Ritchie Blackmore acoustic guitars. Guitars FENDER RITCHIE BLACKMORE STRATOCASTER

Richard Hugh Blackmore is a brilliant British guitarist. He not only performs, but also writes songs himself. Blackmore was one of the first to introduce elements of classical music into blues-rock.

Biography of Ritchie Blackmore: childhood years

Richard Hugh Blackmore was born on April 14, 1945 in the English resort town of Weston-super-Mare, located on the coast. At two years old, Richard moved with his parents to Heston (a suburb of London). His father worked at Heathrow. He worked on a team laying runways for airplanes. My mother had her own small shop.

At school, Richie studied without diligence, and achieved a lot in sports. He was most successful in swimming and shot put, but he was also able to throw the javelin. Due to his serious achievements in sports, they wanted to include Richard in the England team, but he did not qualify for age.

How Ritchie Blackmore's passion for music began

At the end of the 50s. Musical life was in full swing in London. Thanks to television, which began broadcasting the first pop shows, Ritchie Blackmore heard rock and roll for the first time. What impressed him most was the performance of guitarist Tommy Stahl. Blackmore immediately borrowed a guitar from a friend and tried to start playing. And although nothing worked out right away, he realized that this was his passion.

First steps to fame

Some time later, his father gave him a second-hand acoustic guitar, which he bought for seven pounds. First Richie studied for a year classic game by learning the basic rules. This was Ritchie Blackmore's first guitar. Most blues guitarists played with just three fingers. Richie learned to use all ten.

Over time, Blackmore converted his first musical instrument to an electric guitar, adding a speaker and an amplifier. With the help of his brother's friends, he met Jim Sullivan, who was considered one of the most authoritative guitarists of the 60s. Polishing his skills, Richie practiced for six hours every day. During this time, he developed his own unique style, combining rock and classics.

Blackmore's first performances and the creation of his own group

The first ensemble in which Blackmore played was organized in 1960. At this time, Ritchie worked as a radio mechanic at Heathrow Airport. After saving some money, he bought a new electric guitar for £22 and worked with a local band for a while. Then I decided to create my own team. This was Ritchie Blackmore's first band that he created.

Since school, Blackmore had been friends with Mick Underwood, who had a real crush on him and invited him to join his band as a drummer. Then he recruited the remaining participants. The group did not exist for long and soon disbanded. After that, together with Mick, Ritchie joined the group The Satellites.

In May 1961, Ritchie Blackmore saw an advertisement for a guitarist in one of the popular groups under called The Savages. There he first met David Satch, with whom he subsequently often crossed paths in his work. He came to the audition with his girlfriend and father. But, despite the obvious talent and virtuoso passages, Richie was not accepted into the group due to the fact that he was only 16 years old. A year later, Blackmore was finally hired by The Savages. Despite young age, Richie already has his own fans. The group spent several months touring in Australia and Scandinavia. Combining work with show business became increasingly difficult, and Richie quit in 1963.

Ritchie Blackmore's Rising Fame

In 1965, Richie was invited to join The Crusaders. It was led by singer Neil Christian. Before Blackmore joined, Phil McPill was the band's guitarist. But before Richie appeared, he disappeared without a trace. Blackmore did not stay with the group for long and returned to The Savages. But he didn’t stay there either due to strained relations with leader David Sutch. Ritchie Blackmore left the group after three months. He was followed by bassist Avis Anderson and drummer Tornado Evans.

All three went on a temporary tour to Germany with another group. After the contract was completed, they remained in Germany and began performing at a music club in Bochum, forming their own group, which they called “The Three Musketeers”. But after a while, the administration stopped liking the noisy performances, and the contract with the musicians was terminated. In the spring all three returned to England. After his arrival, Richie wrote a song that reached 14th place on the hit parade. Richie's fame began to grow. They started talking about him not only as a virtuoso guitarist, but also as a composer.

Blackmore's Depression Period

After returning to England, Ritchie did not stay there long. He again decided to return to Germany and changed several groups there. But, disappointed, seeing that this could continue indefinitely, and there was no progress, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore decided to interrupt musical career indefinitely.

During the day he walked aimlessly through the streets of Hamburg, in the evenings he played scales in his hotel room, preparing for the final exam at the conservatory, where he entered several years ago. In 1967, Ritchie returned to England, passed his exams at the conservatory, received a diploma and again went to Germany.

Blackmore's return to the music world

Returning to Germany, Ritchie Blackmore spent days honing his skills. This continued until he received a telegram from London inviting him to join Deep Purple and accepted the invitation. This group soon became one of the most famous, and Richie began to be called the dark and inscrutable king of hard rock guitar.

Richie's style was distinguished by its individuality. According to him, during a concert he does not listen to other guitarists, dissolving in the sounds of his own instrument. Apparently, Richie's unusual playing style was influenced by his love for string music(specifically performed on the violin and cello). The education received at the conservatory also played a significant role. But Richie felt uncomfortable in the group, as if something was missing, and after a while the musician left it.

