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Play, download and edit the free video Down To the Waterline.

My first guitar hero wasn’t actually Johnny Marr. (They might revoke my indie card if this gets out.)⠀
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As an only child, I was at the mercy of my dad’s record collection at first, and when I asked for a guitar for my 15th birthday it was because of... Dire Straits. (Specifically the sound on the Alchemy live version of “Once Upon a Time In the West.”) My parents dutifully purchased a blue Yamaha electric, which I soon replaced with a Squier Stratocaster in Hendrix white. It turns out that was 30 years ago last month, and to celebrate, here’s my version of the guitar solo from “Down To the Waterline” from their first album.⠀
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Funny thing about this one: I got all set up to do a bunch of takes so I could edit the best bits together, but first I decided to do one just to make sure my levels were good and everything was working like it was supposed to — and the first take was fun enough to keep, even though there are some sharp bends and one section where I was ahead of the beat. I don’t think I even remembered to use my tuner. ⠀
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This is the opposite of how I usually work, and the world didn’t end. A reminder that sometimes finished is better than good!⠀
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If you’re still reading this... luckily for me, the original recording has Knopfler’s guitar panned all the way to the left, so I just copied the right channel and deleted the left when I prepared the backing track. I recorded this with a Strymon Iridium amp/cabinet simulator, which happens to have a setting that’s more or less emulating Mark Knopfler’s old blackface Fender Vibrolux. (Amp 1 and cabinet 3 if you’ve got one at home.) Reverb courtesy of the Iridium’s built-in room algorithm, plus the stereo bleed from the reverb on the original track.

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