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Re: Ritchie Blackmore looping



Nice seeing my old fav albums mentioned! The early Purple albums,
especially Fireball and In Rock, was a huge recourse for me as a
teenager learning to play guitar. I too had been using a reel-to-reel
tape recorder as pre amp compressor/distortion so I wasn't surprised
when I later heard that Blackmore used one pre Marshall. Never heard
any looping from him though, but as for guitar tone, phrasing and
micro tonal string bending he still is one of the best. Check out
Deamon's Eye for an example. This was even before Stevie Ray Vaughan
stepped out with his typical arsenal of copied Hendrix licks (that
Jimi to a great deal picked up form John Lee Hooker, so everyone's a
parrot) and I thought Blackmore's way of approaching the Stratocaster
was genuine. His, Hendrix and Jeff Becks early playing helped me in a
great way to understand the mechanics of the STrat that can be tamed
to music.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen




On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net> 
wrote:
> Looping, no, not true...
> Ritchie Blackmore used a tube based reel to reel recorder as a preamp / 
> gain
> booster and slapback echo, even back in his pre-deep purple days with
> Screaming Lord Sutch.
> http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/blackmore/guitarplayer/guitarplay4.html
> "I like a little bit of distortion which is controlled through my tape
> recorder. I built my own tape recorder; well, I didn't build it, but I
> modified it from a regular tape recorder to an echo unit. It also preamps
> and boosts the signal going to the amp. If I want a fuzzy effect l just 
> turn
> up the output stage of the tape recorder.
>
> Can you be more specific as to how it works?
>
> I just keep it on "record" so it records, and it's like a continual echo
> becaus I couldn't get that echo with any echo machine. A continual boom,
> boom, boom, repeat. Most echo machines are awful; it's like you're in a
> hallway. The tape recorder doesn't interfere with the note you're 
> playing.
>
> What type of recorder is it?
>
> I don't really know. I tried using a Revox and it didn't work. I'd 
> really be
> in trouble if somebody stole my recorder. I've been using it for the last
> four or five years.
>
> How did you come upon this idea?
>
> I used to do that at home; I used to take my tape recorder and use it as 
> an
> echo. So I thought if I could use it at home I could use it onstage and 
> it
> sounded right onstage.
>
> How exactly is it hooked up?
>
> There's a cord from the guitar into the tape recorder input, and the 
> output
> stage just goes back to the amp. And I can control the volume, too; I can
> have it loud with no distortion or vise versa. I have a little footpedal
> that I can stop and start it with. A lot of people think when they see 
> the
> tape going the solos are recorded. Lots of people ask that. Some guy 
> shouted
> in New York, "Turn the tape recorder off." Actually all that inspired 
> me, I
> turned it off and really whizzed around."
>
>
> Here is one of the coolest Ritchie Blackmore tape delay / volume swell
> tricks.
> I've Cued up this link to 4:00 to the start of the coolness...:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9IqML8Ubc&feature=player_detailpage#t=239s
>
>
> people told me (and I have found this mentioned online here and there) 
> that
> Ritchie Blackmore was an early livelooper, using Revox tape machines. 
> I've
> never listened to Deep Purple much so this has completely escaped me so 
> far.
> Can anyone confirm? when was that, are there recordings or even videos of
> this?
>
>  "Richie Blackmore experimented with it in his early Deep Purple days and
> with his previous gigs with 'Screaming Lord Such'. This would have been 
> late
> 60's, early 70's, he's quoted saying people in the audience could see the
> reel to reel and would yell at him to 'turn of the tape recorder'"
>
> "Late 60s", so he got into this probably inspired by Terry Riley, before
> Fripp/Eno, right?
>
> -Michael
>
> --
>
> ...
> http://www.zmix.net
>
> http://www.esession.com/ChuckZwicky
>
> http://albumcredits.com/zmix