Hidden dreams

Ritchie Blackmore's biography is replete with many groups from which he left and returned again. One of them was Deep Purple, which he left in 1975. Blackmore went to New York and invited several musicians from the Elfa group to organize their own band. They agreed and named their team Rainbow. The same year the group released their first album. And after a while, internal conflicts began to arise in Rainbow.

In an interview, Blackmore admitted that after leaving Deep Purple, he wanted to create something new, where he could breathe easier. And as a result, I again found myself in the same tension from which I was trying to escape. And due to the growing popularity of Rainbow, it has only intensified.

Richie shared his desires with reporters. It turned out that at home he most often listens to Bach. Richie would like to play classical music, but at concerts she seems boring. It lacks a bit of joy, a sense of celebration. And in rock and roll this is present. He dreamed of creating something in between, a new direction, but so far it hasn’t worked out.

A new round of Blackmore's music

Richie left Rainbow and for some time periodically returned to the groups in which he had previously performed. Despite the success achieved, in 1997 he decided to create a new project, Blackmore's Night, together with his wife. The idea arose from the music that Richie heard while touring in Germany. A group of musicians played medieval music on ancient instruments. Ritchie Blackmore helped him find the zest that was required to create a musical masterpiece.

In his home studio, he himself recorded all the parts of keyboards, drums, etc. The result was an unusual album. Original cocktail from different music Middle Ages, which has passion, romanticism, pathos and mysticism with the addition of the sounds of electric and acoustic guitars, ancient string melodies and the charming voice of Blackmore's wife singing songs. The project still does not lose its attractiveness.

Blackmore's personal life

Ritchie Blackmore (photo can be seen in this article) married Margaret Volkmar on May 18, 1964. She was from Germany. At first they lived in Hamburg, where their son Jurgen was born. A few years later, Richie got divorced. The second time he married Barbel Hardy, also German. The wedding took place in September 1969. The marriage was short-lived and Blackmore divorced again. In 1974, he moved to Oxnard, where he met Anya Rothman, who became his third wife. The marriage lasted until 1983, then another divorce followed.

In the late 80s, Blackmore met Candice Knight, a poet and vocalist. At that time the girl was only 18 years old. They soon became engaged, but they got married only 15 years later - in October 2008. Two years later, they had a daughter, who was named Otom Esmeralda. And the second child was born on February 7, 2012.

All white Stratocasters were subject to alterations and modifications:

the fretboard is scalloped;
the neck was glued into the soundboard;
tremolo levers were changed;
tuners were installed, first Schaller, later - Sperzel Trim-Lok locking machines;
Electronics and pickups were changed, MTC - Master Tone Control was installed.

Of the standard parts, Blackmore left only a wooden soundboard with a neck and tremolo. Let me remind you that starting in 1971, Stratocasters were equipped with solid bridges with cast saddles instead of stamped ones (according to Ritchie, they give greater sustain). Richie broke the standard tremolo arms with a bang, so they were replaced with reinforced ones.

Scaloping the neck

Scalping refers to the process of removing wood between the frets so that indentations (grooves) remain in the gaps:

The procedure itself is quite simple (if you have straight hands or a guitar master), but scalloping makes its own adjustments to both the playing technique and the final sound:

more accurate control strings - the fingertips touch only the string, and not the fingerboard underneath;
more accurate vibrato- you can do not only classic vibrato, but deep vibrato, or what? - when the finger pressure on the string changes;
when playing, a certain metallic sound appears;
A scalloped neck quickly becomes a little more difficult to play.

The reasons why the Maestro prefers scalloped bars remain unknown to us, but I can only assume that it is force of habit; after all, his trademark aggressive left-hand vibrato is heavily influenced by the scalloped nature of the neck.

On the other hand, the scaloping pattern of Blackmore guitars differs from the common oval-symmetrical one; This is the so-called progressive scaloping:

A differentiated and asymmetrical scaloping profile is clearly visible

Historically, Ritchie made the first attempts to scallop the neck himself (with a meat cleaver), after which the knife was confiscated; his guitar technicians began doing this procedure.

What is the reason for this progressive profile? Recalling my early attempts to analyze Blackmore's vibrato, let me remind you of some facts:

the placement of the fingers of Richie’s left hand is not in the middle between the frets, but closer to the fret of the note being played;
since the vibrato amplitude is wide and the speed is high, the corresponding area of the interfret space should be as spacious as possible, including in 3D (in depth) - this is a direct reference to point 2 of the advantages of scalloping the neck above;
In addition, in riffs Richie purely practices the so-called. “cello” vibrato with a brush directly above the fret:

Pay attention to the position of your fingers relative to the fret space of the fingerboard.

Having summed up the facts above, we come to the conclusion why the profile is so wedge-shaped - the beginning is removed less, so as not to ruin the rigidity of the lining, closer to the end more, so that there is a comfortable vibrato with the fingers.

I would like to emphasize that the necks of not only electric guitars, but also acoustic ones (not all, but some) are scaled - the Maestro is true to his habits.

Gluing the neck

The classic Stratocaster design, as invented by Leo Fender, involves attaching the neck to the soundboard with four bolts:

This design ensures that the neck is firmly pressed into the socket, the sustain is quite good and the neck is securely fastened.

