(tutorial) How to sound like Mark Knopfler / answering the 3 most asked questions (incl. settings) 

He knows all the fancy chords!

Don't apologise for not being able to afford a Strat MK. You give a lot and that's a sign of inner wealth. Thank you so much.

I've been a fan of Knopfler since hearing "Sultans of Swing" on the radio in L.A. as a child in '78. My dad went out and got the tape right away and played it all the time on the car stereo and home stereo. Great playing. There are plenty of players who use fingers instead of a pick, but Mark's technique is all his own. He also uses his thumb to up pick as well and strum. He uses his thumb, index and middle finger. I don't think I've ever seen him use fourth finger and pinky. His technique is proof that sometimes the things that seem simple have a lot more to them. I've never been a good finger picker. I'm very much a pick player. I began playing guitar at the age of eleven, about 1985, playing my dad's Ovation, teaching myself out of a Mel Bay instructional book. Knopfler, along with Clapton, Beck, Page and Iommi were my first big influence before I even got to Van Halen and the shreddy stuff. I decided early on I was a strat guy but didn't see the turn I'd take in favor of humbuckers and shred sticks for a good five years. But the music of Dire Straits always brought me back home to where I came from. These days I much prefer single coils to buckers and am back in authentic strat territory. But I still can't make my mind work right to adapt to Knopfler or Beck's technique. I think it comes down to how a brain is wired. Players, like anyone else, discover what they are best at, and their best approach. Clapton, Beck and Knopfler discovered early in their careers that they were strat cats, and Jeff and Mark discovered finger style was there thing. Mark still used a pick till about the late 70s, but by then he was so used to using his fingers most of the time that the pick just went away. Beck stopped using a pick about the time of the Wired album in '76. We all live and learn what works best for us.

Im glad you finally showed your face, dutchman! Your channel is the best about MK sound, by far! Please record one with MK techinique on acoustic guitars ok? Greetings from Rio!

I ve been playing mk style for so many years and I totally agree. I arrive at the same conclusions. I m using the same switch position, same pickups, same hand position and all the same effects (compressor-delay-reverb). I m just using a different amp (tworock). Congrats for this really great video

Great description of ME70 boss Please do more ..

Excellent and very instructive tutorial......you must spend so much time learning, practising and producing your videos.....it is much appreciated by the MK community....kudos to you

"That's the way you do it"

I've seen photos and vids of Mark playing Sultans with the switch on the middle pickup only. I've tried this and I think it's more accurate to the sound of the record. Of course, the way Mark strikes the strings with his bare fingers and frets the notes is unique to him and creates the largest part of his tone. Yes, the rhythm guitar used the bridge/middle sound, but I think Mark played the song using the middle pickup.

Your attention to the details is amazing...very much a MK fan here too

Thank you so much for this. Im a Straits and MK fan for 35 years. Glad you made this unique channel on youtube to explain us how to reach the most beautiful guitar sound ever made. Thanks from Portugal 🇵🇹! Ps: no more videos? About a year you don’t make any. 🙁 Cheers!

Mate, superb sound engineering/reproduction and playing. Genius! Thank you for sharing your gift ❤

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of Knopfler's sound. I have that TAB book too, I knew you used it because of the live licks of Telegraph Road from the Alchemy album, in that book comes the complete TAB. Once again, thank you very much and congratulations for your channel.

Excellent info and well explained again. Always enjoy your work. Thank you.

wow, you really have the Knofler sound nailed. Thank you for sharing.

Fantastic video man, thanks for sharing. Your my go to guy for MK info.

I must say, I am impressed with the info. Thanks a lot, man.

Thanks for sharing. Inspiring sounds and skills on old, but good equipment.

Great tutorial mate thankyou! I also have the ME70, it’s a great piece of equipment

What an informative and amazing video! Thank you so much 😎

Thanks very much for sharing. I just created the presets you shared on my boss me70 Excellent job

So glad I stumbled upon this video. Wonderful! Can't wait until tomorrow morning when the neighbours have gone to work. Bring it on!

Thank you for the instruction .. This is all new to me and I feel better about this equipment since I viewed your presentation ..

Thanks for the video, enjoyed the settings part especially, and will check out the Bob stuff on Spotify, cheers

Hi great to see you and love all your work. Thank you so much.

Thanks so much. Very useful and well presented.

