GuitarDistortedRiff
Smoke On the Water Riff Guitar Tone Settings — Deep Purple
Deep Purple · 1970s · rock
studio
Original Recording
Guitar
1970 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst Maple
Pickups
Fender single-coil pickups (stock 1970s Stratocaster)
Amp
Marshall Major 200W head
Pickup Position
Bridge pickup or Bridge + Middle (Strat position 2)
Studio recording, 1971-1972 for 'Machine Head'. Ritchie Blackmore used a Fender Stratocaster into a Marshall Major head, with a Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster as his only pedal. No evidence of additional pedals or rack effects for the riff section. Settings are from a user-contributed source and may be approximations, but match typical classic rock Marshall setups. Pickup selector likely bridge or bridge+middle for riff clarity.
Amp Settings
Mids7
Bass7.5
Gain6
Reverb1.5
Treble4.5
Presence5.5
Effects Chain
- Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster · boost
Fender Stratocaster → Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster → Marshall Major 200W head (with spring reverb)
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Tone Character
- crunchy and biting
- mid-heavy classic rock sound
- articulate and percussive attack
- slightly compressed
- not high-gain, but saturated
- British crunch
- clear note separation
- tight low end
- focused upper mids
- minimal ambience