Today I was just sitting around and playing bits and pieces of Setting me up from the first Dire Straits album. As the camera and recording gear was still in place from the last video, I spontanously decided to film a short sequence.
It is not really a performance of the song in the sense of playing the right pieces in the proper order but rather some jamming with myself within the groove of the song. In such a situation I usually play a mix of original licks from both the studio version and numerous live versions which I have somewhere in my head, plus some improvisation, so it is not an authentic version of the original. Still there are many riffs you will recognize from the record and might be interested to see how I play them.
The guitar is my 1983 Squier Strat from the first Japanese vintage series. These are really great guitars with a nice sound. Unfortunately they are getting rare, especially the fiesta red ones, and prices have started to rise considerably.
I replaced the original pickguard with a Sultans pickguard with the VFS-1 pickups. Here I am playing the bridge pickup in the tapped position. The guitar has 008 strings and is tuned to open A.
I did not use an amp but played into a portable PCM recorder, and added some basic effects (reverb, compression, dealy… plus some slight phasing) in the recording software. This approach is just for convenience, as I don’t have to mess around this way with the amp settings, mic positions etc.
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2 thoughts on “Playing some riffs, licks & solo from Dire Straits – Setting me up”
Wow Ingo, you are very very good with the Knopfler style, not an easy feat, but then again, you are young, educated and have great dedication to learning and a good curiosity about almost everything related to music.
I, on the other hand, am old, stubborn and learned a lot of thing the wrong way including the way I play guitar, too late to change now I think. But I am also technically very competent and can build or fix anything except a women’s broken heart and the crack of dawn. I work in construction (more then 50 years) and my hobbies are making things grow in a garden and anything electronic, I’m a ham radio operator also, more than 55 years. I hope to retire soon, I spend my vacations in Chile in South American with my wife and plan to go there this Christmas.
Good to hear you on Youtube.
Allen Hancock,
Hanford California USA
Hi Dire Straits, I just recently started playing electric guitar, but your videos inspire me to progress and this video is no exception. It’s true that I couldn’t repeat your riffs directly from the video because of my lack of experience and skill, but I found a way out. I used a program I downloaded here. With it, I took screenshots of the moments when you were moving your fingers on the fingerboard, and tried to do the same little by little. And after literally a couple of days, I’m slowly but correctly playing those riffs. Thank you again!