In 1971, the Stratocaster mount was changed to a three-bolt mount, with Micro-Tilt technology to adjust the inclination of the neck relative to the soundboard:

Sorry for being vague, but this is a photo of Strat #1 with serial number 578265

Despite the innovative advantages of Micro-Tilt, a significant drawback of the three-bolt design is considered to be the unreliable fastening of the neck, due to which the neck often moves relative to the soundboard, and the sustain of this design was worse than in the classic 4-bolt design.

What did Richie do? Here it should be recalled that the Maestro’s first serious instrument was the semi-acoustic Gibson ES-335 - and in the “Gibsons” all the necks are glued into the soundboard, which tightly holds it and gives endless sustain (infinite by the standards of Strats).

...that's right, Richie glued the neck into the soundboard. As Blackmore's guitar technician John “Dawk” Stillwell personally told me, a five-minute epoxy glue was used for this, after which the neck merged with the body as if it were original:

By the way, this gluing will come back to haunt Blackmore in the future

Master Tone Control

In addition to re-soldering the electronics, Blackmore's guitars were equipped with a small and invisible from the outside small box with four wires called MTC (Master Tone Control).

I don’t argue, in 1995 and more later years Ritchie's electric guitar sounds magical: it's the kind of sound I personally strive for - but I'm not sure it's not the influence of the ENGL amps used during this period. It is believed that the sound of an early Blackmore guitar can be achieved without any miracle boxes.

The composition of this magic ingredient of Ritchie's sound is (yet) an unsolved mystery, but persistent attempts to decipher the design of the box should be crowned with success in any case. For example, competitors X-rayed it:

Putting together all the scant mentions of MTC on the Internet, we have the following information about the filling of the box:

The MTC has 4 components and a few wires. 2 Resistors, 1 Capacitor, 1 coil, 1 capacitor.
Dawk says it has “2 circuits”, though how a capacitor is a “circuit” I’m not sure. The Red/Black wires go to the capacitor ONLY and it’s not connected to anything else inside. The White Wires go to the resistors and the coil and they are not connected to anything else inside either. The red/black wires replace the cap in your guitar with the same value cap in the MTC! The white wires go to the volume control and this bit only operates on reduced volume. The capacitor only comes in around mark 3 on the tone pot. That's it. It’s packaged in a keyfob box filled wih resin for obvious reasons.

Free translation:

The MTC contains four components: 2 resistors, 1 capacitor, 1 inductor, 1 capacitor (?).
Dawk reports that there are 2 circuits in the box, but I'm not sure how the capacitor can be a circuit in its own right. The red and black wires are connected ONLY to the capacitor and nothing else. The white wires go to the resistors and coil, and are also not connected to anything else. The red and black wires are soldered in place of the stock capacitor on the guitar, and the capacitor inside the MTC has the same capacitance! The white ones are connected to the volume control and this part of the MTC starts to work only in the intermediate position of the volume control. The capacitor is activated in position 3 of the tone knob. That's all. Everything is hermetically sealed in a compound for obvious reasons.

Analysis of similar solutions on the Internet allows us to say with confidence that Dawk uses the so-called Q factor in MTC, based on an LCR circuit with carefully selected component values.

Such tone control technologies are quite widespread and are sold in kits for self-installation, in particular Rothstein Guitars, Torres Engineering, Bill Lawrence’ Q-filter (remember the last manufacturer). Dawk is also not at all devoid of a commercial spirit and sells boxes to everyone who wants to touch the Treasured Sound for $350 with delivery:

There is an alternative solution - RBTC. If you hang out on Dawk’s forum for a certain time, you will notice that especially valuable sections of the forum are closed and in his posts he constantly vilifies some (sorry) “ASSHOLES”. There is even a separate forum topic dedicated to them and their destructive activities. If I'm not mistaken, the clever guys collected information about the miracle box from sections of the site when they were available, analyzed and created their own commercial product (presumably RBTC). Of course, Dawk, who successfully sells his boxes, was fundamentally not satisfied with this, and he closed/deleted priceless sections, simultaneously vilifying the insidious and treacherous (sorry) “ASSHOLES” in every message.

In general, their disassembly does not concern us at all, it is up to everyone to decide which box sounds better, which technology works more authentically; You can dig around yourself, as I started to do. I’ll give you a useful link to an online resonant frequency calculator, it might come in handy.

Now specifically about the White Stratocasters.

White Stratocaster #1, serial number 578265

Ritchie Blackmore's most trusted instrument, which he played for more than 15 years. Almost all of Rainbow's studio albums and live concerts were recorded and played on it, it survived the revival of Deep Purple in 1984 and the arrival of Turner in 1989 - in general, a real fighting instrument of the Maestro.

Despite the 1974 release, there are certain suspicions that real date release of the neck and soundboard - earlier: the neck, for example, may even be from 1972...1973. It is noted that the neck has a minimum thickness, and this is typical for guitars of these particular years of production. But on the other hand, the 1974 Sunburst Strat that Richie played at the video concert in Munich in 1977 has a wider neck, so we can only guess about the true release dates.

