The Ritchie - My Ritchie Blackmore Tribute

[MikeW]

I've always been a huge fan of Ritchie's, as far back as the first Rainbow album and then, of course, after I heard Machinehead for the first time. The iconic image that I have of him is with those off-white Strats with black pickups and chrome hardware.

Here's the inspiration:

I believe that this one had the scalloped neck and was (I believe) the mid-70's Strat that he toured with in both Deep Purple and Rainbow. There's an interesting list of his Strats here: https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/a-list-of-ritchie-blackmore-strats-for-your-approval.74815/

So I had an old banger of a Strat that I cobbled together from parts that were given to me. It was primarily used as my travel guitar and wasn't a daily player. This is a Vintage Strat Body from a '57 reissue, a Player Stratocaster neck (12-inch radius), Fender branded Schaller locking tuners, and an American Stratocaster bridge.

I wound up pulling that one apart to build a nice Strat for my stepson's birthday, and had the body and a couple other things left over. I also had a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders sitting around not being used. So, what to do? Build a tribute, of course.

 

[MikeW]

Here's the concept. I was originally going to put a Wilkinson VS100 in it since I really like those bridges, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I should try to keep as true to the original as possible. The problem with that I can't keep a vintage Fender Strat bridge in tune for more than a song or two. So the original concept has the VS100 on it, but after a little research I wound up choosing the Wilkinson VSVG as the bridge. It uses the same 6-hole pattern as the original Fender bridge but has some nice updates for tuning stability.

I've always been a fan of headstocks that match the body, and I didn't currently have anything in the arsenal in either that color scheme or with matching headstock. So, kill two birds with one stone!

 

[MikeW]

Strangely enough, the original paint on the body cracked and a really large chip fell off. I decided that I was going to strip the whole thing down and start from scratch.

The body was a little on the heavy side too, so I also routed out a bunch of the extra material from under the pickguard to see if I could get it closer to 4 lbs than 5lbs. Turns out there's a really nice piece of Ash under all that old paint. I debated going with an off-white stain or dye to see if could get to an off-white version of a Mary Kaye finish, but had already bought the paint and poly so I wound up sticking to the original color scheme. This is after stripping, sanding, grain filler and sanding sealer.

Test fit for parts. Looking pretty good. That black pickguard will be replaced with a white-black-white one like in the concept.

It's an interesting shot of the VSVG as well. It's got the VS100's base and block, but it's cut a bit differently to lessen the amount of tension on the string as it comes through the block and over the saddle. Look closely and you can see that the saddle retains the same bent steel shape that the vintage Strat bridge saddle has. There's a twist to it so that the saddle wraps up and around, and the idea is that the string still sits in the saddle in the V between the height adjustment screws like in the original saddles.

 

[MikeW]

Here's the neck. I decided to get a new neck for The Ritchie and went with Roasted Maple/Rosewood with SS6105 frets and a roller nut. I just happened to find this one in the Showcase and it already had my typical setup. This is it taped it all up and ready for paint.

Here's the front of the neck after assembly. I really dig the contrast between the cream paint on the headstock and the black hardware. This is the first time I've got a Warmoth neck with their standard cream colored fretboard dots. Interestingly, they're a bit darker than they appear in the pictures on the website. Not really noticeable unless you're looking for it though. Hardware is Gotoh locking mini tuners, LSR roller nut, Stainless Steel threaded inserts.

And the back of the neck. Check out the lock buttons on the back of the tuners.I thought this was an interesting touch since I'm using Black hardware everywhere except for the bobbins in the pickups, the screws and neckplate. Those are all chrome, so having the lock buttons match the chrome is a cool touch, I think. I really love the grain pattern in Roasted Maple too. This one is especially nice.

 

[MikeW]

Neck and pickguard competed. Time to move on to the meat of the project.

Here we go...

 

[MikeW]

Assembled and ready to go. All the routing paid off with the body weighing in at just over 4lbs so it's very resonant and lively. The balance is very good too with the Roasted Maple neck keeping the weight way down.

...and Voila!

