You see , Mark Knopfler ’ s guitar style is beautiful , articulate , and unmistakably fingerpicked . And when it comes to replicating that tone , Knopflerites point to one effect : the Dan Armstrong
Orange Squeezer . For the uninitiated , the Dan Armstrong effects were meant to be patched into the guitar with a hardwired plug . Running more than one in series not only made guitars look like they were on life support , but with no knobs to speak of , mismatched levels soon turned into a nightmare of saturated gain and compressed artifacts . No tone was safe .
Yes : a compressor with no knobs . No compression level , no output volume , no nothing except awesome tone . Remember — “ Sultans of Swing .” That tone .
Dan Armstrong made his living with clear instruments and these “ pedals ,” and despite their infusion into the pedal world ’ s mainstream , they managed to stay relevant in a world of modularity and actual control parameters . This buoyancy is due to the fact that they just sounded great , and nobody else was offering the tone they were . The Dyna Comp , Black Finger and Boss CS-1 were really the only three flavors of compression out around that time , and so the Orange Squeezer entered the market without too much competition and carved out a healthy niche .
WHERE WERE YOU THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD THE SOLO FROM “ SULTANS OF SWING ” BY DIRE STRAITS ? IT ’ S SUCH AN ICONIC GUITAR TONE THAT IT INSPIRED PLENTY OF DISCUSSION AMONGST GUITAR AFICIONADOS AND MAY VERY WELL HAVE BEEN THE GENESIS OF “ TONE IS IN THE FINGERS ” TROPES FOR DECADES TO COME .
You see , Mark Knopfler ’ s guitar style is beautiful , articulate , and unmistakably fingerpicked . And when it comes to replicating that tone , Knopflerites point to one effect : the Dan Armstrong
Orange Squeezer . For the uninitiated , the Dan Armstrong effects were meant to be patched into the guitar with a hardwired plug . Running more than one in series not only made guitars look like they were on life support , but with no knobs to speak of , mismatched levels soon turned into a nightmare of saturated gain and compressed artifacts . No tone was safe .
Yes : a compressor with no knobs . No compression level , no output volume , no nothing except awesome tone . Remember — “ Sultans of Swing .” That tone .
Dan Armstrong made his living with clear instruments and these “ pedals ,” and despite their infusion into the pedal world ’ s mainstream , they managed to stay relevant in a world of modularity and actual control parameters . This buoyancy is due to the fact that they just sounded great , and nobody else was offering the tone they were . The Dyna Comp , Black Finger and Boss CS-1 were really the only three flavors of compression out around that time , and so the Orange Squeezer entered the market without too much competition and carved out a healthy niche .