Mark Knopfler's three most iconic electric guitars on the eve of their London auction
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- We join Kerry Keane of Christie's to take a close look at three of Mark Knopfler's most iconic electric guitars on the eve of their auction on 31 Jan, including the '59 Les Paul reissue he used to record Money For Nothing, plus his 1988 Pensa-Suhr MK1 custom and red Schecter T-style electric, which he used to record Walk Of Life.
I flew from Barcelona to New York and was able to buy Pensa-Suhr in 1991 because of Mark.
Went to see the collection on Sunday. Very surreal/emotional seeing some of them in the flesh with the Straits music playing in the background. Very much end of an era vibes. I'd love to put a bid on a couple of smaller items but the sales fee is £260 per £1k spent so bear that in mind!
Too much for my pocket 😂
Would love to have something but all the famous items will go for multiple tens of thousands, mainly to collectors or very well off fans. Those not so liquid with cash have no chance of grabbing anything. All the guide prices are prices for guitars of the same model with zero provenance. They even value his first guitar at 1,500 pounds and that’s fanciful. I’ll buy it now for 3k but that’s my close to the number it will go for…
You don’t need that crap . Come on man!
This people made millions out of us. They would sell their underwear to make more money.
He doesn’t care why should you?
It’s just stuff owned by a guy.
Please be serious!!🤝🤝
What time?
No. He didn't use it again after 1986.
The magic is in Marks fingers and songwriting.
The guitars are, in his own words, just wire and wood.
I have loved the MK1 since I watched the VHS of On The Night in the mid-1990s. The look, the feel, the fact it is made for Mark Knopfler and nobody else. I am a very happy fan because the Dire Straits Live 1978-1992 box sets includes versions of Sultans of Swing, Telegraph Road and Tunnel of Love all played on this beautiful guitar and available on vinyl and CD for the first time. And we have a brand new studio album only months away. We are so lucky.
The Pensa-Suhr was an object of desire when I was a teenager, and as an adult flying to New York to meet Rudy and him building mine was unbelievably special. He told me all the stories about it, Phil and Mak who made it were awesome to talk to. Can't believe Mark is selling it.
Same here. I bought an. Original pensa-Suhr in 1993. Still my most treasured guitar of all. She's such a beautiful Lady!
Property taxes never stop.
It sold for 400.000 pounds
@@Dirk-JanJansen it certainly did. I was expecting more.
I bought the John Suhr carve top version. John has been erased out of the picture of the history of this guitar yet he designed and built this guitar. Rudy was not involved in the lutherie but only a recipient of the success of John's creation.
I’m gonna make or get a replica of that Pensa-Suhr one day. Such a beautiful, iconic guitar.
I am fortunate enough to have an 85 Pensa-Suhr. I purchased it from Rudy's when I was living over in New York back in the 80s. I've used it on thousands of sessions. Ace guitar.
No idea this auction was on, I'd have totally gone to London to see these beauties!
I remember the Pensa-Suhr from Guitar World ads from ye olden 90s. Always got your attention even in a sea of Hamers, PRS's etc.
The second Guitar Player magazine I ever bought was the Sept 1984 issue that had Mark and that Schecter on the cover. The July 84 issue with King Edward was the first.
John Suhr is an amazing luthier. All his work is top notch!
I'm a luthier and seeing these instruments is wonderful. I had a customer recently that is a huge MK fan and wanted a unique instrument t capture the various eras in one. I built him a tele style instrument that is very much like the Pensa in image but it has a b-bender in it and Gibson scale length. It pretty much nails all the eras in one and works well. Love for Mark to have tried it.
Never noticed the lack of pickup surround on bridge p/u on the Suhr. Cool!
I could die happy if I could own that red Schecter tele. Walk of Life introduced me to Dire Straits and I doubt I’d play guitar today if I hadn’t heard it. I hope the lucky winner of that instrument plays it every day.
That Schecter sold for £415,000.... 😢
@@ozymandias7940 yep - I watched the auction live. Honestly, it was almost a relief that they sold for such astronomically high prices; I knew right away there was no chance of me getting a guitar, so I was able to just sit back and watch what everything went for
Kerry is a great seller. '1983 gibson 59 repro, at this point Gibson is really hitting their stride making repros' lol no they werent but they were better than majority of 70s les paul, but nothing revered. THis les paul is great and historic for different reasons
Forget those boring LPs and teles, That Pensa Suhr is a Mona Lisa among kindergarten drawings.
