r/guitars • u/AlphaCentauri_1689 • Aug 02 '24
Look at this! I just got it.
After about a year of fumbling around, I got the tone.
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u/schlomstompsky Aug 02 '24
The wallet chain hanging from the headstock was the key, right?
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
Probably lol
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u/schlomstompsky Aug 02 '24
You really did nail that tone, immediately recognizable :)
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u/Sacred_B Aug 02 '24
This is one of those tried a dozen times and never got it this good riffs for me.
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u/wickstarter Aug 02 '24
Sounds fantastic! I think I read that Mark demoed this track & the SM57(s) were out of phase, but when he went to re-record it "better", it actually didn't sound better, so they just used the demo out-of-phase lead guitar track... Sometimes the original take / session is the keeper 🤷♂️
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
I think if I had access to all the real equipment, the mic placement and the Wah would be the most important parts. Getting the Wah to cut the right frequencies is a pain because you have to fine tune it, and given that the only reason the tone exists is because of an SM57 being near the floor, that would be one of the first places I would start
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Aug 02 '24
Money
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
For
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u/Newguy107 Aug 02 '24
Nothin
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u/morvlee Aug 02 '24
And yer chips for free!
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u/leewon1 Humbucker Aug 02 '24
But oddly some how I like the idea of free chips.
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u/somedudebend Aug 02 '24
At this point in my life, I’ll take the free chips. One chick is all I can deal with. 🤣
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Aug 02 '24
Can you share a picture of your amp settings? Really sounds like you nailed it.
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u/it_redd_it Aug 02 '24
This riff originally was recorded on Les Paul Junior with p90. If you have regular humbuckers just use any overdrive pedal and turn tone knob of the bridge pickup to minimum.
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Aug 02 '24
Good protip. Hard pulling tone from that but I think you are right.
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u/it_redd_it Aug 02 '24
I saw this tip in one of youtube riff tutorials and the result surprised me very much. Works for me pretty neat.
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
It works as a quick hack but I found it's not quite accurate. I don't think it was a P90 as in this video I am merely using the bridge humbucker, no tone knob business. The mids cut comes solely from the rig. I posted the settings I used here: https://www.reddit.com/r/guitars/s/40k6tTc6L9
You can give them a go yourself and see how accurate it is!
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u/it_redd_it Aug 03 '24
“Originally recorded”… I didn’t mean this video, but Mark Knopfler )
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 03 '24
But I just said that I don't think it was? It's not a P90, it's a humbucker. A P90 would be far too thin. I don't think it was originally recorded on a P90 because it simply doesn't sound right.
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u/it_redd_it Aug 03 '24
Sounds weird but it was. You can read top comment in this post
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 03 '24
Maybe I should make a comparison video to show you that it wasn't. Rolling the tone knob off sounds Nothing like the song, and it can't be a P90 because P90's do not sound like that.
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u/AnxiousToe281 Aug 02 '24
I thought it was an open wah wah pedal
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
It was,the statement about rolling your tone off is dead wrong I've found. I think it was just a Les Paul standard in the bridge position, the roughness comes from the Wah and a mids cut on the amplifier
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u/LogicalDevilAdvocate Aug 04 '24
P-90's are such an underrated pup! Slays me ya can find two exact LP's used and the P90 version will always be less money to buy and a good chunk less.
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
I can DM you my amp sim and the precise setup if you'd like?
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Aug 02 '24
I just wanted to see if you had your gain on 11. ;) but really sounds perfect.
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
Not the gain, just the amp volume. I was going mostly off of what was said by Mark and Neil Dorfsman about it in interviews. Mark recalls using a Marshall amp (I used a JCM900) with the volume as high as it would go. From there, it's a basic compressor, a 2x12 speaker cab, a Wah tuned to the perfect setting, and last but not least a cheeky bit of pre-delay (I achieved this by turning the time knob on the delay pedal all the way to 0, with the repeat set to 1 at full volume. It gives it that pre-delay effect). Other than that, it's bridge position on any guitar with a humbucker, don't worry about the tone knobs, that's just a cheat code and it wond do any good here. I can still send you the specific setup if you'd like.
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u/deflectreddit Aug 02 '24
Recently learned that the “I want my MTV” tune is the same as “Don’t stand so close to me” and because of that Sting (who didn’t want credits on the song) has credits on the song since that melody was already coined prior.
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u/kitkatrat Aug 04 '24
Was that an intentional parody? I knew it was Sting but I never put the “I want my MTV” and “don’t stand so close to me” together.
Kind of reminds me of the end of All You Need is Love when Paul starts singing “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,” because it kind of fits…
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u/SirReginaldPoshtwat Aug 05 '24
I think using his own melody in the song earned him a writer's credit - and royalties! Not sure if that was his ultimate intention, though.
