Fender Japan Custom Ritchie Blackmore set neck
Ritchie Blackmore... has there ever been a more rock n'roll name? BLACK, MORE....even MORE black... BLACKMORE
How mysterious and moody!
What if his name was Larry Higginbothams or something... Gillan, Lord, Glover, Paice, Higginbotham (?)
would we still be so enthralled?
Finally managed to acquire one of these extremely rare set neck Blackmore Strats after many years of searching. The basis of this guitar seems to be his modified Strat with Lace Sensors with dummy middle coil as seen in the comical Deep Purple 'Come Hell or High Water' 1993 concert and also live with Blackmore's Night. This mod an actual Japanese catalog model, and certainly custom-made(has a 2-digit serial number) as it is extremely well-made. With two Lace Sensor pickups and Blackmore-style bent trem arm. The scalloping is exquisite and the tone and feel is flawless. Very pleased with this find.
How mysterious and moody!
What if his name was Larry Higginbothams or something... Gillan, Lord, Glover, Paice, Higginbotham (?)
would we still be so enthralled?
Finally managed to acquire one of these extremely rare set neck Blackmore Strats after many years of searching. The basis of this guitar seems to be his modified Strat with Lace Sensors with dummy middle coil as seen in the comical Deep Purple 'Come Hell or High Water' 1993 concert and also live with Blackmore's Night. This mod an actual Japanese catalog model, and certainly custom-made(has a 2-digit serial number) as it is extremely well-made. With two Lace Sensor pickups and Blackmore-style bent trem arm. The scalloping is exquisite and the tone and feel is flawless. Very pleased with this find.
Fender Japan ST72 "Smoke on the Water"
Blackmore enthusiasts will be aware of the Fender Custom Shop offering. Notoriously expensive for a Blackmore 'tribute' guitar that isn't even scalloped! It's just a '68 reissue Strat then! What you didn't know was that there were many Japanese Fender tribute models made over the years, just without his name on it. In the last pic you can see the ad for several 'unofficial' Blackmore Strats, including a black "ST68 B.R." which would be based on the Smoke On The Water Strat, and this is not it, since this has a 3-bolt neck but guess what? RB did also have a '72 Strat which he scalloped. Our man was not short of Strats, and neither were the Japanese when they came out with these wonderful copies.
Fender Japan ST72 "Highway Star"
As mentioned above, one of many unofficial Blackmore tribute models, this one based off his sunburst Strat (he had several) as used in the early Deep Purple days, famously during Machine Head and in the 'Highway Star' video.
Fender ST72 'California Jam'
Based on his '72 natural ash Strat, as used for the infamous California Jam concert and as pictured on the Very Best of Rainbow album cover
Fender ST77 "Long Live Rock n Roll"
Based on another of his favourites, used throughout the 70s and 80s with both Rainbow and Deep Purple. Notably on the '77 Rainbow tour with Dio and in the above-titled music video
Fernandes The Revival ST-80RB
Another unofficial tribute model, this time from Fernandes, based on the most typical RB style of the 80s. This is a vintage 80s treasure itself that has a rich, dark fingerboard with obvious care and attention paid to the graduated scalloping, and a vintage lacquer feel, even surpassing the quality of the Fender Japan versions.
Fender ST72-65SC
One of the many excellent Fender Japan unofficial RB models in the typical style
Kyairi custom acoustic & classical
Here are 2 Kyairi custom acoustic guitars in the style of Ritchie Blackmore. Like the ones that were made for him by Japanese builder K.Yairi himself. One koa/mahogany steel string, and another red stain nylon string. This is not an actual Blackmore-endorsed model but clearly from the pics below we can see he had an affinity for such guitars with a single cutaway, f-holes, slim and small body profile. It is no coincidence that it also looks alot like the Yngwie Malmsteen Ovation model... clearly Blackmore was a HUGE influence on Malmsteen, and that wouldn't be the only thing that Malmsteen ever copied from him!