Money for Nothing

[ampman50]

How do you get Mark Knopfler's Money for nothing sound?

[GibsonGM]

That probably has a lot to do with a 'fixed wah'.    Where it's disconnected inside, and the pot is hand-set to be riiiiight where you want it. 
You could build a filter to get that sort of nasal twang...

[Unlikekurt]

http://www.mk-guitar.com/blog/2008/11/21/mark-knopfler-amp-and-effect-settings-on-the-on-every-street-tour/

[ampman50]

Thanks. I'm thinking about building a fixed wah now I have some motivation.

[Paul Marossy]

I've used the fixed wah trick on several of my tunes. I even built an adjustable wah circuit into one of my guitars.

[petemoore]

  Rich...

[mac]

I get a pretty nasal sound by using HB and a Red Fuzz as a mid pass filter into a cranked Epi Valve Jr. + ext cabinet.
My Laney can be nasal too by itself, but not so "fat" as the VJr.

mac

[dudleydoright]

  You could do fixed wah, but it is not fixed on the recording. I used a Morely Vol/Wah with gain bumped just a tad into a rat (original)into a Roland RE201 tape echo into the lead channel of a Boogie MKII-C+ Simul Class. Oh, used my LP custom bridge emg81. Moderate to heavy pick attack nearer the bridge side of the bridge pickup. Run it hot but not overly distorted. Similar results with my Strat/Dimarzio SDHB in bridge with stratoblaster.

[montezuma]

I get very close to that sound using a dual humbucker guitar with both pickups selected, tone control all the way down, and a distortion with pronounced mid frequencies -- Thor with gain on 1 o'clock, bass and high boosts off. To my ears, it's only lacking a fixed wah pedal.

HTH

[Top Top]

I have made no attempt to purposely get that particular sound, but I have noticed a similar sound when playing power chords through an octave up fuzz, in my case particularly with "Pushme Pullyou" (that's the octave fuzz that I've built). To me, there is a metallic quality to the sound of the guitar on that song that is not achieved with just a fixed wah or regular distortion.

[joegagan]

this topic comes up pretty often on this here internets.

about 10 yrs ago, there was a thread at aron's or ampage that linked to an article describing the actual recording process of the original studio version of the song.  i recall an engineer's account that the magic tone was a result of very careful mic placement, (fuzzy memory warning), a small gibson amp and an SG(?)

the article described the engineer hearing the magic tone as an assistant moved a mic around, and then guiding the placement back to that key spot.

i also recall hearing knopfler being interviewed on rock radio around 84 85 when the song was a hit. he said they placed a late night emergency call to  one Rev BG gibbons for tone advice for that song. hmmm.

[zombiwoof]

http://www.mk-guitar.com/blog/2008/11/21/mark-knopfler-amp-and-effect-settings-on-the-on-every-street-tour/

I've always thought he used open G tuning on that cut, but according to that chart it looks like it was in regular tuning.  It sure is easier to play in open G, though.

Al