Knopfler was estimated to have a fortune of £75 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2018, making him one of the 40 wealthiest people in the British music industry.

After the overwhelming burden of the band's success, Mark Knopfler found more pleasure in his solo career. So far, he has released nine solo albums, and he's hinted that the current album could be his last - his back hurts and his eyesight isn't getting any better, either, he says.

Knopfler developed an interest in music at an early age and was especially influenced by his uncle, who played piano and harmonica. In the early 1960s, while living in Newcastle upon Tyne, he learned to play the guitar, and in 1965, as part of a duo, he performed on local television.

The most meticulous and gifted of craftsmen, Mark Knopfler is known to one and all as the genius guitarist, singer and writer whose new take on country, folk and British roots launched the meteoric rise of Dire Straits – and kept them at the top of the pile when music tastes changed.

Jay-Z started his career in the late 1980s; when he co-founded the record label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 before dropping his debut studio album Reasonable Doubt in 1996. At the moment of writing this article, Jay-Z is the richest musician in the world with a net worth of 2.5 billion USD as of 2023.

The finger picking style gives more power to each note and makes Knopfler's sound so amazing. He has such a wide range of music he can play as well, from rock to blues to folk and all of the guitar work is absolutely incredible and the solos are so awesome!

Knopfler's guitar playing style is a very unique style, he doesn't play with a pick like most guitarists do instead he uses his fingers to pluck each string. This creates a different sound than most other guitar players and makes all of Knopfler's work extremely original to him.

With one of the most recognisable sounds in the history of modern guitar, Mark Knopfler is the sort of player that it's sometimes best to just sit back and enjoy. You won't likely to be able to play exactly like him.

Knopfler was the lead guitar player and singer for the band and the main songwriter. Knopfler's guitar playing style is a very unique style, he doesn't play with a pick like most guitarists do instead he uses his fingers to pluck each string.

Of his iconic guitar tone, Knopfler revealed how he created it to Music Radar in 2018. Typically humble, he explained: “People say, 'How do you get that sound? ' Well, I plugged it in and then I started fiddling with the knobs until I got something that I quite liked [laughs]. That's how I did it.

Dire Straits1977 – 1995The Notting Hillbillies1997 – 1997Brewers Droop1973 – 1973 Mark Knopfler/Music groups

At the moment of writing this article, Jay-Z is the richest musician in the world with a net worth of 2.5 billion USD as of 2023.

List of Top 10 Richest Actors in the World by September 2023

It's the thumb and first two fingers, and I tend to anchor with the back or my hand and my other two fingers, so it's a solid base. Do you pick with your fingernails or with the meat of your fingertips? It's really from skin, but sometimes the nail will catch. You can use the nail to snap it.

Fender Stratocaster But by the time of Dire Straits debuting properly, Knopfler had a 1961/'62 Fender Stratocaster which would became his main guitar of the first four Dire Straits albums… and his early signature sound. He bought his second-hand 1961/'62 Strat around 1977, in a stripped-back condition (the alder body was bare timber).

It's true that his unique sound comes from his unique finger picking technique, but it is also from the use of his selection of effects and amps, which allows him to get the sound he achieves.