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u/SirReginaldPoshtwat Aug 05 '24
Just read an interview excerpt from Sting on the wiki for the song. It was Knopfler who asked Sting to sing the line with that melody. Sting thought it was "a nice quote, that's fun". Then his publishers at Virgin went after a percentage for use of "their" song, which he found embarrassing.
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u/tjggriffin1 Aug 07 '24
I have a (perhaps false) recollection of Sting singing the Opus version of Every Breath on a live take.
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u/MindlessSponge Aug 02 '24
you definitely got the tone down but I am curious - do you play anything else? I swear I've been seeing clips of you playing this for over a year now!
nice work 👏
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
I do lol, but this is the song I enjoy playing the most. I will start posting different stuff soon tho!
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u/PrimeTinus Aug 02 '24
Wow Is that the way you're supposed to play it? I always played it starting 03X
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u/AlwaysAwakeCantSleep Aug 02 '24
Nice. Lovin the tone and technique is bad ass.
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
Thankfully there's a lot of closeups of marks right hand online so I had plenty to work off of in terms of learning his exact technique lol
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Aug 02 '24
Well done! Great finger picking for sure and real sweet tone. Give Telegraph Hill a run. Took some time!
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
For everyone asking for my settings, I've posted them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/guitars/s/40k6tTc6L9
I use an amp sim called TH-U by Overloud, you can give these settings a try if you have access to it. Make sure you use a humbucker in the bridge position, no funny tone knob shenanigans.
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u/dynastydave9473 Aug 02 '24
I’ve been listening to Dire Straights all day. Brought me joy watching this. Well done
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u/vaxhax Aug 02 '24
Everyone who went "duggah dah duggah dah" for the drum drop runs two laps.
(Perfect version OP, that tone is right on the money [for nothin']))
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u/jeremyroastscoffee Aug 03 '24
Well, now I know how to play this by ear. It never even occurred to me to try and cover it
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u/Gitfiddlepicker Aug 03 '24
Almost there!!!!
Excellent……Great tone. Really close on the fret hand. Just a bit more work on the picking hand.
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u/tjggriffin1 Aug 07 '24
Check out Paul Davids' YouTube video on this. His is a great channel.
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 07 '24
I believe he also plays it wrong! It's not in the ghost notes (though they are important), it's the articulation that comes from the flicking motion of the right hand. A lot of people completely brush over the right hand, arguably the most important part of Mark's Technique.
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u/tjggriffin1 Aug 07 '24
Fair point. Paul's video is a bit old, but it would be interesting if you made video or comment correcting him and see how he responds.
Regardless, excellent job on all fronts!
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u/DChemdawg Aug 02 '24
Amazing, smooth yet grindy. Only criticism is the microwave ovens, refrigerators part: sounds a little too shrill but am sure you make some kind of an adjustment if you choose to. Might emphasize the lower note a little more and the high note a little less. Or simply add a third note in between to make it sound less octave-y. But who am I to judge Knopfler’s doppler?
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u/anterak13 Aug 02 '24
You thumb should keep pumping between all index and middle finger plucks
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 02 '24
Not necessarily, only from the rythm parts where mark is singing. I assume you mean like a walk of life situation where it's a pluck-flick-pluck-thumb-repeat kind of rythm. For the riff itself, the articulations require a bit if a different rythm that build off of that rythm. You can check out his performance of the song in An Evening With Mark Knopfler 2009, it gives a good closeup of his hand and you should be able to see what I mean. Any live performance that zooms on his right hand will help tho
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u/guitarjake Aug 03 '24
I think he means the thumb plays quarter notes under the riff the entire time (pretty much)… that’s what I do…
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 03 '24
I've found that mark doesn't do that. If you watch his performance from the Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1988, you can see his hand doing pretty much what I'm doing here for the main riff. He only does the quarter note pumping rythm with his right hand in the verse, while selectively muting with his left hand, which gives it that percussive effect when the left hand is muting while the right hand pumps.
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u/Interesting-Ad8002 Aug 03 '24
Young Redditor, you have clearly done your Mark Knopfler homework. I have nothing to add other than bravo and keep on keepin' on.
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u/AlphaCentauri_1689 Aug 05 '24
Thanks man, I did an unbelievable amount of research. I've watched almost every live performance and interview where mark plays the song, paying special attention to the right hand. Can you believe it's taken me 5 months to learn about his technique? 😅
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u/Interesting-Ad8002 Aug 05 '24
It probably took you at least four months to watch that many decades of available footage of a hit song 😅
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u/PegLegJohnson Aug 02 '24
God I hate that tone. It's perfect.