Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster.

[Matt White]

Nice!

http://www.guitaraficionado.com/namm-2013-fender-custom-shop-introduces-ritchie-blackmore-tribute-strat.html

http://www.guitaraficionado.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Fender-Custom-Shop-Ritchie-Blackmore-Tribute-Stratocaster.jpg

The Fender Custom Shop is paying tribute to the “anvil” used to forge one of the greatest guitar riffs in rock history, the one from Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” by releasing the limited-edition Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster.

Limited to 2013 production only, the guitar is a meticulously crafted replica of the black Fender Stratocaster Blackmore played with Deep Purple in the early ’70s, including the recording of seminal album Machine Head and the band’s greatest hit single.

“Smoke on the Water” was released on album in 1972 and as a single in May 1973. A major hit, it reached Number 4 on the Billboard pop singles chart in the US and propelled Machine Head into the top 10 worldwide.

The Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster has a two-piece alder body with a lightly worn Black urethane finish, a ’69 “U”-shaped maple neck, 7.25”-radius maple fingerboard with medium jumbo frets, and custom ’69 Stratocaster pickups hand-wound by Fender legend Abigail Ybarra.

Other features include three-way pickup switching, Schaller tuners, Micarta nut, four-bolt neck plate stamped with the serial number and the stylized Fender “F,” and a vintage-style synchronized tremolo equipped with Blackmore’s distinctive custom ¼” arm. Each instrument also includes an exclusive rear-headstock tribute decal, certificate of authenticity and orange-line black textured vinyl case with a “Fender Amp” logo.

Visit fender.com for more information.




Must have to scallop the neck yourself! :D

[Kristy]

Pretty guitar.

[chefcraig]

Must have to scallop the neck yourself! :D

I wonder if featuring the jumbo frets, Fender figured they could dodge that particular bullet? You also have to wonder where and when Blackmore began scalloping his fretboards in the first place. Didn't he only start using one around the time he formed Rainbow?

[Hardrock69]

Note that it has a 4-bolt neck. See, Fender has learned from their mistake.....that mistake being selling Strats in the 70s with a shitty 3-bolt neck and putting a fancy name on it like "Micro-Tilt" to try to hide the fact it is a design flaw.

[jhale667]

Hmmm... not sure about the fingerboard scalloping timeline, but if it were a true Blackmore tribute wouldn't the middle pickup be gone? :confused:

[ELVIS]

Note that it has a 4-bolt neck. See, Fender has learned from their mistake.....that mistake being selling Strats in the 70s with a shitty 3-bolt neck and putting a fancy name on it like "Micro-Tilt" to try to hide the fact it is a design flaw.

It wasn't a design flaw...

It was the shitty tolerances kept by the builders themselves...

A three bolt works fine if the neck fits the pocket...

[chefcraig]

Hmmm... not sure about the fingerboard scalloping timeline, but if it were a true Blackmore tribute wouldn't the middle pickup be gone? :confused:

Normally, he kept it intact but screwed it down so low that it would be useless and unobtrusive.

[jhale667]

Normally, he kept it intact but screwed it down so low that it would be useless and unobtrusive.

Thanks. After thinking about it, I remember at one point there was a sig model that had no middle pickup, but this is faithful to the era, I guess...

[Hardrock69]

It wasn't a design flaw...

It was the shitty tolerances kept by the builders themselves...

A three bolt works fine if the neck fits the pocket...

No it WAS a design flaw. A four-bolt neck would not have any problems, even if it were out of tolerance. Not only that, I played many 70s Strats were the neck fit into the pocket, but it would still have movement.

They should never have produced 3-bolt neck strats. That was probably why Ritchie Blackmore destroyed so many of them.

http://www.rockstarsguitars.com/rainbow/ritchie-blackmore/ritchie-blackmores-fender-stratocaster-headstock-from-cal-jam-1496/

http://www.rockstarsguitars.com/rainbow/ritchie-blackmore/ritchie-blackmores-1974-fender-stratocaster-1497/

When I saw Rainbow in 1982 in Kansas City, Blackmore had half-a-dozen maple-neck strats on stands on the stage....all with broken necks.

And then he broke another guitar that day. :hee:

He said in an interview in the late-70s in Guitar Player magazines that maple-neck Strats deserved to be broken.

[Coyote]

http://www.guitaraficionado.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Fender-Custom-Shop-Ritchie-Blackmore-Tribute-Stratocaster.jpg
a vintage-style synchronized tremolo equipped with Blackmore’s distinctive custom ¼” arm

Odd, I remember seeing an old video of Uli Jon Roth with a similar trem arm...

*edit* Well, here's a shot... http://www.nancybynight.com/imggrde/2009-03-21-ulijroth.jpg

[Hardrock69]

My best friend used to be particularly abusive on his whammy bars. He finally got tired of buying replacements, so he went to a machine shop and had a custom bar made out of 1/4" tempered steel rod. It never broke again.

