Fender 'Mark Knopfler' Signature Series Stratocaster (0117800-815) - Owners list

[quizzaciously]

Supply, demand, free market. It's very simple.

Correct. Funny that there is so much discussion about the prices of the strats when the Les Pauls sell for over £10k!

I think the problem is that we're all right in some ways, so there is no end to this discussion. Since you brought in Les Paul, I wonder if not for the Brothers In Arms cover, would National guitars be so damn expensive? Somebody please tell me why a guitar made from metal costs like an airplane or the most carefully crafted custom wooden guitar? Ah, supply, demand, free market. It's very simple.

[dustyvalentino]

I think most people who have resonators are blues people rather than DS fans but I’m sue a couple have bought one because of the cover.

I have a Michael Messer Lightning, much cheaper than a real National but still very nice.

https://michaelmesser.co.uk/michael-messer-lightning


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[hunter]

Supply, demand, free market. It's very simple.

Correct. Funny that there is so much discussion about the prices of the strats when the Les Pauls sell for over £10k!

I think the problem is that we're all right in some ways, so there is no end to this discussion. Since you brought in Les Paul, I wonder if not for the Brothers In Arms cover, would National guitars be so damn expensive? Somebody please tell me why a guitar made from metal costs like an airplane or the most carefully crafted custom wooden guitar? Ah, supply, demand, free market. It's very simple.

I think you need a course in economics, Pavel. It IS all about supply and demand. The price of current Nationals (for example) is high because they are handcrafted in the US, then there is the value of the brand, dealer markup, etc., but in the end it's people's willingness to pay that determines the price.

[quizzaciously]

Supply, demand, free market. It's very simple.

Correct. Funny that there is so much discussion about the prices of the strats when the Les Pauls sell for over £10k!

I think the problem is that we're all right in some ways, so there is no end to this discussion. Since you brought in Les Paul, I wonder if not for the Brothers In Arms cover, would National guitars be so damn expensive? Somebody please tell me why a guitar made from metal costs like an airplane or the most carefully crafted custom wooden guitar? Ah, supply, demand, free market. It's very simple.

I think you need a course in economics, Pavel. It IS all about supply and demand. The price of current Nationals (for example) is high because they are handcrafted in the US, then there is the value of the brand, dealer markup, etc., but in the end it's people's willingness to pay that determines the price.

You're absolutely right, but we are discussing different matters, don't you think? I say that paying 3-4 grand for your average Strat is stupid, a number of posts here proved that it's better to buy a custom-built guitar for that money or whatever, and you say it's supply and demand. We're talking about different things! What it comes down to, is that if you are a die-hard fan, you will buy a signature Strat, a Les Paul, or a National for virtually any money, it doesn't really matter. Mark can auction his underpants with a starting bid of $1,000 and somebody will definitely buy it right away. I'm just not on that level to justify Mark's printed signature and the fact that this popular instrument is no longer in production with more than 100% price premium over the original price and that's all.

[firmstools]

Look at the price of this one:

https://reverb.com/uk/item/39997365-fender-mark-knopfler-stratocaster-unplayed-early-serial-darker-red-ultimate-collectable?show_sold=true

Sold item!

— Oh, man, I just bought a Strat for 4K pounds, it's so amazing!
— What's so special about this Strat? Is it Custom Shop or Vintage or something like that?
— Well... It's a regular production guitar, it just has a sticker with Mark Knopfler signature on the headstock and some case candy.
—
— And yes, I paid 4 grand for that!
— Good on you son...

I see what you did there

[dustyvalentino]

a number of posts here proved that it's better to buy a custom-built guitar for that money or whatever, and you say it's supply and demand.

Nobody has proved anything, this is just a bunch of fools giving their opinions on the internet.

[Tomcaster]

@Dustyvalentino the Reverb article you provided shows some ultra niche Fender Signature models, not all Fender Signature models. I would just like to clearly point out to readers of this forum that in 99,9% of the cases a new Fender guitar is NOT an investment.
Even if you look at this chart: https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v1558631391/editorial_graph-05_1000px_b7d6pz.png you see that the value growth of all other Sigs than the Knopfler is minuscule. What happened to the Knopfler is absolutely unexplainable to me.

