consists of the first 8 bars. In fact you will find that certain numbers – e.g. 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 32, … – play an important role in music. These are very often  powers of two.  Indeed music and mathematics are more related than you might think. If you look at these 8 chords, you will see that there is a group of 4 bars (C F Dm G) that is repeated ( 2 x 4 = 8, be aware of the powers of two).

Intro

C F Dm G C F Dm G

Let’s go on and try to identify such groups. After the intro, someting like a chorus begins (“True love will never fade…”). First it is important to understand that the structure of the lyrics has normally to do with the structure of the music, but both are not the same in all details. From the lyrics you might think that the chorus starts when Knopfler sings the first word “True…”, from a musical point of view however, it actually starts with the last word of the line “…fade”). The other words are what is called an upbeat figure, or simply upbeat. They lead over into the next part. A similar upbeat can be found at the beginning of the next part, which starts  with the last word of  “I wonder if there’s no forever…”  at 0:37. Until then, we  have a total of  the following 10 chords:

Chorus

C F Dm G C F Dm G C C

A closer look reveals that we have the same group of 4 chords as in the intro (C F Dm G) which is repated, plus two bars of a C chord that are something like a filler to connect the part with the next. The 10 bars can be subdivides in 4 + 4 + 2, and  we might write it like this instead:

C F Dm G – C F Dm G –  C C

The third part – we might call it verse – starts with “…forever” (0:37). As the following part that starts with “I don’t know what brought you to me” sounds almost identical (melody, chords), we can consider it as a repetition of the part before and call it Verse B , while the previous verse A consists of the following 18 chords.

Verse A

F F C C Dm G C C F F C C Dm G F G  C C

You can see that the first 8 bars start with the same chords as from bar 9 on, and the last two bars are just a filler to link to the next part, so let’s write it like this:

F F C C Dm G C C  – – F F C C Dm G F G  – – C C.

And we can subdivide those groups of 8 bars to groups of 4 bars:

F F C C —  Dm G C C  – – F F C C  – – Dm G F G – – C C.

We see that the first and the third group are identical, while the second and the fourth are similar but not the same. The difference are the chords F G (red) at the end of the third group, they are inserted, they change the pattern. If you left them and played the two bars of C instead, you would have a simple repetition which is on the one hand more logical, but on the other hand it sounds a bit surprising this way, and thus adds something new to the song.

The whole section seems to be repeated with the following verse B (1:14 to 1.44) that can be subdivided in a way similar to verse A:

Verse B

F F C C —  Dm G C C  – – F F C C  – – Dm G C

If you compare it to verse A, you will see that both differ just where those chords previously discussed appear (red). Instead of the F G C C we have only one single bar C here. The total number of chords is for this reason only 15 which is very unusual (16 or 16 + 2 would be normal). We can say that one bar of C is missing, Dm G C C would be normal here (and would in fact sound logical). Leaving out this chord breaks the pattern and again adds something unexpected, it highlights the following part by breaking the rules.

This next part might be called bridge. It consists of 8 bars, and it is followed by 4 bars of the chorus pattern, and finally two bars C to fill to the next part, so we have:

Dm G C Am – F G F G (bridge)

C F Dm G (chorus)

C C  (fill)

All of the following sections are repetitions of these first parts. In detail, we have the

Solo (first 8 bars of verse A)

Verse B (15 bars)

Bridge (8 bars)

Chorus (4 bars)

3 x Chorus (12 bars)

2 x Chorus (solo, where ride cymbal starts)

C F G

The last chords again break with the pattern. The expected would be  something like C F Dm G C, with the last C as the final chord (the song is in the key of C so it should end on a C). The way it is here, however,  sounds again unexpected and thus adds something.

The following chart shows the complete structure of the whole song. I also used different colours to indicate different and related parts. Compared with the unstructered list of 126 chords at the beginning of this article, you can see at one glance which part comes next, where something is repeated, and where something happens that breaks a standard pattern (red chords) . The number of different parts that you need to learn is kept to a minimum.

true-love-will-never-fade-structure-500

Some general notes on structure

At all those positions where a new part begins, a traditional note sheet would display a double bar line. Normally a drummer plays a crash cymbal there, and he might play a drum break before to usher in the start of a new part (on this song the drummer does not because the drum track is kept extremely simple). The beginning of a new part is also a  typical position where new instruments might come in (e.g. note how the electric guitar comes in at the beginning of the first verse B), and the overall volume of the song might change here (note that commercial CD are often mixed at a  rather constant volume as a consequence of the loudness war).

