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 · 5 blocksLive values · Kemper Profiler
Guitar
Fender Stratocaster (1968, maple neck)
Pickups
SSS
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Compressor
Treble Booster
Search Rig Exchange for 'Plexi' or 'Super Lead' or 'Smoke on the Water'
Plate Reverb
Compressor
← Light parallel compression
Sustain
3
Tone
5
Volume
5
Treble Booster
← Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster
Drive
6
Tone
7
Volume
7.5
Search Rig Exchange for 'Plexi' or 'Super Lead' or 'Smoke on the Water'
← Marshall 100W (Super Lead-era)
Gain
6
Bass
5
Middle
6
Treble
6
Presence
5.5
Plate Reverb
← Console plate (Stones Mobile Studio)
Decay
1s
Predelay
25ms
Mix
15
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
