Any obsessively-minute-detail Ritchie Blackmore scholars here?

[stubhead]

I'm very specifically interested in the solo tone on the studio version of "Lazy" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPM6ni4bQzc

It's just so cold, yet killer. What IS that at 2:18 in? Of course it's a Strat - middle pickup? I don't think it's a Marshall, though the background pentatonic theme sound is Marshall. And he uses it again at 6:08. It's really, really clean, compared to what would come just a few years later. I just wonder how he made that tone. Do Strats do that if you turn them down but into a cranked amp?

here's a live one, it's close, but not that... evil CHILL you know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1SYPGaK7_o

 

[Updown]

:toothy10:  OH yeah man .... what a great song indeed, one of my all time fav's from Purple  :headbang:

I got no idea to your Q's thou StubHead.

:dontknow:  Wonder how many of you knew this .....
Did you know that Ritchie used Roland Synths and a GK-2.
From about 1984.
In the Rainbow era used a GR-700

Around the 1.58 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tsw3nKDlBE

Fender Blackmore GK-2
http://www.kellyindustries.com/guitars/roland_midi_guitar.html

 

[bbl4ck]

I'm very specifically interested in the solo tone on the studio version of "Lazy" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPM6ni4bQzc

It's just so cold, yet killer. What IS that at 2:18 in? Of course it's a Strat - middle pickup? I don't think it's a Marshall, though the background pentatonic theme sound is Marshall. And he uses it again at 6:08. It's really, really clean, compared to what would come just a few years later. I just wonder how he made that tone. Do Strats do that if you turn them down but into a cranked amp?

here's a live one, it's close, but not that... evil CHILL you know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1SYPGaK7_o

Yes, there is quite a difference between the studio version and the live version posted.  The studio version does just nail it! 
I too have no idea what they are using, but I am diggin' it...
I actually saw Deep Purple for that 72' tour that is posted.  I remember it well; well, sorta well, considering the times and I was 15 years old.
Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, and The Buddy Miles Blues Band; Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A.
:rock-on:

 

[Cagey]

I'm sure it's pretty much what you think - A backed-off Strat into a Marshall - but I think it's the bridge pickup.

Keep in mind that it's a fairly old Strat. That album was recorded in '71, so the fiddle's almost certainly older than that. The pickups weren't that hot back then. Rolling them back even a little didn't give the amp much to work with, so they got cleaner than you might get with almost anything from today. With today's pickups, you might cop the tone but not the dynamics as you'd have to back them off even further.

I will say this, though. If you wanted to cover that tune, you could do worse than to heat up the guitar. Listen to it objectively - chops aside, it's kinda wimpy. I'd kick it up a notch for some added urgency. The lyrics won't match the heat, but the tune sorta needs it.

 

[mayfly]

I hear that Blackmore started out using AC30s but switched to marshalls only after he was blown off the stage by Leslie West.

Could it be that that tune was recorded with the Vox?

 

[Cagey]

You used to build modified Vox clones. Does that really sound like a Vox to you? I could easily be wrong, but that doesn't sound like any Vox I've ever heard.

Of course, there are such things as tone controls. Which brings up another possibility - the engineer EQ'd Mr. Blackmore to mix with Mr. Lord better, using one of those sneaky British consoles. You'll notice both instruments sound remarkably similar.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

:dontknow:
"A longtime user of the fire-breathing 200-watt Marshall Major, Blackmore’s secret weapon (aside from the occasional wah-wah), was an old Aiwa reel-to-reel tape recorder. Since 1970, the Sorcerer of the Strat would plug his ax directly into the recorder’s input, and with the machine kept paused in “record” mode, use it as a preamp to kick his Marshalls into high gear. “The Aiwa gives me a fatter sound,” says Blackmore. “If I don’t use it, the tone is too shrill. I find it very difficult to play without it. It’s become this little soul on the side of the stage—like my little friend."


10 Things You Gotta Do To Play Like Ritchie Blackmore

 

[stubhead]

Yeah, that makes sense. It sounds like a secret weapon. It just doesn't quite fit into the Marshall/Fender tone categories. Cagey says "more crank!" to the guitar, but I think it stands out so well because it's clean - and John Lord's the one who's running his Hammond organ through the howling Marshalls!  :laughing7: And that 200-watt Marshall Major would be cleaner, because it's so powerful you have huge headroom. Like with the original Allman Brothers, Dickie Betts is the cleaner tone because he's using 100 watt heads, and Duane was the more saturated tone because he played 50 watt heads at "10". Which was also Jeff Beck's secret weapon until 1999 - just turned the volume and treble up to 10 on the amp, and worked all the rest off the guitar. Surely, talent has nothing to do with it.  :dontknow: Thank goodness for that!

 

[SustainerPlayer]

I was thinking about the Aiwa reel-to-reel tape recorder-thingey. Maybe he didn't always run that - that hot.

But if I wanted Blackmores tone I would probably book him to play ...  :icon_biggrin:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Isn't he notoriously not a middle pickup man too.  The 2 incarnations of the Blackmore Strat, one didn't have a middle pickup at all, and the later just had a cover.  Of course when anyone says they never or always use something, it isn't to be taken literally.

 

[Cagey]

Isn't he notoriously not a middle pickup man too.

Yes. Not that unusual, in my experience. I've seen a lot of Strat players who just slap that blade switch from one end to the other.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Yes. Not that unusual, in my experience. I've seen a lot of Strat players who just slap that blade switch from one end to the other.

That's true, but I'm not sure why. I really dig the middle pickup sound, and use it quite a bit. Maybe I'm just weird (probably) or have no idea what I'm doing (almost certainly).

 

[Nando Vallart]

I'll say my reason why I low the maximum possible the middle pickup, perhaps is the same reason for these guys you said...

It is just on the way I pick, it annoys a lot - before hitting the string you hit the damn pickup...
The strat I'm making will be my only guitar with middle pickup and you can bet it will be as low as possible...

 

[AutoBat]

I play just above the middle pickup on my Strat, and in the vacant space between pups on my VIP.  The only guitar I've ever had difficulty with is the Tele.  I often hit the pup selector.  I know the reasoning behind those that flip the controls around so there's a volume pot there instead.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Someone please tell Ritchie and Knopfler they're doing it wrong.  A Strat bridge pickup isn't supposed to sound good.