This is an original Swedish-made Hagström electric guitar from 1971. It’s been part of Mark Knopfler’s guitar collection for many years and it is now due to cross the auction block in January with a price guide starting at $992 USD.
Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist, singer, and songwriter of the band Dire Straits. He accumulated an impressive collection of guitars, amplifiers, and other instruments, and he has now decided it’s time to let many of them go on to new homes.
On the rear of the guitar you can see the access panels to replace or fix the switches and volume/tone controls if they ever need it.
Mark Knopfler + Dire Straits
Knopfler was born in Glasgow, Scotland to an English mother and a Hungarian Jewish father who had fled Hungary in 1939 to escape persecution by the Nazis. Early in his life Mark was influenced by his uncle Kingsley’s harmonica and piano playing in the “boogie-woogie” style that was popular at the time.
As a young man in the 1960s he formed and joined a number of bands, the most notable of which was called Brewers Droop. He would later become a lecturer at Loughton College in Essex but he remained active in the music scene, playing pub gigs for a band called the Café Racers.
Mark founded the band Dire Straits in 1977 with former members of the Café Racers including his brother David Knopfler and John Illsley, they chose Pick Withers as their drummer. The band achieved their first big hit with “Sultans of Swing” in late 1978, this would be followed by a slew of other hits including “Romeo and Juliet,” “Private Investigations,” “Twisting by the Pool,” “Money for Nothing,” and “Walk of Life.”
The group disbanded in 1988 and then reformed in 1990 for five years, in the years since Knopfler has enjoyed an extensive career as a solo artist which included writing the musical scores for nine films including Local Hero (1983), Cal (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), Wag the Dog (1997) and Altamira (2016).
As if all that wasn’t enough, he also worked as a music producer on albums for major stars including Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman.
Above Video: This is Dire Straits and Sting playing “Money For Nothing” live on stage together for Live Aid in 1985.
Hagström Guitars
Hagström is a musical instrument manufacturer based in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia, Sweden that was founded in 1925. The company initially made a name for itself importing accordions from Germany and Italy before beginning to produce their own models in-house from 1932 onwards.
In 1958 Hagström began making their own line of solid body electric guitars, making them one of the first manufacturers outside of the United States to do so. They were also the first company to mass-produce 8-string bass guitars which were used by Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, Mike Rutherford, and others.
Hagström also made the first ever guitar/synthesizer hybrid named the Swede Patch 2000. They later began producing their own amplifiers, speakers, effects units, guitar strings and mixing consoles, which were famously used by Swedish band ABBA on their first world tour in 1977.
The company is still very much in operation today producing a line of electric guitars, bass guitars, and acoustic guitars.
The guitar is finished in cherry red, it has twin humbucker pickups, a black pick guard, and individual volume/tone control knobs for each of the pickups.
The Mark Knopfler Hagström Guitar Shown Here
The guitar you see here is a 1971 Hagström solid body electric guitar that is currently owned by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame.
There isn’t much specific information about this guitar, it’s a relatively standard six string solid body electric with twin humbucker pickups, four twist knobs that control volume and tone of each of the pickups, and an upper pick up switch that allows you to choose the top or bottom pickup in isolation, or both together.
The listing does note that the guitar is finished in cherry red, it has the Hagström logo on the headstock, Made In Sweden is marked on the neck joint, and it comes with a hardshell case. Christie’s have the guitar listed with an £800 – £1,200 piece guide which works out to approximately $992 to $1,488 USD.
If you’d like to read more about this guitar or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Christie’s
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