Guitar in general, testing...

CITES regulations exempt musical instruments – ban of rosewood lifted

This is what I consider good news for all of us guitar players – after severe CITES restrictions for trading guitars with parts of rosewood or bubinga that were introduced in 2017, these woods can soon be used for musical instruments again, without any horrifying paperwok that almost made many companies stop using these woods that are essential for e.g. fingerboards or bridges on acoustic guitars.

An exemption for finished musical instruments, including parts and accessories, was discussed earlier this year and has  been agreed to a few days ago. It should become effective in 90 days from August 28, 2019.

Bubinga Stratocaster body

It was agreed that on musical instruments the woods in question are used in rather small amount so that the conservation benefit for the endangered species is in no healthy relation to the huge administrative burden of certification required by manufacturers, dealers, and musicians.

It was also noted that these woods are essential for high quality instruments and banning them would lead to a cultural loss.

Note however that this exemption is NOT for Brazilian rosewood that was added to the list most endangered species back in 1992.

More info can be found here.

Misc

New Mark Knopfler album Down the Road Wherever and tour coming

I guess most fans are already aware that a new Mark Knopfler album called Down the Road Wherever will be released on November 16. You will already find a track list and the lyrics to all songs here on the official Mark Knopfler website.

A new single called Good on you son is already available, see the official video below:

And finally, the tour dates of the coming world tour have been announced recently. Ticket sale will start soon, and a pre-sale ticket reservation is available on the Mark Knopfler website.

Guitar in general

Possible loss of sound and sustain on a guitar bridge with block saddles

With this blog post I just want to make you aware of a possible sound loss due to a wrong setup. This affects  all Strat or Tele bridges with the  ‘block’ saddles instead of the bent steel pieces of the vintage Fender design, like the American Standard bridge, or vintage Schecter bridges and consequently also the Dream Machine Tremolo and Tele bridges.

I found that you need to make sure that both of the Allen screws used for the height adjustment have firm contact to the bridge base plate. Both screws should be at exactly the same height. Otherwise it is possible that one of them has no direct contact to the bridge plate at all; the bridge saddle will stand on one screw only then. With the vintage Fender design the saddle would simply tilt a bit to the side of the shorter screw which is probably not ideal either but will hardly affect the tone. The higher block saddles however can be jammed between their neighbour saddles and cannot tilt easily to one side for this reason.

A block saddle might stand on only one screw which reduces sound quality

As the string runs in the middle of both screws, the string vibration will not be transmitted ideally to the guitar body when one screw is in midair. The saddle should sit firmly as only then all vibration is equally transmitted, even small movement of the block can reduce sound and tone quality.

The right screw of the b-string does not touch the bridge plate here

Check not only if both screws seem to be the same heigth but also check if there is enough pressure against the bridge plate by slightly turning them with the Allen key. Do this regularly – e.g. after changing strings –  as due to the vibration of the guitar the screw might have turned lose.

Effects, Mark Knopfler gear

Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor confirmed by Mark himself

In addition to the rumour that Mark Knopfler used the Orange Squeezer compressor in the 70ies with Dire Straits for his unique guitar sound, here is a confirmation coming from an interview with Mark himself:

In the September 1979 edition of the Portuguese magazin ‘Musica & Som’ we find  an interview with Mark, most likely dating from the gig in Freiburg, Germany, June 2, 1979.

Mark was asked for hig equipment and answered:

MK: “Quanto  a guitarras utilizo duas Fender Stratocaster, um modeleo de 1960 e o outro de 62, umo Telecaster; tres Gibson (Les Paul Modelo 1958 – L3 acustica – Blonde 335); uma Baldwin Double 6-12 cordas, tres Ovation (Adamis 12 cordas – Adamis 6 cordas – Legend 6 cordas), duas National Steel. Como amplificadores e efeitos uso dois Music Man 212-HD de 130 wats cada, em MXR Analog Delay, um Morley Pedal, um Yamaha Strobe Tuner PT4 e um Orange Squeezer.”

The Orange Squeezer was mentioned in the equipment list of the late 1979 tour book of Communique tour as well but was missing in the otherwise identical list of a german book about Dire Straits from 1980.

Guitars

The Schaller Floyd Rose tremolo on the Pensa Suhr MK-1

Recently I did a service job on a Suhr MK1. It is the same guitar in fact that I played on a youtube video and that was featured in a blog post six years ago. It belongs to a collector of MK-related guitars who lives near my place, and who kindly also lent me some of the more expensive guitars for my youtube videos in the past.

