Check out my latest Youtube video where I am playing guitar over a backing track inspired by Tunnel of Love from the third Dire Straits album. I built both of these guitars myself, the one with the birch body is actually the very first guitar I built ever in my life. The specs of this guitar are like the stolen sunburst Schecter that Mark played on the Making Movies album. […]
In this Youtube video I played some licks and sounds taken from the Dire Straits song Communique, and from the song Lions (ending solo, live versions played around 1978-79). I blended these with some improvisation to a mixture-tune over a backing track. The guitar is my ‘Part-o-caster’ with early Japanese Squier neck and body. The pickup in the middle position is a DiMarzio FS-1. All effects and the amp simulation […]
Watch me playing a version of the Santana classic ‘Samba Pa Ti’. The original stands for a distorted guitar sound on a humbucker guitar – so I tried with a clean guitar sound on my self-built Bubinga / Pao Ferro Strat instead. Santana normally plays with a pick – I played Knopfler-style fingerpicking here. But did you know that Santana also plays this song with bare fingers – at least […]
In his video I am playing the intro and the 1st solo of ‘Lions’ (from the 1978 first Dire Straits album) over a backing track. I am playing both parts three times, using a different ‘classic-Knopfler’ guitar each time. These are my ‘Partocaster’ for the Fender sound, a Suhr to represent Knopfler’s 90ies sound (no matter that Lions was never performed in the 90ies), and my self-built clone of a […]
In this video I am explaining a simple trick how to improvize over major 7 chords using standard minor scales. I made a backing track with Fmaj7 and Cmaj7 chord changes and jammed over it using my self-built Dream Machine Strat. It is the very first I have ever built, with a flamed birch body and a birds-eye maple neck. I am also explaining how I got the guitar sound […]
Don’t miss my latest video on Youtube. Here I am playing and explaining some riffs with that typical thumb-and-fingers picking pattern. You’ve heard such riffs on Knopfler/Dire Straits songs like Two Young Lovers, Walk of Life, Next Time I’m in Town, Overnight Sensation (by Tine Turner), Industrial Disease, Poor Boy’s Blues, and countless others.
I made another video some weeks ago where I talked about doubling guitar riffs for a fatter sound. I played a Japanese Erlewine Automatic, a very cool guitar with one humbucker, and dialed in a sound similar to the Dire Straits classic Money for Nothing. I did not try to get as close as possible to the original sound which is very much a typical 80ies sound, bright with some […]
Here are two videos I recorded to try out another guitar I am building on: a Schecter Dream Machine-like Strat with an ash body and a birdseye-maple neck, with a brass tremolo and a ‘Making Movies’ pickguard. In other words, a Strat inspired by Mark Knopfler’s S8001 Schecter Strat. It is not finished but assembled for tests of sound, playability, and stability. And I must say, I am very impressed […]
Here is a video I made to demonstrate the use and the different sound effect of different ‘doubling techniques’. Doubling is nothing too fancy or secret but a common studio recording technique. Still it might be interesting not only for beginners as each of the different approaches leads to different results which are compared in ths video. To judge the stereo effect it is best to listen to the sounds […]
In my last two videos I got some nice guitar sounds out of the integrated amp simulation and effects of my Soundcraft UI24R mixing desk. I was playing the MK61 pickups in the bridge & middle position of my Strat. This week I tried the same with the neck pickup. This is a VFS-1 pickup. I also worked much more with my ‘virtual studio’ (Steinberg Cubase together with the Soundcraft […]