Thank you sir. You are a scholar and a gentleman

Thanks for the great video , you kind talented man

Thanks for this. Dug out an old compressor and definitely makes a huge difference. Cheers

Randomly stumbled upon this video when looking up tips I might've missed on improving the sound, since I took the opportunity to do so while doing some much needed gear changes/refreshes, and I'm impressed by how well you explained everything, even if I didn't really learn much I didn't figure out by myself previously :) But I mean the general settings are still useful for some finetuning of my own presets, don't get me wrong. And it was also nice to have some of my own observations validated (like playing the Single-handed sailor solo bits with a neck pickup, even if it might be somewhat obvious maybe) and also to just generally hear opinions and tips from a guitarist and a musician who seems to be a bit or a rare breed these days, at least on the internet - a one that relies on his ears instead of internet tabs, which as you say are frequently inaccurate, and sometimes staggeringly so, even to the point of replacing a minor chord with a major, or even a completely different chord altogether, while people keep making YT covers using the wrong chords... So well done, cheers!

Thank you. My favourite channel. Cheers. Tony (Adelaide South Australia)

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge . I am a massive fan of dire straits and just happen to have similar guitars and a boss fx unit. Looking forward to cranking out some tunes . Thanks again

This video is very important to me!thanks.

hi bob...! ..I' am happy to discover this channel on youtube and thanks you very much all this stuff and your explanations about Knopfler sound.On the other hand I listened your songs on Spotify.I love very much your work, and think you aproach pretty much knofler sound..Congrutalations for your compossing an your talent my friend.All we love that Knopfler sound may appreciate your work.Thanks a lot from Spain.

Thank you for sharing!

6:10 "But the Strat is so important because it defined Knopfler's sound". Disappointed to hear that from you, a MK fan ! I bought the first Album when it came out, I went to Dire Straits concerts in the early days. All the writing materials said "MK plays Schecter Guitars". (Schecter is not Fender). But I thank you for sharing your settings. 👏

Very helpful many thanks

So sick!

Very well played !

Hopefully you'll put out a few more of you're exceptional videos soon..........

thank you so much!

Thanks amazing content

Excellent video and explanation. Hope MK meets up with you soon 😊

Very informative. Any more Knopfler songs you have lined up? I'd like to see Ride Across the River. That one has never been covered properly.

Thank you so much for this! I have been searching these information for months. Totally agree about the tab books, I have about 5 different ones none I’d say it’s 80% accurate, end up wasting time and money. Your channel is brilliant and you are definitely great at teaching! Last time I felt the same was with JustinGuitar. By the way, I subscribed and also try to find your Facebook page but it seem doesn’t exist anymore? Many thanks and all the best from England.

Thanks so much!

Thank you! 🙏🏻

Thank you for sharing

The End is really a very nice song with Knopfler in it.

Nice video! Very interesting

This is the information I have been praying for. I love all your Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler videos and your playing is superb.I sing and play mostly acoustic guitar here in Ireland in Folk Clubs here in Dublin. I play a lot of James Taylor songs and some of Mark Knopfler's songs from his solo albums such as Remembrance Day etc.which sound fine on acoustic guitar but now I'm really going to focus on the older Dire Straits songs that you play and teach on your youtube channel.Many thanks again for your unselfishness in sharing your tips and tutorials.Regard, Alan.

Superb video on the classic MK strat sound. Simple guidance, easy to replicate. How about another one on his Les Paul distorted sound? I understand Mark mixes a kind of 'woman tone' -rolling off the treble- with distortion, using a wah.

What a brilliant channel , firstly I would like to thank you for sharing this info with us ,it was very helpful and kind of you. I have only been playing a year and at the young age of 57 I was just trying to learn some Gary Moore riffs, so brought a boss katana MK2 50 and eipiphone modern Les Paul classic. I love mark knopfler music but it always seemed impossible for me to learn that when I see him on TV playing. I am just starting to learn a mark knopfler song on my Les Paul and do the settings on this video reflect to the settings on a Les Paul too. I can not afford to go and buy a strat guitar my wife has a brain tumor so with only my wage coming in it's been a struggle to get the katana and Les Paul. I saw a video of mark playing the theme of local hero on a Les Paul and it blew me away. Any tips on getting this tone would be very appreciated. Do you perform in the UK I would love to see you. All the best Peter

