Dire Straits /
Mark Knopfler
Guitar Page
Mark Knopfler's Gear
Guitars
Amps
Effects
Strings
Which guitar on which songMark Knopfler Guitar
Interviews
Lick Gallery
Links
Check out my new site:
Mark Knopfler Guitar /
More Knowledge about
the guitar
Mark Knopfler's vintage 1954 Fender Stratocaster - The Jurassic Strat
Go to the new Mark Knopfler Guitar Website
picture from the NHB tour May 1997,
courtesy Marijn Schoo
1954 was the first year of mass production for the Stratocaster. Strats from this year are highly sought after and consequently extremely hard to get. Thus prices have raised up to somewhere in the range between 50,000 - 100,000 $ US.
Mark Knopfler got this guitar from his friend Paul Kennerly, he calls it the "Jurassic Strat".
Unlike most of his other Strats, this one is strung with really heavy strings (12ers, wound G-string), probably to copy the sound of Hank Marvin, one of Mark Knopfler's early idols and influences. So it is not surprising that he often play sthis guitar with a pick instead of with his bare fingers. And he often tries not to play any left-hand vibrato, using the tremolo bar instead, also to create that vintage 60ies guitar sound.
