February 10, 2014February 10, 2014Guitars

Location of the Strap Button on the Maple Neck Strat

When Mark Knopfler started with Dire Straits in 1977, he played two different Stratocasters. One of these had a laminated maple fingerboard and some other modifications, including one of the strap buttons at the back side of the guitar. Unfortunately photos that show the exact location of this button – is it near the neck plate or is the button held by one of the four neck screws – do not exist. With this blog post I will try to locate the button as close as possible with the help of the pictures and video we have.

I have two Strats with a strap button on the back. On one it is held buy one of the neck screws, on the other it is screwed to the body wood near the neck plate, see the following pictures.

Strap button with a neck screw (left) or near the neck plate (right)?

Let’s now have a look at the first picture of Mark’s guitar now. It is from early 1978 and shows the guitar with the narrow brown leather strap Mark used back then.

We can see that the strap runs along the inner side of the cutaway. I then tried to place my two guitars into a similar view angle as in the picture with Mark’s guitar.

With the strap button on the neck screw (left) the results looks completely different than with the version on the right.

So by now we can be almost sure that the strap button on Mark’s guitar was not held with one of the neck screws (with the inner screws the result would even be worse as you could not see the strap at all then).

Theoretically the button can still be located near the neck plate as on mine guitar, or further down on the same line, e.g. just in the middle of the neck plate. To find out more, I will compare pictures with the wide Music Man strap next. The Music Man logo on the strap can partly be seen behind Mark’s guitar on several pictures. As I have an identical strap, I might place the strap similar and check where the hole at the end of the strap sits.

Here is a picture of Mark’s guitar again.

A similar angle view on my guitars:

On the right guitar the strap button location seems similar again

Finally I move the Music Man strap around a bit to find even better alternatives.

With the strap hole located at the green circle the result looks like this.

With the button in the middle of the neck plate it will look like this.

It turns out that in fact the most accurte placement seems to be as it is on this guitar. The real position can only differ about some millimeters or 1 – 2 centimeters at the maximum (+/- ca. 0.5 “).

Why the strap at the back?

Strap button on a Les Paul Special, the guitar model Mark played before getting his Strats

Mounting the strap button at the back of the guitar has in fact some advantages. Even with a wide strap like the Music Man strap, the strap lies flat to your body which feels (and looks) a bit different, maybe better. And we must not forget that the guitar that Mark Knopfler mainly played before getting his first Strat in 1977 was a 1959 Les Paul Special. On this the strap button is located at the neck heel (see picture) so this is what Mark was used to, and it makes sense that he asked the luthier who did the modifications on that guitar to mount it there as well.

If you want to place the strap button on the back of your guitar, you might nevertheless do it as I did with the other guitar. You only have to widen the hole in the strap button (I used a drill) and use the same screw to hold it. From my experience the neck will sit firmly enough with one screw not in completely. You can undo this mod any time.

If you decide to screw the button into the wood, you might use a piece of clear masking tape and drill through it. This should prevent from cracking the finish around the hole while drilling. Remove the tape after the job is done.

January 31, 2014Vintage guitars

Guitars with Brazilian Rosewood – Exporting from the US into the EU – What is possible and what not

I was involved in a few discussions about the possibility of buying guitars with Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) from the US – e.g. Fender Strats from the early 60ies – on the Strat-Talk Forum. After talking with two officials from Germany’s authorities / customs I got some new information which I want to present with this blog post.

In Short – Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia Nigra)Brazilian rosewood is the wood of fingerboards on many vintage guitars like Fenders or Gibsons from the 50ies or 60ies. Due to its endangered status, it was CITES-listed on Nov. 6 1992 in Appendix I (the most protected, same status as ivory or some turtle shells), and illegal to trade. Guitar manufacturers replaced it with other sorts of rosewood, e.g. Indian or African rosewoods which are similar but not identical in look and sound.Although all these vintage guitars were built before the date Brazilian rosewood was protected, many restrictions apply to these as well, making it difficult (or even impossible) to sell or buy such guitars.

Still possible: importing a vintage guitar for private purpose

Selling guitars with parts of Brazilian rosewood – both commercially and private – requires a special permission within the EU. Importing (or exporting) these into (or from) the EU commercially is in most cases not possible!

