Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster

Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster
By Kris Martens

Up for review today is the fender Ritchie Blackmore Strat. This guitar is made in Mexico and is one of the better strats that I have played recently.

Features

Artist series
Alder body
21 fret Maple neck with scalloped rosewood fretboard
7.25" radius
3 bolt neck plate with tilt control
70's headstock
Bullet truss rod
70's style fender branded tuning machines
Seymour duncan quarter pound flat pickups with dummy in the middle
3 way pickup  selecter
1 volume, 2 tone pots
Gig bag included


When I first noticed this model on the fender website I knew this was a guitar that I would have to try out. I'm a huge Rainbow fan and this model is based on the guitar that Ritchie used with that band. The high end MiM strats are great guitars and I've played several that have really impressed me. This one is no different. Great bang for the buck!

This guitar looks really awesome. It's black pickups, knobs and switch tip contrast great with the Olympic white body and 3 ply white pickguard. The chrome hardware is sweet and the CBS headstock is downright menacing.


The pickup configuration might put strat "purists" off but I love it. Having a three way pickup selector negates the famous 2 and 4 positions that country and blues  players love  but this guitar is meant to rock. There is a dummy pickup in the middle position for cosmetic purposes. It basically functions like a les Paul. Position 1 is the bridge, 2 is bridge and neck and 3 is the neck. The middle position is really cool because you can't get that tone without modifying a normal strat. Switching from the neck to bridge is smoother as well due to the switch only covering  one tone between them instead of three different tones. Most people wouldn't notice this though.

The bridge pickup is a reverse wound/reverse polarity Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Flat SSL-4 single coil.


The neck pickup is a normal wound SSL-4.

These pickups have twice the output of a normal single coil. They are perfect for playing rock and old school metal. They are a bit noisy so I find a noise gate to be mandatory.

This guitar absolutely crushes when played through my jcm800. It handles clean and high gain like a champ.

The scalloped fretboard is awesome. It's kind of strange at first but I got used to it in a few minutes. You get more control for string bending and vibrato.

Overall this guitar is a keeper. Everything is top notch from the fretwork to the scallop job. I'm really impressed!