No. 0531972·hard-rock·4 blocks
Smoke on the Water
The most famous riff in rock — and one of the most misunderstood. Ritchie Blackmore played the Smoke on the Water riff in parallel fourths (not power chords) on a 1968 maple-neck Stratocaster through a 100W Marshall head, with a Hornby-Skewes treble booster adding clarity and just a touch of hair. The riff was tracked at the Grand Hotel in Montreux, December 1971, after a fire burned down the original recording venue.
Machine HeadSignal path · input → output · 8 blocksLive values · Line 6 Helix
Guitar
Fender Stratocaster (1968, maple neck)
Pickups
SSS
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Volume Pedal
Deluxe Comp
Deranged Master
Brit Plexi Brt
4x12 Greenback 25
Plate
Tilt
Volume Pedal
← Volume pedal
Pedal
100%
Deluxe Comp
← Light parallel compression
Threshold
-28dB
Ratio
2.5:1
Knee
6dB
Attack
50s
Release
200s
Mix
40
Level
0dB
Deranged Master
← Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster
Drive
6
Gain
6
Tone
6.5
Level
7.5
Boost
6.5
Brit Plexi Brt
← Marshall 100W head (Super Lead-era)
Drive
6
Bass
5
Mid
6
Treble
6
Presence
5.5
ChVol
6.5
Master
10
Bias
5.5
BiasX
5
Sag
5.5
Hum
5
Ripple
5
4x12 Greenback 25
← Marshall 1960B with Celestion G12M-25 Greenback
LowCut100Hz
HighCut8500Hz
Resonance
0.5
Level
0dB
Pan
0.5
Delay
0
Plate
← Console plate (Rolling Stones Mobile Studio)
LowCut200Hz
HighCut6000Hz
Mix
15
Decay
1s
Predelay
25ms
Level
0
Tilt
← Tilt EQ (global brightness)
Tilt
0.5
CenterFreq
1000Hz
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 053
The most famous riff in rock — and one of the most misunderstood. Ritchie Blackmore played the Smoke on the Water riff in parallel fourths (not power chords) on a 1968 maple-neck Stratocaster through a 100W Marshall head, with a Hornby-Skewes treble booster adding clarity and just a touch of hair. The riff was tracked at the Grand Hotel in Montreux, December 1971, after a fire burned down the original recording venue.
— Ritchie Blackmore
Sources · Verified by
