A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, ARTIST'S PROTOTYPE, MARK KNOPFLER SIGNATURE STRATOCASTER

The luthiers at Fender Musical Instruments have a long and successful tradition with producing bench copies of the favoured and iconic guitars of the world’s most legendary guitarists. Dubbed ‘Artist Signature Models,’ the practice dates to 1988 and Fender's reproduction of Eric Clapton's composite black Stratocaster. 'Mark was one of the guys we most wanted to work with,' reveals Jamie Crompton, then Artist Relations Director for Fender Europe. 'He almost single-handedly regenerated interest in the Strat after ‘Sultans Of Swing’.' Released in summer 2003 and advertised as “two of the finest names in music, one great guitar”, Fender’s Mark Knopfler Signature Stratocaster was over a year in the making and was inspired by Knopfler’s famous red 1961 Strat, as heard on Dire Straits’ debut album and smash hit ‘Sultans Of Swing’, as well as elements of Hank Marvin’s historic red Strat. 'It’s a thrill having a signature Stratocaster,' Knopfler told Guitarist magazine in January 2004. 'The Strat was the first guitar to really capture my imagination and the first guitar I desperately wanted to own. Needless to say, it was years before I could afford to buy one. That was the ‘61, which had been stripped to a natural brush and which I subsequently had painted red.'

The young Knopfler would gaze through the windows of guitar stores, nose pressed against the glass, even sniffing the old Fender catalogues, fantasising about the day he would own a Fender Strat – and it had to be red. 'All I wanted was a red electric guitar, and the only reason I wanted a red electric guitar was because of the sound made by one of my all-time favourite guitar players… Hank B. Marvin,' gushed Knopfler when he introduced the influential Shadows guitarist at London’s Wembley Arena in 1985. 'Hank happened to be the first guy in the UK to get his hands on a red Strat and everyone fell in love with it,' Crompton notes. When Knopfler finally got his hands on a Strat, the impact on his song writing, sound and style would be immeasurable. While breakthrough hit ‘Sultans Of Swing’ was originally written on his National steel guitar, Knopfler has often recounted how the song was transformed when he plugged in the Stratocaster. 'I thought it was dull, but as soon as I bought my first Strat in 1977, the whole thing changed, though the lyrics remained the same,' he told Guitar World. 'It just came alive as soon as I played it on that ’61 Strat - which remained my main guitar for many years and was basically the only thing I played on the first album.'

When Fender’s Jamie Crompton approached Mark Knopfler with the idea of producing a Fender Artist Signature Stratocaster based on his ’61 red Strat, Knopfler was honoured but adamant that the guitar should be an accessible Fender USA factory produced model rather than a premium Custom Shop edition beyond the budgets of his many fans. Maintaining that it should be of a quality he would be proud to play himself, Knopfler was very involved throughout the process to select and refine the relatively standard components and appointments with an attention to detail that would ensure an impressive combination. Fender's Justin Norvell recalls that Mark 'was especially concerned about getting the weight of the guitar correct and the feel of the neck. We wound up copying the contours of a 1957 Stratocaster body made of lighter swamp ash, joined in three pieces.' Crompton explained that Mark wanted the guitar to be light to match the weight of his vintage original Fender, which would have become lighter over time as the wood dried out. Knopfler told Guitarist: 'I was looking for lightweight bodies and I tried a whole bunch of different woods. The swamp ash ones they sent along felt and sounded best to me, although there does seem to be some variation in weight. The company tried hard with all this, as they did with the colour, which they call Hot Rod Red.'

Fender’s standard Fiesta Red varied greatly from the finish colour tones of the 50s and 60s and did not necessarily match the vintage hue of Knopfler’s guitar, nor his memory of Marvin’s. In addition, there was 40 years of fading to contend with. Crompton recalled that Mark wanted a bright, strong red that matched Hank’s original red from the 1950s – a fire truck red. After examining numerous options, it was decided that a relatively recent addition to the Fender range – Hot Rod Red - was the perfect match. In retrospect, Knopfler recognises that his vision was based on saturated publicity shots that he saw as a young teen: 'The first picture that I saw of the Shads with the red Strat – I think the printing of that picture came up red, but it’s actually more of a salmon colour in reality. So my hot rod red was really what I ‘thought’ was the colour of Hank Marvin’s guitar.' The 11-screw white pickguard was tinted green for an extra touch of vintage authenticity.

