Ritchie Blackmore / Deep Purple tone

Colorado Axeman

Colorado Axeman

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How would I go about emulating his amp tone with no Marshall Major amp model? Here's something I found on the Marshall forum about the Major:

the Marshall Major is not in the format of your classic 1959 or 1987 amplifier. While it does have some of the Marshall character implemented into it, the original circuit design was actually done by GEC in England and not really meant to be a loud rock guitar amp. It is kind of a mix match of Marshall, Fender, and Hi-Fi all in the same package. I think initially that because venues were getting bigger and the bands were getting louder, Marshall wanted to offer a louder more powerful amplifier. In addition, since I don't believe that Marshall wanted to design a brand-new amplifier from the ground up they borrowed the initial design from GEC.

Now the model 1967 (major) is first bigger than the standard hundred watt head (1959). The chassis is 2 inches deeper to accommodate the large transformers so rather than being 8 inches in depth the major head box is 10 inches in depth and it is the first way to tell that it is the Marshall Major (just look at it from the side view). Now on the technical side now the front-end circuit of the major is classic Marshall it has the 820ohm/250mfd & 2.7K/.68mfd split Cathode set up, but then it ends there abruptly after the volume pots. The Marshall Major has an enclosed tone stack as well as an enclosed feedback loop, "which means the negative feedback is applied much earlier in the circuit then your standard Marshall." and the tone stack while having Marshall standard values it is enclosed ala’ Fender. The third unusual thing is that the major does not have a long tailed phase inverter it has the Cathodyne type phase inverter, which is not as linear, or have as much gain. The fourth and most unusual, and sometimes trouble oriented part of the Marshall Maj. is that it has an ultra linear output section, which means the screens are fed directly from taps on the output transformer and that there is no standalone screen circuit. Another factor is that the Marshall Maj. has no choke in the circuit, which also contributes to its tone; the choke was not utilized because of the large filter capacitors in the power supply.
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There's also this bit here from elsewhere on this forum:

Stratoblaster said:
In the case of Deep Purple, in the 70's Blackmore tapped his AC30 after the preamp stage and fed it into his Marshall's (before he modded his Majors to replace the AC30/preamp). I've also seen pix (as mentioned above) and a video with an AC30 in behind Blackmore's Marshall, and you can see the connection lead from the AC30 to the head clearly. He even built an AC30 into a 4x12 cabinet at one time apparently.

Jon Lord did a somewhat similar thing; he tapped his B3 organ before it's power amp and ran it into Marshall's as well so he could get even more grit.

In both cases the amps were modded to get the taps, set the proper level, etc., and both bypassed the power amp to only use the preamps as 'drives'.
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markwayne said:
This.

Blackmore is way, way up on the "it's all in the hands" list. Whether he's playing a 335 through a Vox AC30 or a Strat through a Vox or Marshall, he's going to sound pretty much the same. Attack the strings with your right hand and shake 'em hard with your left.
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+1

I've been learning and playing Blackmore songs since the late 70's. Still can't master a lot of it. Some of it is simple, but there are some intricacies that are amazingly difficult (for me). A Marshall-type amp and a Strat, with a tape deck and/or treble booster will get you a small part of the way there, but definitely his tone is mostly in his hands.

We just added Rainbow's Kill the King to our set list, and since I like things a bit more juiced up, I am using the Friedman BE model on the FM9 and a CS Strat that has '69 CS pickups. He plays it a little cleaner, and....a lot louder.
 
I recorded this back in 2019 with a Strat with Kinmans and, IIRC, Friedmans.


Meanwhile, the preset has changed somewhat.
I made a version with 3 types of amps:
  • AC30 clones
  • Plexis
  • Friedmans

All sound pretty similar since I'm using the same IR for all.
 
MisterE said:
I recorded this back in 2019 with a Strat with Kinmans and, IIRC, Friedmans.


Meanwhile, the preset has changed somewhat.
I made a version with 3 types of amps:
  • AC30 clones
  • Plexis
  • Friedmans

All sound pretty similar since I'm using the same IR for all.
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Great tone and playing!!! What IR are you using?
 
MisterE said:
I recorded this back in 2019 with a Strat with Kinmans and, IIRC, Friedmans.


Meanwhile, the preset has changed somewhat.
I made a version with 3 types of amps:
  • AC30 clones
  • Plexis
  • Friedmans

All sound pretty similar since I'm using the same IR for all.
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Sounds great - I would like to know the IR (or please share the preset) as well. Thanks
 
When I had the AX8, there was a Deep purple patch on Fractal exchange that was quite good - which if memory serves correctly had a split organ sound as well.

