Tone library / Dire Straits / Sultans of Swing

Sultans of Swing amp settings — Harley Benton HB-20MFX

The Dire Straits guitar tone for “Sultans of Swing”, dialed in for a Harley Benton HB-20MFX with a Harley benton ST-20. Studio version, Dire Straits debut album (1978)

Original rig

1961 Fender Stratocaster into Fender Vibrolux / Music Man HD130 — straight-in clean, no pedals

Sparkling clean with bell-like chime and percussive attack

Amp settings — Harley Benton HB-20MFX

CHANNELClean channel (Fender Twin/Deluxe style model)BOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	3
Bass	5
Mid	6
Treble	7
Reverb	3
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge+middle TONE10 VOLUME9

Why these settings

The HB-20MFX clean voice needs low gain to maintain pure headroom matching the original Fender amp. Keep treble bright at 7 to capture the signature chime on your ST-20 single coils, with mids set to 6 to prevent the thin sound often found in budget modeling speakers. The HB-20MFX lacks a presence control, so top-end snap is dialed via treble.

PRO TIPPluck entirely without a pick using the flesh of your thumb and index/middle fingers, snapping the strings upward against the fretboard to get Knopfler's percussive attack.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Harley Benton HB-20MFX. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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Song, artist and gear names are used to identify the tone being matched; ToneAdapt is not affiliated with or endorsed by the artists or manufacturers mentioned. Settings are AI-generated starting points — trust your ears.