GIBSON INCORPORATED, KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN, CIRCA 1970-1972

Mark Knopfler used this Gibson Custom L-5 CES guitar for performances and studio recordings with the Notting Hillbillies (see footnote to lot 18). The Newcastle Chronicle photographed Knopfler playing this guitar during an impromptu early Notting Hillbillies performance at Le Papillon Restaurant in Corbridge on 12 February 1988. During this time, Mark used the guitar for recording sessions at his home studio for what would become the 1990 Notting Hillbillies album Missing...Presumed Having A Good Time. Writing for BAM: The California Music Magazine in April 1990, Dave Zimmer recorded that 'a Gibson L5, a Gibson L3 and "the red Shechter Strat I've used on a lot of things," were some of the axes Knopfler played in his distinctive, ringing finger-picked way during the sessions – which spanned eighteen months, from mid-'88 to late '89.' Knopfler can be seen playing the L-5 during a Notting Hillbillies tour rehearsal filmed as a pre-tour special for the Channel 4 television show Rock Steady on 8 May 1990, which would suggest that he also played the guitar on tour.