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).

MK guitar style and licks

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

Eastbound Train was one of Dire Straits’ first songs. It was recorded as a demo before the first album was recorded, and it is the song of the earliest Dire Straits live recording that exists (from the Hope & Anchor, London, December 1977). This live version was released as the b-side of the single Sultans of Swing in 1978, but with exception of the demo (that has a totally different groove) it was never recorded in the studio. Eastbound Train was an encore in most Dire Straits concerts between 1977 and 1979, but it was never played again later.

It is a simple boogie groove in the key of E major, and features not only a cool rhythm guitar riff played by Mark Knopfler, but also a superb solo. The chords are all E in the verses (only in the first verse it changes to D for four bars), and a chorus-like part over four bars A and four bars B.

The solo is over a standard 12-bars blues scheme (E E E E A A E E B B E E), repeated three times.

The following video explains basically all different parts and shows some variations for the solo. The way I play it is rather a mix of different live versions, a few details are possibly my own creations. There are enough videos on youtube showing Dire Straits playing the song if you are not familiar with it.

Since I still experience sound artefacts (a strange wobbling bass sound) in videos at high resolution on youtube (before I upload them they sound alright), I put in the standard video quality version. You can watch a high-resolution version directly at youtube (click here).

There are two more articles about Eastbound Train in this blog (see the list of related articles below) that analyze the opening chord and the ‘train chord’ in the solo.

MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

Mark Knopfler licks using the b5 note

The b5 notes means the flattened fifth note of any scale. If we have e.g. a  C-major scale (c – d -e -f -g – a – b – c ), the fifth note is the g , and if this note is flattened, we get the gb. The same logic works with any major or minor (or other) scale.

The following video demonstrates the usage and the position of this note. You will find Mark Knopfler licks from Sultans of Swing (Alchemy version), Calling Elvis, In the Gallery, Down to the Waterline, and many more.

I did not tab these licks here, but I think you will not have problems to see how they are played. Remember, it is not important to play something authentically but rather to understand the idea behind what is being played. Only this way you will be able to transfer the licks into your own repertoire, and to use them for your own music.

The video is in high quality here. If you have bandwidth problems, click here to go to youtube and watch it at standard quality. Enjoy.

Misc

50th Article

With this post I am proud to annouce the 50th article of this blog, which went online on August 10, 2008.  50 articles in 104 days means an average of 0.49 article per day, or 3.4 articles every week.

In these three months the blog built up a reputation among Mark Knopfler fans and guitar players, and the number of daily visitors is still steadily rising.

Thanks to every visitor and to all who expressed how much they like this blog. Also thanks to all who commented here, and this way helped to make the blog really interactive.

I really enjoy writing about what I am interested in myself, so be sure that there will be many more articles in the future.

MK guitar style and licks

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

In 1982 Dire Straits recorded their Love over Gold album in New York. According to Knopfler himself, he spent some time before with learning new chords and licks from a book by Mickey Baker. This circumstance, and the collaboration with Jazz musicians of the New York jazz scene – like Mike Mainierei, Michael & Randy Brecker or Tony Levin – seem to be the reason why sudenly more jazz elements appeared in his playing.

A short time later Knopfler recorded the Local Hero soundtrack, again some of these musicians appeared on tracks like Smooching. In 1984 the soundtrack for Comfort & Joy was released. The licks in the following video are from this 3-track soundtrack – from the track Joy (orginally released on a maxi vinyl single). They illustrate Knopfler’s jazzy approach -typical elements are chromatic notes, e.g. using the b5 note of the scale, or the swing rhythm.

I have not heard the soundtrack for years I must admit, and generally I do not care too much about playing 100% authentically, I rather try to catch the feel and play it the way it sounds good to me, so forgive me if some details are not accurate. Nevertheless the video should give you some insight of what is going on.

Video in high quality: (in case of bandwidth problems, click here to go directly to youtube and watch it at normal quality)

If you don’t know this rather rare soundtrack, you can hear the intro of the song Joy here:

 

Misc

John Illsley’s photo stream on flickr

Today I surfed into some early Dire Straits photos I have never seen before on flickr.com. These belong to – guess who – Dire Straits’ bass player John Illsley. He has his own photo channel there. Check out!

John Illsley’s photo stream

Update: I meanwhile also found a comment from John about these pictures on his great looking site at johnillsely.com:

Dire Staits in 1978
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Thanks to Henk for sending me photos from 1978 of the Straits in Greenwich, London, standing in the mud after the tide had gone out. You can look at them on our Flickr page.

We were rehearsing at The Wood Wharf Studios for a UK tour at the time, which was a short walk from the flat that me, Mark and David used to share in Deptford. As you can see, food was pretty scarce in those days!

If I remember rightly, some of these pictures ended up in Time Out.

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

Sunburst and unburst Les Pauls from the late 50ies

Have you ever wondered why Mark Knopfler’s Gibson Les Pauls (he has a ’58, a ’59, and some replicas of late 50ies models) differ so much in their colour? And what is the colour called, simply sunburst, or is it cherry sunburst, or tobacco sunburst? Have you ever heard the term ‘unburst’?

from left to right: Knopfler's '59 Les Paul Standard, a reissue, the '58

The answer is simple: all those Les Paul Standards from that era (they were only built in this version from ’58 to ’60) were cherry sunburst, a sunburst which goes from red on the outer area to yellow in the center. However, the red paint Gibson used in those days was very sensitive to light exposure (especially UV radiation) and easily faded. This is a general problem of red, but it depends of the kind of laquer to which extend this might happen. Modern laquer is almost stable in this respect, but the laquer on the early Les Pauls has proven to be extremely sensitive, much more than the one of Fenders from that time.
While there are old Les Pauls Standards that look like new – which means a bright red -, there are others which have lost all the red and seem to be completely yellow. These got the nickname ‘unburst’ – Peter Green’s Les Paul from the Fleetwood Mac days (later this guitar belong to Gary Moore who meanwhile sold it) is maybe the most famous example of these.

Peter Green's Les Paul Standard - all red faded, an 'unburst'
Peter Green's Les Paul - all red totally faded, an 'unburst'