Thank you, thank you. I've been watching and learning from your videos ever since my cousin pointed me to it, and your work has been a source of guidance and inspiration. I'm interested in you Boss unit; I have a very old 2008-2010 Zoom unit (bought used for something like $15), with a similar layout, that I've been able to set up in a similar way. Your suggestions here will help refine that, as well as the "stand alone" pedals. I also, in collaboration with another local Dire Straits enthusiast, have experimented with winding some tapped-coil pickups with 1/4" pole pieces. This was a bit of a story in itself, and isn't done yet. I know Ingo revered-engineered and offered a set of such pickups for sale, but they cost from where I am was completely impossible. So, having some electronic/engineering knowledge, I started from "first principles." The results have been good, so far. I'm not quite there yet, but close. (I've learned a lot about how _not_ to wind pickups along the way). I have a couple of different guitars to try them in - no "true" Fender guitars, unfortunately. One of the nicest, sound-wise, is a Greg Bennett-designed strat-style guitar, bought 2nd hand. These were only made for a few years - I think production ended early in 2013. Purists complain about the 3+3 headstock design, but that's the least of my worries. I don't know if these were common in the UK, but I've picked up a couple in western Canada, and the good ones are very good instruments. One other project that might be of some interest is a "Clapton mid-range boost" active system, made from a lower-end equalizer for acoustic guitar. That actually helps tremendously with refining the mid-range. When I get it into final form I'll make a video about it and send you the link. Anyhow, many thanks for this video, and for all of your instructional videos. I don't use tabs - can't read them, in fact, although I can read music - but my method is the same as yours: listen, listen, listen and watch, watch, watch - especially his hand positions. There are quite a few helpful clues in some of the concert videos. If I get to the point where the tapped coil pickups sound as they should, I'll be in touch. One new thing that I've just started experimenting with is a NuX rotary speaker emulator. It's a very good pedal. For practicing "Mark-style" I've been putting it in the line, with the speed of both rotors very slow, and just a hint of tube noise. I think it adds some "presence." My next wish is to get a good USB interface box, so I can do a proper job of recording guitar. Funds being tight, I don't know when that will be, but eventually. Thanks again, and Cheers from frosty northern Alberta, Canada.

Your song "Westbound Again" sounds brilliant,like Phil Collins joined The Eagles and Mark Knopfler made a special appearance.

Im learning several Mark Knopfler songs and I bought an Boss ME-70 because of this video. Im using your settings to pretty much everything I play, it sounds so good and relaxing. I love that high midrange and that smooth, snappy picking sound. Many thanks. 😀

The last track called the end is Infact similar to going home local hero!

Thanks 🙏

Really good video!! We need to see some new content please. How about "News" or " Hand in Hand"?

Yours are the best Dire Straits videos on RU-vid! How about doing Solid Rock...........

This is awesome! Love these community discussions about tone, effects etc.

I wished you had filmed the bits you played! 😮😮

Nice tutorial... I still can't get the right soft distortion specialy in the third string for example you can hear on telegraph road 2005 (live Lille sounds perfect) cheers from Argentina...

Thanks

Fantastic video, very accurate sound! Would be great to see and hear how you get the les Paul sound for brother in arms and money for nothing too!

That was a very interesting video. Thanks for patiently explaining the MK sound. I followed MK and DS since 1980... saw MK at 2 concerts here in USA... and have photos of all his guitars on my wall. It seems you have the Fender and the Les Paul; but what about the Pensa Suhr MK-II? I know it's way way beyond anyone's budget... $13,000+... Rudy Pensa of NYC did the settings. By the way, there was one video that I watch time and again: MK's Going Home from "On the Night" DVD. I always wondered how he got that sound on that Fender... it was pure heaven. I am sure it was the rig his techs setup... but I am so keen to know how he set it up.

Great! I am a big fan of Knopfler from Nederland too! But I am not as good a player as you. You should start doing little lessons for the more 'unknown' songs. Sultans of Swing and Money for Nothing are to be found everywhere, but there are so many cool songs I would love to learn!

I'd like to have a tutorial on Expresso Love maestro !

Super👍

Many thanks for putting this up! Am I right that both of the tone controls on the Stratocaster are set to 10?

Thanks for great video. Boss me 80 is available also. Better for Knopfler sound than Boss me 70? Thanks

I have the Boss ME-70....Love it.....ONE question.....you didn't talk about the Output knob....looks like you have it set between 9 and 10 O'Clock. Thanks!

Very interesting. Thank you. You deserve "non budget and non fake" guitars. Am I right when I say that Lady Writer has a more compressed sound than Sultans of Swing?

thanks for this great video. One question - would it be possible to get the same tone from most Boss effects pedals?

Ok. 👍👍👍

Can you Please make a tutorial video on Local Hero Wild theme

How do you like that ME-70? I have one, too. They're built like tanks and incredible versatile.