Brazilian rosewood on a ’62 Stratocaster

However, for private purpose it is still possible to get export and import permission for pre-convention instruments, in other words guitars built before 1992 . Buying a Strat from someone in the US is not commercial automatically. If you don’t buy the guitar to resell it (or to make money from it in any other way, e.g. to sell photos of it), it is for private purpose.

It does not matter here if you buy the guitar from a shop or a private person.

****Now the bad thing: you can never ever sell the guitar again, not to anyone, no exception.****
[Regarding the five digits prices for e.g. vintage Strats from the early 60ies, buying such a guitar becomes econmically difficult: it is still true that it will keep its value, or the value will even increase further, but you are not allowed to sell it!!?? ]

You are allowed to perform with the guitar in public (seems ridiculous, but this was not sure some months ago) . This is because in such a situation you don’t primarily display your guitar commercially but your music. However, if you plan to display the guitar on e.g. a guitar show, or print pictures of it e.g. in a book you are going to sell, it is considered commercial.

Importing the guitar commercially – e.g. to resell it – is usually not possible. The only two exceptions are :
– the guitar was made before 1947 ,
– or if the guitar has once been imported into the EU before 1992, and you are going to re-import it.

How to do import a vintage guitar from the US into the EU

If you buy a Strat on e.g. ebay, the first thing that is required is an export permission from the US. To get this is the seller’s job! The permission can be obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website (application form here) , it costs USD 75, and processing time can be up to 60 days (or even longer) !!

The seller then needs to send a copy of the form (a scan via email will do, the original will travel with the guitar) to the buyer. With this export permission, the buyer can then get an import permission from his country’s authorities (in case of Germany, it is the Bundesamt fuer Naturschutz). The import permission will cost 20 Euros (price for Germany).

Prices and authorities might vary from country to country, but the same should be true for any EU country as these laws are EU-wide laws.

One thing that is very important: On the export permission from the US, field #15 must be stamped by the export customs office. For this reason, the seller must take the instrument to one of the export customs offices in the US to get it stamped there!

If this is missing – which seems to be often the case when just leaving this job to the post service – the guitar cannot be imported into the EU, in other words will not pass the border to the EU. The missing stamp cannot be received afterwards.

The guitar will then be confiscated and will remain in the possession of the government forever (but can e.g. be given as a permanent loan to a public music school etc.). The buyer’s money is lost then, no compensation.

I wrote a few blog posts about selling vintage guitars within the EU before, see the list with links to related blog posts below (in very short: it is possible to sell a guitar with Brazilian rosewood within the EU with a special paper that is available if the guitar is proved to be built before 1992 and was imported into the EU before this date. If it was imported after, you cannot sell it!)

January 5, 2014January 5, 2014Easy stuff for beginners, MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

Interested in video tutorials or lessons to play the Mark Knopfler guitar style?

I often get emails from people who ask me for help with playing some particular Mark Knopfler stuff, for tutorial videos, or for personal video tutoring via e.g. Skype. In fact I have been thinking about this for some time but am not sure yet in which direction to go (DVDs, online tutoring,…), or how many fans are out there who might be interested in this.

If you are interested you can help me to get this clear and do this quick survey. If I see that there is much interest, I will put more effort in preparing this stuff and get something running soon.

Just tick the best answer (or several answers). There are some text fields where you can enter additional information in case none of the provided answers matches your needs, or to leave a comment or make suggestions.
You can leave out any of the individual questions if you feel to.

(Sorry, the layout of this survey is not ideal yet – need to find the associated CSS styles and edit these… – but it should be alright for now.)

January 4, 2014March 5, 2015Guitars

Photoshopped MK1 in Official Pensa Ad

I was browsing through the Sailing to Philadelphia tour book (2001) recently when I noticed an odd thing about the MK-1 in a Pensa ad there. The ad shows a picture of Mark’s famous MK1 guitar that was taken in 1992 during the On Every Street tour. As we all know the guitar was built by John Suhr who also designed most of its features. And we know that there was some dispute between Rudy Pensa and John Suhr regarding legal rights to build guitars like this after John Suhr left Rudy’s Music Stop in 1990. In short, Pensa claimed to have the right to build an exact replica exclusively (more on this in a planned future blog post).