With this blog post I want to focus on the Floyd Rose tremolo on such guitars.  I must admit that I had never delved deep into Floyd Rose tremolos and their differences before, but with the arrival of this guitar I had a closer look at it.

One striking feature of an original Floyd Rose are the protruding screws on the rear side of the bridge that lock the string ends. I could not remember such long screws on the MK-1 so I had a closer look at some pictures of it again. There are some nice ones on the cover of the Mark Knopfler guitar style books, and here I did not not only find that Mark has shorter screws but I also found a ‘Schaller’ logo on his tremolo where mine says ‘Floyd Rose’. Does Mark’s guitar have a copy of the original tremolo?

Schaller tremolo on the original MK-1

Original Floyd Rose base plate made of steel

Die-cast Schaller base plate

 

Schaller is a German hardware manufacturer, well known for e.g. their tuning pegs. Some quick research told me that in fact Schaller was the manufacturer of the original Floyd Rose tremolos for a long time. So these were made in Germany for Floyd Rose.

In addition to the original Schaller-made FR tremolos various FR-licensed tremolos were available from several companies, and Schaller was one of these. In other words, they made the original tremolos for Floyd Rose, and they made a modified version featuring some improvements. These had a label ‘Licensed under Floyd-Rose patents’ on the bridge base plate, near the fine tuners.

Both are made in Germany. Note the steel knife edge on the Floyd Rose (left) and the steel insert on the Schaller (right)

Besides the length of the protruding locking screws, another difference was the material of the bridge base plate: on the original FR tremolos it was steel, while on the licensed tremolo it was die-cast. By the way, the steel plate is magnetic, the die-cast version is not! Where the bridge plate was attached to the bridge posts, the original FR tremolo has a knife edge. As die-cast metal is much softer than steel, the licensed tremolo had steel inserts here. The advantage: if the knife edge becomes worn, you can exchange these inserts. Also it had steel inserts that hold the screws to fasten the bridge saddles. If a thread of these is stripped, the screw will not hold the saddle anymore and the whole tremolo bridge becomes unusable. Steel is harder so that the threads will last much longer, and if one was stripped you can simply replace the insert with the thread.

Threads in inserts (top, Schaller) and in the plate itself (bottom, original Floyd rose)

Later this modified design became available from the Floyd Rose company as well. It is often referred to as the ‘Floyd Rose II’ tremolo. And there were different other companies who offered it – partly built in Germany by Schaller, partly in Asia. The latter are said to be inferior in quality.

Sound difference between the Floyd Rose and the Schaller?

There are some who say the die-cast Schaller version sounds a bit different than the original Floyd Rose tremolo with the steel bridge plate. It is said to be softer and warmer, and the steel version to sound brighter. This sound difference and the screw length were two reasons to make me me wonder if the Schaller-licensed tremolo might be the better choice for any MK-1-style guitar, be it a Suhr, a Pensa, or a Pensa Suhr. In fact some of the original Pensa Suhrs built by John Suhr at Rudy Pensa’s Music Stop in New York had the original Floyd Rose, including e.g. Mark’s black Pensa Suhr, and others like the MK-1, or the one that is displayed on the cover of the Neck & Neck album had the Schaller version.

Long protruding locking screws at the rear of the original Floyd Rose tremolo…

.. and the shorter Schaller screws.

Luckily I found an unused NOS Schaller bridge plate on ebay, and I found the shorter original Schaller saddle screws at Thomann (big German online music store). 

Both parts are interchangeable between both tremolos (you need the Schaller plate for the shorter screws!), so  I exchanged both on my Suhr, and I made before/after sound samples to judge the tonal difference. Conclusion: I cannot hear any sound difference on the samples at all. I planned a youtube video to demonstrate the sound difference, but as I can’t hear a difference I did not. 

I will leave the Schaller parts on the Suhr to make it look as close to Mark’s as possible, and keep the original parts in the case of the Suhr.

Easy stuff for beginners, Guitars, MK guitar style and licks

Mark Knopfler’s contribution for the Soundbreaking series

If you have not seen this already, here is Mark’s contribution for the Soundbreaking series on Youtube.

Soundbreaking is a documentary series about the creation of new sounds in the rock music history, based on more than 160 interviews with celebrated recording artists, producers, and music industry pioneers.

Mark is demonstrating various guitar techniques and instruments. I guess you have seen one or the other lick in similar videos with Mark before but it is a great video for sure.

Misc

Great Android Music Player App: AB Repeat Player

With this blog post I want to recommend a free Android app that I use myself not only for listening to music but also for figuring out licks, riffs, or lead stuff. It is the AB Repeat Player.