Working with a band

I made the experience that when you work on a song with a band, it is extremely helpful to work with musicians who understand such a concept, and who think in terms of such a structure. Only this way everyone will know e.g. where to start best within the song to practice a particular part of the song, or how to play a difficult piece in a loop to get used to it or to bring it to perfection within shortest time. Everyone will know where to pay attention because something is unusual.

The drummer automatically knows where to play the crash, where to play a break, where to change from hihat to ride, and so on. And only this way you can easily communicate with the other band members: everyone will know what is talked about, what is meant with bridge, first part, second half of … , and so on.

This is common knowledge among good musicians of course, but I know of many who still have not realized these aspects, sometimes even after playing their instruments for decades. But it is never too late for learning 🙂

Note: An analysis of the chords that appear in this song and their harmonic relation can be found in the article about the circle of fifths.

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitar in general, Recording

Recording distorted guitars – The digital POD vs the analog Tubeman

One of the  last articles was about how to record a clean guitar, and the POD and the Tubeman have already been mentioned there. This time it is about what these two devices were mainly built for: a distorted guitar sound. You will hear the same track first recorded with the POD (lead and rhythm guitars), then with the Tubeman, both devices were connected directly to the mixing desk.  Here is some background information on both devices.

The POD

The POD by Line 6 was one of the first commercial devices to emulate the sound of different tube amps. You can choose between different Fender, VOX, Marshall or boutique amps. In addition it features a variety of built-in digital effects. Like with most digital devices, the number of different sounds and options is astonishing. You can switch between a Fender Bassman and a Marshall JMT in a second, and you can save all sounds as presets. Due to the headphones output it is also very nice for practising.

The Tubeman

This is the original Tubeman by Hughes & Kettner. It is all analog and features a 12AX7 tube for distortion. It can be used a a floor effect before any guitar amp, or as a recording solution in the studio. Three tone controls plus a mid boost allow different sounds, while the amount of distortion is adjusted with the gain control and a  selector switch to choose one of four different gain patterns (rock, blues, funk, jazz).

There is no headphones out, but outs for the mixer (with speaker simulation) or to the guitar amp (without speaker simulation). As it is anaog, you cannot save sounds as preset of course, and there are no effects available. Although a tube requires  high voltage, it is powered with only 9 V which are internally transformed.

The Verdict

To me the winner is the Tubeman, its throaty sound has a certain warmth that I miss with the POD but maybe your taste is different. And of course a lot depends on the setting on both devices. And don’t forget that the POD is an early digital device, later ones might sound better. I might compare more recent devices against a vintage tube amp in a future article.

What are your thoughts? Use the comment function to let us know.

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitar in general, Recording

Micing a guitar amp with two microphones

In this article you will find a sound clip to hear the sound of a guitar amp …
(a) mic’ed close to the speaker (Shure SM 57)
(b) mic’ed at a distance of about 2 m (6 ft.) (Audio Technica AT 4050)
(c) with both microphones [of (a) and (b)] blended together.

The close mic’ing results in a dry and precise sound with hardly room. When you move back the microphone, the guitar will become lower in volume. As the sound reflections from the walls always have the same volume, they will seem to be louder now. In other words, the more you go back from the amp, the more room you will hear. Here it depends on the acoustic quality of your room whether this leads to pleasing or unwanted results.
What is often done is blending the signals of two (or more) microphones. This way you have the precise attack of close mic’ing plus some natural sounding room. You can also pan both microphones differently to create a wider stereo sound in your mix. You should definitely record both sources to different tracks of your recording software to keep all options open in the final mix.

Blending two microphones inavoidably leads to phase issues, some frequencies are cancelled, others are boosted. This effect depends on the distance between both microphones and varies actually with each inch. Many engineers move around the second (or both) microphones while listening (e.g. with headphones) to find the ultimate “sweet spot”, the position that has a magic sound. But this will be covered in a future article.

