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 · 7 blocksLive values · Fractal Axe-Fx
Guitar
Fender Stratocaster (1968, maple neck)
Pickups
SSS
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Compressor
FAS Boost
1959SLP
4x12 Green 25W
Plate Reverb
Filter Tilt
Compressor
← Light parallel compression
Threshold
-28dB
Ratio
2.5:1
Attack
0.1s
Release
0.2s
Mix
0.4
Level
0dB
FAS Boost
← Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster
Drive
6
Tone
8
Level
7.5
1959SLP
← Marshall 100W (Super Lead-era)
Drive
6
Bass
5
Mid
6
Treble
6
Presence
5.5
MV
6.5
Cut
0
4x12 Green 25W
← Marshall 1960B with Greenback
LowCut100Hz
HighCut8500Hz
Level
0dB
Plate Reverb
← Console plate
Mix
0.1
Decay
1s
Predelay
25ms
Filter 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
