AMPEG, LINDEN, NEW JERSEY, CIRCA 1967-1969

Mark Knopfler purchased this Ampeg bass via bassist Glenn Worf in 2005 and kept it for studio use. Worf used the AMB-1 to record the bass part on the song 'Remembrance Day' in 2007, which would be released on Knopfler’s sixth solo studio album Get Lucky in 2009. An elegy about servicemen from a single village who lost their lives in the First World War, 'Remembrance Day' was released as a single in aid of the Royal British Legion in 2009. Album co-producer Guy Fletcher was photographed playing the bass when he and Mark recorded a demo for ‘Remembrance Day’ at British Grove Studios in 2006, as featured in his online studio diaries for 2007.

AMPEG ELECTRIC BASSES
Designed by Ampeg's founder C. Everett Hull and Jess Oliver, this instrument was conceived as a replacement for the upright bass and pitched to the community of jazz and session players. It would be referred to as a 'horizontal bass' and first carried the model designation as the AEB-1. The under-bridge vibration sensitive pickup delivered a clean and warm tone that was applicable with both steel core as well as gut strings, but the bass lacked the punch in high volume performance. Following the departure of Oliver and then Hull in 1967, the instrument was redesigned. The change to a magnetic pickup, mounted mid-body and under the strings, as is traditionally found on solid-body electric guitars, proved successful. The AMB-1 would be the instrument of choice for - and is strongly associated with - players like Rick Danko of The Band and Steppenwolf's George Biondo.