[chefcraig]

My best friend used to be particularly abusive on his whammy bars. He finally got tired of buying replacements, so he went to a machine shop and had a custom bar made out of 1/4" tempered steel rod. It never broke again.

I had one made up by the machine shop that did most of our work at the auto parts store where I worked at the time, going so far as tur have some bends put into it to accommodate it's extra length. Naturally, I had a brass nut installed as well, but I never quite got used to having 3-In-1 oil dripping all over my hands and the guitar neck. I had a locking trem for about a month, yet I got tired of misplacing that annoying little allen wrench, so I wound up doing away with the vibrato bar altogether and going back to the standard nut.

Hell, at one point I removed the neck, cut out a rectangular piece of bicycle inner tube, and placed it between the neck and base. By not tightening the neck bolts all the way, I turned the entire neck into a vibrato bar.

I DO NOT recommend this for expensive axes, but if you have an old Squire hunk of shit laying around, it works just fine. :)

[ashstralia]

this...



9433

[ELVIS]

No it WAS a design flaw. A four-bolt neck would not have any problems, even if it were out of tolerance.

That's bullshit...

Four-bolt necks can suffer the same neck movement problems as a three-bolt...

The fix is something like this...

http://www.onyxforgeguitars.com/images/'01%20Strat%20Refurb/Strat%20Refurb%2080912%20Nitro%20-%20Heel%20with%20screws.jpg

[sadaist]

http://www.guitaraficionado.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Fender-Custom-Shop-Ritchie-Blackmore-Tribute-Stratocaster.jpg


I am & always have been a hack player. Got a Hondo back in the 80's & had my Scorpions, Judas Priest, AC/DC, tablature books like everyone else. A few simpler songs I could actually mimic fairly well (to my ear). Anyways, I consider myself like the majority of guys with a guitar and you hardcore players are more the exception.

I see this guitar here and to me it looks like the other 100 hanging on every wall of every guitar store or pawn shop. The only thing that lets me know anything about it's quality is the headstock says Fender Stratocaster. So how is it so much better than the ones that look identical starting at $79 and say Squire instead?

Can you explain without some crap about how the wood is grown in some impossible to get to island near Fiji from a tree grown in volcanic soil & watered with the tears of virgins, and the pearl inlays are taken from the regal thorny oyster of south east asia or some crap like that.


Looks pretty much the same as this to me....

http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/profile_mojo_data/5/3/2/6/532612/pics/_c297598_image_0.jpg

[chefcraig]

So how is it so much better than the ones that look identical starting at $79 and say Squire instead? Can you explain without some crap about how the wood is grown in some impossible to get to island near Fiji from a tree grown in volcanic soil & watered with the tears of virgins, and the pearl inlays are taken from the regal thorny oyster of south east asia or some crap like that.


About the only thing you are paying more for (aside from the quality of the materials used) is the skill and care of manufacture, and even that can be spotty at times. You'd think the pricing is sort of like the difference between a Yugo and a Porsche, but that isn't always the case. For instance, some of those "hand built" British luxury cars (like the Rolls Royce) had unbelievably poor craftsmanship, with screws misaligned (or even completely missing) in the interior and wiring so faulty that it guaranteed you make it home by night or be stranded in the dark somewhere. The thing is, the name brand guarantees a certain cache, one that allows the manufacturer to say "OK, we can price this clunker as high as we want, and no one will bat an eye" - mainly because it's the dogmatic truth.

Besides all that, the average person tends to associate price with quality, which in and of itself falls into the above mentioned manufacturer's hands. In particular, musicians have never been known for any sort of business acumen, so by and large they are part of the problem as well. I mean seriously, when is the last time you saw people protesting in the streets or petitioning the government because a guitar (or any other instrument) was priced exorbitantly?

Despite some lunkhead rock star's belief that guitars made from some super expensive wood, with inlays made from the tusk of a baby elephant are the only way to properly express one's art, it's all a load of utter horseshit. Price and buy an instrument that functions for you and just so happens to fit within the confines of your budget. If you are pleased with a Yugo, why bust yer balls trying to obtain that Porsche? And if people are so vain or retarded as to fail to respect your choice of instrument, then fuck 'em and the horse they rode in on. Music isn't some sort of triathlon-like competitive sport, and one's particular choices in the matter need not be judged by some fuckhead that just overspent on an instrument he can ill-afford in order to maintain some misguided sense of cool.

[jhale667]

Can you explain without some crap about how the wood is grown in some impossible to get to island near Fiji from a tree grown in volcanic soil & watered with the tears of virgins, and the pearl inlays are taken from the regal thorny oyster of south east asia or some crap like that.


