That glassy Mark Knopfler tone...

Jbird

Jbird

Kick Henry Jackassowski
What kind of amp set-up do you need to get that? A Class A amp? I've only ever used Class A/B amps, and my clean channels have never had that glassy tone to them. Very clean, yes. Glassy clean, no.

I was eating at a Cajun restaurant tonight, and a live bluesy instrumental guitar tune came on over their audio system. I couldn't tell who it was, but it had that glassy tone. Kinda BB King meets a touch more modern playing. When the second song started, I knew right away that it was Mark Knopfler playing. I've never heard him do traditional blues playing like that before. Not sure what live album it was from idn_smilie

But it made me think about what kind of amp would get that tone.
 
On the Get Lucky tour he was using Reinhardt amps.

Though, I think it's mostly him. Because his tone never seems to change much no matter his equipment.
Pensa, Grosh, Schecter, Fender, Gibson, still him just slightly thicker/thinner.
 
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I honestly don't hear it as a class A amp. With the amp list Chad posted, most of those are A/B (the Mesas might have been SimulClass).

Electronically, I think a lot of it is pickups and a tremendous amount of headroom. I love that his clean is really, really clean. I would not be surprised if there's a compressor to keep the levels even and not spike the amp.

Keep in mind I'm a guitar tone idiot and probably talking out of my ass.
 
He plays with more gain than you would expect. SLO-100 was his #1 for decades, but he also has played a lot of JCM800's, and lately Komets, Reinhardt 30-watt JCM800 clones. etc. Even his Fender (first album) was a hot Brown Vibrolux. Pickups...early Dave Schecters (who did not wind wimpy PU's) , then EMG's, and his now-defunct signature Fender used Texas Hots. I think the gain gives compression to balance his finger picking, then he relies on his attack of the note and how he works the volume knob and his ever-present volume pedal.

The only real staple of his tone is a heavy reliance on delay...usually short delays with a lot of repeats. I think that adds a lot of shimmer (George Harrison used similar).
 
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