The amp used was a plexi and the ir was the legacy TV basketweave mix (i think it was also blended with an oval ir but the basketweave mix sounds great anyways)
 
Here's what we should be shooting for as a target... by a complete Ritchie freak who has replicated all of his equipment:



Comparing to Piing's soundcloud clip I'd say it's close, but a bit darker and a bit more sag than the guy in the youtube clip. There should be a bit more presence and upper mids.
 
Since Richie played the AC30s probably longer than i thought i´d got with the Vox plus a Treble Booster (he used the Hornby Skewes back then).

I love the Vox AC30 Models with Hi Cut to the Max (= very dark, to emulate the normal channel) and then put a Treble Booster in front of it.
Try the Blue Bulldogs but also Greenback will do.

The 100W Plexi with a Tape Distortion (to emulate the AIWA 1011 band machine he used as a pre) also works fine.
 
Heinzi said:
Since Richie played the AC30s probably longer than i thought i´d got with the Vox plus a Treble Booster (he used the Hornby Skewes back then).

I love the Vox AC30 Models with Hi Cut to the Max (= very dark, to emulate the normal channel) and then put a Treble Booster in front of it.
Try the Blue Bulldogs but also Greenback will do.

The 100W Plexi with a Tape Distortion (to emulate the AIWA 1011 band machine he used as a pre) also works fine.
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That's what I was thinking, except replace the power tube section with either KT66's or EL34's (see second quote in the original post). Try that with a pre-rola Celestion Greenback G12M IR
 
This may not be a popular opinion but, while all of the above videos contain great tones and playing, to my ears, none of them still sound exactly like Blackmore. They are missing the volume, sag, high-end clarity (why I've always associated his tone more with Voxs than Marshall) and aggression that Blackmore always had in spades.

I'm willing to bet that Blackmore could plug into a TS and a Fender Princeton and sound closer to "Blackmore". If that makes any sense.
 
I remember watching RB's fretting hand in a video when I was a kid and it was so fluid and moved in a really unusual way. What a master of the guitar!
 
markwayne said:
This may not be a popular opinion but, while all of the above videos contain great tones and playing, to my ears, none of them still sound exactly like Blackmore. They are missing the volume, sag, high-end clarity (why I've always associated his tone more with Voxs than Marshall) and aggression that Blackmore always had in spades.

I'm willing to bet that Blackmore could plug into a TS and a Fender Princeton and sound closer to "Blackmore". If that makes any sense.
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You never know the degree of perfection that goes in to something until you retro emulate it (or him).
 
For the DP tribute I play in, I use the Plexi 50W 6CA7 Jumped with the York Audio MRSH 412 MV30. A little 'verb, maybe some slap, a touch of delay in places. For solos a more cranked version of the same amp, with a 2.5 to 3.0 dB boost. With single coils it sounds and feels great, certainly convincing enough. I try to get the outlines of his more iconic solos, with my own improv in spots - after all, I'm not Ritchie. I pay tribute, I don't (can't) clone him. As others said, I think the phrasing and vibrato do more to sell it than any amp tone.

Moreover, if you're at least in the ballpark, play your best and HAVE FUN, the crowd will, too. We'll test this theory tomorrow night!
 
markwayne said:
I'm willing to bet that Blackmore could plug into a TS and a Fender Princeton and sound closer to "Blackmore". If that makes any sense.
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Of course, the style would sound like Blackmore 100%, but the tone would be that of a Fender Princeton. We shall differentiate between the characteristic nuances of a player's execution, and the tone of the gear. Like that video where Satriani plays with a cheap Chinese guitar and practice amplifier. He sounds like Satriani, and that makes a great performance, but his fingers do not change the crappy tone of the amp.
 
Piing said:
Of course, the style would sound like Blackmore 100%, but the tone would be that of a Fender Princeton. We shall differentiate between the characteristic nuances of a player's execution, and the tone of the gear. Like that video where Satriani plays with a cheap Chinese guitar and practice amplifier. He sounds like Satriani, and that makes a great performance, but his fingers do not change the crappy tone of the amp.
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With some players that is very true. However, with regards to Blackmore, I will have to agree to disagree.

If I delve into his tone deeply and objectively, I find it to be predicated on transients and vibroto which saps amplitude and, therefore, cleans up rather quickly. All of this and much more contributes to (IMHO) his tone being driven as much in his style as his equipment.
 
Treble booster -> AC30 Normal Channel -> Pre-rola H30s will get you 90% there, remaining 10% is very tough to achieve though :) I've had a lot of success with tone match beyond this point. None of the marshalls worked well for me, not sure why, but I tend to believe he really had AC30s in these huge Marshall stacks, except for his sound after 94.

About TP-1011 advertised above, I have one, and I can attest to the fact that, tone-wise it's a very accurate replica of his tape echo unit. You can also try

TP-1011 -> AC30 Top Boost -> Pre-rola H30s. It should work even better.
 
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