You might have noticed that in the Guitar Stories documentary (on Sky Arts TV last year) about Mark’s guitars, the guitar was labelled as “Pensa MK1” (instead of “Pensa Suhr MK1”), with no word about Suhr at all.

The ad from the tour book shows Mark’s guitar even with a “photoshopped” head, saying Pensa Custom instead of Pensa Suhr. Never noticed this before. At the bottom you will find an enlarged detail picture of the head as it looks in reality.

Pensa ad with a fake photo of Mark Knopfler's MK1 — Pensa ad with a fake photo of Mark Knopfler’s MK1

The head of Mark's Pensa Suhr MK1 — The head of Mark’s Pensa Suhr MK1. Also note the string holder at the bottom of the picture.

Let us know what you think about it. Remember, the comment function on my site does not require registration.

December 3, 2013December 3, 2013Effects, Mark Knopfler gear

Cleaning a scratchy poti of the older Ernie Ball volume pedal

The Ernie Ball volume pedals often become scratchy after a long time of usage. While you can replace the current poti model with a brand new poti, it is almost impossible to get a replacements for the older poti types. However, the older potis can be opened and cleaned which – not always but often – cures the scratching. As I did this successfully a few days ago, I took some pictures to demonstrate the procedure.

The poti was the Canadian type used in the mid 90ies but the previous Allen Bradley / Clearostat poti used before can be treated in the same way.

First, I recommend to remove the two screws that hold the black metal block which holds the poti. The string can be released from the poti easily then (you might take pictures before so that later you know how it was assembled).

With these poti types, the wires are plugged to the poti and can be removed without any soldering (again, take notes where they were, or take a picture).

Bend open the two mounting tabs with a screwdriver. Be careful not to bend too much as these might break. Often is is enough to open only two of the four tabs, on the side that exceeds the metal block. — Bend open the two mounting tabs with a screwdriver. Be careful not to bend too much as these might break. Often it is enough to open only two of the four tabs to remove the cover, on the side that exceeds the metal block.

Remove the cover, then put a piece of fine sanding paper between the wiper and the carbon resistor. Turn the poti several times to clean the wiper.

Repeat this a few times. Note the amount of dirt removed by this procedure.

Next use a pipe cleaner soaked with pure alcohol to clean the carbon resistor.

Now the poti should be clean. Note that disassembling the wiper from the carbon resistor is not possible with these poti models so you need to clean it like this. Mount the case again, bend down the tabs to close it. An instruction how to assemble the string again can be found in this video:

Note that you can clean a modded volume pedal in the same way, just make sure to assemple all wires and the string exactly as they were before!!

Another note on this topic: I meanwhile tend to believe that the different taper on Mark Knopfler’s volume poti is not due to a different poti model but to an electronic solution possibly built into his rack. A first prototype circuit works promising, and also avoids the noise of a scratchy poti electronically. Watch out for future updates, I hope to offer something here soon.

November 29, 2013Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

Explaining and demoing the tapped Walk of Life Telecaster Pickups

The following video explains the idea of a tapped pickup as they are typical for the vintage Schecter Dream Machines, and demos the sound of the Walk of Life pickups – my replicas of the Schecter F520T / F521T pickups. These are the pickups that Mark Knopfler plays in his red Schecter Telecaster – the one used for Walk of Life, and also in the black Schecter Tele that he used for e.g. Solid Rock.

After a short inroduction, you can listen to all the eight different sound combinations that are possible with this type of pickups in the second half of the video.

November 4, 2013Vintage guitars

Guitars with Brazilian Rosewood: Info Update

I already reported in two previous blog posts (here and here) about the difficult situation we are facing when buying or selling guitars with parts of Brazilian rosewood (e.g. the fingerboard on vintage Fender or Gibson guitars).