Looks pretty much the same as this to me....

http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/profile_mojo_data/5/3/2/6/532612/pics/_c297598_image_0.jpg


Well, for starters, before you get into all of Chef's quite valid points - is that the Blackmore one IS wood. A LOT of Squiers are particle board bodies. And I'd have to disagree with Chef to a certain extent on wood choices, because sonically is DOES make a difference. My ash bodies sound different than the Koa one, as does the mahogany, etc.

But you don't buy that for price, you buy it for tone. And the guys that brag & say "I spent $X,000 on this guitar" - are weenies that buy for price point and not functionality or tone.


Oh, and the lower you go on the Squier price-point, the more the hardware SUUUUUUCKS.


:guitar:

[chefcraig]

I'm not disagreeing with the concept of overall sonic tonality being improved by certain grains/types of wood, in fact, you'd have to be thick as a brick to disagree with the axiom.

I was aiming more toward the unwieldy and unneeded excess applied to what is basically some wood with hardware attached. While touring with Jackson Browne around the time of Running On Empty, Danny Kortchmar was using a guitar (featured in the album's booklet's pictures) made out of what looked shiny, coated concrete, like a statue you'd see by the side of some rich dork's swimming pool. Seriously, even if you can afford such an albatross to wear around yer neck, why waste the money?

Even better, why invest all of the dough on a super-expensive guitar, if you can only afford to play through a Sears Silvertone amp as a result of your depleted finances?

I dunno, you could say I value function over form in the case of musical instruments. Maybe I'm frugal, or perhaps more than likely, usually just plain flat broke, yet I've been making due with so little for so long that I honestly believe I can create something out of nuthin'.

[Hardrock69]

Particle Board? Squiers? Good lord....that is sinking to serious lows....

Yes, Elvis is right. The fix for the 3-bolt neck design flaw is to stop making the 3-bolt necks and make 4-bolt necks instead.
:hee:

[Matt White]

Yeah....cheap guitars ARE playable....its all aboot "Tone" and "playability" in the higher range..........

I mean I bought that $130.00 SX guitar, KNOWING that I'd be getting a cheaply built guitar that sounded that way.....

And...thats exactly what I was after.....some of the tones achieved "back in the day" were the results of using CHEAP equipment.............."To each their own"..........

[sadaist]

Thanks for the explanations guys. Being a hack player my shit always sounded pretty much the same when I would go to the guitar store & try different models. I always figured once I got good enough, the sound/tone I wanted would come from being able to afford better amps & more pedals.

But couldn't Eddie take a $125 Squire onstage and play it through his system and make it sound great? Or would we notice? (Maybe that's what he did in 2007 lol)


And I'm not busting anyones chops for buying what they like. If you have the money & something makes you happy......well isn't that kinda what life is about? Enjoy yourself!

[ELVIS]

BTW, if you want a nice quality guitar made from the same exotic wood as the big names, buy an Agile...

Click! (http://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar-ss6.html)


:elvis:

[jhale667]

I'm not disagreeing with the concept of overall sonic tonality being improved by certain grains/types of wood, in fact, you'd have to be thick as a brick to disagree with the axiom.

I was aiming more toward the unwieldy and unneeded excess applied to what is basically some wood with hardware attached. While touring with Jackson Browne around the time of Running On Empty, Danny Kortchmar was using a guitar (featured in the album's booklet's pictures) made out of what looked shiny, coated concrete, like a statue you'd see by the side of some rich dork's swimming pool. Seriously, even if you can afford such an albatross to wear around yer neck, why waste the money?

Even better, why invest all of the dough on a super-expensive guitar, if you can only afford to play through a Sears Silvertone amp as a result of your depleted finances?

I dunno, you could say I value function over form in the case of musical instruments. Maybe I'm frugal, or perhaps more than likely, usually just plain flat broke, yet I've been making due with so little for so long that I honestly believe I can create something out of nuthin'.



I'm about function over form too (even though I have some pretty-ass guitars ;) ), but shitty hardware is not IMO functional. Causes more problems than the cost savings justifies.

[Coyote]

If you are pleased with a Yugo, why bust yer balls trying to obtain that Porsche?

Why settle for less? :yo:

[sadaist]

Why settle for less? :yo:


Settling for less is when you have the extra $1000 and then say fuck it, I can make do with the $125 model & use the rest in Las Vegas next weekend. But when you scrimp and $125 is all you can muster, it's not settling.

[Coyote]

That's making lemonade...

[ashstralia]

i'm gonna toot my horn.

when i worked in the big guitar store, the joke was that i could make a fencepost with barbed wire on it sound good.

i have no doubt whatsoever that i could go and play a gig tonight with a $100 chinese guitar and no-one would know the difference. ('cept me :D)
sure, the top of the line gear is nice, but plenty of great ground breaking music was produced using 'rubbish' equipment.
we all started on budget gear, right?