Guitar Stories: Mark Knopfler (Documentary)

[Mikegarveyblues]

I'll preface this by stating that I wasn't entirely sure I should post this as it's not PRS related. However, we're all guitar lovers and I thought this would be of interest to many of you - even if you're not a Knopfler fan (Shame on you, lol!)

I watched this on a UK channel the other day and it's now popped up on Y'tube (Not sure for how long though!) and it's well worth the 45 minutes.

Mark and his former Dire Straits band mate, bassist John Illsley take us on a journey from his first guitar to many of the others that he has aquired and helped shape his music. Fascinating journey and much of it I could relate to as i'm sure many of you will (If maybe not the rock and roll stardom bit! )

It's a shame Mark doesn't play PRS guitars - at least to my knowledge. I'm sure he'd love them!

Here it is:

 

[Rick]

I think most of us could relate to this regardless of brand loyalty or tastes in music . I watched it early this morning sitting in a coffee shop and thoroughly enjoyed it. Plus when they're sitting in JG Windows with Mark's first guitar there's a bunch of SE's on the wall behind them so that justifies you posting the link here .

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

Plus when they're sitting in JG Windows with Mark's first guitar there's a bunch of SE's on the wall behind them so that justifies you posting the link here .

I saw that! There was a Laney Lionheart next to him too... I just thought, "plug the SE's into the Laney!!!"

In all seriousness, the guy just get's good tone no matter what. One of those times you can genuinely say it's in the fingers, imho.

 

[Rick]

Dire Straits first album was one of the reasons I wanted to play guitar in the first place. I wish I had his fingers. I'm sure he'd give me the middle one if I asked for them .

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

Thanks very much for sharing this. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Monteleone Archtop really struck a chord, so to speak.

I once commissioned a talented and well-known luthier to make me a 17" archtop acoustic to rival the greats. All he did was ***** an moan about not having time to get to it - despite taking many new orders and delivering new guitars in the interim. Nearly 200 guitars left his shop before I finally drew a line in the sand and demanded my money back or guitars to equal my investment. I settled for a pair of electrics. They were exceptional guitars but I couldn't look at them without feeling used and betrayed. I sold them both.

One day I'll return to my dream of owning a world-class archtop acoustic. But it's clear to me that I must respect the man who makes it as much as I respect the end result. Who knows, perhaps Paul Smith might live out his golden years hand-making the ultimate violin guitars in a one-man garret shop. That would be poetry.

 

[Rick]

Hans , I think that last paragraph of your post WAS poetry .

 

[Rick]

edit @ 11am I just finished watching it again and enjoyed it at least as much the second time. Ya'll better watch it before it gets taken down from youtube

 

[Shawn@PRS]

I have a crappy wifi connection right now but I look forward to seeing this. MK is one of my guitar Heros ( even though I can't play any of his songs)

 

[Poffypoffa]

I appreciate that he's a competitor of Rudy at this point, but how do you show off the mk 1 Pensa-Suhr and not even mention that John Suhr existed? Odd... If you notice, they concentrate on the modern Pensa, and only show a 2 second glance at the headstock of the original.

Great vid tho...

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

I appreciate that he's a competitor of Rudy at this point, but how do you show off the mk 1 Pensa-Suhr and not even mention that John Suhr existed? Odd... If you notice, they concentrate on the modern Pensa, and only show a 2 second glance at the headstock of the original.

Great vid tho...

It's a shame they didn't mention John Suhr as he built the guitar - though not originally for Mark as I understand it. There will have been a reason i'm sure. It's a nice guitar but i'm pretty sure I read on a forum a while back that the guitar fell out of favour with Mark.

BTW, anyone got his latest album?

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

MK is one of my guitar Heros ( even though I can't play any of his songs)

Yeah, same here. Mark, David Gilmour and Gary Moore pretty much nail it for me. Got other heroes too, but they're the ones I always wind up going back to.