Yesterday I was on Germany’s biggest vintage guitar show in Oldenburg. Last year the show was cancelled due to exactly this issue – the problems of displaying guitars with Brazilian rosewood in public. This year Brazilian rosewood played a role again: there was an info booth where you could compare samples of different rosewoods and a workshop on Endangered woods on musical instruments with PD Dr. Gerald Koch from Hamburg University.

Distinguishing Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) from similar rosewoods (e.g. Indian rosewood) is not easy (some info and pictures can be found here). The samples of these two rosewoods at the info booth looked very similar, even the number of pores was similar on these. I also did the ‘smell test’: Brazilian rosewood is said to have a typical sweet odor, a bit like vanilla or roses. However, I have to admit that – after some sanding of the samples – both had some odor but I found the Braz rosewood neither stronger nor ‘typical’. And another rosewood – Cocobolo – smelled to me much more of vanilla than the Brazilian.

Many vintage Strats with Brazilian rosewood on the Oldenburg Vintage Guitar Show this year - but only with CITES certificate! — Many vintage Strats with Brazilian rosewood on the Oldenburg Vintage Guitar Show this year – but only with CITES certificate!

Here is an overview of some – partly new – aspects discussed in the workshop:

* The overlap between Brazilian and Indian rosewood on vintage Fender guitars is wider than previuosly believed. While almost all Fenders up to 1966 had Brazilian rosewood, it can be found in the late 60ies or even early 70ies as well.

* It is confirmed now that it is possible to gig with instruments with Brazilian rosewood! This was not clear as displaying instruments with this wood commercially is not allowed. To play an old Fender on a gig where you perform for money can be considered commercial, but it was stated that on a gig you mainly present your music and not your instrument. The same should apply for e.g. Youtube videos where you play such a guitar. However, if you want to sell it it is not allowed to present it on Youtube for this purpose without having the proper CITES papers.

* Trading these instruments beetwen the different economic areas (e.g. the US; the EU, Japan,..) is NOT possible, even with CITES certificate!!!
If someone offers e.g. a 1962 Strat on ebay and offers world wide shipping, this is illegal. The instrument can be confiscated when passing the borders!!

* If you want to sell such an instrument WITHIN your economic area, you need the CITES certificate.

* You can get the CITES paper when your guitar was made before 1992 (the year Brazilian rosewood was added to CITEX annex 1) AND you can prove that the guitar was imported to your econmic area before this date. If you e.g. bought the 1962 Strat on Ebay US in 1995 and let it ship to Europe, your guitar was imported illegally and you cannot obtain a CITES certificate for it !

* Hamburg University is a leading place for identifying endangered woods. They sent samples and information – including pictures of the endangered wood and the most similar legal ones it can be mixed up with – to many customs authorities all over the world. So hoping that the customs officers will not recognize endangered woods on a vintage guitar you are to buy is highly risky at least!! As customs are responsible for controlling trade with endangered species, they must be qualified and are thus trained for this.

* Instruments made before 1947 are free to trade in the EU.

* Everyone agreed that the CITES laws were intended to protect species, and not to criminalize guitar players who have owned their vintage guitar for maybe 30 years. But the idea is to control and reduce any demand for these species: if you cannot buy e.g. ivory legally, there is less demand for it and so less elephants are killed.

* CITES is a world-wide law which cannot be modified by local authorities. So if trading such an instrument is not allowed, authorities have to confiscate it and are not allowed to make exceptions.

October 4, 2013October 4, 2013Misc, Vintage guitars

Restoring a Schecter Dream Machine Electronics

This week I had the pleasure to work an a Schecter Dream Machine. It is a really lovely hard-tail Strat with gold hardware. I am not sure about the wood (none of the codes that normally identify these) but the neck might be Pau Ferro (“Bolivian rosewood”). I am rather lost with the body, maybe ash that is stained, or Shedua, walnut,… ?? Any help is welcome so use the comment function to let me know what you think.

The main “problem” with the guitar is that the pickups have been replaced with some kind of Seymour Duncan Hotrail humbuckers – surely good pickups but at leat not my cup of tea for a Dream Machine. The Hotrails required a completely different wiring of the mini switches and also the addition of two push-pull switches. To be honest, I did not fully understand the way the up and down positions of the mini switches were combined with the two push-pull potis.

