Mark Knopfler’s Martin Acoustic Guitars – Signature, Vintage, different models

Mark Knopfler played a lot of different acoustic guitars in his career: different borrowed ones on the first Dire Straits albums (e.g. a David Russel Young on Love over Gold, or a Greco on Bob Dylan’s Infidels), different Ovations (e.g. Custom Legend, Adamas), Gibsons (e.g. J45, or a Southern Jumbo), Guild, and many more. These days he uses mainly Martins on stage, and also a lot in the studio.

If you watched the promo video shootage that came with some editions of Mark’s latest Privateering double CD, you will have noticed a vintage Martin D18 acoustic guitar on which he played the song Privateering in the control room of his British Grove studio. I cannot tell when he acquired this valuable guitar but I guess it is a rather late addition to his guitar collection. Unfortunately I don’t have any details other than what we can see in this video, but with this article I am trying to put together some general info not only on on this model, or his signature Martins, but also on vintage Martin acoustic guitars in general.

Martin HD-40MK - Mark's signature dreadnought model — Martin HD-40MK – Mark’s signature dreadnought model

Body size

The D in a model name like D18 or D28 stands for ‘dreadnought’, and this refers to body size, or the ‘style’ of the guitar. In fact the prefix – like the D in D18, or the 000 in something like 000-18 – is a code for the body size. There are quite a few different sizes available, and even more in the past, but the most important ones might be – from small too large – 0, 00, 000, D, and J, with J for Jumbo being one of the largest. You will find different notations for the small ones, written as O (‘oh’) or 0 (‘zero’). What you say is ‘Oh’ – like ‘triple-Oh’ for 000 – but as Martin themselves use the number and not the letter on their website, I guess this is the ‘official’ version.

In the past the guitars were 12-fret models, but in the late 20ies of the last century Martin introduced the 14-fret style. This means the neck/body joint is at the 12th or at the 14th fret, with the latter ones having a shorter body for this reason. There is a nice overview on the different body sizes here on the Martin website.

The letter H before the body size stands for ‘herringbone’ binding, a special binding made of different woods in the past that was later replaced with a plastic binding but was reissued for several models.

The one seen on Privateering – also used for e.g. Dream of the Drowned Submariner – is a D18. Another dreadnought – with the herringbone binding – is his HD-40MK signature model. The other signature model – the ‘Ragpicker’ is a 000-40MK. The smaller bodies produce a slimmer bass and are ideal for fingerpicking. The one Mark played a lot in the late 80ies/early 90ies that was build by his friend Steve Phillips , was also a copy of 12th-fret 000.

Mark with his vintage D18 — The 000-40S – The “Ragpicker” signature model

Woods

The suffix number has to do with the woods used, and with various construction details. Generally the higher the number, the more expensive the guitar. Here are some examples:

15: Top, back, and sides are mode of mahogany. The fingerboard and bridge are rosewood. No binding.

18: Mahogany back and sides but the top is spruce. Dark binding. The fretboard and bridge on early models was ebony, from the ’50s on rosewood.

28: The back and sides are rosewood with a spruce top, bound ebony fretboard and bridge . Early guitars, before 1947, came with the herringbone wood border around the top, which was later changed to alternating layers of black and white plastic . The herringbone binding was reintroduced in 1976 with the production of the HD-28 (H for for herringbone).

40 – Rosewood back and sides witha spruce top, ebony fingerboard, all kind of fancy ornamentation, e.g. a mother of pearl C.F. Martin Script Logo Inlay

The bracing

One important constructional and tonal aspect of Martin guitars is the special kind of bracing. Martin made the X-bracing famous, which “consists of two braces forming an X shape across the soundboard below the top of the sound hole. The lower arms of the X straddle and support the ends of the bridge. Under the bridge is a hardwood bridge plate which prevents the ball end of the strings from damaging the underside of the soundboard. Below the bridge patch are one or more tone bars which support the bottom of the soundboard” (from Wikipedia). Better check out the picture…

