Unknown guitars

I am not sure about the brand, type, year and serial numbers of these guitars.
If you have any additional info, please let me know.

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture is taken in February 1970 when Mark Knopfler and Steve Phillips played together as The Duolian String Pickers. You can see Steve on the National Tricone, but I have no idea what guitar young Mark plays here.

 

Brand David Russell Young (most likely)
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture is taken in during the recording sessions for the Love over gold album (1982). Click here for another picture from that same recording session.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture is taken from the official 1988 videoclip It's money that matters from Randy Newman's album Land of dreams. Mark Knopfler appears in the video playing guitar in a riding car. It looks like a Fender or a Schecter, but it is not clear to me which of the two it actually is.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info On 8th May 1985, Dire Straits made an appearance at the Golden Rose Festival in Montreux, Switserland. The band played three songs: So far away, Brothers in arms and Money for nothing. Mark Knopfler used the same guitar for all these songs. It probably is a modified Squier with a Schaller Tremolo.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This screenshot is taken from the documentary Les Enfants du Rock, recorded in 1982. The brand and type of this guitar is unknown.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info In 1995, Clive James wrote a song and went to Nashville, looking for singers who want to sing his song. Clive performs it for various famous musicians asking tips as James is far from a music talent. He plays it for Mark Knopfler, who is in Nashville at that moment and Mark invites him to actually record the song and let Clive sing the song himself. Mark arranges a studio and records the track with him. The screenshot on the left shows Mark in the studio for that recording session with a guitar which looks like a Fender Telecaster or a Schecter Tele. 

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Most likely 2013
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was taken by Guy Fletcher. Guitar player Vincente Amigo handed this guitar to Mark as a gift on 27th July 2013 in Malaga, Spain. Vicente had commissioned four guitars to be made by a new luthier in Mexico and this was no.3. Brand and type are unknown to me. See here for the photo montage that Guy made.

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Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was taken during a concert of The Notting Hillbillies in 1998. It is probably a Gibson Jumbo. And it is most likely a guitar owned by Brendan Croker or Steve Phillips.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was taken during a concert of Chet Atkins and friends, Neely Auditorium, Nashville, USA, 1st and 2nd May 1987. Mark and Chet played various songs together and on the song Imagine he used this acoustic guitar. Looks very similar to the Gibson with serial A027, but the ring around the centre hole is much darker. Most likely another Gibson guitar, but I am not sure.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture is a screenshot from the documentary "When Phil Cunningham met Mark Knopfler", broadcasted by BBC Scotland on 10th May 2010. Mark plays a guitar in a guitar shop with Phil playing accordian. Most likely a Gibson guitar, but I am not sure.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was taken during the first concert of The Notting Hillbillies at The Grove, Leeds, 31st May 1986. Not sure if this is Mark's own guitar or that he borrowed it from Brendan Croker or Steve Phillips.

 

Brand Unknown
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was taken during an early perfromance (most likely in the late sixties) of Mark Knopfler and Sue Hercombe. There is another picture of Mark and Sue on which Mark plays on a Kay guitar, but this guitar is another one, brand and type are unknown to me.

 

Brand Martin (most likely)
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info Mark used this guitar during the promotional performance at the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, 18th October 2000. Mark played Romeo and Juliet on it, which is very unusual to be played on a normal acoustic guitar. It looks like a Martin guitar but without dot markers on the fingerboard.

 

Brand Gibson (most likely)
Type Unknown
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info Looks like a black guitar, most likely a Gibson.

 

Brand Most likely Fender or Squier
Type Stratocaster
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was posted on Instagram. It is most likely a Fender or a Squier Stratocaster, signed and donated by Mark Knopfler to support music education in Philadelphia Public Schools. See two other pictures here and here.

It is displayed in the Hard Rock Cafe in Verona, Italy.


 

Brand Unknown
Type Bass guitar
Year Unknown
Serial number Unknown
Additional info This picture was taken by Guy Fletcher in 2006 when Mark Knopfler was working in the studio for his new album Kill to get Crimson. See here for the complete photo.


 

Brand Unknown
Type Balalaika
Year Circa 2004
Serial number -
Additional info
Labelled internally in Cyrillic, engraved on the back of the headstock ‘To Mark Knopfler / from ‘Shangri La’ casino / with best wishes / 27th of April 2005 / Moscow Russia’. The backside is made of maple.


The Shangri La Casino in Moscow presented this balalaika to Mark Knopfler when he performed at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow on 27 April 2005 during his Shangri-La tour. The Shangri La Casino was shut down when gambling was banned across most of Russia in 2009.

See here for another picture.


This guitar was auctioned at Christie's in London on 31st January 2024. It was sold for 20.160 Pounds.

 

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