Based on a 1962 model, the custom “soft C” shape of the unfigured maple neck was designed to sit comfortably in the hand and was paired with an East Indian rosewood fingerboard featuring rolled edges for a played-in feel. 'It’s a lovely dark slab, which echoes the ones that Fender made between mid-’59 and July ’62,' Knopfler enthused. 'I chose the biggest profile neck they make, and they’ve been very careful with the colour of the tint.' Crompton explained that a vintage honeyed lacquer was applied to the neck to help with the antiquing effect, recalling that it took two or three attempts to get the exact tint that Mark approved. Another stipulation by the artist was larger frets than those typically found on vintage reissue Fenders. 'They put in the bigger jumbo frets that I have on my old guitar,' Knopfler explained to Guitarist’s Neville Marten. 'These frets make the guitar a lot more finger friendly and are a real pleasure to the touch. I have them on my old Les Paul and on the Martin dreadnought; for me, they make any guitar feel better — acoustic or electric.' After trialling several sets of pickups, Knopfler settled on a trio of Texas Special single-coil pickups as the closest match to his vintage guitar. 'I tried the range and thought the Texas Specials were easily the winners for the stuff I was doing,' Mark affirmed. 'The thing is, they already have character and that slightly ‘microphonic’ quality that older pickups develop with age.'

Knopfler’s guitar tech Glenn Saggers recalls that the agreed prototype, which had been thrown together with a 1997 body and a 2002 neck, was 'rushed through the paint process to get it approved, which is why the guitar’s finish isn’t great.' Crompton explained that the expedited paint job ensured that the Signature prototype was finalised in time for a debut at Musikmesse trade show in Frankfurt, Germany, in March 2003. The prototype was returned to Mark in August 2003 with the first production Mark Knopfler’s Signatures. Knopfler told us: 'I found that when the Signatures arrived there was no sign that they were deteriorating, they were doing well and I was pleased that they [Fender] made an effort. There was a bit of luck with the Fender in that the odds and ends that I thought would go well together just happened to work… I started using it on stage straight away.'

While the first Signatures were in live use from Knopfler’s 2005 Shangri-La Tour onwards, the prototype itself was not seen on stage until Mark played five exclusive showcases in the UK and Europe to promote the September 2009 release of his sixth solo studio album Get Lucky, which variously included performances of ‘Sailing To Philadelphia’, ‘Sultans Of Swing’, ‘Why Worry’, ‘Going Home’, and ‘What It Is’ on this unique Stratocaster at the Hurlingham Club, London, on 9 September; Pallant House Art Gallery in Chichester on 12 September; an Amazon exclusive concert at Bush Hall, London, on 23 September; Kleiner Sendesaal in Cologne, Germany, on 29 September; and at the Colegio Oficial de Médicos in Madrid, Spain, on 1 October 2009. The show at the Hurlingham Club on 9 September 2009 was held in aid of The Prince’s Trust and was filmed and broadcast for the Bio Channel UK on 14 October 2009. The prototype later joined Knopfler on his Privateering Tour from April to October 2013 for performances of the songs ‘I Used To Could’ and ‘5.15 am’. Mark also played the prototype to record lead guitar parts for the track ‘Streets Of Heaven’ on John Illsley’s 2010 album of the same name, and ‘Street Tracker’ for Pieta Brown’s 2017 album Postcards.

Although not seen on the prototype, the finishing touch on the production Signature Stratocaster was, of course, Mark Knopfler’s signature printed discreetly on the headstock. 'I never thought that my signature would be on anything,' Knopfler told us, 'never mind Fenders, Gibsons and Martins, because they're like holy words to me, you know - they're the father, son and holy ghost of guitars! This particular guitar is quite an unusual item. I would think it’s a bit of a one-off, seeing as it doesn’t have a serial number on it – a prototype. It’s just a lot of memories all wrapped up in one little package really.'