Blackmore's tone

[neonknight]

I have gone back to listening to Ritchie a lot, after a long break. His tone has always been a great mistery for me. I know that in the early days he used to use some kind of a tape machine as a preamp before the amp, which he probably dropped later. But he has always had this specific sound, you can always tell it's him. After decades of being on the scene, and obviously changing gear along the way, his core sound has always been more or less the same, only more modern in recent years.

What do you guys know about his gear? I don't want to copy, I would just like to know what it is. I have never heard anyone sound like him. And yes, I do know that it's mostly his fingers

PS. I have just started reading a book about him, it's called Black Knight, The Ritchie Blackmore story...quite and interesting read...

[Studio Support Gnome]

it's next to bugger all to do with Gear, and all to do with being who he is, not just the fingers, but the ears.... when a guitarist plugs in, they set themselves up a sound they're comfortable with.... whatever the amp/fx

this "sound" is as specific to an individual guitarist as their choices of set up variations on their personal instrument, their unique way of phrasing , note choices, vibrato style,

any time a true original material guitarist (as opposed to a covers merchant) plugs in, or even picks up an acoustic, you can tell within seconds who it is playing.... all these components add up to be greater than the sum of their parts , and identify the player , as surely as a finger print, or retina scan.

for examples , Joe Satriani playing in a kitchen

http://www.kramerforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40527

[Dan Bo]

Didn't he remove the middle pick up from his Strat, and have it wired on a 3 way switch?

Dan

[Shambolic Charm]

In the 70's it was just a standard Maple neck strat into a marshall. He only ever used the bridge and neck pick up and used to screw the middle pick up all the way down to keep it out of the way, used to add a tremolo arm that stuck out further and was stronger, only two springs on the tremolo and he scalloped out the fretboard between the frets. His vibrato technique was a major factor,his tendency to only use one or two strings when playing rhythm, and his musical divebombing with the trem gave him a unique signature sound but I do agree it is that guitarists unique choices and technique that makes their total.

[neonknight]

In the 70's it was just a standard Maple neck strat into a marshall. He only ever used the bridge and neck pick up and used to screw the middle pick up all the way down to keep it out of the way, used to add a tremolo arm that stuck out further and was stronger, only two springs on the tremolo and he scalloped out the fretboard between the frets. His vibrato technique was a major factor,his tendency to only use one or two strings when playing rhythm, and his musical divebombing with the trem gave him a unique signature sound but I do agree it is that guitarists unique choices and technique that makes their total.

Thanks for the input, I was indeed more interested in his guitars and equipment (allegedly at some point he also used Schecters?) as I am fully aware that these guys would sound like themselves whatever gear they used. I guess it's all about the touch after all. I saw Blackmore's Night live 2 years ago and he was playing acoustic, and you could still hear his magical touch, without the Fender and the Engl....

[arkieboy]

From several sources I understand he used Marshall Major heads, rewired by marshall it seems to anticipate a master volume control and upped in power to 278W (from Wikipedia with all the usual caveats, although the references seem authoritative). This - apparently - was to get a sound more like his favourite AC30, but I've not been able to find out if he used the AC30 in the studio and the Marshall live.

The Marshall Major was a variant on the basic 'plexi' and I bet only sounded as good at ear-bleeding volumes!

[ChromeDome]

Just to add to the Marshall vs AC30 confusion, check out Ritchie Blackmore - Interview for FUZZ #2/98, which features this quote about Ritchie's visits to the Marshall factory:

But they had a hell of a time trying to duplicate - I wanted a sound like a Vox, my AC30, which was perfect. But it wasn't politically correct, it wasn't a Marshall, so they tried everything. And you know what they did in the end, after six weeks of trying to copy it? They put the Vox in a Marshall cabinet... And I used to use that on stage, in the combo amp - it looked like a Marshall, but it was a Vox.

In my younger days, I was a big fan of Ritchie and I got to see him live quite a few times, both with Rainbow and the reformed Purple line-up. One thing I noticed is that he plays with a very light touch - I also believe that he used fairly light strings (IIRC a light .009 set with a .010 top E). These days, I regularly see posts in guitar forums about how using light gauge strings is a recipe for bad tone - but that also puts people like Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons firmly in the crappy sounding guitarists camp!

