AN AMPLIFIER HEAD, JTM 45, MK II

Mark Knopfler purchased this JTM 45 amplifier head from Phil Harris of the now defunct Harris Hire in Greater London in the late 1980s. Famously, Knopfler had previously used a JTM 45 (belonging to Dire Straits’ then keyboard tech Ron Eve) to record 'Money For Nothing' and 'Brothers In Arms' at AIR Studios Montserrat between October 1984 to February 1985 (see lot 10). Knopfler used this JTM 45 at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in 1999 to record the song 'One More Matinee' for his 2000 solo studio album Sailing To Philadelphia. Knopfler next used the amp head during overdubbing sessions for his 2002 solo studio album The Ragpicker’s Dream. Having recorded the majority of the album in Nashville, overdubs took place in Knopfler’s home studio at his London mews house. Photographs from keyboardist Guy Fletcher’s 2002 online diaries show Mark cranking this JTM 45 up to full volume. Fletcher’s diary entry noted: 'We preferred this amp for what we did today. After spending a while with the Bassman, then the Soldano, Mark eventually went with the 59 Les Paul (lot 42) through the TFPro into the Marshall head through a Marshall 4x12.' This amplifier head was also seen in a Fletcher photograph from October 2008 recording sessions at British Grove Studios for Mark’s sixth solo studio album Get Lucky, alongside a similar amp head with a Marshall logo - by this point, Knopfler had also acquired Ron Eve’s JTM 45 for his own collection, which remains in use to this day.