Here is some info from the Martin website that explains the standard X-bracing and the scalloped X-bracing, as we find it on the MK signature models:

March 13, 2013March 13, 2013Guitars

Building a Telecaster Dream Machine

With the help of my Dream Machine-style pickguards and the Dream Machine brass tremolo I was able to built myself a kind of Schecter Dream Machine Strat (the one I compared to Mark Knopfler’s sunburst Schecter Dream Machine in these videos). What I am working on at the moment is a range of products for the Telecaster to upgrade any T-style guitar to a Telecaster Dream Machine, or to build one from scratch with aftermarket bodies and necks.

I already have the brass or white enamel aluminium pickguards, and the tapped Telecaster Dream Machine pickups will come any day now – the final prototypes I have are really great :). I decided to install these into two different guitars: one will be a project with a genuine Schecter vintage neck and a fine one-piece mahogany body. The other project is based on a neck and body I just found on ebay for really little money, it just looked right (with a kind of sunburst very similar to the one on Mark’s Schecter Strat), and a neck without dot markers. When these arrived I was pleased to find out that both are very light and seem to be very resonant (knock, knock,.. 🙂 ) so this second project seems very promising as well.

I already started to plan a brass Tele Dream Machine bridge and will likely also produce some control plates in brass. As it seems I will put golden hardware on these two projects, but I will also release a chromed version for those who want to build their own Walk of Live Tele 🙂

I will report about building these two with a little blog post series, with this post being the first, and others to come as the project advances. Here are some pictures of what I already have:

The Schecter neck with the mahogany body

Both necks - note the different colour of the rosewood fingerboards — Both necks – note the different colour of the rosewood fingerboards

The Schecter neck has a painted peghead - like Mark's Walk of Life Tele which is in red. Not sure what to do with this one but I guess I will keep it like this to preserve the decal and originality. — The Schecter neck has a painted peghead – like Mark’s Walk of Life Tele which is in red. Not sure what to do with this one but I guess I will keep it like this to preserve the decal and originality.

I wonder if the fingerboard of the Schecter neck is Brazilian rosewood or Cocobolo. This info must be in the neck code which says F773S but this code is not included in the (older) Schecter catalogue I have.

Those grains indicate a South American rosewood, and the wood has a typical oily shine. Cocobola is often lighter than Braz rosewood but the latter can vary to a large extend.

The no-name neck has little dots on the upper edge, I am thinking to remove these and fill the holes with brown wood filler so that you have some help with finding the right fret without changing the look of a board without dot markers. — The no-name neck has little dots on the upper edge, I am thinking about removing these and fill the holes with brown wood filler so that you have some help with finding the right fret without changing the look of a board without dot markers.

To be continued, stay tuned …

February 21, 2013May 14, 2019Guitar in general, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

Custom Shop Fender Stratocaster resembling Mark Knopfler’s maple neck Strat

Some weeks ago I visited a local music shop – the Music Store in Cologne – who have a dedicated custom shop showroom. Lots of custom shop Fenders, expensive Les Pauls, and other fancy stuff. In the upper right corner of their wall full of guitars I immediately spotted a red Strat that looked nice – can’t help but red guitar always seem to attract my eyes quicker than any others 🙂 . I took it down and played it, and – WOW – it not only played great but had an absolutely stunning sound! (In fact in such situations I don’t need to plug it in, the acoustic sound is enough for me – just as a sidenote).