It was of course designed by John Suhr to sound like both a Les Paul and a Strat in order to not have to change guitars between songs. But the end result is that it doesn't sound like a strat nor a les paul 😀 I have John's version of it that I bought from Peach in the UK before John Priest went 'big'. It's a beautiful in it's own right but it's neither a strat nor an LP.
Yes it is, is beautifull! Ive watched the interview with Mark prior to the auction and he was heartbreak to part with this guitars, you can see the guy was really sad but he tried not to show it. Imho, this guitars belong in a museum!
@@redduketeleman John Fogerty was doing HSS in 1969!
I’m registered and plan to bid on a couple of the lower-valued guitars. I am a mediocre guitar player but revere MK as both a musician and a songwriter.
How did that turn out?
@@randyrhodes7137 The 1979 Ovation 12-string that I bid on sold for over 100,000 GPB. I liked the guitar but not that much.
Christie's estimates were (as predicted by many people) shockingly wrong. Everything sold for much more than expected, so OP probably didn't buy anything
@@lptomtom You are correct. The Ovation 12-string that was estimated for 1000-3000 GBP went for over 100,000 GBP. That’s out of my budget for a guitar, especially an Ovation. I was willing to pay $15000 or so for the Pensa-Suhr MK played at Knebworth (estimated 7000-10000 GBP). It sold for over 500,000 GBP. I am thankful because that charity got a great deal (he donated 25% of the proceeds). And I am happy he was able to reap such a profit. I’m sure the government of Great Britain, tax dept., is happy too.
@@lptomtom A 1997 Gibson ES-137 went for $20,000--?!
I’m glad he didn’t decide to auction off the resonator because nobody else can play Romeo and Juliet on it properly.
These legendary guitars are too much iconic and deserved to be in a museum. It's sad for me.
Takes a great performer to lure (so to speak )such great instruments and craft such memorable tracks that have worked themselves in our psyche and forever reside there…
As far as I'm concerned nor Knopfler or Pensa never gave any credit to John Suhr being him the real brain behind the guitar and also John was working all night long for the guitar to be delivered to the man on time for a gig. Of course being Suhr one fo the best manufacturers out there, finally they had to talk about it but in my opinion they were quite ungrateful.
I had a Suhr that was extremely similar and I sold it because I just couldn’t resist the profit. Miss that guitar.
Yeah that Pensa is the coolest guitar by far, so iconic
In my experience, both playing with fingers and with a pick affect the guitar the same, as far as picking hand scratching is concerned. Mark is just very careful with his guitars in the first place, that's why they look like new even after so many years, except for belt scratches and stuff like this.
actually, if you're only a finger picker, over the long haul that will create much more wear on the finish. All you have to do is look at the instruments of famous long time finger pickers. Willie Nelson, JD Simo, etc. It is amazing what the oils in your skin can do to not only the finish but the wood itself.
Recently I bought my life dream…the Suhr Legacy guitar.
I payed it, like than a eye! Very expensive guitar but awesome instrument
I'm asking out loud if Rudy Pensa can actually build a guitar ? I have never seen him doing anything, it were all others doing that in his shop for him.
Red is always faster ! Looking good !
This sold this afternoon for £460,000! wow, I wonder who bought it. The '59 Les Paul.
Everyone selling an early 80’s Les Paul just put there prices up 😂😂
Yeah what a jerkoff
Mark have said in a GP interview that the reissue wasn't that great after he got the real deal vintage 1959 FWIW
This is some nice ASMR
Obviously he's keeping the red strat...
Why are they being sold ?
Money
He has over 100 guitars and can only play about 20 of them. He also is making room for some new guitars. He’s 74 and downsizing. 25% going to charity. His net worth is 105 million.
I'm thinking 700K for the Les Paul. And the winning bidder will probably be Joe Bonamasa ha!
I think this guitars should be in a hall of fame rock and roll museum, not in some hedge fund/investment private collections.
No iconic '61 red strat which he wrote/gigged the first album on or vintage resonator from Romeo and Juliet in the sale. Those would have blown the roof off too
That turned out to be a partscaster and was sold years ago.
Does anyone have any idea how much the Hofner went for ?
It’s certainly not associated with any Dire Straits hit but it was his first guitar and he loved it enough to keep it until now.
