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Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

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  • Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

    Most of us know that Ritchie has for some time used Quarter Pounds in his Strat in the bridge & neck, and doesn't use a middle pickup. But when did he start using the Quarter Pounds? The old original Smoke On The Water doesn't sound like Quarter Pounds to me. It sounds to me more like vintage Strat neck tone overdrivin some. It is a totally different tone than the Smoke On The Water that he does on more recent live recordings of that song. The more recent ones sound like the Quarter Pounds, which I believe that it would be safe to say that that is what we are hearing.

    What about Ritchie's old vintage Strat tone? I saw an old photo of Ritchie in an old guitar magazine, and he was playing a sunburst strat with white pickup covers and what looked to be normal sized Strat magnets so this sort of confirms that I may be right in what I am hearing on the earlier recordings. Which SD pup do you think would get closest to that old Blackmore Strat tone? I'm thinking Antiquity TX Hot or Antiquity II or maybe even APS-1s. Any comments??
    Ritchie also used a Gibson or Guild or something a little also early in his career.
    Thanks

  • #2
    Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

    Richie played a 335 on early DP recordings as well as pre DP recordings. I am guessing the Strat he played pre-Duncan QP's were stock strat pickups, maybe overwound by someone?

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    • #3
      Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

      As far as I knew the older strats with the black pickups werent even Quarter Pounders. I'm not sure I ever saw one of his guitars with the Quarter Pounders either. Maybe during the mid - late 80's early 90's?


      His Signature Strat came with Lace Sensors

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      • #4
        Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

        Hello Hello-
        Back in the '60's I replaced Blackmore in a band called "Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages" [ a whole different story.......] and I was around for the "pre-Deep Purple post-Deep Purple" era. He used a dot-neck Gibson ES-335 through a Vox AC-30 amp up until early '70. From 1970 he switched over to the Strat and Marshall. The Strats he played [starting with the black one..] had stock Fender pickups but later on he had them re-wound [maybe by mid-70's]. Most of the stuff that people associate with the "Blackmore Sound" was played on early 70's Strats through his tape delay through modded Marshalls. The Strats had alder bodies, too [warmer tone...]. I lost track of what pickups he was using after that period [he changed them around alot!]
        Brian.

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        • #5
          Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

          Good story Brian so you were around when he was doing session work and playing with the Outlaws, Lancasters, Rally Rounders etc etc.

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          • #6
            Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

            Lace says their Silver Sensors sound very close to his Deep Purple days.
            Seymour Duncans I've owned: Dimebucker, '59n, '59b, PG+n, JB, Phat Cat, PGn, Custom, Seth Lover, '78.

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            • #7
              Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

              Hello Fusion 1--
              I didn't see any of that stuff get recorded, but I was playing in different bands at that same period. Great time for music.......it'll never happen again..
              Brian.

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              • #8
                Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                it will happen again
                http://www.myspace.com/wildcatdotdotdot

                Fender Telecaster 1962 Reissue MIJ
                >cord<
                1968 Fender Twin Reverb

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                • #9
                  Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                  I heard he raised the polepieces on his 335 really high to get that single coil vibe from a humbucker.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                    Hello Hello--
                    Yeah, he did raise 'em up off the top of the humbuckers, especially on the neck pickup.
                    What I meant by "it'll never happen again" was the same bunch of people [from back then] will never play in the same way again. Creation happens only once...everything after that is not the same as the original!
                    Flank-- Thanks for the clips!
                    Brian.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                      Originally posted by brianwenz
                      Hello Hello--
                      Yeah, he did raise 'em up off the top of the humbuckers, especially on the neck pickup.
                      What I meant by "it'll never happen again" was the same bunch of people [from back then] will never play in the same way again. Creation happens only once...everything after that is not the same as the original!
                      Flank-- Thanks for the clips!
                      Brian.
                      Brian,

                      Curious-- did Blackmore utilize dummy coils in the Strat to cancel the hum inherent in single coil pickups?

                      Joe

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                      • #12
                        Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                        Joe, I don't think so as I have heard some hum on some of the live Rainbow stuff.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                          Originally posted by Fusion1
                          Joe, I don't think so as I have heard some hum on some of the live Rainbow stuff.
                          Could be a myth-- I've heard tales of guys like Blackmore, Hendrix and Vaughan using dummies. Although, Blackmore would use Strats out of the box on stage, so there would be little time to customize the instrument.
                          Last edited by Boston Joe; 07-05-2004, 10:23 PM.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Blackmore - Before Quarter Pounds

                            Hello Hello-
                            Eeerrrmmmm.......don't know about any dummie coils. I know that later on he switched a lot of different pickup combos around, so who knows?? Maybe the dummie-coil idea was tried before the Fender noiseless pickups [Lace] came out. [A bunch of people DID try out the dummie-coil idea at different times.]
                            Brian.

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