All pictures courtesy Music Store Cologne

What was striking about that guitar were some unusual features that immediately made me think of my all-time favourite guitar – the one that made me start to play in 1979 – Mark’s red maple-neck Strat ‘80470: a laminated maple fingerboard (instead of a one-piece maple neck, thus no skunk stripe), a 1959-62 style pickguard (the position of that screw…), otherwise vintage specs. One difference was the colour which was fiesta red (Mark’s was more towards what is called hot-rod red today, or even dakota), and the relic finish (Mark’s was refinished and looked like new). I asked for some information on that guitar and learned that it was a limited run (of 20 guitars) by the Fender custom shop.

cs-strat-2

cs-strat-3

Here is a list of the features:

a sorted alder 2 piece body with 1956 shaping, maple board, pickups were a 69 at the neck, fat 50’s in the middle, and a Texas Special at the bridge, a greenish celluloid (!!!) pickguard (yeah, Fender has limited quantities of these again), nitro finish (body and neck), 6105 frets, a rather fat neck with 9.5″ radius, price: 2549 Euros

I admit I was thinking about buying for some time, but finally decided not to do (I really can’t say I am in dire need for another red Strat…).

I finally plugged it in but not into an amp but into my PCM recorder to have some sound samples to compare it to other Strats. My wife filmed some minutes with her mobile, I reamped the samples and put them in sync with the video so that you can see and hear it on the following video. By the way, the guitar is already sold meanwhile, and so is a second one they got right after the first, and this was the last. 🙁

January 14, 2013February 27, 2018Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos, Mark Knopfler gear

Dire Straits at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, October 23, 1978

Recently another diamond was dug out: an uncirculated early Dire Straits recording appeared out of nothing, from the Paradiso, Amsterdam, October 23, 1978. Unfortunately it is “only” an audience recording, nevertheless the sound quality is really nice. And it is the complete show.

This gig was only a few month after the release of Dire Straits’ first album. They had played some gigs in the UK in summer 1978 (e.g. the one of the Live at the BBC CD) but the ones in Belgium, France (e.g. Chorus TV), the Netherlands, and in Germany in October were their first gigs abroad. Compared to later years, there were much more spontaneous elements at that time, like improvisation or different guitar licks.

While Mark played his maple neck Strat on the summer gigs, he played his 1961 rosewood Strat in the second half of that year. It seems he had it just painted red (it was a bare wood finish when he got it about a year before) so that it was ready for the international stages now. At the same time he switched from Fender amps to the Music Man HD130 212 combo, and he still played his Morley volume pedal and the green MXR Analog delay.

I found the recording on the tracker of our Spanish friends but it seems it was first available on Dime. Unfortunately the recording runs about 2.5% too fast. These old recordings are often too fast or slow as analog tape recorders varied a lot from their specified speed of 4.75cm/sec, so most recordings run somewhere in the +/- 5% area. I recommend a software like the free Audacity which allows you to adjust the speed (Effect menu – change tempo / pitch). Below you will find a sample of Follow me home which is already speed-corrected. Note how this early version (two month before it was recorded for Communiqué) differs from later ones, played much faster and with a different drum beat. I absolutely love it!

MArk Knopfler on stage in late 1978 — Mark Knopfler on stage in late 1978

Sample Dire Straits – Follow me home, October 23, 1978

January 8, 2013January 8, 2013MK guitar style and licks, Understanding music

The Foghorn Chord in Down to the Waterline

I recently realized that I used to play the foghorn chord wrong (the very first notes in the intro of Down to the Waterline). I played those foghorn sound on only the two lowest strings – this way I explained it in a Youtube tutorial on Down to the Waterline. In fact it is played on three strings. Not a big deal, and I guess many of you were already aware of this, but for me it was again one of those little bits that make such a nice effect, and I simply did not think about it at all before. By the way, the same chord appears in the intro of Radio City Serenade on Mark’s Privateering album.

The chord consists of the notes B, F, and A. With B being the root nore, it is a B7b5 chord (the F is a semitone below the fifth note of a Bm chord – the F# – and thus denoted as b5, while the A is the 7th). It is mainly the b5 that makes the mysterious, misty foghorn association. The interval from the B to the F is a so-called tritone. It was called the ‘Diabolus in Musica’ (devil in music) centuiries ago, and was avoided, almost banned, as it was regarded as evil. Tritone means three whole notes. The tritone divides an octave in two identical intervals, in other words, B – F is a tritone, and so is F – B.