The feature I love most on it is not the one that gave it the name – the ability to define two loop points – but the three ‘Jump’ buttons. These are labelled with 7,5 / 5 / 2.5 and simply make the music jump back for 7,5 / 5 / 2.5 seconds as soon as you press one of these. You are listening to e.g. a fancy Mark Knopfler guitar lick, thinking ‘Wow, what was that?’ – press one button to hear it again. This is to me the best solution, as rewinding or moving the position slider in other apps is very inaccurate and take too much time. You can also combine the three buttons or press one of them several times, e.g. press the 7.5 seconds button twice to jump back for 15 seconds to repeat a longer part.

ab-repeat-player
I love the three jump buttons to hear a phrase again

The rest of the app is fine, too – it simply does what you expect of a music player app.

Here is the feature list:

* AB Repeating Function (Ad hoc and saved)
* AB Points post-adjustment Function with “Check Mode”
* Interval (Pause) between AB Repeats
* Easy traverse inside A and B points
* Easy to play recorded A and B points list.
* Customizable three Jump Buttons
* Bookmark Function (Ad hoc and saved)
* Bookmark position adjustment function with “Check Mode”
* Unlimited recording of AB points and Bookmarks
* Editable list of AB points and Bookmarks
* AB points and Bookmark database clean up
* Backup and Restore of AB points and Bookmark database
* Display order in AB points and Bookmark list. Creation date, name and A point with reverse order for each.(New)
* Mp3 Lyric Display.(Font size and previous position memory)
* Playlist (same as Google’s standard media player)
* Setting to the Ring Tone (same as Google’s standard media player)
* Shuffle modes (same as Google’s standard media player)
* Search (same as Google’s standard media player)(Enhancement: can be invoked from menu)
* Artwork Display (same as Google’s standard media player)
* Audio and Video Support
* Automatic pause/resume on received calls.
* Automatic pause on headset unplugging.
* Controls by Bluetooth.
* SD card installable for Android 2.2 or later.
* Database Migration to a new device.
* Sleep Timer
* Float Pad: Translucent Control Button Pad floating over any other apps.
* Saving the sound between AB as a ringtone, alert, Ankidroid flashcard sound and othe

Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos

The black Fender Strat on Portobello Belle on the Love over Gold tour

The song Portobello Belle has been played as a great ‘Irish-reggae-calypso’ version on the Love over Gold tour. An edited version has been released on the Money for nothing compilation sampler a long time ago. However, it was not included on the Alchemy video, and there is no youtube video at all of this song from that tour.

For this reason we do not know much about the guitar on this song. The only info came from myself on my old Dire Straits guitar page where I stated that it was played on a black Fender Stratocaster. The source of this info is my own memory, as I visited the concert in Cologne, May 16, 1983. But I never have seen the guitar I remember well on any picture, until recently when the following picture appeared:

 

black-fender-portobello-belleNote the capo at the third fret, a clear indication for an open G tuning, shifted to Bb by the capo, the key of Portobello Belle on this tour (it is C on the Communique album and D on the Making Movies tour!). The guitar might be the Amercican vintage reissue which was released just a year before (it does not llok like 50ies vintage guitar).

Mark played a lot of cool solo licks in the long outro of the songs, often in dialog with Mel Collins on the saxophone, as seen in the picture.

Guitar in general, MK guitar style and licks, Recording

Jamming with the BOSS DR-80

The BOSS DR-80 is an astonishing little device with a vey high fun-factor. In short, it is a digital 8-track multitrack recorder with a lot of effects, and at the same time a virtual band  with a great number of jam grooves. And maybe the most astonishing feature is the price which is just about 200 Euros.

I already had a lot of fun with this little device. Here are two spontaneous jam videos that were created with nothing but the effects and grooves from the device. Partly I even used the suggested effects and amp simulation for the backing tracks, without any further editing.

 

Guitar in general

Simple trick to meaure neck thickness with strings on

Recently I wanted to measure the neck thickness of some of my guitars. I was surprised to find something as trivial as this to turn out to be rather difficult job. The strings always hindered my calipers from lying flat against the neck surface, no matter how I tried.

I solved the problem with the help of a little battery that turned out as the ideal tool to help with the job:

neck-thickness-0
Tricky job: string hinder the calipers

neck-thickness-1
Take a little battery (here an AG13) and set the calipers to zero

neck-thickness-2
Place the battery between the strings…

neck-thickness-3
… and measure neck thickness.