"Having purchased several pre-assembled Schecter kit guitars from Rudy Pensa and his in-house custom builder John Suhr through the early 1980s, Mark Knopfler commissioned John Suhr to custom build a "synth" guitar to work with his new Synclavier system in early 1984. At great expense, Knopfler had acquired a Synclavier Il digital synthesiser from America prior to starting work on his second movie soundtrack for the 1984 Irish drama Cal. It was at this time that Knopfler first began working with tech-savvy keyboardist Guy Fletcher, as he needed someone knowledgeable about synthesisers to operate the highly complex Synclavier for the film score. As well as controlling the Synclavier through Guy's keyboard, Knopfler wanted to utilise the synthesiser's digital guitar interface. Knopfler told us: 'There were people trying synth guitars, but I knew if I got a John Suhr built guitar, it had a good chance of survival. This is what he came up with. I'm still not sure exactly how it works, but I plugged it in on the 'Brothers In Arms' record.
Although in retrospect he views the craze for synth guitars as a bit daft really, Knopfler remains full of admiration for the craftsmanship involved: What a builder John [Suhr] is... you'll be able to play this guitar in a hundred years and it'll be in as absolutely perfect shape as it is now."
Built as an homage to Mark Knopler's original 'R Custom' guitar modded to house a Roland Synclavier Il digital synthesiser, this reissue is the first and only of its kind and forgoes the added synth kit with a more modern Fralin Firebird style mini-humbuckers. This is the first of its kind and sure to be collectible, get it while you can!