As I had a set of original F500T pickups waiting for a guitar like this, it was no question that these two had to come together.

In the following you will find a photo tour that demonstrates the work – hoping some folks will find it interesting or useful.

Schecter Dream Machine with Seymour Duncan Hotrails — Schecter Dream Machine …

...with Seymour Duncan Hotrails — …with Seymour Duncan Hotrails

The whole circuit design has been modified

I have these square conductive plastic Bourns potis from my own pickguards …

... and also this protective foil to not scratch the pickguard. — … and also this protective foil to not scratch the pickguard.

All connected, ready to install the pickups.

After assembling the pickups – it was a complete set with all wires still being taped together – I found it impossible to follow which wire end belongs to which of the three pickups. I connected a volts meter and touched the pickups with a screwdriver until the meter reacted to identify the corresponding pickup.

Not like new (still corroded) but like it was original again :) — Not like new (still corroded) but almost original again 🙂

Unfortunately some wood was removed to allow the heavy wires of the Seymour Duncans. Nothing I can do here :( — Unfortunately some wood was removed to allow the heavy wires of the Seymour Duncans. Nothing I can do here 🙁

The knobs were green and dirty ... — The knobs were green and dirty …

... but - one hour later after all kind of treatment I could think of - came out like this. — … but – one hour later after all kind of treatment I could think of – they came out like this.

schecter-dream-machine-16 Watch out for more details and pictures of this wonderful guitar in a future blog post.

September 30, 2013October 5, 2013Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

New Theory on the Sultans of Swing Sound: DiMarzio FS-1 Pickup in the Middle Position

Mark Knopfler’s guitar sound on the first two Dire Straits albums is firmly associated to the 1 & 2 position (bridge & middle) of the 5-way switch. This position causes a special, nasal “out of phase” sound. The term out of phase is technically incorrect as both pickups are still in phase but – similar to a true out of phase wiring – certain frequencies are cancelled or at least decreased and others boosted so that the resulting sound of both pickups together is totally different from the sound of a single pickup.

In one of his two red Fender Strats Mark had a DiMarzio FS-1 pickup (confirmed in a Guitar Player interview from early 1979).

He often swapped the pickguards of his two Strats at this time, so the one with the DiMarzion was found on both his rosewood and maple neck Strat.

This DiMarzio pickup can be heard in the neck position on countless bootleg live recordings of the original Dire Straits setup. It has a louder, warmer and fatter sound which on stage Mark played on songs like Single Handed Sailor, Once Upon a Time in the West (only live versions), Follow me Home (live), or sometimes on Wild West End (live). He also liked to switch to the hotter FS-1 sound just for the solo, e.g. on Sultans of Swing (live in late 1978), or Where Do You Think You’re Going.

The FS-1 in the Middle Position

Both the stock vintage Fender pickups and the DiMarzio FS-1 have staggered pole pieces (the stagger on the FS-1 is a bit different), for this reason they are hard to distinguish on pictures. However, the pole pieces of the FS-1 – then in 1978 being rather new compared to his 1961 Fender pickups – are shinier than the old corroded Fender pickups.

I recently was watching a picture (below) of Mark’s maple neck Strat from early 1978 (backstage at the Marquee club). The guitar had the pickguard that came of his 1961 rosewood Strat (the one that often had a black volume knob), the pickguard normally with the DiMarzio. I clearly had the impression that there is a stock Fender pickup (with corroded, slightly bevelled pole pieces) in the neck position. Instead, the middle pickup looks much newer and might be the FS-1.

The picture quality is too bad to be a real proof but at least it is a hint. When thinking about it I realized that on all the live recordings with this pickguard from that time (Chester, Birmingham, London BBC, Revolver TV, Greenwich rehearsals) there is not one single example where Mark plays the neck pickup (!). All 1978 concerts on which he plays the neck pickup (in fact astonishingly often) are after October 1978 (Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris Chorus TV) , just after his 1961 was refinished to red. So I assume the DiMarzio moved into the neck position at the break when the 1961 Strat was refinished.

