Ritchie Blackmore

[yngwie308]

Just to add here the Long Beach Arena show dated February 27 1976, has Tommy at his most excellent with the MK IV lineup, you would even like what he does with the song Burn..it's on Wolfgang's Vault and can be listened to for free. This show is an excellently recorded gig with the best sound of Tommy's guitar I have heard, I believe this was know as the bootleg "On The Wings of a Russian Foxbat".
Listen to this show to hear what was this lineup at it's best, all went downhill fast.
You know the Mk III lineup and the Mk II lineup have so much friggin' tension between the man in black, no not Johnny Cash.. and Ian Gillian and then Hughes and Coverdale that it often spoils it for me. RB is brilliant there is no doubt, just this moody stuff is too dramatic for me most of the time, especially live. Personally I think Gillian did a lot for DP over the years, I see both points of view, but when Ritchie formed Rainbow, how much difference was there in that band, just Ritchie had more 'control', they had some decent stuff, but not the power of DP itself.
This Long Beach Arena gig is incredible to hear Bolin at his best, not f*&(d up is great..

thanks
yngwie308

[yngwie308]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGPjEt-J ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE95Foht ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3i3AppF ... re=channel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC9g_r0Y ... re=channel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Tommy had a lot going on before DP, drugs suck..
yngwie308

[nikos]

Dear Laz7, what is the Fulltone OCD?I think this is the way to achieve the sound of your into the fire solo, or??

[Tone Slinger]

A strat,a superlead, a 4/12 and either sheer volume OR a 'natural' type push , like, say a eq box up front, not too much. Ritchie used some modded out tape delay. A OCD would work as well.

I think Tommy was a very 'noble' looking native american (souix or Cheyenne ? maybe Blackfoot ?) I really dug his playing on 'Spectrum' (Quadrant 4, WOW !), as well as 'James Gang Bang' and Miami (I love 'Prelude'). I dont think he did justice to Blackmore's work with purple. He probably shouldnt have even tried.

At that time, Uli Roth or Michael Schenker might have been able to pull it off, but few other's could have.

[nikos]

A strat, a plexi and a 4x12 are already on my set.A hornby skewes clone too.What exactly is the OCD?
Thanks

[Tone Slinger]

It is a fet based overdrive circuit.It is very clear and natural sounding. Very much akin to the preamp master volume circuits you find in the new, top of the line solid state amps, like the Marshall MG series. I guess you could say it is based on the latest 'linear' overdrive type circuits.

I hear that very midrange 'honk' in Blackmore's tone. The OCD doesnt really excel in the mid's.

I think a ppimv(post phase inverter master volume, a easy way to get 'cranked' marshall tones, less 'Metal' sounding than the more common preamp gain circuits) on a superlead along with your modded Hornsby unit would work great.

[nikos]

So, you suggest that my setup with the ppimv, will make the sound of the into the fire song?Any ideas on whcih to choose?
Thanks,
Nikos

[leadguy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIls71_Gmo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsVZup02-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[NY Chief]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIls71_Gmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsVZup02-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope DP gets royalties for that rip!

[laz7]

Dear Laz7, what is the Fulltone OCD?I think this is the way to achieve the sound of your into the fire solo, or??

Nikos, sorry for the late answer.
With a Fulltone OCD, Pexi, Strat setup you can get some early Blackmore tones (ie. in Rock)
Anything later than that is very hard to achieve.
My stratocaster is 26 years old and very mid-rangy. Also I move around the recording microphone until I find the sweetspot
I hope this helps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP8mJEmYrxk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP1_1OhT8mk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[yngwie308]

A strat,a superlead, a 4/12 and either sheer volume OR a 'natural' type push , like, say a eq box up front, not too much. Ritchie used some modded out tape delay. A OCD would work as well.

I think Tommy was a very 'noble' looking native american (souix or Cheyenne ? maybe Blackfoot ?) I really dug his playing on 'Spectrum' (Quadrant 4, WOW !), as well as 'James Gang Bang' and Miami (I love 'Prelude'). I dont think he did justice to Blackmore's work with purple. He probably shouldnt have even tried.

At that time, Uli Roth or Michael Schenker might have been able to pull it off, but few other's could have.

