Mark Potter

We have these on 'Grounds for Divorce'. National Resolectrics, which sound amazing. Incredible.

— Matt Skinner, Elbow's guitar tech

From this 2011 interview with Music Radar:

The album's finished now, but that doesn't stop them from tweaking the songs for the road. As they work their way through set closer, The Birds, it's Mark's bluesy slide riff (played on a National Resolectric) that resonates across the room, in contrast to the recording.

From this 2017 interview:

You hear this at the beginning of ‘Kindling’. I played the riff that we then looped to create the track, but forgot to tune it. So when we came back to the track, it made everything that little bit more fun. We tried to retune it in mixing but it lost all of the character, so in the end we decided to go with the original recording and live with it. If you’re being really precise you might hear it but the vibe of the tune was what we needed. That’s something that applies throughout the album, really.

Visible at 0:43 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:43 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set. Guitar tech Matt Skinner explains its use as a MIDI-triggered channel switcher for Potter's Dual Rectifier Roadsters.

Guitarist Mark Potter from the UK alternative rock group Elbow plays the Godin Montreal, enjoying its smooth tones and versatility.

Additionally, in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set, guitar tech Matt Skinner states that Potter was using the only two existing prototypes for a Montreal. Skinner also states the Potter only used the acoustic output. Potter himself elaborates in this article:

I started using them about five or six years ago. They have an acoustic output and an electric output and the electric sounds as good as my ES-335.

I'm in talks with Godin about making a signature guitar. It will be somewhere between the Montreal and the 5th Avenue. It's still very early days, but I'm hoping that the next time I'm in the studio, I'll have a guitar with my name on it!

Regarding the recording of Elbow's "Grounds For Divorce", Potter stated the following:

It was a Gibson Les Paul through an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal and then I used a '54 Vox AC30 head with a vintage Marshall 4x12 cab. It's not like I thought 'I'm writing a rock riff, therefore I must use a Les Paul'. My favourite guitar is a Gibson ES-335, but I played it on that and it didn't quite have the sort of crunch that I was going for, so as soon as I picked up my Black Beauty Les Paul, that was it - it sounded great. Originally I just recorded the one riff and then I thought 'Well, how about if I track it two or three tones up the octave?' Then I did down the octave and then I played it on a bass, bending the note on that as well. When we twinned these four or five signals of the same riff played in five places on the guitar, it just sounded massive.

In this Getty Images photo, Mark Potter is shown with the T-Rex Engineering Viper pedal, highlighting its use in his setup.

Visible in this photo from Total Guitar magazine.

Visible in this photo from Total Guitar magazine.

Two are featured at 0:55 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:34 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:34 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:43 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:43 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:43 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set.

Visible at 0:58 in this TC Electronic Gear Run for Elbow's Northside Festival 2011 set. Two appear in the video, one for each of Potter's Dual Rectifier Roadsters.

"My workhorse guitar. It’s the first guitar I always plug in when I’m looking for a sound. I’ve played it for so many years that I know what I can get out of it most of the time. I’ve had this one for about eight years. The first Elbow album it’s on is Leaders Of The Free World, and it’s been on every subsequent album."

"It’s a reissue of the one that George Harrison used to play which I got as we were coming to the end of recording The Take Off And Landing of Everything. It’s such a lovely guitar. Aside from tone it has this wonderful dampening system operated by levers, and it gives you a great muted sound."

"Most definitely a studio amp. You wouldn’t dare take it on the road and even if I wanted to, Danny Evans wouldn’t let me! You need to service it every two months, but it’s worth it. It’s an amazing amp and the spring reverbs are brilliant.

I’ve never found a plugin or pedal that comes close to the sound. You get hiss and fizz because it’s an old amp, which drives Craig up the wall. He likes stuff clean and pure, but I like that bit of dirt in the sound. When we were recording he’d ask whether I had another amp because of the noise, but I held my ground. It has a great tremelo on it as well."

Visible in this picture from this 2011 interview with MusicRadar.

In this other interview with MusicRadar, Potter stated the following about the recording of Elbow's "Grounds For Divorce":

It was a Gibson Les Paul through an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal and then I used a '54 Vox AC30 head with a vintage Marshall 4x12 cab. It's not like I thought 'I'm writing a rock riff, therefore I must use a Les Paul'. My favourite guitar is a Gibson ES-335, but I played it on that and it didn't quite have the sort of crunch that I was going for, so as soon as I picked up my Black Beauty Les Paul, that was it - it sounded great. Originally I just recorded the one riff and then I thought 'Well, how about if I track it two or three tones up the octave?' Then I did down the octave and then I played it on a bass, bending the note on that as well. When we twinned these four or five signals of the same riff played in five places on the guitar, it just sounded massive.

The reliable one. That ability to link channels to mix a clean sound and an overdrive is a real bonus. All through recording I wanted to avoid using pedals where I could use the amps direct, and the sound from this features all over the new album [Little Fictions]. It just sounds better than a pedal sound, end of!

The AC30 combo is visible in this 2010 picture from Total Guitar magazine.

"I used it a fair bit on ‘Little Fictions’ (the track). The mayhem and craziness at the end of the song came from a wild sample that Craig found, along with me playing. I used this and a piece of hoover tubing, and the idea was to play randomly which is the most difficult thing you can do. I remember Les Dawson playing the piano badly, and later on you realise just how hard it is to actually do that! A friend said the end of the track sounds like galloping horses, and that’s something like what we were trying to get. A lot of sound creation went on in the album and the end of that track is the most obvious example of it. Everything is random on there."

"Elbow's guitarist Mark Potter has been a Boogie enthusiast for many years starting with a Tremoverb combo he faithfully used through many of the bands earlier albums like Asleep in the Back and Cast of Thousands."

Listed under Potter's official Mesa/Boogie artist page.

Visible in this photo from Total Guitar magazine.

In a photo featured in Total Guitar magazine, Mark Potter is shown using the T-Rex Engineering FuelTank Classic Power Supply.

In a Getty Images photo, Mark Potter's Korg DT-10 Digital Pedal Tuner is visible, showcasing his choice of gear for precise tuning.

In a Getty Images photo taken at Blueprint Studios in Manchester, Mark Potter is seen using the Hiwatt Custom 100 Amplifier Head.

In this Getty Images photo, Mark Potter of Elbow is seen with a Hiwatt 4x12 Cabinet at Blueprint Studios in Manchester.

In a Getty Images photo, Mark Potter is seen with a Vox V239 Folk Twelve guitar, illustrating his use of this instrument.

In a photo from Getty Images, Mark Potter is seen with a Pignose PGG-200 electric guitar.