But be that as it may, in 1975...1976 the instrument became available to Blackmore, and Ritchie gradually began to master it. The initial changes were minimal: just the neck was scalloped and glued in. Electronics and pickups remained standard, covers and knobs remained white:

Guitar in pristine whiteness

Over time, improvements in electronics began to appear on the Strat. If the reader remembers, in the early Rainbow the stage design implied the use of a real Rainbow above the stage:

This design consisted of many multi-colored light bulbs, was controlled by a computer, was unreliable and terribly capricious. But the biggest drawback of the Rainbow was that this entire array of lamps caused terrible radio-electric interference on the equipment and Richie’s guitars in particular - the fight against the guitar “background” was a headache for Richie for 10 years.

As part of the fight against noise and the search for new horizons of sound, in 1977, at the direction of Dawk (YES... I WAS A ''SCHECTER'' DEALER...), Schecter F-500T pickups were installed on the guitar:

Unlike the stock Stratocaster pickups, the Schecter's magnets were the same height and were flush with the pickup surface; in addition, their increased diameter contributed to a higher “exhaust” of the sensors. Copper foil around the winding is an additional electrical shield to minimize external interference.

Ritchie’s “Jibsonian” past made itself felt from time to time, and this time it manifested itself in the fact that the middle pickup was dismantled and instead there was a proud plug, into which a dummy coil was sometimes installed to reduce the noise of the electronics (humbacking effect). Richie admitted that he never used the middle pickup, driving it flush with the pickguard.

The larger magnets also affected the pickup's frequency response, producing more punchy low frequencies - something that Richie liked in those days. He wanted to get rid of the typical Stratocaster bass feel, but at the same time retain the transparency of the sound inherent in single-coil pickups.

Dawk did not solder the Schecter pickups to full capacity; instead, he used only part of the coil with a loss of "exhaust". Richie compensated for this with the degree of compression in his legendary AIWA reel-to-reel tape recorder, which was used not only to create a delay effect, but also to compress the sound. Dawk coupled the inner half of the bridge pickup coil to the outer half of the neck pickup to enhance the low frequencies.

In addition, the pickups were impregnated with a special compound, but not in wax, as is the case with conventional pickups - this, according to Dawk, kills the top end.

In addition to the custom wiring, Dawk shielded the guitar's pickguard and cavities with copper foil and tuned the guitar to specific system MTC - Master Tone Control.

Due to the fact that the pickups were black, the knobs of the knobs and pickup switch were matched to match them, and the guitar existed in this configuration until 1986:

Pay attention to the wide pickup magnets and the dummy in the middle

Always true to his gags, Blackmore screws a button onto the headstock to attach a guitar strap. Intended, according to Richie, “conversation piece to annoy and confuse people”, in other words, for catching the lulz:

In 1986, a new stage began in the fight against sound quality and noise. Having tried various pickups and their combinations on a dozen test Stratocasters, Blackmore decides to get rid of the noisy Schecter in favor of the Bill Lawrence L-450 (neck) + XL-450 (bridge) pickups:

Bill Lawrence L-450 is a double-rail humbucker made in the single-coil form factor with two coils connected in series with each other, with a total resistance of 12 kOhm. The presence of two coils provided flexible options for their switching, opening up new sound options, plus the advantage of humbuckers - minimal noise. But we can’t say that Richie really liked this configuration - the pickup was silent, but Blackmore did not like the sound of the pickup (humbuckers and single-coils are very different in sound).

Around the same time (mid-80s), Ritchie began to become interested in guitar MIDI systems that expanded the tonal options of the guitar, so all white Stratcasters were equipped with Roland GK-1 MIDI pickups, and this Strat was no exception:

Continuing the theme of small nuances, I will draw attention to three distinctive visual facts of Stratocaster No. 1:

transferring the fastening of the strap to the guitar from the end of the upper horn to the back side;
greenish plastic pickguard in the early...mid 80s;
light scratch aka scratch on the soundboard below the second tone knob.

These changes were the last in the life of the legendary Stratocaster, because in 1992 the irreparable happened: according to Richie, he gave the Stratocaster to a guitar master for another fret replacement. The master decided that the scalloped indentations between the frets were wear on the fingerboard due to excessive playing and sanded it smooth, and kindly did not demand additional payment for this. Richie was furious to say the least! Deciding to quickly rescalop the fingerboard, which had already become much thinner after the careless trick of the master, Blackmore used a file to get to the maple base of the neck:

After all these misadventures, the neck became completely unplayable. Due to the fact that the neck was glued into the soundboard and it was impossible to replace it, Richie’s heart was forced to write off his favorite instrument.

This was the sad fate of Blackmore’s workhorse, who faithfully served the Maestro for almost 20 years.

White Stratocaster #2, serial number S778960

The second white Stratocaster from 1977 was also Blackmore's second most popular instrument; after the death of the first, Richie was forced to switch to this guitar, and since 1993, he has been constantly playing it.

Released in 1977, this guitar had all the attributes of the Stratocasters of that period, including:

black plastic pickguard, pickup covers and potentiometer knobs, tremolo lever and pickup switch;
serial number S778960, located on the headstock, under the word “Fender”;
cast tremolo and saddles.

