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
0.1s
Release
0.2s
Mix
0.4
Level
0dB
Deranged Master
← Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster
Drive
0.6
Gain
0.6
Tone
0.7
Level
0.8
Boost
0.7
Brit Plexi Brt
← Marshall 100W head (Super Lead-era)
Drive
0.6
Bass
0.5
Mid
0.6
Treble
0.6
Presence
0.6
ChVol
0.7
Master
1
Bias
0.6
BiasX
0.5
Sag
0.6
Hum
0.5
Ripple
0.5
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
0.1
Decay
1s
Predelay
0.0ms
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
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