A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, 'R' CUSTOM PROTOTYPE

According to Rudy Pensa, this guitar was built by luthier John Suhr as a prototype for an “R Custom” range of Stratocaster style “Dinky” body guitars. Musing on the concept of fabricating electric guitar bodies using a synthetic material that could be moulded, Suhr felt it would save production time and costs as compared to the efforts employed when cutting and finishing wood bodies and began a search for a suitable substance. As fate would have it, his boyhood friend, Paul K. Steck, was working for his family's business, Exothermic Molding, which specialised in metal and synthetic commercial fabrications. Steck shared with Suhr a material that when altered in density could replicate the 'tap tones' desirable in musical instrument woods, which he referred to as "structural foam". By laminating two sheets of the material, Suhr now had stock that was thick enough to fabricate an electric guitar body. Completed in 1984, the first prototype was fitted with a twenty-two fret neck and three single-coil pickups that followed a Stratocaster outline but was slightly more diminutive than a standard Fender body, and was finished in a flashy hot red colour. Suhr found that one effect of the structural foam was to absorb the feedback – as loud as he turned up the amp, the guitar never fed back.

Having first bonded with Mark Knopfler over a shared love for red Stratocasters à la Hank Marvin, Rudy told us that he sent this red custom prototype to Mark as a Christmas present, wrapped up with a big red bow, to AIR Studios Montserrat in December 1984, where Dire Straits were then holed up recording their landmark album Brothers In Arms. Mark found that he liked the experimental “R” Custom because it was so light. Along with his Pensa-Suhr MK-1 (lot 17), Knopfler used this guitar to record the song ‘Heavy Fuel’ at London’s AIR Studios for Dire Straits’ 1991 album On Every Street. When the band kicked off their epic fifteen-month On Every Street Tour from August 1991 to October 1992, Knopfler selected the red Pensa prototype as one of seven instruments that would make up his set on tour. Nicknamed the “Rudi” by Knopfler and his crew, the guitar was tuned to open G for performances of the up-tempo R&B inspired track 'Two Young Lovers' from Dire Straits' 1983 ExtendeDancEPlay EP. According to The Official Mark Knopfler Guitar Styles: Volume II, the guitar was played through a Boss CE300 Super Chorus, 'a non-programmable, very old analogue chorus rack with knobs on the front.' Footage exists from the shows at Les Arenes in Nîmes and Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam in May 1992, although 'Two Young Lovers' was not included on the 1993 live album and VHS concert film On The Night.