Sultans of Swing - In Search of the "Holy Grail" of old Strat tone Part 2

This is part 2 of an experiment to see how close I can get to the original Dire Straits sound (the Holy Grail as many might say).

Some research on the Net suggests he may have used an Orange Squeezer compressor, an Aphex exciter, a Fender amp (possibly Vibrolux or Twin) and obviously an old Strat!

I go through some of the gear and what each component adds to the sound.

The audio quality is not as good as I hoped (some of the nuances don't come across very well), but I hope you still find it informative!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• old
• strat
• stratocaster
• Sultans
• Dire
• Straits
• Knopfler
• guitar
• tone
• orange
• squeezer
• aphex
• exciter
• twin
• reverb
• fender
• John
• English

[YofterMofter]

I like that you're not afraid to play on that bridge pickup. Many people write it off as being harsh and thin and basically useless, yet it isn't - in the right hands of course.

[stratnut]

@YofterMofter thanks alot - I have the strats modified so that the second tone control acts on the bridge pickup as well as the middle pickup, giving a really useable bridge pickup. Without that mod, the bridge would be too harsh for my tastes

[powellallan]

You know something we all seem to have overlooked? What did the producer do in the studio after the parts were recorded and.... And....did Mark Knopfler try the old Hendrix trick of different strings for G and D as I think Jimmy Page may have on Black Dog( pedal steel guitar lighter gauge), I don't know because i am a string idiot but can anyone enlighten us?

[stratnut]

Rumour has it that MK used a really light string gauge on the first album - 8s. See mk-guitar . com

[powellallan]

what strings? I use ernie ball super slinky and my trouble is getting the response down and keeping it quiet as it picks up EVERYTHING, I have a 1985 Fender Jap strat and an American Fender 1992 Strat, the Jap has all the tone cheers and thanks for the great post Allan

[stratnut]

@powellallan I've now been experimenting with Fender 150s Super Light strings 8-38), thought I'd hate them, but I am mightily surprised what a good sound you can get out of them. Definitely a step closer to the original MK sound. Real shame Fender is now discontinuing them after 40 years just as I'm getting into them :-(

[YofterMofter]

@TheLoupours Yes. I think Robert Cray uses the bridge pickup alone a lot too.

[TheLoupours]

@YofterMofter I normally play on the bridge pickup with my strat, i like the noise because it sounds good for various of reasons

[YofterMofter]

@abcthethtwe

[abcthethtwe]

@YofterMofter 

[gregjohnify]

anyone selling the silverface .

[gregjohnify]

anyone selling the silverface

[rushinsteele]

Studio and Live! or 2 different animals...... I think the key to his sound on that song has many factors on top of what gear he played through......His fingers , the engineer , the mixing board , the room the amp was mic'ed up in and the fact that it went to tape. There are probably a hundred more factors....But! you do get very close in this video. Being able to just play the song is an accomplishment.

[Linsenpuppe]

I played around with different compressors to get this sound - and I ended up with a limiter: Baja optical limiter, a diy project published at freestompboxes[dot]org.

[ebeatworld]

You are a great guitarist. You would probably sound good playing through a D-style amp.