Mark Knopfler and his guitars

In 1984, Rudy Pensa started a cooperation with his new employee John Suhr who was working on his own guitars. Rudy and John started making guitars under Pensa-Suhr name. According to the book "The official guitar styles of Mark Knopfler - Volume 1", this is a 'prototype' Pensa-Suhr and the first guitar John Suhr built under the Pensa-Suhr name.

John Suhr contacted me in July 2011, mentioning that the guitar was made from Structural Foam, not wood on the body. It was an experiment and Mark liked it. And John corrected that it was not the first guitar that was built under the Pensa-Suhr name like the book mentions.

Mark Knopfler used it on Two young lovers during the On every street world tour 1991-1992. Click here for a nice one from Australia 1991 and here for a nice one from Rotterdam 1992.

	Brand	Pensa-Suhr
	Type	Prototype Pensa-Suhr
	Year	1984
	Serial number	001
	Additional info	In 1984, Rudy Pensa started a cooperation with his new employee John Suhr who was working on his own guitars. Rudy and John started making guitars under Pensa-Suhr name. According to the book "The official guitar styles of Mark Knopfler - Volume 1", this is a 'prototype' Pensa-Suhr and the first guitar John Suhr built under the Pensa-Suhr name. John Suhr contacted me in July 2011, mentioning that the guitar was made from Structural Foam, not wood on the body. It was an experiment and Mark liked it. And John corrected that it was not the first guitar that was built under the Pensa-Suhr name like the book mentions. Mark Knopfler used it on Two young lovers during the On every street world tour 1991-1992. Click here for a nice one from Australia 1991 and here for a nice one from Rotterdam 1992.

	Brand	Pensa-Suhr
	Type	'Mark Knopfler Special', later called Pensa-Suhr MK1
	Year	1986
	Serial number	014
	Additional info	The guitar was used on Let it be (Ferry Aid, 1987), Water of love with The Notting Hillbillies in 1990, Vic and Ray and Water of Love during the Golden heart tour in 1996. Mark used the guitar also when he was touring with Eric Clapton in 1987-1989. This guitar was also used on an advertisement for Pensa-Suhr and used in numerous magazines from that time. See two nice magazine covers here. And click here and here and here for a few more pictures. Later, a second knob was added, as a picture shows in the official book "The official guitar styles of Mark Knopfler - Volume 1". It is also featured on some of the 1992 concert tickets. You can clearly see the second knob on this picture, a screenshot from a video of Vic and Ray (Rotterdam, 1st June 1996) and on this picture, taken from the inside VHS artwork of A night in London. On the On every street tour, this guitar was used in the early shows for Why worry. See here a picture that is taken from the rehearsals (photo by Deborah Feingold) and here a picture from one of the Dublin shows in 1991, picture taken from the CD-booklet of the silver pressed bootleg "Strait to the Point".

	Brand	Pensa-Suhr
	Type	MK1
	Year	1988
	Serial number	001
	Additional info	Hand built by John Suhr in de late eighties, a guitar with an interesting story. The guitar first debuted in public during the Prince's Trust gala on 5th & 6th June 1988. Just a week later, it was used on the Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday concert in 1988 and it was Mark's main guitar from 1988 until 1993. Heavily used during the On every street world tour 1991-1992 and also used on a couple of songs during the Golden heart tour in 1996. Click here for a picture of this actual guitar and its original flighcase and here for a picture of the guitar displayed during the Pensa Guitars Day 2002 - Pieve Santo Stefano, Italy, 6th September 2002. Click here and here for a picture of this actual guitar during the Pensa Guitars & Friends Days, Orvieto, Italy, 17th - 19th September 2004. In 1997, I received a folder and price list from Rudy Pensa. The folder features a photo of Mark and his Pensa-Suhr MK1, but was by then advertised as Pensa MK.

	Brand	Pensa-Suhr
	Type	Unknown
	Year	1988
	Serial number	Unknown
	Additional info	The guitar was used on Randy Newman's Land of dreams album and Mark Knopfler also used it to play some promotional work together with Randy Newman in 1988. Click here for another picture of the same performance (Saturday Night Live, 20th October 1988) and here for a picture of a performance with Randy Newman on Sunday Night (6th November 1988).

	Brand	Pensa-Suhr
	Type	MK-1
	Year	1989
	Serial number	900424
	Additional info	John Suhr contacted me in July 2011, mentioning that the Neck and Neck guitar was made out of a Koa Body, Trans Red and a Pau Ferro neck. "It was not actually built for Mark but we sent it to him for Neck and Neck and he used it on some performances." The guitar was at least filmed in the Poor boy blues video. John Suhr also compared this guitar to the previous one in this list (the Pensa-Suhr used on the Land of dreams album). John said: "I'm not convinced that picture is the same guitar." Personally, I have the same doubts since it looks as if the headstock of that guitar is darker (black). So, I decided to list them both as different guitars. This is the last guitar built for Mark Knopfler under Pensa-Suhr name. In March 1991 John Suhr left the company and his name was removed from trademark. Rudy Pensa continued making Pensa guitars and Suhr started his own company making Suhr guitars. Click here for a picture of this actual guitar displayed during the Pensa Guitars & Friends Days, Orvieto, Italy, 17th - 19th September 2004. Click here for a picture of this actual guitar displayed during the Pensa Days, Formello (Rome), Italy, 24th - 26th November 2006.