It is absolutely clear that at the price levels of the Knopfler you can go to the Custom Shop and get a clone of the guitar with much better features. It is not worth it any more.

[dustyvalentino]

@Dustyvalentino the Reverb article you provided shows some ultra niche Fender Signature models, not all Fender Signature models. I would just like to clearly point out to readers of this forum that in 99,9% of the cases a new Fender guitar is NOT an investment.
Even if you look at this chart: https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v1558631391/editorial_graph-05_1000px_b7d6pz.png you see that the value growth of all other Sigs than the Knopfler is minuscule. What happened to the Knopfler is absolutely unexplainable to me.

It is absolutely clear that at the price levels of the Knopfler you can go to the Custom Shop and get a clone of the guitar with much better features. It is not worth it any more.

I’m not a financial advisor but in any case I would never recommend anyone buying a guitar as a in investment.

What a Knopfler Strat is worth is a matter of opinion. Some people would clearly rather have Knopfler Strat than a “better” custom shop instrument.

And the growth of the others may be minuscule, but it is growth, whereas most used guitars take a major drop in value.

Think I’m joking about Signature guitars increasing in value? Go try to buy a Squire Hello Kitty and come back to me.

[Tomcaster]

haha yes!

Anyway, I am tempted to sell my Knopfler at the current market prices and get myself a Masterbuilt Strat. I am not that tied to the signature on the headstock

[dustyvalentino]

You definitely should in that case.

MK signed my one and I've played it on countless gigs over the last 18 years, there's no way I would ever sell mine, it has too much sentimental value.

[3Strats]

I have differing opinions regarding the MK Strat & the MK Les Paul.   
The Strat is "the same guitar that Mark plays" but the Les Paul is "a copy of the guitar that Mark plays", even though he has a few and has used them live. It'll be interesting to see how much use the Les Pauls get on the next few albums when he has the real '58 & '59 to choose from.  The Cynic in me says that he has a deal with Gibson and will have to be seen using the copies to help the marketing of the guitar - particularly at that price. I bought the Strat, but had no real interest in getting the Les Paul, partly because I know I'm not a good enough player to justify that price, but mostly because in my head it's a different thing being a "copy" . After using a Les Paul Studio for over 15 years I finally got myself a Les Paul Standard for £2,200 in January. My only regret is that I had to get a 60's model rather than a '50s model to get the colour I wanted. The tuners are not the vintage klusons and the tone & volume knobs are different, but I prefer the slimmer neck and it still looks like an old guitar.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dtvaviationimages/50849527307/in/album-72157627669196085/

[dustyvalentino]

Beautiful Lester there 3strats.

The MK ones all sold out immediately and are like gold dust no so there’s no way MK has to market them. He will only play guitars he wants to play. And he’s been playing reissues for 20 years anyway.

I have to be honest and say I couldn’t tell the difference between the reissues and the 58 live, and I was looking out for it.

Also, MK’s 58 is a real mongrel that had Guild pickups in it at one point, so it probably doesn’t have the original pickups in it now.

[koobaa]

These new LP Standards look absolutely amazing. I've been eyeing them myself for a while now but may end up getting the Tribute model, a Gibson's entry level LP with no gloss and shine but still a good working machine for half the price. I am also tempted to swap pick ups for MK58's from Ingo's website at some point.

Dusty, that Lightning resonator looks really cool. Is it easily playable? Some of these vintage-style guitars are a real pain to play. Judging from clips on YT it sounds very authentic.

[dustyvalentino]

Hi Kooba

Great to hear from you! You don’t post that much these days, which is a shame

The Michael Messer Lightning does indeed play well. He has a luthier set them up before they ship.

It’s kind of set up half way so you can play finger style or slide.

[koobaa]

Thanks Dusty, I'm more of a lurker these days but still present everyday

I will definitely look into getting one of these MM resonators. There is a store in Toronto that carries them so there is a chance for having them shipped to my neck of the woods.

National released a new "Raw Series" of cheaper, less glossy resonators last year which looked promising but the final price is still in the range of $3200-3500 so out of my range.
https://www.nationalguitars.com/product-page/nrp-raw