Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

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1.- I know at some point Ritchie Balckmore's signature strat included Quarter Pound for Strat but there is no noiseless option. You know of a similar and noiseless one you have tried?

2.- I really liked hist tone in the "Come hell or high water" concert. Those do not look like Quarter Pound to me. You know for certain what pick ups he used in that era 93-96 era? Here is a link

 
Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

IIRC, in #2 its Lace Sensor Gold.
 
Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

1.- I know at some point Ritchie Balckmore's signature strat included Quarter Pound for Strat but there is no noiseless option. You know of a similar and noiseless one you have tried?

2.- I really liked hist tone in the "Come hell or high water" concert. Those do not look like Quarter Pound to me. You know for certain what pick ups he used in that era 93-96 era? Here is a link


He never used Quarter Pounders in his guitars, it is a mystery why they are in his Sig. Strat.
 
Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

Based on suggestion I looked at Lace Sensor page. There is a Lace Sesonr Purple :) and description says it is a fat single coil (I like that) and note says "Think: Blackmore".

Has anyone tried Lace Sensor Purple?

How about the silver? Description says "fat" and "70's".
 
Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

Re: Ritchie Balckmore's tone, but noiseless?

Blackmore have several guitars with Quarter Pounders according to his guitar tech.

Here's a rundown of his pickups throughout the years:

"Blackmore has experimented with many different pickups in his Strats. In the early Rainbow era, they were still stock Fenders, later Dawk installed over wound, dipped, Fender pickups. He has also used Schecter F-500-Ts, Velvet Hammer "Red Rhodes", DiMarzio "HS-2", OBL "Black Label", Bill Lawrence L-450, XL-250 (bridge), L-250 (neck). He used Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Flat SSL-4 for several years and since the late 80s he has used Lace Sensor (Gold) "noiseless" pickups."
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

Ritchie Blackmore never used SD Quarter Pounders. The large rod pickups you see him use are Schecter F-400s. The difference to the QPs is that QPs don't only have larger rod magnets, they also have awg43 medium-wind coils. The Schecters have vintage class wing with awg42 wire. Blackmore never used pickups with coils heavier than vintage class.

1995 Rainbow is Lace Sensor Gold, but be aware that there is a "hot gold" lace sensor which you don't want for this. You need both positions vintage class, no hot anything. I am not sure whether he was there in 1993.

He has also been seen using some form of rails strat sized humbuckers which are probably Joe Bardens. But those are expensive.
 
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Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

BTW, the secret to the admittedly awesome CHOHW sound is that he was really pissed off :)

Just like 1972 Made in Japan's sound secret: play very very loud.
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

Also notice the address of the Blackmore article treblebooster.net

A treble booster was a Blackmore staple. Treble booster and noise go hand in hand
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

Ritchie Blackmore never used SD Quarter Pounders. The large rod pickups you see him use are Schecter F-400s. The difference to the QPs is that QPs don't only have larger rod magnets, they also have awg43 medium-wind coils. The Schecters have vintage class wing with awg42 wire. Blackmore never used pickups with coils heavier than vintage class.

1995 Rainbow is Lace Sensor Gold, but be aware that there is a "hot gold" lace sensor which you don't want for this. You need both positions vintage class, no hot anything. I am not sure whether he was there in 1993.

He has also been seen using some form of rails strat sized humbuckers which are probably Joe Bardens. But those are expensive.

I KNOW this is late (it's 2017), but those were Bill Lawrence rail pickups, L250 I think, not Bardens.
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

Current (2017) noiseless pickups for Ritchie's sound might be the Classic Stacks or the YJM Fury set. Well, just the neck and bridge, as he never uses the middle position and seems to change pickups constantly. I know Ritchie constantly battled hum from the giant Rainbow on stage. It makes sense to use noiseless pickups. His modern sound (using an ENGL amp) is smoother, and sadly, more generic sounding.
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

His old stage rigs often had a Vox AC-30 hidden inside a hollowed out Marshall 4x12 cab. Supposedly he blended them to get more bite than the Marshalls alone gave him.
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

1.- I know at some point Ritchie Balckmore's signature strat included Quarter Pound for Strat but there is no noiseless option. You know of a similar and noiseless one you have tried?

2.- I really liked hist tone in the "Come hell or high water" concert. Those do not look like Quarter Pound to me. You know for certain what pick ups he used in that era 93-96 era? Here is a link


Being a devoted student of tone for a long time now... Ritchie's tone is one that has eluded me for decades.

One day I will nail it, though.
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

His old stage rigs often had a Vox AC-30 hidden inside a hollowed out Marshall 4x12 cab. Supposedly he blended them to get more bite than the Marshalls alone gave him.

This is true...the Vox didn't look 'rock' enough. You can still hear that Vox sound on some of the old videos with his 335 (with Marshalls in the back). Add a lot of attitude, and the fact that he certainly seemed he was taking his anger out on his Strats.
His 1991 Signature Strat used 2 gold lace sensors, but I had never seen any pics of him actually using this guitar.
 
Re: Ritchie Blackmore's tone, but noiseless?

In the mid '70s, I was at Dawk's shop, outside Cortland, NY, as he was doing some amp work for me and a friend. I had the chance to crank one of Ritchie's scalloped fingerboard Strats through one of his "Dawked" Marshall Major stacks! Ungodly loud and I thought the walls of that single wide trailer were going to explode, but what a magnificent, harmonically rich tone! Dawk was a real, card carrying, maniacal lunatic, but he sure knew how to "squeeze" every drop of energy out of an amp that it could muster! Still, the most key ingredient of Blackmore's sound is Ritchie!
Just Sayin'
Gene
 
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