In all other respects, it was a classic CBS-era Stratocaster: Olympic White, with an oversized knob, bullet neck and rosewood fingerboard:

The electronics of the guitar were, naturally, subjected to changes: instead of standard pickups, “Velvet Hammer” manufactured by Red Rhodes were installed - high-quality wound pickups in the Fender style. According to the established tradition, two pickups were installed, and a demagnetized pickup was installed in the middle to create a humbucker effect - muffling unwanted “background”. Of course, the guitar also had a magic box MTC (by the way, chronologically, MTC was the first to receive this instrument).

In 1981, the black plastic pickguard was replaced with white, and the guitar acquired familiar features corporate identity Ritchie Blackmore:

Visually, the guitar differed from Strat No. 1 in that it had narrower pickup magnets and the absence of a Lulz strap button on the knob (well, and the presence of a serial number on the neck):

My acquaintance with the work of Ritchie Blackmore began with the Come Hell Or High Water concert, during this tour this guitar was the main one, and it was with Lace Sensor Gold sensors (in fact, this is the configuration I was striving for

It is known that this Stratocaster was equipped with two Bill Lawrence L-250 pickups, which are humbuckers in a standard single-coil body:

Also, instead of a standard output jack, the guitar was equipped with an Alembic Stratoblaster active booster, powered by a 9-volt battery. In addition, the guitar featured an extra-long tremolo arm.

By the early 90s, the guitar's pickups were replaced, presumably with Seymour-Duncan SSL-4T + SSL-7T (SSL-4, by the way, are installed in Blackmore's signature Strats). In this configuration, the instrument took part in the Come Hell Or High Water tour, when Richie played the song on a guitar tuned in Drop D The Battle Rages On.

The instrument was subsequently also equipped with a Roland GK-1 MIDI sensor:

The further fate is little known, but presumably this Strat starred in the “Ariel” video:

Ritchie Blackmore occupies a worthy place in the pantheon of British rock guitarists, alongside Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Peter Green.

Fierce vibrato, sweet yet stinging solos, and a unique blend of blues and classical picking are just some of the hallmarks of Ritchie Blackmore's style (a much copied style - see Yngwie Malmsteen for details).

Blackmore plans to release an all-acoustic album this fall.

According to Blackmore himself, this project, which bears the intriguing title “Medieval Moons and Gypsy Dances,” includes pop-folk acoustic numbers in the spirit of the Renaissance.

It is quite possible to imagine that such music sounded many years ago near the walls of some ancient European castle.

Personally, this project is very interesting to me - if only because this time Blackmore managed to do without Marshall amplifiers, which largely determined the sound of his guitar on most of the classic recordings of Deep Purple and Rainbow.

In an interview with Guitar World, Ritchie Blackmore took the opportunity to talk more about some of these famous recordings.

The idea to perform Hush, a composition written by session guitarist South, was mine. I heard it in Hamburg, told the band and we recorded it. This thing was completely recorded in two takes. And it only took us forty-eight hours to complete the entire first album. I like the guitar solo in it - especially the feedback. The recording was done using a Gibson ES-335, which was later stolen by my ex-wife. I used this guitar until the recording of the In Rock album, on which you can hear it in the compositions Child In Time and Flight of...

The reason I later switched to a Stratocaster was because it had a special sound clarity. But it was quite difficult to adapt to him. When you play humbuckers you usually end up with a pretty rough sound, and that's quite forgivable. But the pickups on Fender are very delicate and complex things. Every note is important - nothing can be missed.

April. I was born this month. At first I just had a small random melody. I showed it to Jon (Lord) and he came up with a "classic" piece for the middle part of the composition. In my twenty-five years, I had never heard anything like it. For that time it was quite bold.

"Concerto for Group and Orchestra"

I don't even know what to say about this. I never played it again. I never even listen to this record. These were completely new sensations. Trying to play with two dozen violinists sitting next to you is not the most pleasant experience. I had a little Vox amp, and every time I started playing, these guys literally covered their ears: “Too loud”! So I’m trying to make the audience hear me, and these violinists are sitting next to me with their fingers in their ears. You can imagine how much all this inspired me.

"Hard Lovin' Man"

One of the engineers who worked on this album was a terrible retrograde who did not like rock and roll. When I was recording the solo for this song, I just spontaneously started rubbing my guitar strings on the doorframe to get all this crazy noise. This guy looked at me like I was crazy. Another time, he and I were listening to recorded material, and I said that I couldn’t hear the guitar at all. "Guitar?" - he asked, “You can’t hear anything here except her! It’s terribly loud!” "But I really can't hear her!" - “You're crazy! It sounds just fucking loud! What's wrong with your ears?” And then Martin (Birch is the main recording engineer) says, “Wait a second,” and moves the slider and it turns out that the guitar was completely turned off all this time. So the guy had to bite his tongue. And he thought that I was deaf or something like that.