 

[RoboNarples]

Looks great! I've always loved the Blackmore Sig but this makes me want to consider just making my own. Interested to know if you went for the extra touch of accuracy with making the middle pickup non-functional.

 

[stratamania]

Congratulations on the new guitar.

Obviously you have not tried to make an exact replica but for interest the strat pictured with Blackmore in the first post does indeed have a scalloped neck. Over the years it has had many pickups in it, but although Fender put SD Quarter Pounders in the signature model based upon it the real one never used them. The QPs are visually similar to the Schechter F500Ts he had in it at one time.

There is quite a good write up of Blackmore's gear over the years at the link below.

http://www.treblebooster.net/bsm-tonezone/ritchie-blackmore

 

[rgand]

Congrats. Nice work. Looks good.

 

[MikeW]

Obviously you have not tried to make an exact replica but for interest the strat pictured with Blackmore in the first post does indeed have a scalloped neck. Over the years it has had many pickups in it, but although Fender put SD Quarter Pounders in the signature model based upon it the real one never used them. The QPs are visually similar to the Schechter F500Ts he had in it at one time.

No, I wasn't going for "replica" but more for "tribute". I do have a really quirky set of things I like in the guitars I play live and this one is getting used in the blues and funk stuff, so it had to be functional and "tribute-y".

I do recall reading that he had several different sets of pickups in his various Strats over the years and I picked up this set of QP's for the purpose of getting a Blackmore-esque sound out of the guitar they were going in. That guitar was parted out a long time ago, but the pickups were still in the parts bin collecting dust.

There is quite a good write up of Blackmore's gear over the years at the link below.

http://www.treblebooster.net/bsm-tonezone/ritchie-blackmore

Nice. I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[MikeW]

Looks great! I've always loved the Blackmore Sig but this makes me want to consider just making my own. Interested to know if you went for the extra touch of accuracy with making the middle pickup non-functional.

Ha. I thought about it for about 10 seconds, but I actually like the middle position for twangy Tele kinds of sounds without the nasally tone that comes from the bridge position. I also debated putting a blender pot in for a bit more flexibility. I may still go back and do that at some point, but I like what it's got under the hood enough for now.

 

[PhilHill]

Very Nice job. You should now enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don't you just love Fender's plastic coated guitars. You can sometimes strip the whole body with nothing but a single edge razor blade. The finish doesn't so much stick to the body as it just encases it.

 

[stratamania]

No, I wasn't going for "replica" but more for "tribute". I do have a really quirky set of things I like in the guitars I play live and this one is getting used in the blues and funk stuff, so it had to be functional and "tribute-y".

And of course that is a perfectly fine course of action to take  ccasion14:

 

[bagman67]

Gorgeous work, Mike.  When I saw the finish come off that gorgeous ash body, I was almost sad to see it go back under an opaque paint job, but you allayed my qualms by doing a masterful job.  I'm very happy for you, buddy.

 

[MikeW]

Very Nice job. You should now enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don't you just love Fender's plastic coated guitars. You can sometimes strip the whole body with nothing but a single edge razor blade. The finish doesn't so much stick to the body as it just encases it.

Right? At first I thought "Oh No!", but when I teased at the edges of the cracked finish with my fingernail and it kept coming apart I thought "I could do a better job than this". And it came off pretty easily with a razor and a paint scraper. The very last of it was just me and a block and 80 grit. After that I just went through the grits until it was ready for paint. Came out great too.

I don't know if you can tell, but I left it with a satin finish. I was going to polish it all the way but really started liking how it looked with a flat finish. So we'll see how it holds up. Maybe it'll relic nicely.

 

[MikeW]

Gorgeous work, Mike.  When I saw the finish come off that gorgeous ash body, I was almost sad to see it go back under an opaque paint job, but you allayed my qualms by doing a masterful job.  I'm very happy for you, buddy.

Thank you Ian! High praise from you. I certainly hope that when all the Covid-madness is finished that you'll come by and give it a spin. The door is always open and we can crank the amps up loud enough to guarantee social distancing!  :laughing11: