A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, IN THE MANNER OF A TELECASTER CUSTOM

MARK KNOPFLER’S ‘ROCK AND ROLL’ GUITAR, USED TO RECORD AND PERFORM ‘SOLID ROCK’ 1980-1986

Used extensively on stage during the early 1980s as his prime ‘rock and roll’ guitar, this black Schecter Telecaster was one of the first instruments that Mark Knopfler purchased from Rudy’s Music Stop on 48th Street in New York City, while Dire Straits were in town to record their third studio album Making Movies. Knopfler started acquiring Schecter Strats and Teles to replace his treasured vintage Fenders on the road. 'I didn't want to keep flogging a Strat around the world, getting it smashed to pieces,' Mark told Guitar Player magazine in September 1984. 'Same thing with my beautiful Telecaster that David [Knopfler] used to play rhythm on in the band. It's a double-bound sunburst Custom Tele, about a ’67 or ‘68, and I'm not inclined to have it smashed to bits. The Schecter is beautifully made and very strong.' Originally supplied with a black pickguard, Knopfler revealed his fondness for the guitar to International Musician and Recording World in May 1984: 'One of my favourites is a black Schecter Telecaster, which is a very heavy, loud instrument.' Featured in the Official Mark Knopfler Guitar Styles, Volume I, the caption notes that this guitar was 'often used for a "heavier" sound.' Interviewed by Bob Hewitt for Guitarist magazine in 1986, Knopfler’s then guitar tech Pete Brewis elaborated: 'most of Mark’s guitars do specific jobs these days and I’ve strung that one with heavy bottom strings to use for rock and roll.'

Having recorded a demo version earlier in 1979, Knopfler employed his newly acquired black Schecter Tele almost immediately to record the album version of ‘Solid Rock’’ during the Making Movies sessions at the Power Station from June to August 1980. Knopfler’s raw and gnarly guitar was cut with the distinctive bright and tinkling piano of E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan, who had been recruited for the sessions by album co-producer Jimmy Iovine. Interviewed for the 1986 book Written in My Soul, Knopfler told author Bill Flanagan: 'Some of those songs were written during a period of turbulence. I wasn’t feeling good or collected when I wrote 'Solid Rock'; I deliberately wrote and recorded that and 'Expresso Love' fast.' As Dire Straits had been touring and recording almost constantly since their meteoric rise to fame in late 1977, the band took a six month break to recover before embarking on their third album. The song’s lyrics ‘I'm gonna live on solid rock, I wanna give, I don't wanna feel blocked’, reflected Knopfler’s state of mind in heading into the studio that June, as he told Bill Flanagan: ‘On that record, I was determined I would not be immobilised by anything. I was going on, to do what I knew I could do. I just kept on working. I decided against being waylaid, to be a survivor instead of a casualty. That break gave me the time to consider all that had happened and to express it in terms of music.’ Released in October 1980, Making Movies would be regarded as one of Dire Straits' best albums, praised at the time by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke for the breathtaking ‘combination of the star’s lyrical script, his intense vocal performances and the band’s cutting-edge rock & roll soundtrack.’ 'Solid Rock' was released as the B-side of both 'Skateaway' in December 1980 (US) and 'Romeo And Juliet' in January 1981.

According to Knopfler’s late guitar tech Pete Brewis, as quoted in Guitarist magazine in 1986, Mark used the black Schecter Tele on the song 'Telegraph Road' when Dire Straits returned to the studio in 1982 to record their fourth studio album Love Over Gold. Mark’s memory is hazy on the details of the song recording, however the guitar was certainly photographed at the Power Station in New York as one of the guitars used on the album, as published in the Love Over Gold Tour programme. Knopfler was inspired to write 'Telegraph Road' during the 170-mile tour bus journey from Cleveland to Detroit for the 1980-81 On Location Tour. At over 14 minutes long, the epic album opener crescendoes with an extended guitar solo and is widely considered to be one of Dire Straits best songs.

Amongst fans, this guitar is most closely associated with live performances of 'Solid Rock' on every Dire Straits tour from 1980 to 1986. ‘Generally, I end up using the same guitar on the road that I used in the studio,’ Knopfler told International Musician & Recording World in January 1986, ‘because in the long run, if I recorded with it, it has the best voice for that song.’ First added to the band’s set list at New York’s Beacon Theatre on 14 November 1980 during the 1980-81 On Location Tour, 'Solid Rock' generally showed up as a penultimate show closer or encore until the very last Dire Straits tour closed in 1992. The show at the Rockpop In Concert festival at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, on 19 December 1980 was recorded for German TV channel ZDF. Knopfler continued to perform 'Solid Rock' on the Schecter throughout the Love Over Gold Tour from November 1982 to July 1983, as seen in the footage from the final two shows of the tour at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 22-23 July, which was recorded for the 1984 Dire Straits live album and VHS concert film Alchemy: Dire Straits Live. On the band’s record-breaking Brothers In Arms Tour, Knopfler used the Schecter for both 'Solid Rock' and the up-tempo R&B inspired 'Two Young Lovers', released on Dire Straits' upbeat 1983 ExtendeDancEPlay EP, which was the first record to feature drummer Terry Williams following Pick Withers' departure in November 1982. Although Knopfler would sometimes switch out the Schecter for his new Steinberger on either song, 'Solid Rock' was captured on the Schecter at Wembley Arena, with special guest Nils Lofgren from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, in footage recorded for ITV on 10 July 1985, and 'Two Young Lovers' can be seen in footage from the final show of the tour at Sydney’s Entertainment Centre, recorded for broadcast on Australian network television on 26 April 1986. The following year, Knopfler produced American singer songwriter Willy DeVille’s 1987 album Miracle and played the black Schecter Tele on DeVille’s single 'Assassin Of Love'.

At some point after the Brothers In Arms Tour, Knopfler switched out the original black pickguard, telling us: 'It originally had a black scratch plate and I put an off-white scratch plate on it so it looked a bit meaner. This is a powerful baby this thing, it’s great...This could be a rock and roll pal, you know, you could just go away and use this as a good rocking axe for everything.'

SCHECTER GUITAR RESEARCH
David Schecter opened his guitar repair business in Van Nuys, California in 1976. Named Schecter Guitar Research, the business model was not to manufacture guitars but to concentrate solely on repairs of existing guitars and to manufacture high quality replacement parts for vintage instruments made by Gibson and Fender. The clientele would be other guitar stores, custom builders and repair shops that needed neck and body parts. By the late 1970s Schecter was offering 400 different parts ranging from pickups to wire harnesses, bridges to tuning machines and everything else needed to build an electric guitar. By 1979 Schecter would begin offering, by custom order, finished instruments all based on existing and easily identifiable Fender models. The quality of David Schecter's products were surpassing what the bigger manufacturers were offering at the time. This drew the attention of many professional musicians. It also garnered the notice of a young guitar dealer in New York City named Rudy Pensa. Pensa recalls that by the late 1970s he was purchasing both finished Schecters as well as parts. From these Schecter branded components he would assemble guitars - matching necks, bodies and pickups among other segments - for his clients as a bespoke instrument.

Pensa recalls that the two Schecter guitars offered in this sale, lots 4 and 8, are instruments that were assembled by Rudy's Music Stop specifically to meet Mark Knopfler's specifications.