"Child In Time"

This recording was a kind of response to everything that we did with the orchestra. I wanted to make a loud hard rock thing, and I literally prayed that it would turn out that way. I was afraid that otherwise we would play with all sorts of orchestras for the rest of our lives. Ian Gillan was perhaps the only person who could sing it. It was his finest hour. No one else would dare to "climb" higher and higher in octaves. The guitar solo, however, was pretty mediocre. Back then, you never did more than two or three takes when it came to guitar solos. They gave me fifteen minutes - it was considered that this was quite enough for a guitarist. Pacey was right there, nervously tapping his foot and glancing at his watch, as if to say, “Well, how long have you been there?” “Yes, I’m just getting ready!” - “Do you mean you’re going to sit even longer?!” Sometimes at concerts I play this solo much faster than on the record. I wish it was faster, and Pacey always wanted the same thing. The only problem is the part where the whole group has to play in unison: it can only be played at that speed, and not faster, unless, of course, you start drumming on the strings, which I never do on principle. At first glance, it seems that there is nothing complicated here, but you yourself try to play it faster after ten glasses of whiskey! It is very difficult.

"Smoke On The Water"

We recorded this thing in a different place from the rest of the album, which was recorded at the Grand Hotel in Montreux. Smoke On The Water was recorded in the huge lobby of a building in Switzerland using the band's mobile studio." Rolling Stones"We needed surround sound for the auxiliary track. The police started banging on the doors. We knew they were the police and we knew they would tell us to stop recording because people nearby were complaining about the noise. So we didn't open the door. We asked Martin: “Did it work?” And he answered: “I can’t say, I need to listen to the whole material from beginning to end to understand.” The police gathered a bunch of cars near the building and continued to bang on the doors. until we are sure we have exactly what we need. Finally we got it. We opened the door and the police said, “You have to stop this and go somewhere else.”

"Highway Star"

The only thing for which the solo was invented before she started recording. I wanted to put a solo from Mozart over a chord progression also taken from Mozart.

A very unusual solo because I recorded one part of it on one day and the other part on another. The difference is clearly audible on the recording. I was never happy with that solo. The song itself is very good, but my work leaves much to be desired. This piece was written under the influence of Stepping Out by Eric Clapton.

"Woman From Tokyo"

I also borrowed this riff from Clapton, from Cat's Squirrel.

"Strange Kind of Woman"

The entire guitar Q&A segment is taken from Tobacco Road by Edgar Winter. He and Rick Derringer used to trade guitar licks like that, and we really liked that band (White Trash) back then. I got Ian Gillan hooked on Edgar Winter. I said, "Listen to these screams." Ian asked: "Who is this?" - "Edgar Winter, brother of Johnny Winter." And Ian suddenly started screaming in the same way. That's where that scream at the end of the song came from.

Tell your friends!

It is perhaps difficult to find a guitarist, especially one who is passionate about rock music, who does not know such a name as Ritchie Blackmore. The frontman of three of the most famous and beloved bands, he won sympathy with his special style of playing and is rightfully considered one of the founders of hard rock. But the main thing is that even at 71, this great guitarist with an irrepressible temperament does not stop concert activities and continues to release albums, to the delight of fans.

Musical career of a rebel

The rebellious spirit of Ritchie Harold Blackmore, born in the small British town of Weston-super-Mare, began to manifest itself quite early. As a child, he was quite withdrawn and in every possible way resisted the sanctimonious lifestyle. He didn't like school at all and hated it even more when the math teacher didn't accept his unconventional solution to problems that Rechi's father helped with. He had a strange combination of shyness and a desire to oppose himself to society. For example, he categorically refused to smoke precisely because almost everyone at school smoked. At the same time, he later admitted that he could have become a heavy smoker if the situation had been the other way around. The only thing that attracted him to school was sports, in which he achieved a lot of success.

As soon as Richie saw his friend's guitar, he was captivated by its appearance and sound. His father bought him an instrument, but since it cost quite a lot of money, he threatened to break it over his son’s head if he did not learn to play properly. This was said as a joke, but the father was really afraid that his son would simply play with the instrument and abandon it. But just the opposite happened. Richie began to study seriously classical technique games, which later had a great influence on his style.

In the end, Richie left school at 15 and got a job working for his father at the airport, where he started repairing radios. At the same time, he assembled his own band, which began performing covers at parties and weddings. Having earned money, he bought his first electric guitar, and suddenly found himself in a group The Savages the leader of which was the already famous keyboard player Lord Sutch. Six months of performances gave the musician invaluable experience, which allowed him to become a semi-session musician. He participated in many groups - The Outlaws, Heinz And The Wild Boys, The Crusaders and others, until in 1968 he was invited to new line-up, which already included Lord Such and Chris Curtis, who soon left the group.

Richie became the leader of a new band, for which he proposed the name of his grandmother’s favorite song - “Dark Purple” or Deep Purple. The first album that made famous Deep Purple for all times, became famous In Rock. The group became famous and toured successfully, but in 1975 Richie decided to leave it for his own Rainbow project. New project appealed to many fans of the guitarist's work. The group's singles and albums regularly made it onto best-of lists, although Blackmore's lineup of musicians changed regularly and mercilessly. In 1984, the guitarist decided to suspend the group’s activities, having been inspired by the idea of reassembling the “golden” line-up of Deep Purple. Blackmore performed as part of the group for another 9 years, until he finally left in 1993 right in the middle of a Japanese tour. After that, he reassembled Rainbow, which lasted until 1997.

