software

Did Richie Blackmore use stock Quarter Pounder pickups in his Strat? OR, were they modified in some way?

Thanks,

Randy

They looked and Sounded stock to me. Check out the quot;Between the Eyesquot; Rainbow DVD for Blackmore using the Quarter Pounders.

Yeah, its a more meaty type of tone.

Interesting that he favored the AC30 for studio gigs. The lead tone on Stone Cold, for instance, is very crystalline and pure sounding. Wonder if that was a QP or regular strat pickup. I have always loved his lead tone on Pictures Of Home from Machine Head. That, again, is a Strat into a Hornby Skewes treble booster, into an AC30. Its supposedly an older, non-Top Boost version.

Its kinda funny that his live rig was an AC30 stuffed inside a Marshall box. That's at least with Rainbow's later gigs in the 1980's, and a stage tech in Finland verified it by looking directly into the amp on stage before the gig. Jim Marshall apparently couldn't get the AC30 chime from one of his own designs, so that's what they ended up doing. I guess Jim was determined to keep Richie as a Marshall endorser.

Isn't it funny that no one uses what made them famous?

Blackmore has never really had a very high gain tone, by anyone's standards. Just a great, glassy, classic Strat tone with just enough drive to have sustain ... I've had great success getting a 'heavy Blackmore' tone using Joe Barden Strat Deluxe pups in my Strat ...


Originally Posted by rhmcfarlandYeah, its a more meaty type of tone.

Interesting that he favored the AC30 for studio gigs. The lead tone on Stone Cold, for instance, is very crystalline and pure sounding. Wonder if that was a QP or regular strat pickup. I have always loved his lead tone on Pictures Of Home from Machine Head. That, again, is a Strat into a Hornby Skewes treble booster, into an AC30. Its supposedly an older, non-Top Boost version.
Hmm Weel I guess in Stone cold he used stock pickups, I doubt if the quater pound was out back then also I am sure he had stock pickups on the MAHINE HEAD album. Ritchie is one of my fav guitarist. He was my first guitar hero. I still cant figure out why ?why? no more Rainbow

Blackmore used a standard Strat and a 200 watt Marshall.

He also used an old tube reel to reel tape recorder to boost his guitar's signal. He'd switch the tape recorder to the PA function, plug into the microphone input of the tape recorder and run a plug from the extension speaker out of the tape recorder into the front of the Marshall.

I used to do exactly the same things in the days before the Maestro Fuzz, Big Muff and all the rest even existed!

Used to use my mom's Wollensak Tape Recorder in eaxactly the same way as Blackmore.

I'd crank it up and get that fat fuzzy tone like the Ventures used to get on 2000 Pound Bee and some of those 60's instrumentals with fuzz guitar from the days before fuzz pedals. Pre 1966.

Lew

Wow . . . I used to do the same thing with an old Teac, thats still sitting down here below my bench now. I also used the 3-head function on it to get a really nice analog tape echo.

I didn't realize I was being innovative. I just thought I was poor.


Originally Posted by ArtieTooWow . . . I used to do the same thing with an old Teac, thats still sitting down here below my bench now. I also used the 3-head function on it to get a really nice analog tape echo.

I didn't realize I was being innovative. I just thought I was poor. Poverty is the mother of invention!!!


Originally Posted by LewguitarBlackmore used a standard Strat and a 200 watt Marshall.

Lew
Yup I was sure of that. If I am not mistaken its only off recently he has been using the QPs, of course he has used other replacement pick ups , but they were never on the first Deep Purple albums and Rainbow albums.

I think he used DMZ FS1 at some point there too........

Didn't he use a 335 with the screws raised for a single coil vibe as well?

He used QPs at least as early as '83. He can be seen with them in videos from Straight Between the Eyes, and Perfect Strangers. He used them up until the mid-'90s when he started using Bardens. His signature guitar has Lace Sensors, of all things.

The amps were Majors with the preamps cascaded, a rather crude master volume. And the tape deck as Lew mentions. Probably because Majors have less gain than 50W/100W Marshalls.


Originally Posted by AdmiralBHe used QPs at least as early as '83. He can be seen with them in videos from Straight Between the Eyes, and Perfect Strangers. He used them up until the mid-'90s when he started using Bardens. His signature guitar has Lace Sensors, of all things.

