Mark Knopfler and his guitars

This is Mark's last Schecter Strat and used as a replacement for the first stolen Strat sunburst. The guitar was used on Tunnel of love (1980-1986), Telegraph road (1982-1983), Ride across the river (1985), Romeo and Juliet (outro 1985-1986). Mark also played this guitar in 1987 when he played in Eric Clapton's band for a series of shows in January 1987.

In June 2004, Mark donated this guitar to the Eric Clapton's "Crossroads Guitar Auction" run by Christie's in New York. It was sold for just over $50,000. Proceeds of the sale will benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, an addiction treatment centre established by Eric Clapton in 1998.

This guitar became in the hands of a guitar collector. See here, here, here, here and here for some amazing pictures.

This guitar replaced Mark's Fender Strat and was his main guitar from 1980 until 1986. It was used on various songs during the On Location tour (1980-1981), Love over gold tour (1982-1983), Brothers in arms tour (1985), Live Aid (1985) and during the On every street tour (1991-1992).

Click here for a nice magazine cover featuring Mark with this guitar.

Mark got this guitar in 1984 and used it on the Cal soundtrack, on The Notting Hillbillies album Missing... presumed having a good time (1990) and live on the songs When it comes to you (on the first tour with The Notting Hillbillies), Walk of life (various tours) and on Cannibals during the Kill to get crimson tour in 2008.

Click here for two nice magazine covers featuring Mark with this guitar and here for a picture of Mark and this guitar in a studio. And here for a great shot during the On every street tour 1992.

The Japanese magazine The guitar featured a great article in 2001 listing all of Mark Knopfler's guitars which he used on the Sailing to Philadelphia tour 2001. The article featured separate photos of each of these guitars. Click here for a photo of this Schecter Tele from 1982.

This guitar was auctioned at Christie's in London on 31st January 2024. It was sold for 415.800 Pounds.

The lower picture is taken from the Mark Knopfler Guitar Styles book. It's the same guitar as the one on the upper picture, the white pickguard was added later:

At some point after the Brothers in arms tour, Knopfler switched out the original black pickguard: 'It originally had a black scratch plate and I put an off-white scratch plate on it so it looked a bit meaner. This is a powerful baby this thing, it’s great...This could be a rock and roll pal, you know, you could just go away and use this as a good rocking axe for everything."

Click here for another early picture of Mark and this guitar.
Mark used the guitar on Miracle on Willy DeVille's album Assassin of love (1987).

On stage, Mark used the guitar on Solid rock (1980-1986), Telegraph road (1981) and on Two young lovers (1985-1986). Click here to see it's shipping case.

This guitar was auctioned at Christie's in London on 31st January 2024. It was sold for 277.200 Pounds.

	Brand	Schecter
	Type	Strat
	Year	End of the '70's
	Serial number	S8136
	Additional info	The guitar was used on Tunnel of love on the Making movies album in 1980. It was stolen out of a car, after the Making movies record session. The news even made it to a little newspaper article.

	Brand	Schecter
	Type	Strat
	Year	1983
	Serial number	Unknown
	Additional info	Jack Sonni himself commented on this picture on Facebook, March 2021: "This picture is from '83 sometime, MK sitting in with my band The Leisure Class at Kenny's Castaways, Bleecker St, NYC. That is my Seafoam Green Schecter loaded with custom wound Seymour W. Duncan Alinico 2 Staggered mag Vintage Strat p/ups. 5 way switch. 2nd tone pot is wired as a volume control to the bridge p/u. The neck has a pau ferro fingerboard which is somewhere in between rosewood and ebony tone-wise. NO fret markers then but I recently had them added as eyesight and bad club stage lighting has me playing "jazz" more often than I'd like!! Yes, MK used it for the solo on the recording of One world which was done at the Power Station NYC. He predominantly used the neck p/up for the tone. You'll notice he's got the strap twisted up a bit. That was a wide white strap custom made by Earth III for me that had a stitched Chinese dragon on it! I guess he felt it was a bit too "Rock" for him to be seen with it on so he turned it backwards! Most likely playing an old RnR standard that he was joining in on the vox." It is a guitar that Jack used a lot on stage during the Brothers in arms tour, see here also for a nice picture taken at Live Aid, 13th July 1985.

	Brand	Schecter
	Type	Strat
	Year	1980
	Serial number	S8001
	Additional info	This is Mark's last Schecter Strat and used as a replacement for the first stolen Strat sunburst. The guitar was used on Tunnel of love (1980-1986), Telegraph road (1982-1983), Ride across the river (1985), Romeo and Juliet (outro 1985-1986). Mark also played this guitar in 1987 when he played in Eric Clapton's band for a series of shows in January 1987. In June 2004, Mark donated this guitar to the Eric Clapton's "Crossroads Guitar Auction" run by Christie's in New York. It was sold for just over $50,000. Proceeds of the sale will benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, an addiction treatment centre established by Eric Clapton in 1998. This guitar became in the hands of a guitar collector. See here, here, here, here and here for some amazing pictures.

	Brand	Schecter
	Type	Strat
	Year	1980
	Serial number	S8218
	Additional info	This guitar replaced Mark's Fender Strat and was his main guitar from 1980 until 1986. It was used on various songs during the On Location tour (1980-1981), Love over gold tour (1982-1983), Brothers in arms tour (1985), Live Aid (1985) and during the On every street tour (1991-1992). Click here for a nice magazine cover featuring Mark with this guitar.

	Brand	Schecter
	Type	Strat
	Year	1980
	Serial number	Unknown
	Additional info	This is Mark's second Schecter Strat. The guitar was used by Hal Lindes on the Love over gold album and Love over gold tour 1982-1983.