Not even a good guitar in its own right but a piece of Knopfler’s history
its not Mark's original Hofner but another bought for the auction.
Thanks for the info. It’s actually a relief to know he is keeping it.
Pensa Suhr sold
I know that the guitars are worth a lot of money, particularly since they belonged to and were played by MK, but the average Dire Straits fan, any one of the millions around the world, the ones who lined up in the rain for a week to buy concert tickets, the ones who made them all mega rich, has got zero chance of ever getting hold of any of these guitars. I mean, over £500K for the Pensa Suhr. £415K for the Schecter. Only the wealthy end up with them, because they can and they have the means to do so.
Gibson didn't "nail it" on the prehistorics lol, they had a plethora of things quite off. It's an iconic guitar for sure though and its value is almost entirely the status is has in rock music history. Contrast w/ his '59, most of its value is simply being a burst.
They went to billionaires as investments like they buy famous paintings. Talentless leeches of current system of greed. Sad.
Marks fault. He has wealth enough to hand it over to a younger, poor but talented as a gift to help one individuum being worth it to make so many more happy. This guitar thing has lost track.
@@iloveaviation-burgerclub-a8145 I agree.
I think this would be a great attitude and trend under high ranking musicians. C'mon. Hearing the roads they had to walk makes them sensitive enough to recognise how much impact it would.have to an already.talented young player receiving a guitar many times above his possibilities from a legend he she it really.looks up to. This guitar would expere a happy life. It would continue building up history by.being gifted thru many hands over decades. Now they hang on a wall in some private flex room well secured behind security glass probably never played again and stuck in history. They should all do it. They really should. Instruments like these have to be earned and finally gifted.
@@iloveaviation-burgerclub-a8145or if they are actually talented they can just buy a normal priced guitar like everyone else? Don't think you quite get the concept of fame and collecting lol
@@iloveaviation-burgerclub-a8145 I totally agree
I was shocked when I heard Mark Knofkler use a 1983 reproduction of a 59 Les Paul. Not only was it a horribble sound but a completee dedparture from his playing style. I hate it and hope I never hear that sound again. Later Mark got a vintage Les Paul but the song is horrible. Manyy others on TDPRI agree with me. A complete and horrible departure fro Mark's style. I hate that guitar and would not have bought it. The Red Schecter, i would,ve sold my home for. Also we dod not see Christie's auction his great CAR Shecter stratocaster.
Can’t really say too much on this other than listening to the “expert” I stopped watching after about 30 seconds. No genuine understanding.
man did you listen to nick moroch ? lol , no ? ok do it later you will to mark !!
First to like comment and share
I sold Mark two of the guitars that were sold in this auction back in 2005... One was a Brazilian Blue '57 Les Paul Reissue that sold for 206 K and a 1965 Gibson Dove Acoustic that sold for 110k... Glad that he donated a percentage of the proceeds... Cheers Mark ! Rudy @GRNY Inc.
That’s great !
I have a friend of mine, here in Belgium who owns one of your guitar buyed in 1992/93. It’s Michel Kilesse. I have had the honor to played it several times.
And I was fortunate enough to visit your shop in NYC with my dad, back in march 1998.
😊
All I know mark for is that fiesta red fender Stratocaster. Not even a fender here… -.-
Funny. Walk of Life is one of the lesser liked pieces of mine like Twisting by the Pool as well. I just don't get the songs. But lucky enough Mark wrote so many other master pieces of Rock history that there is no shortage in supply from his side. One of the best maybe 50 players ever. Owning one of his guitars? Nah, man. Who am I? Mark should pass it on personally to a worthy player in need for support. He don't need the dimes and could push one to make so many others happy. Nevertheless, he should tour maybe with Tommy Emmanuel in a rude inspiring set of finger picking virtuosity at levels of gods.
Sure hope he never gets rid of his 61 Fiesta Red! And when he finally goes, I hope it doesn't sit in a museum somewhere. Somebody who would care for it, play it, and TOUR with it would be awesome. JB maybe?
Great review, thank you, gentlemen!
That Pensa is as beautiful as a six string can get. And a lovely tone it has too. Look up the performance of "I Think I Love you too Much" from Knebworth concert or the Money for Nothing face melter at the Prince's Trust, both with Eric Clapton. If only...