Obnoxious character

The obnoxious and hooligan character is evidenced by all sorts of stories and antics in which Ritchie Blakemore took an active part. Being a guitarist The group Outlaws, he and other members liked to launch “flour bombs” at passersby from the window of a minibus, which is why he ended up in the police station. During performances with orchestras, he locked the orchestra members in the locker room, and at this time rearranged their notes on the music stands.

During the early days of Deep Purple, the band rehearsed in a building that had a reputation for being haunted. Richie constantly created incidents that frightened other musicians - for example, with a log crawling across the room at night or wild howls and sobs on flights of stairs.

At a rock festival in California in 1974, he was so offended by the organizers who refused to stage the musicians' performance at the previously announced time - at sunset - that he ended up breaking the television camera of one of the cameramen and setting fire to the equipment on stage.

Love at first sight

Judging by his personal life, Blackmore was not a woman lover, however, apparently, he had been looking for “his” woman all his life. He was married several times. But the real feeling came to him at the age of 46, when one day after a concert an eighteen-year-old girl approached him and asked for an autograph. It was, as the musician himself later admitted, love at first sight. Fashion model Candice Knight had a pleasant voice and wrote poetry, so she soon began performing with Rainbow as a backing vocalist. Ritchie Blackmore later left this group for joint project with his beloved woman, calling him Blackmore's Night. They got married after living together for 15 years. After marriage, they had a son and daughter. Candice Knight's voice became business card new group, which earned the adoration of a crowd that still produces albums in the style of Renaissance music, and Ritchie switched almost entirely to acoustics.

Ritchie Blackmore Guitars

The musician's first guitar, the same one his father bought for him, was a Spanish acoustic Framus. By putting a pickup on it, he turned it into an electric guitar. And at the age of 15 he bought a real one electric guitar Gibson ES-335, which he played until 1970, that is, already being a member of Deep Purple. But one day he saw and heard Jimi Hendrix, and from then on he completely switched to the Fender Stratocaster model.

As part of Blackmore's Night, Blackmore prefers to play an Alvarez Yairi electro-acoustic, produced in an old Japanese workshop. The second favorite guitar was the Lakewood A-32 - German acoustic guitar from Indian rosewood. Another guitar from the same company, Lakewood Moon-Guitar, has no analogues, since it is made by hand and received as a gift from the manufacturer himself. As well as the Lakewood 12-string Lute-Guitar - a twelve-string guitar in the shape of an ancient lute with a truly Renaissance sound that is well known to all fans of Blackmore's Night.

All white Stratocasters were subject to alterations and modifications:

the fretboard is scalloped;
the neck was glued into the soundboard;
tremolo levers were changed;
tuners were installed, first Schaller, later - Sperzel Trim-Lok locking machines;
Electronics and pickups were changed, MTC - Master Tone Control was installed.

Scaloping the neck

Scalping refers to the process of removing wood between the frets so that indentations (grooves) remain in the gaps:

The procedure itself is quite simple (if you have straight hands or a guitar master), but scalloping makes its own adjustments to both the playing technique and the final sound:

more accurate control strings - the fingertips touch only the string, and not the fingerboard underneath;
more accurate vibrato- you can do not only classic vibrato, but deep vibrato, or what? - when the finger pressure on the string changes;
when playing, a certain metallic sound appears;
A scalloped neck quickly becomes a little more difficult to play.

On the other hand, the scaloping pattern of Blackmore guitars differs from the common oval-symmetrical one; This is the so-called progressive scaloping:

A differentiated and asymmetrical scaloping profile is clearly visible

Historically, Ritchie made the first attempts to scallop the neck himself (with a meat cleaver), after which the knife was confiscated; his guitar technicians began doing this procedure.

What is the reason for this progressive profile? Recalling my early attempts to analyze Blackmore's vibrato, let me remind you of some facts:

the placement of the fingers of Richie’s left hand is not in the middle between the frets, but closer to the fret of the note being played;
since the vibrato amplitude is wide and the speed is high, the corresponding area of the interfret space should be as spacious as possible, including in 3D (in depth) - this is a direct reference to point 2 of the advantages of scalloping the neck above;
In addition, in riffs Richie purely practices the so-called. “cello” vibrato with a brush directly above the fret:

Pay attention to the position of your fingers relative to the fret space of the fingerboard.

I would like to emphasize that the necks of not only electric guitars, but also acoustic ones (not all, but some) are scaled - the Maestro is true to his habits.

Gluing the neck

The classic Stratocaster design, as invented by Leo Fender, involves attaching the neck to the soundboard with four bolts:

This design ensures that the neck is firmly pressed into the socket, the sustain is quite good and the neck is securely fastened.

In 1971, the Stratocaster mount was changed to a three-bolt mount, with Micro-Tilt technology to adjust the inclination of the neck relative to the soundboard:

Sorry for being vague, but this is a photo of Strat #1 with serial number 578265

By the way, this gluing will come back to haunt Blackmore in the future

Master Tone Control

In addition to re-soldering the electronics, Blackmore's guitars were equipped with a small and invisible from the outside small box with four wires called MTC (Master Tone Control).

There's no denying that Ritchie's electric guitar sounds magical in 1995 and later: it's the sound I personally strive for - but I'm not sure it's not the influence of the ENGL amps used during that period. It is believed that the sound of an early Blackmore guitar can be achieved without any miracle boxes.

Putting together all the scant mentions of MTC on the Internet, we have the following information about the filling of the box:

The MTC has 4 components and a few wires. 2 Resistors, 1 Capacitor, 1 coil, 1 capacitor.
Dawk says it has “2 circuits”, though how a capacitor is a “circuit” I’m not sure. The Red/Black wires go to the capacitor ONLY and it’s not connected to anything else inside. The White Wires go to the resistors and the coil and they are not connected to anything else inside either. The red/black wires replace the cap in your guitar with the same value cap in the MTC! The white wires go to the volume control and this bit only operates on reduced volume. The capacitor only comes in around mark 3 on the tone pot. That's it. It’s packaged in a keyfob box filled wih resin for obvious reasons.

Free translation:

The MTC contains four components: 2 resistors, 1 capacitor, 1 inductor, 1 capacitor (?).
Dawk reports that there are 2 circuits in the box, but I'm not sure how the capacitor can be a circuit in its own right. The red and black wires are connected ONLY to the capacitor and nothing else. The white wires go to the resistors and coil, and are also not connected to anything else. The red and black wires are soldered in place of the stock capacitor on the guitar, and the capacitor inside the MTC has the same capacitance! The white ones are connected to the volume control and this part of the MTC starts to work only in the intermediate position of the volume control. The capacitor is activated in position 3 of the tone knob. That's all. Everything is hermetically sealed in a compound for obvious reasons.

Analysis of similar solutions on the Internet allows us to say with confidence that Dawk uses the so-called Q factor in MTC, based on an LCR circuit with carefully selected component values.

Now specifically about the White Stratocasters.

White Stratocaster #1, serial number 578265

Despite the year of release in 1974, there are certain suspicions that the real release date of the neck and soundboard is earlier: the neck, for example, may even be 1972...1973. It is noted that the neck has a minimum thickness, and this is typical for guitars of these particular years of production. But on the other hand, the 1974 Sunburst Strat that Richie played at the video concert in Munich in 1977 has a wider neck, so we can only guess about the true release dates.

Guitar in pristine whiteness

Over time, improvements in electronics began to appear on the Strat. If the reader remembers, in the early Rainbow the stage design implied the use of a real Rainbow above the stage:

In addition, the pickups were impregnated with a special compound, but not in wax, as is the case with conventional pickups - this, according to Dawk, kills the top end.

In addition to the custom wiring, Dawk shielded the guitar's pickguard and cavities with copper foil and equipped the guitar with a specific MTC - Master Tone Control system.

Due to the fact that the pickups were black, the knobs of the knobs and pickup switch were matched to match them, and the guitar existed in this configuration until 1986:

Pay attention to the wide pickup magnets and the dummy in the middle

Continuing the theme of small nuances, I will draw attention to three distinctive visual facts of Stratocaster No. 1:

transferring the fastening of the strap to the guitar from the end of the upper horn to the back side;
greenish plastic pickguard in the early...mid 80s;
light scratch aka scratch on the soundboard below the second tone knob.

This was the sad fate of Blackmore’s workhorse, who faithfully served the Maestro for almost 20 years.

White Stratocaster #2, serial number S778960

Released in 1977, this guitar had all the attributes of the Stratocasters of that period, including:

black plastic pickguard, pickup covers and potentiometer knobs, tremolo lever and pickup switch;
serial number S778960, located on the headstock, under the word “Fender”;
cast tremolo and saddles.

In all other respects, it was a classic CBS-era Stratocaster: Olympic White, with an oversized knob, bullet neck and rosewood fingerboard:

The electronics of the guitar were, naturally, subjected to changes: instead of standard pickups, “Velvet Hammer” manufactured by Red Rhodes were installed - high-quality wound pickups in the Fender style. According to the established tradition, two pickups were installed, and a demagnetized pickup was installed in the middle to create a humbucker effect - muffling unwanted “background”. Of course, the MTC magic box was also attached to the guitar (by the way, chronologically, this instrument was the first MTC to receive).

In 1981, the black plastic pickguard was replaced with a white one, and the guitar acquired the familiar features of Ritchie Blackmore's signature style:

Visually, the guitar differed from Strat No. 1 in that it had narrower pickup magnets and the absence of a Lulz strap button on the knob (well, and the presence of a serial number on the neck):

It is known that this Stratocaster was equipped with two Bill Lawrence L-250 pickups, which are humbuckers in a standard single-coil body:

Also, instead of a standard output jack, the guitar was equipped with an Alembic Stratoblaster active booster, powered by a 9-volt battery. In addition, the guitar featured an extra-long tremolo arm.

The instrument was subsequently also equipped with a Roland GK-1 MIDI sensor:

The further fate is little known, but presumably this Strat starred in the “Ariel” video: