Blackmore's TONE Trick I've NEVER Tried!

Deep Purple and Rainbow are the pinnacle of 70s rock. Ritchie Blackmore had a not so secret tone trick which I've never tried, despite having all the equipment to pull it off...

#rainbow #deeppurple #ritchieblackmore

Time codes -
00:00 - Listening to Stargazer
00:41 - Equipment Required
02:41 - Deep Purple and Rainbow Riffs
06:41 - Did I Nail The Tone?

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[ScienceofLoud]

Deep Purple and Rainbow are the pinnacle of 70s rock. Ritchie Blackmore had a not so secret tone trick which I've never tried, despite having all the equipment to pull it off...


#rainbow #deeppurple #ritchieblackmore

Time codes -
00:00 - Listening to Stargazer
00:41 - Equipment Required
02:41 - Deep Purple and Rainbow Riffs
06:41 - Did I Nail The Tone?

More from CSGuitars:

*Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*

[Iam_Dunn]

This kinda blew my little braincells away… 54 yr old, been playing Blackmore’s songs since I was about 8. I had seen pics of the reel-to-reel and had ALWAYS assumed it was being used as a tape-echo…. Damn, never to old to learn new things. I’ve got an old AKAI R2R out in my storage truck. Time to go grab it. :)
\m/, , \m/ ❤ from 🇨🇦

[pyratoothNL]

Since what Ritchie was doing was before the age of tube screamers and such, this is quite an ingenious method for the time. It thickens things up and gives more punch from the single coils.
Nice demo!

[waynebake]

Rainbow is a lost gem of the 70's. It amazes me how many people don't know about them. My favorite is Gates of Babylon!

[Storm_Bringer]

Richie Blackmore is one of my top 5 guitarists of all time, I had no idea about this. Very nice bit of info

[Apprentice_of_the_Leonine]

One of the pedals I've been wanting for a long time is a Catalinbread Dreamcoat. It's the preamp circuit from an Aiwa TP-1011 tape machine (the very one Ritchie used with Rainbow) in a $189 compact pedal box.

[Mr.Goldbar]

Rainbow is one of my favorite bands ever! from their invention of prog metal and power metal in the 70s with Dio to the top tier commercial rock hits in the early 80s with Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner, every single recording of theirs is absolutely legendary!
I'll definitely be happy to see a tape saturation pedal :)

[TobyKBTY]

Ahh, a fellow Stargazer enjoyer. I love Rainbow but that riff and song just go so hard. And this was a lovely video. I had no idea Blackmore used a tape machine that way nor that one COULD be used that way.

[silotwenty]

What a great tone. My favourite Blackmore tone is on Perfect Strangers. He sounded glorious live.

[longlivebytor]

I thought you were crazy using a tape machine to get his tone, but once you started playing, I saw the light. You nailed it!

[VulpesObscura]

Literally just pulled a couple of Rainbow and Deep Purple records out of storage today, what a lovely little bit of serendipitous convergence.

[jessehoward]

Dude I have the same piece of equipment and haven't ever figured out anything useful to do with it! BOOM! you are the man bro!! Thanks.

[HeartLander]

Thick tone, but the distinctive treble character of the single coil is also there, good work!

[JosephAlphonse]

Back in 1982, I had read that Blackmore used a tape recorder. Being that I was only 16 and didn't know anything, I didn't realize he was putting it in front of an amp. My dad got me a broken tube reel-to-reel with a built-in power amp. That tape rotors didn't work but the preamp and power amp did. I was able to get a pretty good distortion sound with it, so I used that with an old hi-fi speaker box from the 1950s as an amp until 1984 when my dad got me a Peavey Bandit 65 as an early birthday present for New Year's Day.

This video sure brought back memories.

[DeathByHumbuckers]

I had no idea! Thanks Colin. Incidentally, 16 year old me did pretty much the same thing out of desperation as I got an electric for my birthday without an amp 😢. My chain was Sharp reel to reel into the mic input of a Hitachi g-blaster and then into the Sharp hi-fi which had 16 inch speakers and (thankfully) detachable tweeters. Accidentally managed to get a pretty okay sound 😂. Also, nice choice of whisky!

[alperfetti]

Blackmore utilized a dummy pickup in place of his middle pickup too, which if you notice was always screwed down lower than the bridge and neck pickups. He had a lot up his sleeve.

[Greg-omhb]

I am still in awe of Blackmore’s tone on the live albums Made in Europe (Deep Purple Mk III) and On Stage (Rainbow). This setup gets about halfway there.

[insanetubegain]

If you watch Ritchie closely, you'll see him flipping back and forth between the bridge and neck pickups. I think that also has a lot to do with his lead tone.

[PANICBLADE]

I love Blackmore so much. Lazy, Light in the Black, Gates of Babylon, countless more. You ever listen to the Burn solo slowed down? Every single note is perfectly on time, you'd think it's quantized or something. Biggest thing that helped me nail his style was switching from pick to fingers for certain sections of the songs like the arpeggitated parts and double stops.

[rustammansurov]

There's a german maker of booster pedals. one of them is BSM 71-73 CM. they have a few models, dedicated to Blackmore. One of them recreates this circuit from the tape recorder. I owned a couple of these pedals. Recommended.