Dire Straits – Dire Straits
The music gear and equipment used by the artists, producers, engineers, and more involved in the making of the 1978 album Dire Straits.
Music from Dire Straits
Artists on Dire Straits
Gear Used On Dire Straits
Explore the instruments, equipment, software, and production tools used in the making of Dire Straits – Dire Straits (1978). Click more on each item to see exactly how it was used.
Effects Pedals used by Mark Knopfler on Dire Straits
Avg price: $226.46
In the first Dire Straits album, he uses a Hot Cake as booster and a Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer as compressor. The 80s version has a Mid Lift switch (the later versions change for Presence potenciometer, but has basically the same effect).
Guitars used by Mark Knopfler on Dire Straits
Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitars
Fender Telecaster Thinline Electric Guitar
Avg price: $2,993.00
He used this guitar until 1979, he used this on the first Dire Straits album. He had only used this guitar on Water of Love which he used a Slide and a Capo.
Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cutaway
Avg price: $995.00
This is Mark's first Gibson guitar, he bought it in 1971. Mark used it on Cafe Racers and on the first Dire Straits album.
This is what Mark Knopfler said in an old interview: “We played in pubs in London. I just had this thirty-watt amplifier; we used to stick it up on two wooden chairs," he recalls nostalgically. "I used to play a Gibson Les Paul Special with a pick. It was a double-cutaway Les Paul Special that had been refinished black, probably a 1960. I bought it for £80; this would have been around 1971. My friend Steve Phillips and I painstakingly stripped it and got it back to its original cherry finish, and it was everything to me. I don't know whether I slept with it, but it wasn't far off. I absolutely adored it, and still do. I used it in the Straits when we started. I was actually just looking at a picture of us when we played on Clapham Common [London, 11th September 1977] for Charlie Gillett, and there I am playing the Special. So that's where Gibson started in my life, and that guitar will always have a special place in my heart.”
