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Riff Tone

Smoke On the Water

Deep Purple

Guitarrock1970s

Original Gear

Guitar1968 Fender Stratocaster (rosewood fretboard, stock single-coil pickups)
AmpMarshall Major 200W head (model 1967, 4x12 cabinet, late 1960s/early 1970s version)
PickupsFender single-coil (late 1960s, stock Strat pickups)

Amp Settings

gain6
bass6
mid7
treble7
reverb0.5
presence6.5

Effects & Signal Chain

boostHornby-Skewes Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster

Notes

Studio recording for 'Smoke On the Water' (Machine Head, 1971/1972). Blackmore used his late-60s Stratocaster with stock single-coils, plugged into a Marshall Major 200W head. A Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster was used in front of the amp for added bite and light drive. No other pedals or effects are confirmed for the riff section. No amp reverb or time-based effects are audible or documented for the riff. Pickup selector was set to bridge+middle (Position 4, notched), which Blackmore favored for this tone.

Tone Character(10)
fat and punchyclassic British crunchslightly gritty, not high-gaintight, percussive attackarticulate and harmonically richmidrange-forwarddistinct Stratocaster bitebridge+middle pickup chimetouch-sensitive dynamicsdry, no audible reverb

Difficulty

The riff is iconic and accessible for beginners, but requires tight timing, clean double stops, and precise muting to sound authentic.

Sources

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water | Wiki @ Ultimate-Guitar.comRitchie Blackmore on Deep Purple and his Rainbow revival | Guitar World

This tone has been researched 27 times by the community

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