The video is in youtube high quality. If you have problems with bandwidth, you can watch it in normal quality directly at youtube, click here.

By the way, the amp is a clone of an old Fender Tweed Princeton, model 5F2-A. I built it out of scratch many years ago. It has a ceramic (!) Jensen 10″ speaker from the early 60ies and normally sounds great at all volumes. Its 4.5 watts are ideal for recording, you simply set the only volume control to the desired level of distortion and shape the sound with the single “Tone” control. The guitar is a maple neck Telecaster.

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitar in general, Recording

Different ways to record a clean guitar – sound clips for A/B comparing

There are countless ways to record an electric guitar. While some of these do not really work for distorted guitars, you have even more choices when you want to record a clean guitar: you can plug it directly into the mixing desk, or use a DI-box before. Then there are special recording solutions like digital or analog pre-amps that also emulate the influence of the guitar speaker or even the microphone. And of course there is still the old-fashioned way – using a guitar amplifier and one or more microphones.

All of these possibilities have some advantages so it is impossible to say which one is best in a particular sitaution. The video of this article (below)  demonstrates some of these different approaches. This way you can hear yourself what you like and what not. Remember however that there are so many variables even in each single approach, e. g. the pre-amplifier can give you a signal that is much brighter than the guitar amp or much darker – depending on your settings. Nevertheless, the video should reveal some general sound differences, like the very bright direct out of the amp or the rather muddy sound when plugged into the desk with a certain input impedance. You will always hear the same guitar playing the same riff with the same guitar cable (with exception of #3)

Version 1 – Directly into the mixing desk

Here the guitar is plugged into on of the phone-jack inputs of a mixing desk. These are normally designed for line-level instruments like keyboards or pre-amps. The lower volume of the guitar is no problem, but a guitar expects an input impedance (resistance of the input) of a few hundred kOhms. A normal line in has only something like 10 – 100 kOhms however. This circumstance leads to a strong reduction of the guitar pick-up’s resonance peak. This is the frequency at which the pick-up is loudest. It is a result of the pick-ups electrical values like the number of windings and the resistance of the wire of its coil. Typically the frequency is somewhere in the range from 2 – 7 kOhms, and the effect is more pronounced with a single coil pick-up – a reason of the characteristic sharp treble you associate with a Fender guitar. With a too low input impedance these frequencies are dampened and the sound easily becomes a bit muddy.

Version 2 – Using a guitar effect as DI-box

One way to avoid the problem described for version #1 is to use a so-called DI-box (DI for direct injection) – a little device that has a proper input impedance and is plugged between the guitar and the mixing desk. There is another possibility to have the same effect that does not require to buy anything new: use any of your guitar effects as a replacement for the DI-box. A guitar effect has of course a proper input impedance for a guitar, and this is even true if the effect is switched off (with exception of a few effects with a so-called true hardware bypass). You can hear on the video that the sound is much clearer, you have more treble.

Version 3  demonstrates the influence of the guitar cable

This is the same setup as in version #2 with exception of a different cable between the guitar and the effect. Here I used a long guitar cable (9m = 30 ft. ) instead of the 3m (10 ft.) cable used on the other versions. The sound is darker. This effect has nothing to do with the quality of the cable or its internal resistance. Instead it results of the capacity each shielded cable has. It acts like a capacitor which changes the resonance frequency of the pick-up (see  version #1).  For example, a Fender Stratocaster pick-up has a resonance frequency about 6 kOhms, but if you connect a capacitor to it, this frequency moves down to maybe 4 kHz (with a small capacitor of a few hundred pF) or maybe even to 2 kHz with a slightly bigger capacitor. You can easily measure the capacity of a guitar cable and you will find values up to more than 1nF ( = 1000 pF) .  The capacity has to do with the size of the cable: if all other dimensions are the same, a cable with 20 ft. will have a capacity twice as high than a cable with 10 ft. – no matter if both cables are low or high quality.

