FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION, CORONA, CALIFORNIA, 2013

See footnote to previous lot. Knopfler’s guitar tech Glenn Saggers recalls that the Signature Stratocasters would all arrive with different weights. As Knopfler noted to Guitarist magazine in 2004, the weight of swamp ash can vary considerably. Mark would pick the guitars he liked for his own use based on their weight and kept at least two Signature Strats in his study for songwriting. To avoid having to retune the guitars, he would have one tuned to E and one to C. As well as spending time in his study, this Signature Strat was used to record the song ‘Every Heart In The Room’, which was a deluxe bonus track on Knopfler’s 2018 solo studio album Down The Road Wherever, and the as yet unreleased ‘Big Mac’ from the 2018 project to rewrite his acclaimed Local Hero soundtrack for the stage. The guitar was also taken on the 2015 Tracker Tour for a specific song that never made it on to the set list.