there's a guy on youtube from portland music company that demos a MK Strat and you can hear the similarity in the sound (which to some extent is down to him playing some MK style pieces)

if it is down to the pick ups to a large extent, the new american special should sound quite similar, as it also comes with texas pick ups...

guess i must check out some guys playing DS/MK music on std strats. i gues MK didn't start out on a signature strat

No his red strat was a fake 62 that he didnt know about, he bought it as a legit 62. He then had a maple board put onto it. Later when he met messers Pensa and Suhr they informed him of it being a Schecter neck on a unidentified body. That guitar had Seymour SSL2 pickups I think. I cant for the life of me imagine that he uses his stock signature edition strat. Non of the other endorsees use their instruments stock, except maybe Eric Johnson.

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No no and no

Hi TobiH: to add to what Niki says, I have seen Knopfler many times and never once seen him use the same gear. I've seen him use a Fender combo with a white Strat in a small club; I saw him use the Pensa-Suhr and a Les Paul through two Orange half-stacks (of all un-Knopfler-like amps) in a big arena; I've seen him play DI'd into the desk in a medium sized hall; etc.

Forum user cvilleira once posted a YouTube clip of Knopfler playing classic Straits on a cheapo Danelectro.

And on every occasion he sounded like... Mark Knopfler.

There's websites out there where you can track his amps and pedals over the decades. He's a bigger gear hound than most and seldom seems to use the same rig for very long.

I think that boy is on a mission to prove to us that his sound comes from him, not from the equipment. It is a boring and not always true cliche to say that the sound comes from the fingers, not from the gear. But in Knopfler's case I believe it is more true than most.

I think any single-coil Strat set to bridge+middle played with a touch of compression, verb and delay through a very clean amp will get you as close as you need to early Straits. From there on in it is down to your hands!

Cheers - C

thx again, very helpful info
t