Version 4 – The POD

The POD by Line 6 was one of the first digital amp emulators. These convert the guitar signal into digital data and use mathematical algorithms to imitate the effect of a vacuum tube, a guitar amp circuit, or even a guitar speaker. Note that the picture was taken later and does not show the setting used on the recording.

Version 5 – A Tubeman tube pre-amp

The Tubeman by Hughes & Kettner is an analog device that uses a real tube. It has gain and volume controls plus different tone controls and allows a great variety from clean to heavily distorted sounds. It has outputs for  a mixing desk or a guitar ams (with or without speaker simulation). Note that the picture was taken later and does not show the setting used on the recording.

Version 6 – A guitar amp with a microphone

The heading says it all. In this case a Music Man guitar amp with a Shure SM57 microphone. The SM57 does not cost much and is something like a standard for recording guitars.

Version 7 – The direct out of the amp

Some guitar amps have a direct out. With this jack the signal from the pre-amp stage can be routed into another power amp or into a mixing desk. However, the guitar speaker is important to shape the tone, it actually cuts all frequencies above something like 6 kHz. As the speaker is missing now, you get a very crisp but sometimes rather harsh sound. Especially for distorted guitar sounds, this almost never leads to good results.

Note that the amp setting is the same as in the previous example (!)

What does it sound like in the mix?

The next video sequences demonstrate how some of the previous setups sound in a complete mix. All the raw sounds have been slightly EQ’ed, and some compression, reverb, and delay has been added.

You will hear:

a) Directly into the desk through the effect (see version #2)

b) The POD (see version #4)

c) The Tubeman (see version #5)

d) The mic’ed amp (see version #6)

e) The direct out of the amp (see version #7)

The video is in youtube high quality. If you have problems with bandwidth, you can watch it in normal quality directly at youtube, click here.

Which version sounds best to you in the mix?

View Results

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Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

The DiMarzio FS-1 pick-up of Mark Knopfler’s red Stratocaster

According to an interview with Guitar Player magazin from 1979, Mark Knopfler played a DiMarzio pick-up in one of his two red Fender Stratocasters that he played around the time of Dire Straits’ first two albums:

On one there’s a DiMarzio pickup for the bass, and I like it because it just seems to give a fatter, louder sound, with more clout than the standard pickup Fender uses.

DiMarzio has been producing replacement pick-ups for Fender and Gibson guitars since the early 70ies. Back then, a lot of players had the wish for hotter pick-ups to get more distortion from their amps – remember that high-gain amps, tube pre-amps and the like were a development that started in the 80ies. So most DiMarzio pick-ups were simply hotter replacements for the standard pick-ups. Hotter normally means the pick-up is wound with more coils. This does not only lead to more output but also to a fatter tone with more midrange and less treble. Consequently one of DiMarzio’s most popular models was the Fat Strat, or in short FS-1 (today also called model  DP-110). There is no direct evidence that it was this model in Mark Knopfler’s Strat, however, the DiMarzio product line was not big, and the only other Strat pick-up they offered at that time was the SDS-1, which had adjustable pole pieces – something you would see on pictures, and Knopfler’s Strat did not have these.

The DiMarzio FS-1
The DiMarzio FS-1
The SDS-1 looks different
The SDS-1 looks different

The FS-1 had a DC (direct current) resistance of 13.35 kOhms (a stock Fender vintage Strat pick-up has about 6 kOhms). The DC resistance results from the length (and the dimensions) of the coil wire – if it is the same wire you need more than twice as many coils as on the vintage Strat pick-up to get this value. The pole pieces were made of alnico 5, just like stock Fender pick-ups. The higher resistance results in a lower frequency peak, so the pick-up has less treble and instead a boost in the upper midrange – as the name suggest it sounds fat. The pole pieces were staggered (different length) but not as much as on Fender pick-ups – mainly the magnets for the d and g strings were a bit higher (see picture).

Compare the length of the magnets of the FS-1 in the neck position of my guitar...
Compare the length of the magnets of the FS-1 in the neck position of my guitar...
... and on Knopfler's Strat
... and on Knopfler's Strat
I guess you want the complete picture, too.
I guess you want the complete picture, too.

