Mark Knopfler and his Diamond Bottlenecks custom slides
Mark Knopfler and his Diamond Bottlenecks custom slides
I would like to warmly thank Ian McWee, founder of Diamond Bottlenecks, as well as Mark Knopfler for the photos in this article. The photos where Mark Knopfler appears are extracted from the official video of the film “Mark Knopfler – Tracker – A Film By Henrik Hansen”.
All the official links of Mark Knopfler are also available in this article.
😉
Hello everyone,
Today, I am sharing with you a nice little story, and, I want to share it as it is, without artifice.
We have been corresponding with Ian, the founder of Diamond Bottlenecks, for many years. Even if, for him as for me, our lives are full and our agendas are often very busy, we always find the time to send each other little emails, so that we don’t forget each other, to get news.
Even if we don’t write to each other for a year, sometimes when we write again, it’s as if the previous time was yesterday.
I had to buy my first bottleneck at Ian’s, a long time ago now, on the advice of my friend Jeff Lang. A very good advice which was confirmed to me by Fredrik Kinbom, whom I don’t know personally, but with whom we had corresponded quickly on this subject, because I had been following his work regularly for a long time.
Very happy with the sound produced by this Diamond bottleneck, a Redhouse authentic glass bottleneck guitar slides in Rolled 1/4 round format, I very quickly ordered from Ian some Crystal Tone Bars for my David Churchill acoustic Lapsteel.
Ian has always been of an admirable kindness, always ready to be of service, to give good advice to help us not to be mistaken in our choices.
In more than 30 years, I have had to buy a very large number of bottleneck and tone bars of well-known industrial brands, and very (very) few have convinced me so much.
Believe me, if you don’t know Diamond Bottlenecks yet, adopt one, you won’t be disappointed.
Christophe (the pink headed logo behind Luthiers.com)
The stories behind Luthiers.com… What’s next… soon… 😉
#luthiers
Discover a little story that Ian McWee is kind enough to share with all of us.
Mark Knopfler and his Diamond Bottlenecks custom slides
Back in December 2014, we received a phone call here in our U.K. workshop from Mark Knopfler, who at the time was on tour in the U.S.A.
His guitar tech had accidentally broken his beloved favourite hand-blown crystal glass ‘Ultimate’ slide, and although he had other slides for backup, the broken slide was his ‘go-to’ for live performances.
We managed to locate a similar hand-blown ‘Ultimate’ at one of our U.S. stockists in Wisconsin. And a roadie was despatched to collect the piece so as to allow Mark to complete the tour.
Upon his return, we set about creating a very special ‘Collectors’ slide specifically for Mark to use in live situations and for filming purposes ~ this became known as the ‘Money For Nothing’ slide. (see attached photo below)
The image on the slide is the cartoon character from Mark’s animated video of his track ‘Money For Nothing’.
Mark owns several of these pieces and one can clearly be seen being used on the ‘Tracker’ video from the album of the same name ~ this can be found on YouTube”.
……hope all is okay for you Christophe ~ with our best regards,
Ian & the D.B’s crew.
Mark Knopfler
and his Diamond Bottlenecks custom slides
Here are for you some pictures of Mark Knopfler’s bottleneck extracted from the video of the movie “Mark Knopfler – Tracker – A Film By Henrik Hansen” on Mark Knopfler’s official Youtube channel where you can see the bottleneck made by the teams of Ian McWee, founder of Diamond Bottlenecks.
Mark Knopfler
and his Diamond Bottlenecks custom slides
Mark Knopfler – Tracker – A Film By Henrik Hansen
Official links for Mark Knopfler
https://www.markknopfler.com
https://twitter.com/markknopfler
https://www.facebook.com/MarkKnopfler
Mark Knopfler
and his Diamond Bottlenecks custom slides
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing
official animated video
REMASTERED IN HD!
Listen to more music from Dire Straits here: https://direstraits.lnk.to/bestofplaylist
Order ‘Dire Straits: The Studio Albums 1978 – 1991’, available now:
6CD Box Set: https://direstraits.lnk.to/6CDBoxset
8LP Box Set: https://direstraits.lnk.to/8LPBoxset
Follow Dire Straits:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DireStraits
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/direstraitshq/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/markknopfler
Spotify: https://direstraits.lnk.to/spotify
Website & Newsletter: https://www.direstraits.com
A big thanks to Ian, the boss of Diamond Bottlenecks for joining the Luthiers.com Family as soon as the adventure begins!
You can find it on Luthiers at this address: https://luthiers.com/listing/diamond-bottlenecks/
And, we highly recommend you to quickly discover his amazing creations in on his website: https://www.diamondbottlenecks.com
Diamond Bottlenecks on Luthiers.com
Luthiers’ latest favorite in Diamond Bottlenecks creations is undoubtedly the Redhouse authentic glass bottleneck guitar slides (my favorite is the Rolled 1/4 round) and the Debashish Bhattacharya Crystal glass Lap-Slide tone bars. Ian made one for me over 15 years ago, beautiful, black with fine gold glitter… that sounds great!
In the coming weeks, as for all the others luthiers for plucked string instruments, luthiers for bowed string instruments, amps & effects makers, wood & supplies dealers, lutherie events, jobs, schools & teachers registered on our website, you will be able to follow our series of mini-interviews dedicated to the fascinating universe of luthiers.
See you soon…
#luthiers
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