Billy, Tommy never wanted to play the Blackmore era songs either, just as he had no choice but to play the Joe Walsh material with James Gang, but when you follow the known, name guitarist that's what you do. Tommy never aped anybodys style, he sounds like Tommy Bolin playing a Blackmore DP song to me.
The Long Beach show you should really hear, Tommy absolutely nails the RB tunes on this show, seriously, you won't find these clips on You Tube as Purple Records released it, I had to send to England for my copy.
If you like I can "Burn", sorry couldn't resist the pun, a copy for you, it will change your mind.
I am still waiting for BSM treble boosters to publish my huge Bolin article, haven't heard from them in awhile, if not it's going up on my blog, which I was going to let run out, but was convinced by some, including our own Richard Baines "Bainzy" to continue with, as I only get spam bot replies to my blog, jamming up my email, up to 50 a day with the Word Press format I am stuck using.
Speaking of Micheal Schenker have you heard the clips of this guy who plays, VH,Nuno, MS, Yngwie, you name it he is sick.
I'll post it here, speaking of Tommy's Sioux Indian heritage I was called a racist by some Gear Page wanker for saying that Tommy being a Native American/partially, that he was pre-disposed to suffer badly from alcoholism, which is freakin' true, as I take care of that population every day and it is a major shame, genetically they cannot handle the firewater...
http://www.youtube.com/user/SATSUMA3042 ... i1UJ0gfIRk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Check out this guys Schenker playing, maybe needs to slow down a tad would be the only criticism, but pretty freakin' awesome I'd say..
yngwie308

[Mats A]

I too often wondered why his tone was a bit different on the "Machine Head" album. I also assumed he was using a Marshall. I mean, it was obvious a strat was being used, but his tone was different than he got there after. His tone in the solo to "Maybe I'm A Leo" just KILLS ! That solo has a very odd,almost 'demented' kinda vibe to it. I love every note played on that album. It is one of the great hard rock albums of all time.

Its funny I never made the connection. The qualities of that tone always reminded me of AC30s but for some reason I just kept thinking there must be something with the "active' tone controls on the major mixed with studio compression or something. Just never put 2 and 2 together because it sounds way too smooth for a marshall. Listen to Made in Japan or any live album. Its so biting. I couldnt deal with that. The album tone on MH is a great tone form the strat bridge position. I cant really think of any others. Even when Jimi used the bridge it was so damn harsh.

It was only the first Majors that had active tone contols. Three and they are called Pignose. Most people didn´t like these because they couldn´t get a great sound without fiddeling with the knobs, Maybe Marshall were ahead of it´s time. After a year or so Marshall reverted back to the standard tone controls on the Majors. This is what Ritchie used.

[yngwie308]

I too often wondered why his tone was a bit different on the "Machine Head" album. I also assumed he was using a Marshall. I mean, it was obvious a strat was being used, but his tone was different than he got there after. His tone in the solo to "Maybe I'm A Leo" just KILLS ! That solo has a very odd,almost 'demented' kinda vibe to it. I love every note played on that album. It is one of the great hard rock albums of all time.

Its funny I never made the connection. The qualities of that tone always reminded me of AC30s but for some reason I just kept thinking there must be something with the "active' tone controls on the major mixed with studio compression or something. Just never put 2 and 2 together because it sounds way too smooth for a marshall. Listen to Made in Japan or any live album. Its so biting. I couldnt deal with that. The album tone on MH is a great tone form the strat bridge position. I cant really think of any others. Even when Jimi used the bridge it was so damn harsh.

It was only the first Majors that had active tone contols. Three and they are called Pignose. Most people didn´t like these because they couldn´t get a great sound without fiddeling with the knobs, Maybe Marshall were ahead of it´s time. After a year or so Marshall reverted back to the standard tone controls on the Majors. This is what Ritchie used.

Mats your chronology is correct, but the active circuitry first 200 watt was called The Pig, a Pignose is considerably smaller.. , being that small practice amp with battery power!
Here in fact is an ex-Ritchie Blackmore Marshall Major 200 watt head, now the property of Ritchie Fliegler:

here is the original Pig:
http://www.amparchives.com/album/Marsha ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.amparchives.com/album/Marsha ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[worldoftone]

The question is WHEN did Ritchie start using Majors regularly? I would have to look thru a bunch of old Purple footage I have to see. I know he was using them at the start of the Rainbow.

- WOT

[yngwie308]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyAKnAEuzi4&feature=fvw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3dsI9RD ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdTGv24 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainoaPA9 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqGYsHz7 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yngwie308