Blackmore Tone

[lifted]

I was wondering .... I have been digging Ritchie Blackmore's Tone lately (Old Stuff , but Especially Perfect Strangers..)  And   Which BK would You use for that tone?  To me it sounds like he is in pos. 2, Bridge/mid,  but I'm not sure.  Anybody know?

[DeanS]

Pickup wise I would say nothing too gainy in order to preserve the dynamics etc.

Blackmore along with many 'old school' guitarists used a treble boost in front of non- master volume valve amps ie traditional amp gain structure to achieve their tone. Blackmore adopted the Hornby Skewes booster of which a replica is now being made by BSM, the HS and HS-custom

http://www.treblebooster.net

http://www.lmentryimports.co.uk

I recently bought the RM model and have done away with my assortment of overdrive pedals.

[lifted]

Velly  Intlesting!   I have no clue about this kinda stuff.  The only thing I can say is when i hear Treble booster , I cringe cause I have a strat whose Bridge is Ice picky already(not fitted with BKPs yet).  But I realise there must be more than meets the eye electronicly, cause I read a little on that site about not having to use Presence nob on amp.   Thanks alot for the reply.  Tell me More.  Do you use one?

[TwilightOdyssey]

I'm a huge Rainbow fan! For the classic Blackmore tone, honestly, I would use the Apache.
The early Rainbow tone is classic Strat all the way, with a really glassy upper frequency range.


If you wanted more bite, go with the Irish Tours. For a slightly darker and more sinister sound, the Slowhand.

Just my 2 cents, of course.

[lifted]

Thanks, Twilight Odyssey.  That's funny you say Apaches  cause I have the money  THIS WEEK!  Praise God!   for  my first complete BK set, so I have really been vascilating between Apaches and Irish tours in neck&middle and VHII or Nailbomb in bridge.  The blackmore question was just sort of off topic for me out of curiousity, but lo, it led back to Apaches anyway.  As it gets down to buying time  I am getting indecisive again.  The main concern with Apaches is the output with the humbuckers.   Tell me if I'm right... Apaches with VHII  might be too much of a volume diff., and definitely   Apache with Nailbombs, Right.?
  The target tone  for clean for me is SRV's Lenny and Knopfler  7 Hendrix(but not as trebbly) as a base and anyting else is icing.   I like bite or oomph for cleans, but not in the mids or Spiky treble range.  I go back and forth with the two little wing clips  , one apach and  one w Its, and I  kinda like the softerness of the apache, but the It clip is beautiful in its own way too.  I have always used position 4 for Wing,  though so maybe If I got Its and used inbetween pos.  it would be softer than that clip.
     If I can get the hotter  Its to be sparkly clucky and harmonicY enough for  decent Lenny, I can match them with VhII or even Nailbomb.    
   Sorry about the long windedness, :oops:  but there is no Therapy Room chat for potential BK buyers for their Indecisiveness due to the fact that all the clips sound soooooooo good!   :lol:   Thanks in advance      , Lifted

[TwilightOdyssey]

LOL!


Okay, well the Apaches are the way to go for the single coil stuff.
For the humbucker, you might wanna go with a VHII or a Black Dog. The Apache will have no problems with output. In fact, there probably wouldn't be a problem with the Nailbomb, but the NB will drive the amp harder, and you might not like the tonal shift. I use a Miracle Man with an Irish Tour neck, and love it, but there IS a big difference in the amount of drive over my Cold Sweat/Trilogy set.

[lifted]

Well since I  am not a Fender Bridge  pickup fan much,  I don't care about the tonal shift going to, say a nailbomb, but from 6k to 16k  sounds like alot o f just volume difference..  I guess i  could turn patch level down on my multi effects unit  for leads..  I play harder edged rock in a Church where I go from pristine cleans to a lead channel for solos or distorted rythms.  My main concern is going for a solo and it being too loud, but I could always lower the nailbomb height too.    Anyway i think I'll talk to  Mastermind Tim himself about about wanting to go from Lenny to  Dimebag at the drop of a hat.    By the way did Blackmore always just use Single coils in his Strats, or did he have some HBs too.?   and did He use in-between positions like Pos. 2  or is that my imagination?

[DeanS]

Lifted, what amp(s) are you using?

Forgot to mention that treble boosters only really work with valve amps. They work similar to an overdrive pedal ie pushing an already cooking amp into total submission. The main difference IMO is the transparency you get as well as keeping the bass response of the amp under control at high volumes.

I'm using the BSM RM version thro' a 70's JMP Marshall  and a Cornford Harly
and it really makes both sizzle! I never turn it off now- I just use my guitar's volume to clean things up.

Not heard the Apaches (apart from the soundclips on here) but from what I can gather they sound ideal for that 60/70's angry strat tone.

[_tom_]

Well if it makes any difference to your decision.. I have an SD Custom Custom in my strat (sounds cr@p compared to BK mules in my LP btw).. and although its meant to be around 14k, whilst the Mule is around 8-9k I think, the Mule has more power I reckon.. so the singles should still be powerful enough.. but then again the same could be for the NB bridge.. could sound really powerful as its BK AND is high output, just realised my post hasnt really been very helpful  :lol:

[lifted]

Thanks, Dean for the tech info.  I am using a very cream of the crop earlier  model Rivera Knucklehead  (I just realised I'm gonna  have Bareknuckles through a Knucklehead!  Perfect!) :P   It is 100 watt 5 12ax7 and 4 El34s.   At Church, though I don't even go through an amp.  I go guitar>>Zoom GFX5>>Direct box>>P.A.   I just make do for church without an amp. The GFX5 helps make that O.K., but I am interested in the treb boost for the Rivera.  I was just thinking about getting an Ubermetal pedal to drive it into metal territoty wihtout going deaf.  That amp is SOOOOOOO loud.  I worry that the pedal will change the otherwise beautiful Rivera tone, though, and I also thought about a Hotplate  , but if the Treb boost works like you say, then that's what i need!

[Elliot]

For Blackmore I'd say Mother's Milks or Irish Tours rather than Apaches - I don't think Apaches have that Blackmore esque tone when cranked - Mother's get there easy (and I don't own ITs but they have a bit more on top)

[Gary]

I use a MIA Strat with Apaches through a Keeley Java Boost (mid boost mode) into a Fender HRD and a Hot Plate - really classic rock strat tone. I don't know your amp but if you're going to get the best out of a treble booster I expect you'll need the amp turned up to about 3/4 so you'd probably need the hot plate.

[GREENYFAN]

Read some where that Ritchie Blackmore only used the bridge and neck pickups on his Strats as he had the middle pickup screwed down flush with the scratchplate.

GREENYFAN

[TwilightOdyssey]

GREENY, this is true. Blackmore's middle pickup was not active. In fact, his signature Fender Strat has a Roland synth pickup on it, and doesn't even have a middle pickup!!

http://dane.sound.pl//prod/1445/0102400.jpg

[PhilKing]

he was also using AC30's behind the marshalls.  Go with Mothers Milk I think on this one - if you have a rosewood neck strat that is.