One of the benefits of being one of the best selling songwriters, not to mention most famous and idiosyncratic guitarists, of the last hundred years is that Mark Knopfler has his pick of vintage instruments.
This is his white Strat. A 1964 Fender, in “too-good-to-be-true” condition.
This Strat toured with him on the Sailing to Philadelphia tour in 2001, being used for different songs at different times, and was one of the principal instruments in the recording of that album. It can be heard playing the lead parts in both the title track and “The Last Laugh” on the record.
For the more recent “Tracker” album, the guitar was set up for slide for the song “Lights of Taormina”
Note the cheeky “Money for Nothing” reference in the design on Mark’s slide!
Apart from it’s clean appearance, the most interesting detail on this guitar would appear to be the small ‘catch’ which has been installed on the pickup selector switch.
One would assume the switch is still the original 3-way selector, and this small ‘catch’ is to hold it in the in-between bridge/middle position.
To hear Mark talk about this guitar, check out the mini-documentary “Tracker: A Track By Track” on YouTube!
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