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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
While Mark Knopfler is strongly associated with playing fingerstyle, we know he always used a pick occasionally as well. Before he started Dire Straits, he did a lot of fingerpicking- e.g. on his National resonator guitar – but also used a pick much more than he did later. With his band before Dire Straits – the Cafe Racers – he mainly played with a pick on his 1959 Gibson Les […]
Adrian Boot is one of Britain’s best-known music photographers. You might know his name from pictures in magazines (e.g. in NME or Melody Maker) or books – e.g. from the Dire Straits book by Michael Oldfield which features a lot of his pictures. While searching the web for unknown Dire Straits pictures, I recently found a website – urbanimage.tv – which has about 65 pictures of Dire Straits / Mark […]
Aa I included the Tone King Imperial amp settings of the last tour (Get Lucky, 2010) in this blog post, I did not want to miss the opportunity to take a photo of the amp on this tour (I was in Cologne on July 3). Of course the Reinhardt amps are used for most songs, and the Tone King only on some songs, mostly with a clean Fender-like sound (e.g. […]
I added a gallery where all customers can upload pictures of the guitar they build with mk-guitar.com products, mainly with the loaded pickguards. I started with some pictures that satisfied customers sent me during the last months, but uploading is easy for everyone, not even a registration is required. So don’t be shy and show us your Dream Machine. You can also add a description for each picture, with e.g. […]
This blog post is about the next step in my Tele Dream Machine project – the wiring of all controls. The main difference to a standard Fender Telecaster wiring is due to the tapped Walk of Life pickups (or Schecter F521T / F520T in the original) Unfortunately the original Omni Pots, those square conductive-plastic potis with the push-pull switch that Schecter used in the Van Nuys era, are no longer […]