Mark Knopfler on why he swapped Stratocasters for Schecter guitars in the 1980s

Mark Knopfler explained in a February 1986 interview with Guitarist magazine, revisited by Guitar World, why he largely set aside the Fender Stratocasters that built his reputation in the 1970s in favour of Schecter guitars in the following decade. He said he wanted something with “a bit more power than a Strat”.

A Schecter he used to record Dire Straits' 1980 album “Making Movies” was stolen from a car in Deptford, London. Knopfler had a similar one, which at the time was away being re-fretted. His route to the brand was Rudy Pensa, owner of Rudy's Music Store, who was dealing in Schecters. Knopfler said he liked using different guitars for different songs; a Schecter served him on the recording of “Solid Rock” and on stage.

His favourite then was a white model built by luthier John Suhr, who worked at Rudy's. The store doubled as a Schecter Custom Shop, assembling guitars from necks and bodies the company supplied. The white guitar, with Schecter parts and Seymour Duncan pickups, had already taken a beating, Knopfler admitted.

According to Guitar World, a number of Schecters were sold in Knopfler's $11.2m auction, with two T-types fetching nearly £700,000 combined. In the 1970s and 1980s Schecter was known for high-end custom builds, also played by Prince and Pete Townshend; today the brand mostly caters to metal and progressive players such as Synyster Gates and Aaron Marshall.

Mark Knopfler, the British musician born in Glasgow in 1949, led Dire Straits. His newest studio album is “One Deep River”, released in April 2024, according to MusicBrainz.