That said, as Max said, it's really about the player. RB was one of the many guitarists who served a tough and lengthy apprenticeship on the late 60s session circuit and was a very talented and original player.

[4TrackMadman]

When I was a kind and couldn't afford gear I used to plug in my parent's old reel to reel Grundig recorder and cook the mic gain section, thus achieving a nice round valve-like overdrive. As it turns out Ritchie did the same thing about 15 years or more before I arrived at that idea. He used a reel to reel recorder to goose the input to his Marshall amps.

[zenguitar]

But they had a hell of a time trying to duplicate - I wanted a sound like a Vox, my AC30, which was perfect. But it wasn't politically correct, it wasn't a Marshall, so they tried everything. And you know what they did in the end, after six weeks of trying to copy it? They put the Vox in a Marshall cabinet... And I used to use that on stage, in the combo amp - it looked like a Marshall, but it was a Vox.

What makes this so amusing is that for many years Hank Marvin was supposed to have had a Fender combo in a Vox AC30 cabinet as his main amp. The lengths we have to go to for tone, fashion, and endorsements

These days, I regularly see posts in guitar forums about how using light gauge strings is a recipe for bad tone - but that also puts people like Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons firmly in the crappy sounding guitarists camp!

There is a lot of truth in that. Where the light gauge/heavy gauge string debate falls over is the loss of context. People read stuff and pick out the headline 'fact' and fail to understand the wider context.

There are genuine and material differences in the tone of different gauge strings. But the overall sound depends on the guitar, strings, FX, and amp used, as well as the settings chosen. What matters is matching your string gauge to the rest of the chain. It does get complex, but for a starting point... the less FX and gain you use, the heavier strings you need, and vice versa. And yes, I know that is simplistic and there will be many players who are exceptions to the rule. But like I said, it is a rule of thumb for where you start because there are some valid underlying principles behind it.

However, that's something for another thread another time if people are interested.

Andy

[arkieboy]

Just to add to the Marshall vs AC30 confusion, check out Ritchie Blackmore - Interview for FUZZ #2/98

That's a really nice interview. Love his comment about django

who I pretended I could understand, but I couldn't really understand when I was 14. I just knew that he was incredibly good.

[Jabba1]

Just to add to the Marshall vs AC30 confusion, check out Ritchie Blackmore - Interview for FUZZ #2/98

That's a really nice interview. Love his comment about django

who I pretended I could understand, but I couldn't really understand when I was 14. I just knew that he was incredibly good.

Agreed. Very informative, I think I learned more about Blackmore in the 10-15 minutes I took reading through it than what I've seen in years. Very very good interview.

[Steve honest]

Hello
I Have been Ritches guitar tech withen the last decade, its none of the above, some of the above information goes back tot he 70s and 80s , but not this century.
Ritchie is really choosy about hw e gets his sound, down to , no pedals in the chain, he uses an old reel to reel recorder as a pre amp, he has an Engel 50 watt combo cranked all the way up , his start has a middle pick up but its screwed right down in the body, i know its there i took the tape away and saw it, , he has the amp all the way up al the time, the guitar is it a sweet spot , of about 2 to 3 on its volume pot, and he constantly flicks it upwards with his little finger its part of his right hand picking techniqe, scallped fret board of course a bollock ache to check if its in tune.
he constantly flicks the pick up selcter 3 way not 5 way, the neck is screwed and glued to the body,
wel thats the strat tone covered,
wnat to know abut he other 11 guitars and hurdey gurdy he has on stage?
and yes what Max said above is very very true, its a lot to do with what in the fingers,
i have been guitar tech to a lot of great guitar players, and i would always try and emulate them so at soundcheck the FOH guy had a chance to get a balance before the band turned up, but you can never sound exaclty like them, its in the fingers, richie plays realy lightly, mick box and dave stewrt hammer the strings, Ry cooder, well he is just voodoo.
and the most amazing sunding thing i ever heard Ritchie do, was Hendrix, he can make Hendrix sound just like Hendrix, i swear i saw him play voodoo child during a Blackmore s night show and it was AMAZING, he had hendrixs feel right down to the button

steve honest
steve