The foghorn in Down to the Waterline — The foghorn sound in Down to the Waterline

December 22, 2012December 23, 2012Guitar in general, Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear

Step 2: The Dream Machine Tremolo

After the loaded Schecter-style pickguards, I am now proud to offer a second high-quality component to upgrade your guitar to make it look and sound more like a Van Nuys era Schecter Dream Machine: the MK-guitar.com Dream Machine Tremolo.

Unlike the standard Fender Tremolo that is made of steel (or often even cheaper substitutes like zinc for the tremolo block), the Dream Machine Tremolo is made completely out of bell brass. For all those who love Mark Knopfler’s sunburst Dream Machine, I have a gold-plated version, and the fans of e.g. Mark’s metallic red Schecter Strat can get it in chrome-plated. Indeed, even the chrome tremolo systems on all vintage Schecter Dream Machines were made completely of brass!

tremolo-gold-3 — The Dream Machine Tremolo – available in gold-plated (24k) or chrome-plated bell brass

Brass – the Magic Sound Secret of the Seventies

Schecter started as a part supplier in 1976. Their philosophy was to offer upgrade parts of superior quality for all important parts on a Fender guitar (plus some others) . You could get metal pickguards instead of plastic, or beautiful exotic woods instead of just plain maple, alder and ash. And all metal parts that are invloved in the sound production, like the bridge, saddles, and the nut, had to be of brass. Brass was known to increase the sustain and tonal qualities of an electric guitar. For this reason Fender also started the ‘Brassmaster’ series with brass replacement parts for their guitars in the early eighties, and their exclusive top-of-the line model The Strat (introduced in 1980) featured a solid brass bridge, brass knobs, and a brass nut. This does not mean that vintage Fenders with their steel parts sound bad- we all know how wonderful vintage Strats can sound – but the softer and warmer bell-like tone of brass is simply different. However, for all who are looking for the sound of a guitar with brass hardware, like all of Mark Knopfler Schecter Dream Machine guitars, there is no other option than brass because this is what these sounds were produced with.

The chrome-plated tremolos on Schecter Dream Machine Strats were also of brass

An easy mod in the late 70ies was to replace the tremolo block with a brass block (who knows, maybe Mark even had one in one – or both – of his red Fenders – as said, it was very popular at that time). But it is not only the block that contributes to the sound but also the bridge and the saddles themselves which are in most direct contact with the vibrating strings. Furthermore, brass and brass is not always the same, as brass is an alloy of mostly two other metals: copper and zinc, and the zinc percentage can vary between something like 5 to 40 percent. The Dream Machine Tremolo is made of a special, sonically ideal bell brass to produce the best sound without compromises. It rings like a bell!

Other Features

Just like the Schecter tremolo, the base plate of the Dream Machine tremolo is thicker and more solid than on a Fender vintage tremolo or other reproductions. Also the shape and the look with much rounder edges is a bit different, just like vintage Schecter stuff. And then there are the saddles, which are – as most of you have surely noticed on any picture of Mark’s Schecters – not of bended steel but much more solid, and also completely of finest bell brass. Gone are the times of rattling or buzzing string contact at the saddles!

tremolo-gold-2

Highest Quality made in Germany

The Dream Machine Tremolo is not a cheap reproduction from the far east, it is made with high-technology computer controlled tooling exactly to our wishes, exclusively for mk-guitar.com by Germany’s top-reputation guitar parts supplier – ABM in Berlin. The idea was the same as at vintage Schecter: to build the best that is possible!

If you want to upgrade your guitar and want to replace your tremolo system, you can get the Dream Machine Tremolo without mounting screws, springs, and tremolo arm (any arm with US thread should fit) , or you can get the full assembly to build your dream guitar out of scratch.

Get it here in the mk-guitar.com shop exclusively:

December 11, 2012Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

The hang tag shadow on vintage Les Pauls

Today’s blog article is just about some little detail you might have noticed on Mark Knopfler’s vintage Les Pauls. I wrote a blog post about the fading red dye on old Les Pauls some time ago, so it is something like common knowledge that the old Les Pauls from the late 50ies came in a colour called cherry sunburst and the red faded when exposed to sunlight, resulting in a lot of colour variations with names like honey burst, tea burst, or “unburst”.