The amps were Majors with the preamps cascaded, a rather crude master volume. And the tape deck as Lew mentions. Probably because Majors have less gain than 50W/100W Marshalls.
His signature guitar has Lace sensors as of now of recently, but I remmmber cheking out his signature strat around 2yrs ago or a year ago on the Fender website. and it had the QPs.

Richie favored smaller amps for the studio gigs.

AC30 on Machine Head for sure.
280 watt Marshall Majors (6 x KT88's) for the live shows.

Later on, he stuffed AC30's into Marshall head boxes.
The tape machine quot;widens and flattensquot; the Strat tone, according to Richie.
Check this out:
from : localhost/com3.runboard.com/bdeeppurple...hierelated.t45

Randy


Originally Posted by LewguitarI used to do exactly the same things in the days before the Maestro Fuzz, Big Muff and all the rest even existed!
Used to use my mom's Wollensak Tape Recorder in exactly the same way as Blackmore.

So what did your mother have to say about that?

I plugged my Silvertone 1482 into the foot pedal of my mother's sewing machine to get the famous quot;brownquot; sound many years before EVH. You could also use it to adjust the volume a little bit. It worked great until the output transformer burned up...

My next door neighbor would take his Wollensak tape recorder outside with the PA speaker turned on and use feedback to communicate with the frogs (they even talked back!) But it wasn't his mother's tape recorder- I think he stole it from school!

For overdrive I used a tremelo box I made from a kit I bought at Lafayette Electronics- you'd turn the speed all of the way down and it would boost the signal like an LPB...

Memories of the good old days, ah!

Ritchie has been gigging unplugged and unmagnetized these days. from : localhost/


Originally Posted by JocelynHis signature guitar has Lace sensors as of now of recently, but I remmmber cheking out his signature strat around 2yrs ago or a year ago on the Fender website. and it had the QPs.

There used to be two signature guitars, a Japanese import with two QPs and a fake middle pickup which was (still is) made in Japan and basically a copy of his circa-'83 white Strat...and the USA Custom Shop neckthrough with two Lace Sensors, no middle pickup, and a Roland MIDI option.

Fender imported the Japanese one for a few years in the late '90s (and thus it appeared on their site), but you can still get them from Ishibashi.


Originally Posted by BlueGuitarSo what did your mother have to say about that?

I plugged my Silvertone 1482 into the foot pedal of my mother's sewing machine to get the famous quot;brownquot; sound many years before EVH. You could also use it to adjust the volume a little bit. It worked great until the output transformer burned up...

My next door neighbor would take his Wollensak tape recorder outside with the PA speaker turned on and use feedback to communicate with the frogs (they even talked back!) But it wasn't his mother's tape recorder- I think he stole it from school!

For overdrive I used a tremelo box I made from a kit I bought at Lafayette Electronics- you'd turn the speed all of the way down and it would boost the signal like an LPB...

Memories of the good old days, ah!

My mom was very supportive. She was a school teacher and I wore out two of her school's tape recorders: one Webcor and one Wollensak. Both 1/4quot; reel to reels.

Taught myself how to play guitar by recording the first two or three Rolling Stones albums recorded at 7 1/2quot; per second and playing them back at 3 3/4quot; per second!

I went in for a guitar lesson at about age 15 with a real good Detroit jazz guitarist named Marshall Blake, and he asked me to play something. He listened and then said: quot;Oh...you want to play like a spade.quot; He meant play like a black man. I didn't know what he was talking about - I wanted to play like Brian Jones and Keith Richards!
Lew


Originally Posted by AdmiralBThere used to be two signature guitars, a Japanese import with two QPs and a fake middle pickup which was (still is) made in Japan and basically a copy of his circa-'83 white Strat...and the USA Custom Shop neckthrough with two Lace Sensors, no middle pickup, and a Roland MIDI option.

Fender imported the Japanese one for a few years in the late '90s (and thus it appeared on their site), but you can still get them from Ishibashi.
Yeah I remmeber that clearly, but I also remmeber seeing a model with just two QPs just like the one with the Lace Sensors, but then I cld be wrong too.Anyway Ritchie seems to be interested in ancient music these days

You guys are talking about Blackmore DVDs I didn't know existed!
I have only 1 DVD that I got at a record/CD swap meet,
called Rainbow: The Final Cut, and it's GREAT!

If anyone is wanting to do some Rainbow/Purple DVD swapping,
email me.