OK, no neck pickup on the summer 1978 gigs. So the next question was, can we hear the middle pickup alone on any recording from that period? If it was the FS-1, the sound should be fatter than normally. If not, it might have been a stock Fender pickup in the middle, and the FS-1 was purchased in late 1978.

A song that normally was played with the middle pickup (compare e.g. the Rockpalast video from 1979) was What’s the Matter with you, Baby. And in fact, there is an ultra-fat middle pickup sound on this song on the recording from Birmimgham, Barbarellas club ( July 4, 1978).

The only other existing recording with this song from this period is the one from London (“Live at the BBC” CD). On this concert the guitar sound is extremely bright. What’s the Matter with you, Baby was also played but does not seem as fat as on the Barbarellas gig. But when a/b compared with the other songs it becomes clear that it is the middle pickup and that there also is less treble but more distortion than on the the other songs. Likewise, you can compare Water of Love from these recordings with What’s the Matter with you, Baby to find that the sound is fatter on the second – generally, a stock Fender Strat pickup is about as loud and bright as the neck Telecaster pickup on Water of Love, or even brighter (the metal cap on the Tele reduces treble), not so here.

Another song that seem to feature the middle pickup is Lions. Mark sometimes played the intro or middle solo with the middle position (sometimes even the bridge position. There is a video of Lions live at the BBC Whistle test, and the sound is also astonishingly fat and warm here.

The DiMarzio FS-1 and the in-between (1 & 2) Position

1979: the DiMarzio FS-1 in the neck position

While the DiMarzio alone sounds totally different from a Fender pickup, it also changes the in-between sound (bridge & middle, 1 & 2 ) significantly. The interesting thing here is that the 1 & 2 sound will not become fatter and warmer, but sharper and less nasal. This is because the high frequencies do not cancel themselves to that typical nasal Strat tone as they do with two identical pickups. Instead, the 6k ohms Strat pickup and the 13k DiMarzio blend differently. The sound is more like the sum of both: the warm midrange from the middle pickup plus clear treble from the bridge pickup. I see this as the formula for Sultans of Swing on the first CD. The sound on this song is noticably different from most others of the first album. I assume he plays the 1961 Strat (he calls it his Sultans Strat…) on Sultans, and possibly the maple neck with its original pickguard (probably with three Fender vintage pickups) on most other songs ( This makes sense as he favoured this guitar on the previous tour with the Talking Heads directly before recording the first album).

On all 1978 pictures and videos after the recording of the album, we see him with the maple neck Strat which then has the 1961 pickguard of the rosewood Strat (with the DiMarzio), until in October 1978 he plays the rosewood 1961 Strat, with its own 1961 pickguard again, and the DiMarzio now in the neck position.

The 1 & 2 sound of Sultans of Swing (first album) and on all live recordings (e.g. Live at the BBC) after the album and before October 1978 feature the DiMarzio FS-1 in the middle position.

After October 1978, the DiMarzio moved to the neck position and the 1 & 2 sound became “normal” then (compare e.g. the Rotterdam 1978 bootleg).

I myself already found out that the sound of the DiMarzio in the neck position plus the Fender in the middle (3 & 4 position) is similar to the Sultans sound so that I used this for the Puresolo competition some time ago. With the DiMarzio in the middle and a stock Fender at the bridge, it sounds even more original to me.

(Youtube video demo / sound demo to come)

The VFS-1 as the ideal pickup for the early Dire Straits tone

With what was said before, it seems difficult to obtain all the different sounds of the first two albums and the live gigs from this era, as these require different pickup setups:

** three Fender vintage pickups (all that was played with the original pickguard of the maple neck Strat, e.g. many songs of the first album, the January 1978 tour with the Live at Leeds or at the Roundhouse bootlegs, the early 1979 concerts like Rockpalast,…)

** a DiMarzio FS- 1 in the middle (1961 pickguard before October 1978, e.g. Sultans of Swing (album), Live at the BBC, Live at the BBC Whistle Test,..)