I went to it on Sunday. If I was well I would have spoken to the people there. I've studied Mark Knopfler and his guitars for 36 years. I know every detail down to the paints mixed, the part number of the dress nuts used on the Schecter strat. I've done it all day everyday since I was in school in the 80s. In 1990 when I was 15, my Mum arranged with Liz and Paul Cummings to meet Mark for a chat in an office. In 2004 I met Rudy and played in the shop. His words were 'wow I thought Marco was the best' he played a CD to his wife and she thought it was Mark. Since 2007 I have been uploading videos playing. I deleted all the originals. But the views are now 1.8 million. I was getting emails all day, offers to teach people in person in their countries to stay at theirs. People wanting to known things. Gear, playing. I was the first one doing this. From the 80s when tribute bands didn't exist I was playing Dire Straits only at 12 years old in 1986 in pubs. Thousands of people have told me I changed their lives and one friend told me he now had his dream job at Fender because of me teaching him. I've never charged. I helped everyone and there's now people all over the world playing in tribute bands that learnt from me. I've never had a job. I was put on drugs when I left school for ocd. 6 years ago I was very severely injured by Drs and now have an injured brain and body. My hands are disabled. I can't play.
I tried to get to the exhibition with brain damage on the train. I couldn't, the guards sat me in a room. My body going mad, seizures, can't see etc. A week later my sister took me. I would like to have held the 3 guitars.
It's been obsession all day everyday since nearly 40 years. In School I did nothing but listen to Dire Straits on my personal cassette player and draw Pensa Suhr headstocks on my books. Every family holiday with my parents and siblings was spent going to guitar shops around the country trying to find Schecter's. I went to the Halcyon Hotel in Holland Park in 1991 and took photos in the same position as the tv documentary showing the Notting Hillbillies going in.
This was an all day everyday thing. I've got some videos here of my playing.
Also, if you listen to Matchstick man, Mark uses the same line and phrasing as me. He's heard my own songs I was told. Mine was released a year before his.
Search Stefan Ray Price 'Turning Away'.
My Mark Knopfler playing.
ua-cam.com/play/PLACe-tNVjWEuX53AaEs4cn4dt-36RBh7O.html&si=kOKVAA7j0tCfU4LS
I wonder what guitars Knopfler has left in his collection? Seems he's sold everything. Must agree however on the Les Paul comments. Mine is so heavy I can really only play it for perhaps 30 mins before my back says, "stop".
Hahaha yes. I once snapped the head stock prior to a gig accidentially in the heat of stapeling 4x12ers on stage and a friend gave me his beautiful gold burst Les Paul for the gig. How lovely he was 😂 Thanks Sven... I took it and as I had no wide shoulders I giggled about this maybe 3 inches wide belt almost too wide do be comfy. He said: "You will stop laughing soon and I'll be there to giggle then". I recognized shewas heavy. My snapped Lag was shorter scale but mahagony as well and also far from being an SG. As we started to play this beast took my focus to the longer neck. But after 15 min. I really got his words. It is a sitting players guitar. I hate it since. Never ever will touch one LesPaul again in my life. And Gibson, your prices prove me right doing so. Ridiculous!
Of course, almost none of the real 59 bursts from his collection are in this auction(only one he inherited in early 2000s) nor legendary fenders from the 54-62.
Real iconic peaces that he has are not for sale.
I agree about the Les Paul and the Tele, but that Suhr sure is iconic if you ask me...
@@imbraI bet that's still bringing guys to Suhr, & it certainly put him on the map.
Elles sont si belles ces 🎸 🎸 guitares de Mark Knopfler ❤❤❤❤❤
is he selling his original '59?
National '37, red Schecter, and white FendSuhr didn't go to auction ...
They weigh as much as a lee enfield rifle 😅
Do Artists add resale value to non-brands or does milestone recording usage supersede lineage? Arguably full charity tax write off with NYC data in the room could have doubled the London values achieved, perhaps?
John Suhr is the man!
😊🌝🌝😀👍
Mine was purchased used , however its a Suhr carved top . The bloke that requested the build wanted it to be as identical as possible even down to a one piece maple top. Only difference is my headstock reads Suhr. The build quality is amazing and soooo nice to play.
I watched the auction live with much interest. I would imagine its the last we ever see of some of these fine instruments as they will now be locked away in a vault. Kind of sad really. Mark was their master, no one will ever get the palate of tone from them again.
Imagine owning The Live Aid Les Paul….?