Most players installed hotter pick-ups into the bridge position because the stock Fender pick-up is in some situations too weak to overdrive the amp, and it often sounds too crisp. Nevertheless, Knopfler played it in the neck position. This was in a way similar to some Telecaster players’ approach who like to play a normal bridge pick-up for that twang and a humbucker in the neck position for warmer jazz or blues sounds.

The guitar with the DiMarzio was originally Knopfler’s Fender Stratocaster S-No. 68354 – the one with the rosewood fingerboard. Of course noone knows for sure but I suspect that it was already in when he got the guitar which was only shortly before Dire Straits started. Note however that for some periods Knopfler used to swap the complete pickguards between his two red Fenders. It seems he favoured the one of the rosewood Strat and often put it into his maple-neck Strat (which was the guitar he mainly played on stage in 1978 – 1979). To my knowledge today the DiMarzio is not in this guitar anymore.

There are many old live recordings on which you can hear hear the fatter sound as soon as he switches to the neck position. For some reason Knopfler did not play the neck pick-up often on the first two albums – much less than he did on stage. The only song with the neck pick-up seems to be Single Handed Sailor from Communique, and in fact this seems to be the FS-1.

On the following video I am demonstrating the sound difference between the DiMarzio FS-1 and a normal Fender pick-up. Note that the guitar used here with the FS-1 has a rosewood fingerboard and for this reason sounds darker anyway than the other with a maple neck, but the difference between the pick-ups is still easy to spot. You will find some licks from Once Upon a Time in the West and from Single Handed Sailor on this video.

Finally, here is a video that shows Mark Knopfler on stage in 1978 where he plays the FS-1 on Sultans of Swing : note the sound difference between the standard pick-ups 1 & 2 and the FS-1 in the neck position which he plays on the guitar solo (starting at 3:37, final solo at 5:07).

The DiMarzio FS-1 is still available, unfortunately most shops don’t have it on stock because it is not much requested.

Right now we have a true vintage FS-1 on stock in our shop
Mark Knopfler gear, Misc, Misc, MK guitar style and licks

Gear and settings on my last youtube videos

A few people asked for the gear I used on the last set of youtube videos that I put online last week, namely on the video clips of the following articles:

The one-man band – Playing both rhythm and lead guitar together

Dire Straits Eastbound Train – Rhythm riff, licks and solo explained

Mark Knopfler licks using the b5 note

Knopfler goes Jazz – Video with licks from Comfort and Joy soundtrack

The setup

The guitar was the fiesta red Squier JV Stratocaster from 1983 which was featured in the following article:

The guitar went into a Morley volume pedal via a Vox vintage coil cable (a new one, they build them again although they are hard to get in some countries), then into an MXR analog delay (via another Vox coil cable), and then into a blackface Fender Pro Reverb from 1965.

The following pictures shows the settings of the MXR:

from left to right: delay time, mix, regen(eration)
from left to right: delay time, mix, regen(eration)

And here are the settings of the Pro Reverb. Note that it is modified: the speed control poti of the tremolo is used as a master volume.

Vintage guitars

Tokai Springy Sound – Japanese Vintage Stratocaster Copies that caused lawsuit

I already wrote three articles about Japanese vintage Strats, an introduction and a portrait of the fiesta red and the pink metallic Squier JV. I noticed that a lot of people surf into this site because of these articles, so I want to release a fourth one, this time about the almost legendary Tokai Springy Sound Strats.

Many years ago I had on of these myself. This was about 1980. I was already a huge Dire Straits fan. Mark Knopfler was still associated with his red Fender Strats (although in fact he had just started to play Schecter that year). Red guitars were rare in the guitar shops – or rather non-existent. Fender had dropped fiesta red eleven years before, in 1969, and in fact I had never seen a fiesta red Strat at all until then. One day I visited the local guitar shop – something I did regularly, just to see and to play as many guitars as possible. And on this shelf there was this elegant looking fiesta red Tokai Stratocaster. But besides the cool colour, there was something else that was unique: it was a replica of a 1964 Fender vintage Stratocaster, it really looked like a pre-CBS Fender. The regular Strats still had that ugly large peghead that CBS had introduced in 1966, and at that time they all had black plastic parts. But this Tokai had the classic small head, a white pickguard with white knobs, staggered vintage style pick-ups, a separate tremolo block, the correct kind of pickguard screws, a light alder body, and even a decal that looked like the old Fender spaghetti logo see pictues below) – in short, it was exactly like those legendardy old Fender Strats at a time when Fender was still building those infamous 70ies style Strats that were so heavy that they got the nickname boat anchor.