Hi, can you tell me your equipment that is connected to your boss me 70 (incl. The speaker). Thanks Michael

I’m trying to translate your settings on the BOSS ME-70 to my new BOSS RC-600. Can you help? Point me to another resource? The Input FX list PREAMP (“simulates the characteristics of a guitar amplifier“) doesn’t list TWEED. It does have “T-COMP, -10 -> +10, “Adjusts The sense of compression of the amp”. And it has PRESENCE 0-100: “adjust the tone for the ultra high frequency range “ FX are DYNAMICS and EQ. I think some of the features of the ME-70 have been spread out into these other separate FX options?

But the amp setting on my actuall amp? What settigs are that on?

I was wondering what gain setting should you shoot for on amp and/or pedals or processor? Mark never sounds like he’s really cranking the gain.

Fascinating video - Maybe even more so NOT being a guitarist. I find all of your vids mesmerizing. Haven't forgotten you re: getting you a Dire Straits/MK vocals cover demo "tape." It's been a very odd past year (and beyond for me for other issues) obviously w/Covid plus my friend w/the studio & I are on polar opposite schedules but we'll make it happen in the near future. I'm really excited for the opportunity to do so. Maybe it's for the best as I think I've gotten MUCH better over the past 18 mos. or so ("Calling Elvis" was the most difficult of any to get "correct" beyond that say, 95% threshold) & have developed my own physical set of tricks to mimic the vocal sound of MK - Now it's time to develop them more on the sound board. I recorded Single-Handed Sailor myself & it really turned out quite well (maybe my best cover) but I don't know anything really with respect to sound engineering so there's surely even better to be had there. That, "Lady Writer," & "Calling Elvis" are (I think) what I'm hoping to record in the studio to send you - More if my friend has the patience:). If you go my playlist (ru-vid.com/group/PLP3gT2CNJWk1WGgDOrOrFX22XoL4HgShp), everything down to "Skateaway" I have down pretty well (I don't have music for Skateway or Silvertown Blues yet) - Notice ALL of your covers are in there & what I use. I do have music for Tommy Emanuel's "You Don't Want to Get You One of Those" that MK recorded w/him. That really sounds more like MK's speaking voice than most and has been fun to learn. Below that & down to "Wild West End" are songs I'm currently working on - Most are pretty far along. I've also been listening to a lot of live shows of late as well to try and capture some of that unique feel (I've only been to one live show which is in the live recordings I have way down the list below all the other covers). I had to laugh when you spoke about listening to the music over, and over, and over &... Drives my wife, and probably my kids crazy as well, lol. I obviously also have to do it by ear and many times syllable by syllable to "attempt" (a word MK uses a lot) to get as close as possible to MK's sound w/in my own level of "talent" (a word I use VERY loosely in this contex:)).

Top bedankt! Zou je misschien ook de settings kunnen delen voor zijn nummers die gespeeld zijn op een les paul?

Anyone’s pedal make a noise?

I see the ME70 Has L and R outputs. Are there any stereo effect in there? The Manual says nothing about it.

See in my universe, this video goes viral...

I have an additional question regarding your setup. Do you use an amp in combination with the boss ME or would it be better to use active speakers to avoid negative influence of the amp with the boss (according to my information the boss contains an preamp ). If an amp would be the best way, what amp (for home use only) would you recommend in connection with boss to get this dire strait sound.

Can you please tell me the boss settings for the typical sultans of swing sound?

i go to youtube to learn how to setup the effects for Brothers in arms. all i get is a lot of smoking mirrors....

Man even looks like knopfler

El sonido de la stratocaster no es dificil de imitar,lo que si es dificil es el sonido de la les paul del 58 y no hablo de money for noting,te hablo de mark knopfler no de dire straits,a ver si eres capaz de sacarlo,saludos

Letsgo nederland

Thank you so much for this! A question. For my settings, the preamp setting on 90 is far to loud. So I reduce it to 60 or something. Now, that sounds fine to my ears. But, theoretically does that change the sound to much in relation to the levels of the other pedals like compression etc? Or is it bring the volume down overall and does the sound stay the same pretty much? Thanks!

Chime bell Ring ...down up down.....

Dude , get yourself a pair of clippers and trim those string ends.😱

far out you even sound a bit like him in the way you speak.

christ you even sound like mark knopfler kind of

sprichst du deutsch? ps: kannst ruhig auf holländisch antworten verstehe ich einiges

Jezus man..cut those string ends..

O.M.G all that speakings giving me a big headhache ... 3 mnts of playing for a 21mnt vid is abusive 🤦‍♂️i wad expecting so much better stuff to learn from you bro' . Je suis déçu ! 😩