That Pensa-Suhr looked incredible up close.
The Pensa-Suhr is the winner here. The rest of them I could care less lol.
The Pensa had the best sound.
There are some inaccuracies here. Mark owned a Les Paul Junior before Dire Straits was founded and used it in the early days. He also used Hal Lindes’ Gibson SG on Two Young Lovers, both the studio recording and the live versions. That guitar has humbuckers. It also wasn’t used in the road past 1986, so saying it was used for the next decade and a half is a stretch. It was used in the studio during On Every Street, and that’s as much as is known publicly. He used the other reissue and his two originals from ‘96 onwards.
That Suhr is an absolute beauty! I wouldn’t sell it, Mark
The back plate on the Pensa-Suhr MK1 is necessary for the Floyd rose bridge, and had to be cut out anyhow to accommodate it's springs, so to also use it to mount the bridge pickup just comes in handy as an extra bonus. The Floyd rose bridge was nothing new, and neither was the Fender Stratocaster bridge (much older) it is a vast improvement of, and both share the same spring rout! I highly doubt that they did all that, just because they couldn't get a cream mounting ring for the pickup, because I was building guitars back then and they were easily had: Most Humbucker pickups came with the mounting ring and hardware, and the cream pickup came with cream mounting rings! They were not some unobtainium, and to say so is absurd, because they are often made together to go together, and are made of the very same material!
The real question I can imagine people asking about it would be: Why is it sticking out instead of being recessed, as they are on most guitars that use a Strat type vibrato system? That's only common on dirt cheep guitars where they cut as many corners as they can.
Well it’s true, the Cream that was available for rings was a big mismatch to the EMG Ivory, my suggestion was mount it through the Trem cavity. You are correct though, that back plate is the standard size I used back then and wasn’t any bigger to mount t the pickup. I now mount the Humbucker from the top because to me the single coils being wider than the Humbucker is a little weird so now I prefer to have the route accept the tabs for the Humbucker from the top so the widths look more balanced and leaves more wood in the guitar.
As far as the recess Mark never used the bridge as a Trem so a recess wasn’t needed but that guitar was supposed to be mine and had I finished it I would have recessed it since I recessed all of the thousands of Floyds I installed. Start bridges were never recessed though so I’m not following you there
It’s kind of hard to take this dude super seriously when the first thing he says is Gibson really nailed the 59 replicas in 1983. lol
Collectors will be the first to say that the 59 “replicas” in the 80’s were not very closely spec’d to the originals at all. Maybe compared to the Les Paul Deluxes that were coming up until that point, but that’s about it.
Man I’m autistic and i don’t understand why you’re so worried about the details. My sg special from 89 has humbuckers, 3 knobs, its not traditional spec by any means. Its an amazing instrument. Still a gibson. Good enough for me. I can’t nor would I want a 61
@@Ottophil oh I’m not worried about them, but if I were about to drop the million ish or whatever these are going for I’d care. And the LP collector market is nuts about how the specs on these early 80’s replicas weren’t very closely spec’d. Not my thing, but it’s a thing.
Personally I’m actually an SG guy as well, by far my favourite guitar and I personally think far superior to a Les Paul.
Tim Shaw pickups?
idk man this "dude" gets hired by christies to appraise their biggest guitar sales worth tens of millions, and you're some dude in a comments section. who would i take more seriously?
@@phelan3747 that’s my entire point, he’s making statements that aren’t accurate and he’s Repping a sale worth a fortune. Details matter at that level. I’m some nobody but my word doesn’t fuckin matter and I’m not in a position where it should, nor am I saying mine does. He is.
Very sad and strange...makes you wonder why he's selling them...😮
AIDS
I am guessing he has quite a few left in his collection.
Pay attention to his heavy tremor in hands. I thing that guitars can remind him about his days of glory
He's 74. Probably coming to grips with mortality and wants them to go where they will be played and cherished in the future.
The Les Paul was iconic only in the sense that it marked a unique, singular band suddenly getting lost in the sea of shit pop music. That guitar was the death of the best version of Dire Straits.
Jeez what a snob you're...😮
The original Bursts or the reissue? Because if you’re talking about the original bursts, you’re the one about to get lost in a sea of shit, my friend
"lost in the sea of shit pop music" Knopfler will be the first to tell you Dire Straits was a beat pop group. Guess you missed the EP in 1982.
🎼