But maybe you have asked yourself why many old Les Pauls – like Mark’s 1958 – have more red left at a particular place , near the pickup selector toggle switch? The reason was the hang tag – a little piece of cardboard listing some features of the Les Paul that was attached to the toggle switch on new guitars. When the guitar was in a shop window or at some other place where it was exposed to sunlight, the hang tag caused a shadow that preserved the red dye under it. On some Les Pauls you can see exactly one position of this hang tag, on others you might have several shadows due to varying angles of the hang tag.

hang-tag-shadow-2 — A vintage Les Paul with the hang tag they came with when new

The features listed on the hang tag were:

Greater Tonal Range

More Brilliant Performance

Longer Sustaining Quality

Easier Playing Action

hang-tag-shadow-1958 — The hang tag shadow on Mark’s 1958 Les Paul

December 5, 2012December 5, 2012Guitar in general, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc

New Products Coming

There will be some new products in the online shop soon, or already are.

**Guitar Effect: Sex Drive by Durham Electronics

The effect you could see in the Guitar Stories documentary when Mark demonstrates his Les Paul in his British Grove studio. Already available in the online shop.

**Guitar Sound: The Dream Machine Tremolo by mk-guitar.com

A tremolo system of finest solid bell brass, made in Germany by ABM Guitar Parts exclusively for mk-guitar.com, just like the tremolo bridges on the vintage Schecter Dream Machines, available in gold-plated brass like on Mark Knopfler’s sunburst Schecter Strat, or with chrome finish like on his metallic red Schecter. Available very soon (about mid December).

**Hardware: Telecaster Metal Pickguards

Telecaster pickguards from white enamel aluminium or brass, like on Mark’s red Schecter Walk of Life Tele, available in Schecter style (5 screws plus screws for the neck pickup) or Fender style (8 screws, no screws for neck pickup), available about December/January.

**Pickups: Tapped Telecaster Dream Machine Pickups

Tapped Telecaster pickups like in Mark’s red Walk of Life Schecter Telecaster, made by Haeussel Pickups in Germany to our specifications, available in January 2013.

November 28, 2012May 14, 2019Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

Playing on the Holy Grail of Electric Guitars: 1960 Les Paul Standard

Some time ago I had the opportunity to play on a real “Burst”, a 1960 Les Paul Standard. You will probably know that Les Paul Standards between 1958 and 1960 are something like the ‘Holy Grai’l for guitar players and collectors, with prices ranging over $ 200,000. (And yes, Mark Knopfler has even two of these!) As you might guess from the surrounding in the video, the guitar belongs to the same collector as Mark Knopfler’s sunburst Schecter Strat, or the blue 1961 Stratocaster I played in one of the last videos. Only about 1,700 of these were made (possibly 434 in 1958, 643 in 1959, and 635 in 1960). After that the model was discontinued because it failed commercially, as it was too conventional looking for Rock’n’Roll players who prefered Fender solid-body guitars, and not conventional enough for jazz players who prefered Gibson arch top guitars. It was some years later when players like Eric Clapton or Peter Green made the model famous and sought-after again when they played these guitars and showed them on their albums (e.g. a probably 1960 Les Paul on the Bluesbrakers album). So these Les Paul became something like the first vintage guitars. Gibson made Les Pauls again starting in 1968 but these had some different specs than the old sunburst Standards.

Early 1960 Les Pauls are almost identical to the 1959 model, however, later in 1960 the neck became flatter, and the red colour that is known to fade when exposed to sunlight was replaced with a more resistant and darker red dye.

What does it sound like?