** the DiMarzio FS-1 in the neck position (1961 pickguard from October 1978 on, e.g. Single Handed Sailor (Communique), the late 1978 concerts and all other live recordings from March 1979 on)

What we ideally need is a pickup that can be switched from vintage sound to DiMarzio sound, to put this one in the middle and the neck position. Then we can get all sounds mentioned before. Dreaming? No, this pickup already exists – the VFS-1, which I designed myself exactly for this purpose (this Youtube video compares it to a vintage pickup and to the DiMarzio pickup.

The VFS-1 is a tapped pickup (two different sounds switchable) made to my specs exclusively for me by Germany’s high-quality pickup guru Harry Haeussel. I have been offering it with the loaded Schecter-style pickguards for some time now, as it is also ideal to get the Alchemy sounds without loosing the option for fatter sounds and the 26 sound combinations of the three mini switches on a Schecter vintage pickguard. I also recommended it for the neck position to get the DiMarzio sound or the vintage sound for early Dire Straits tones. But now, with the DiMarzio FS-1 in the middle and its effect on the 1 & 2 sound, it really becomes the ultimate sound tool.

Without the three mini switches (with up, off, down positions each) the two sounds of a VFS-1 can be switched with e.g. a push/pull poti. Note that you can wire the push/pull switch as you want to make the fat or the thinner sound the “default” sound with the poti pushed in. Pulling it will enable the other sound then.

Buy the FS-1 or the VFS-1 directly here

I am official DiMarzio dealer and offer the FS-1 brandnew at the hottest price. So if you read about it here and feel the urge to get one, you can support this site by buying it here instead of somewhere else.

DiMarzio FS-1

VFS-1

September 2, 2013September 2, 2013Guitars

Tremolo Setup of the Sultans Strat

When browsing Adrian Boot’s Dire Straits photos, I found one from early 1980 that allowed a very rare view on Mark’s 1961 “Sultans” Stratocaster: a view on the back of the guitar. As the tremolo cover plate is missing on this guitar – back then and still today – we can see the inside of the tremolo cavity. From some other pictures or video stills, I already got the vague impression that Mark had five tremolo springs, but here it is finally proven. Besides we can see how the tremolo claw (the part that holds the springs) is adjusted. As you know, the two screws that hold the claw in the body allow to adjust the tension of the springs. The ditance between the claw and the end of the tremolo cavity (red arrow) seems to be an estimated 12 – 13 mm (1/2 “). With this setting, the springs are hardly stretched.

Dire Straits

If I set up my guitar this way, even with 010 strings the five springs have enough pull to keep the tremolo base plate fixed to the body, in other words, no floating tremolo. This matches the picture below that shows the tremolo on Mark’s guitar. (Too bad, if it was floating, we maybe even could have been able to estimate the string gauge from the tremolo angle, note that we have no reliable information on the string gauge in the 1977 – 79 period at all, anything from 08 – 010 is possible!!)

No floating tremolo but flat to the body

I am not sure what we see in the red circle. As this is near the place where the grounding cable from the electronics cavity enters the tremolo cavity, my guess is that the cable is attached to the spring instead of to the claw. As Mark used to swap the complete loaded pickguard from one of his red Fenders to the others then (see also here), it was possibly easier and quicker to do it this way. It should be possible to pinch the wire between the spring coil, but it looks rather to be soldered (?).

We know that the guitar was refinished to red (around summer or autumn 1978, it was bare wood finish before). Here is another proof: all screw holes of the tremolo cover plate are filled from the paint job.

The tremolo block looks original (the scratchy look is typical for old Fender blocks, compare picture below). At least we can tell from this that the Sultans Strat does not have a brass replacement block (seems trivial but thanks to companies like Schecter or Mighty Mite brass replacements were a very common upgrade in the late 70ies). I am not convinced about the originality of the claw which looks a bit too rectangular while the original ones are rather trapezoid (compare to picture below) but this might simply be an illusion (this part normally does not get lost, and why should someone exchange it?).

Original 1963 tremolo claw - note trapezoid shape — Original 1963 tremolo claw – note trapezoid shape

And one more conclusion from the picture: Mark possibly played Fender strings then (confirmed for the 1980/81 period), but these do not seem to be the Fender bullet strings that were common then as well (which do not have the typical ball end but a more solid “bullet” end instead). I guess we should be able to see those bullets on the picture if he had these.

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