No question that I had to play that guitar: it also sounded much more like a vintage Strat than the contemporary Strats. I had to have this guitar, which was priced at 825,- German Marks (the equivalent of 420,- € /US $ 540). I was fourteen, and that was a lot of money (especially after I got my first guitar only one and a half year before, a 2nd-hand Fender Strat from 1976), much more than I had. Fortunately this was about two weeks before Christmas, and I somehow got it managed that I got this guitar from all the money coming from different aunts, uncles and grandma’s.

I sold that guitar about six years later when I got a great old Fender Strat – something I regret today of course because meanwhile these guitars have a legendary reputation, and conesequently they are highly sought after, and prices went up (about 900 – 1,500 €). I have often noticed a certain trend for Japanese vintage Strats over the last few years, I guess this is because noone can afford vintage Fenders anymore, but those Japanese guitars from the 70ies or very early 80ies were not only – at least in the case of brands like Greco, Tokai, Fernandes, the Squier JV series – of excellent quality and sound great, in addition they are about 30 years old which means the wood dried and became extremely resonant, and they often have that authentic relic look. (If you want an advice what to do with your money: buy …)

Those Springy Sound Strats were available in different variations: first there were copies of the maple neck Strats from the 50ies, and of a 1964 Strat, both in many different colours. And – depending on the quality of the wood and the kind of laquer – there were models called ST50 to ST100. The number was also the price in Japanese Yen (the ST50 cost 50,000 Yen, the ST80 was 80,000 Yen)

By the way, soon after the release of these Tokai Strats, Fender won a lawsuit so Tokai had to change the design of the spaghetti logo decal. The series after the Springy Sound is also great but less sought-after than the ones from before.

I still have a rare vintage catalogue from those days, and the following pictures are all from this source.

Tokai Catalogue

MK guitar style and licks

The one-man band – Playing both rhythm and lead guitar together

The video in today’s post demonstrates an important aspect of Mark Knopfler’s unique guitar style: the blend of rhythm and lead guitar playing.

I remember the day I first saw Mark Knopfler on TV in the late 70ies. I knew their stuff from the records, and I heard his lead guitar playing on these. What was striking when seeing him play was that his hands were apparently doing something all the time, he did not pause between all those lead licks on e.g. Sultans of Swing, he was constantly playing something – although you mainly heard the lead licks.

In this respect his playing is like an ice-berg: what you see is only the top of it, while the biggest part is under water. Just like the part under water, there is a constant rhythm, sometimes only scratching or clicking sounds. Something that is there although you are not always aware of it. This is one reason why it sounds so groovy and why the lead licks sound so effortless, and why often it sounds different when less advanced players cover the song with their bands.

In later years he emphasized the lead lines with the volume pedal a bit – bringing things in or out, but it works without as well – in the early days of Dire Straits he often left the pedal fully up for parts of the song. Simply make sure to play the rhythm carefully, not as loud as you would do when playing rhythm only.

I guess this approach resulted from playing alone (e.g. all the finger picking stuff Knopfler used to practice endlessly when not having a band) and from playing with a trio (his band before Dire Straits – the Cafe Racers – had only one guitar, bass, drums, and a singer). When David Knopfler came in with his rhythm guitar, he doubled the rhythm or kept it up when Mark played lead. This way both guitars could be panned to different sides of the stereo panorama without any sound holes. Also these partly percussive elements blend nicely with the drums. A great CD on which this can be studied is Live from the BBC – a radio concert from July 1978 that was officially released many years later.

I remember an interview with John Suhr – the luthier who built his famous Pensa-Suhr guitars – who said that Mark Knopfler sounds like a band when playing alone.

Here is the video in the standard video quality version. You can watch a high-resolution version directly at youtube (click here).