A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: dustyvalentino on December 14, 2013, 07:35:52 PM
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http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showpost.php?p=8977835&postcount=97
Great thread all round but in this post John Suhr disputes the story about it being designed on a napkin. :)
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Yes, John Surh always said that the pieces of the guitar were already bilt before MK said that he wanted the guitar.
There are many stories told by MK that are not as he tell, but probably MK's versions of that stories are more interesting or funnier than the real ones
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Yes, John Surh always said that the pieces of the guitar were already bilt before MK said that he wanted the guitar.
There are many stories told by MK that are not as he tell, but probably MK's versions of that stories are more interesting or funnier than the real ones
A metaphorical napkin is funnier than an engineer's technical drawing! ;D
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Here's another Pensa Suhr story. . . I wanted a copy of Marks' Pensa Suhr, ( I couldn't afford a real one & they were not being imported into the UK) so, I found a "flat" photo of the guitar, took it to work & enlarged the neck in the photocopier, using multiple pieces of A4 paper until I found the number of times and amount of enlargement I needed to enlarge it to get the scale length right. Then I copied/enlarged the whole picture by that amount until I had a full size photocopy. I took the photocopy to a local Luthier, with a videotape of some concert footage and other photos to enable him to get the body carve right, and for less than half the price (then) of an original I got this:
(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6172/6202650465_b1f539ca39_z.jpg)
(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6147/6203163326_a8e6644557_z.jpg)
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He used to say Pyroman was written in the dressing room. Surely its just his humour.
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that whole thread is interesting.
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more from John Suhr
I already had begun the carve, it was just something I wanted to do. I had just finished one in Alder unbound. It was actually my first bound carved top and the lack of tools at my disposal made it a real challenge, I armed myself with a Die Grinder, some sanding disks and a router and let some dust fly. When I was in the carving process Rudy decided it would be a great guitar for MK for the Mandela Concert. They went out to lunch and talked about details like Pickup color etc but otherwise it was pretty much already set in stone. Mark had some extra ideas like tapering the headstock which I explained it was too late. He also didn't like the rings not matching the pickup color and wanted Ivory color so I mounted the humbucker from the back so no ring was used. He decided the bridge should be locked to the body since he had no intention of using the trem really but enjoyed the stability of a locking setup. I used his normal 6105 fret wire and added the EMG SPC on the push pull pot, EMG SA, SA, 85, I also put a circuit in there to try and balance out the Bridge middle combo. Building it on the fly at the last minute I realized the body was too thin for the switch and have a control plate not hit it so I had to get creative by cutting down the back of the 5way switch. It was Mahogany Back, 1 Piece maple top Lacquer Colors and Polyester top coat even on the neck since it is the only top coat that would dry in 2 days. At that time Anderson was cutting our raw parts but this was not programmed yet. So basically I only had a perimeter Body and neck to work with, it was only 2D no neck shape, no body carves etc, so everything else including paint was done by me which was kind of rare since we didn't really have a spray booth intended for that. Usually we had Pat Wilkins do the paint who also used to do Andersons paint since painting in NYC was sketchy. Eventually Mark grew less fond of the guitar as the neck was slim and he started to prefer larger necks. It always had a very unique tone though through his Jim Kelley amps.
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Amazing to think that he was prepared to play a guitar he had never played, that wasn't even built, at one of the biggest gigs he would ever do. Does not sound like the controlling, prepared MK we know.
Lucky it turned out to be a great guitar!
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Remember, the first outing for this guitar wasn't actually the Mandela gig but the Princes trust one on the 5th of June. Of course there were also the two warm-up gig for the Mandela one on 8th and 9th of June too. Still, I doubt he'd do it today!
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Here's another Pensa Suhr story. . . I wanted a copy of Marks' Pensa Suhr, ( I couldn't afford a real one & they were not being imported into the UK) so, I found a "flat" photo of the guitar, took it to work & enlarged the neck in the photocopier, using multiple pieces of A4 paper until I found the number of times and amount of enlargement I needed to enlarge it to get the scale length right. Then I copied/enlarged the whole picture by that amount until I had a full size photocopy. I took the photocopy to a local Luthier, with a videotape of some concert footage and other photos to enable him to get the body carve right, and for less than half the price (then) of an original I got this:
(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6172/6202650465_b1f539ca39_z.jpg)
(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6147/6203163326_a8e6644557_z.jpg)
That looks beautiful!
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more from John Suhr
I already had begun the carve, it was just something I wanted to do. I had just finished one in Alder unbound. It was actually my first bound carved top and the lack of tools at my disposal made it a real challenge, I armed myself with a Die Grinder, some sanding disks and a router and let some dust fly. When I was in the carving process Rudy decided it would be a great guitar for MK for the Mandela Concert. They went out to lunch and talked about details like Pickup color etc but otherwise it was pretty much already set in stone.
I guess that is from here where MK always said that the guitar was designed on a napkin...
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I dont know if the moderators agree but 3Strats can you post some more pictures plesase??
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I'm afraid those are just about all I have of the Pensa copy.
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I just put a little blog post online about a faked photo of this guitar in a Pensa ad: http://www.mk-guitar.com/2014/01/04/photoshopped-mk1-in-official-pensa-ad/
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Can I just say a BIG thanks again to Ingo for his wonderful blog?
I spent an enjoyable few hours on Friday night learning 7/9 licks. :)