Mark's Great Guitar Tone

[JF]

studio :
- smooching
- Angel of mercy : both 12strings solo and lead stratocaster
- What it is and Sailing to philadelphia
- lead Ride across the river
- Boom like that : all guitars
- lead Small Potatoes
- rhythm on one way gal (NHB)

live :
- autumn 78 (e.g.Chorus) especially neck PU
- Alchemy especially Once upon a time and TR
- BIA Mandela

[border_reiver]

The LP tones on "My claim to fame" and "Metroland" are hard to beat.

[Knopflerfan]

I love the tone achieved through the MK Strat of course espeically with a little bit of echo ala Hank! So my fave album that showcases this is KTGC...

Was it not actually more the Teisco on the record?

Yes what I meant to say was the KTGC Showcases (Berlin, AVO etc) that showed off the beautiful tone of the Strat NOT the album! Although three tracks on the album MK uses the Strat....

[Eddie Fox]

The thick LP tone in BIA from A Night in London, Sultans of Swing from the SL tour, What it is (apparently the red Schecter strat’s last appearance) and Single Handed Sailor.

[TommyJ88]

Bravo, JF, great piece.

Although, and with all due respect to the artist, this drawing reminded me more of Richard Attenborough as the murderer in 10 Rillington Place...

I can’t unsee this! 

[TommyJ88]

Are We in Trouble Now—both the studio tone and the A Night in London one are glorious velvety perfection to my ears.

[Brunno Nunes]

Down to the Waterline (studio)
News (studio)
Precious Angel (Dylan song)
Sultans of Swing (Studio, Old Grey 78, Chorus 78, San Francisco 79, Sydney 86, Live in 2005)
So Far Away (Wembley 85)
MFN (Studio)
You and Your Friend (On the Night)
Tunnel Of Love (Studio/Sydney 86)
Brothers in Arms (Studio, Sydney 86 and Mandela 88)
Will You Miss Me (Studio)
Are We in Trouble Now
Sailing to Philadelphia/ What It is (live 2001 and Estúdio)
Boom Like That (live 2005)

[Rolo]

Well, there are some things in my perspective.

MK's tone, in my opinion, tended to be more generic after 2005.
To my ears, the Alchemy tone, by itself, is awful, but fits perfectly to the songs and the rest of the instruments.

The Dortmund '81 tones are terrible too. In Overall perspective, all the 81 bootlegs tones are, in my opinion, pretty bad. EXCEPT for that Skateaway live from some TV show. That tone, my friends, are strong, powerfull and has a lot of sustain.

The tone that is unbeatable, uncopied and never used by any other guitar player came from the First Record. Congrats to Muff Winwood.
That middle pickup, two channel, near saturated, vibrato mirroed... Well, that is THE TONE. Its mythological.

After that, came the rest.

THE TONE: First Album.

Strat (Fender, Schecter)
- Once Upon A Time In The West (Studio)
- Follow Me Home (Studio)
- Tunnel Of Love (Studio)
- Romeo (Studio)
- Smooching
- T Road (Studio)
- White Strat (Live 86)
- On Every Street (On the Night)
- Wild Theme (On The Night)
- STP (Studio)
- What It Is (Live 2003)
- Shangri-La (Studio)

Les Paul
- Brothers In Arms (studio)
- Darling Pretty (Live and Stutio)
- Are We In A Trouble Now (Studio)
- 96 Tour
- 2001 Tour
- Why Aye Man (Studio)
- Boom Like That (Studio)

obs: I dislike almost everything after Mark started to use both pickups simultaneos on a LP.

Pensa MK (HSS with EMGs)
- Your Own Sweet Way (Studio)
- Feel Like Going Home (Studio)
- Planet Of New Orleans (Studio)
- How Long (Studio)
- BIA (On The Night)
- Telegraph (96 Tour)

obs: I hated that A Night In London tones. Too mudd

[Beryl]

Agree about the horrible 1978-83 horrible live tone. And also we could add that tone becomes horrible again in 2019 with those kempers. Another kind of horrible, but horrible anyway. I am also quite positive that Are We In Trouble Now in studio is played with the Pensa. Not live, as we all know. But in studio I bet that he usted the Pensa. Sabe case with Rudiger: studio is the Pensa, live is Les Paul. Maybe he bought his LP after recording those two songs (remember that Golden Heart took years in the making).

[Rolo]

Agree about the horrible 1978-83 horrible live tone. And also we could add that tone becomes horrible again in 2019 with those kempers. Another kind of horrible, but horrible anyway. I am also quite positive that Are We In Trouble Now in studio is played with the Pensa. Not live, as we all know. But in studio I bet that he usted the Pensa. Sabe case with Rudiger: studio is the Pensa, live is Les Paul. Maybe he bought his LP after recording those two songs (remember that Golden Heart took years in the making).

I Believe that 'Trouble Now' on Studio was a Les Paul. Neck position.
Rudiger is cleary the Pensa. I love that tone too.

I forgot to mention the Live At BBC. Huge tone.

[Beryl]

Strongly disagree about AWITN. It seems to me as it is almost the same tone we can hear in Feel Like Going Home (studio) which we all know is clearly a Pensa, as we all know. Pensa has some thinner qualities about it, and Les Paul is always a monster

[JF]

I agree that tones on 80-81 tour are too thin and not really good,

but in 78, I love his tone. That neck PU in e.g. chorus TV show is gorgeous imho

[Banjo99uk]

I think the last tour was when they finally nailed the MFN guitar sound. It’s never worked for me live compared to the studio sound.

[iorch82]

Agree about the horrible 1978-83 horrible live tone. And also we could add that tone becomes horrible again in 2019 with those kempers. Another kind of horrible, but horrible anyway. I am also quite positive that Are We In Trouble Now in studio is played with the Pensa. Not live, as we all know. But in studio I bet that he usted the Pensa. Sabe case with Rudiger: studio is the Pensa, live is Les Paul. Maybe he bought his LP after recording those two songs (remember that Golden Heart took years in the making).

Oh god, that Kemper Pensa Telegraph Road tone. Absolutely abysmal.

[Beryl]

That Kemper touring decision is demented at least. The thing sounds terrible. I asked Guy about that and he said MK felt confortable with that crappy sound and also he said that the tone sounded pretty good to everybody in their stage in-ears. Go figure. Also, I have to say that one of MK's last great tones is that blue Pensa dynamite sound in Tracker, particularly on Laughs and Jokes and also on Oklahoma Ponies.
And I also would like to add, in the negative side, that I deeply dislike some of his "new" tones from 2000 and beyond, and I'm talking about that Gibson 335, very uneven, kind of muddy tone: Baloney Again, Behind with the Rent, Blood and Water, Go Love, and some more. Great songs all of them nonetheless. Just don't like the tone, but I dont know if I'm the only one who dislikes it.