This is probably the most important question everyone asks himself. Is such a guitar really worth all the money? The answer is surely “no” as it costs more than 50 times as much as a good replica with original features, and the sound cannot be 50 times better. Still, those old guitars have a magic that the new ones don’t have, and the sound also might have some details thatmake it different from newer ones (apart from the simple fact that each guitar is an individual piece and sounds different than any other), so the question is rtaher how much you think these little details are worth for you. And it is all a matter of taste so you might like some new ones really better.

I recorded some minutes of video, and I recorded some sound samples directly into my recorder so that I can compare the guitar to any other later.

This first video has the directly recorded sound which I reamped with a software amp.

In the second video the guitar was played over a Tone King Metropolitan amp and was recorded with the camera mic. Obviously these do not like the volume typically produced by a guitar amp and thus heavily compress dynamics or cause distortion.

And here I finally compared it to my own 1974 Les Paul Custom. I recorded my guitar into the same recorder, and reamped it with the same software amp, all settings 100% identical. The Custom has an ebony fingerboard instead one of Brazilian rosewood, and some other construction details are different so it will never sound the same. My guitar is equipped with Haeussel 1959 pickups so you can listen yourself to how these compare to the original PAF pickups.

November 20, 2012May 14, 2019Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, MK guitar style and licks

A/B Comparing Mark Knopfler’s Schecter to my Strat with the mk-guitar.com loaded pickguard

In these videos I am a/b comparing two different guitars side by side: Mark Knopfler’s famous sunburst Schecter Dream Machine Strat and my pink part-o-caster, built from a Japanese Squier body in metallic pink with a nice bird’s eye maple neck I bought on ebay some time ago (actually a noname product), equipped with the loaded Schecter-style pickguard with the F500T pickup replicas, and with a prototype of the coming brass Dream Machine tremolo bridges (to be released as it seems at the end of this month, note that this prototype is not finished yet, the release version will be available in chrome or gold plated, like Schecter).

Of course these guitars do not have too much in common, the body wood and the kind of laquer alone (poly on mine 🙁 ) are reason enough so that they can never sound 100% identical – besides one has a value probably 50 times as much as the other – but of course I was curious how my guitar compares to the Telegraph Road Schecter, especially to see how close I can come with the F500T-style pickups in my pickguard. (After measuring various specs on the Mark Knopfler guitar pickups, I meanwhile even updated my pickups to have not only electrical values of a Schecter guitar but of this particular Schecter.)

Both guitars re-amped with identical settings

As I recorded the Schecter directly into a portable recording device (via a buffer that avoids the normal treble loss you will encounter when recording a guitar directly into such a device), I could do the same later with my guitar, which means both were recorded not at the same time and in different countries, but with the same cable into the same buffer and into the same recorder. I then re-amped both guitar samples with the same software amp, of course with 100% all identical settings, not even a volume match. This way I got two absolutely comparable files, with the same signal chain except the guitar itself.

olympus — Both guitars were recorded directly into this Olympus PCM recorder, the box is a buffer as the Olympus does not have a guitar input

re-amping — These are the effects and the amp settings for the videos. By the way, I “built'” the amp myself years ago while I was working for the Creamware company who developed the recording software

When I had the chance to play the Mark Knopfler Schecter, I filmed about 20 minutes. I tried to play the same licks on my guitar so that I can edit both videos to put the same licks side by side for ideal comparing. This video might also be of great help to see in how far it is the guitar that matters (“Do you need the same guitar to get that sound?”), or do only all the other sound factors matter, or just the player (“It’s all in the fingers”). All in all I am pleased with my 1,000 Euros guitar against such a famous piece of rock history, however, there are moments when that Schecter sounds so beautiful, just listen to the tone on the Tunnel of Love licks (2nd video towards the end, well, it IS the Tunnel of Love guitar (live version) 🙂 ).

some chords on the different pickups, various licks and tunes, Where do you think you’re going:

Sultans of Swing and Tunnel of Love stuff:

More info on the loaded Schecter-style pickguard

Mark Knopfler Guitar Site

The website for the Mark Knopfler inspired guitar player by Ingo Raven

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