The Fender Custom Shop is paying tribute to the guitar used in one of the most recognized guitar riffs in rock history, the one from Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” by crafting the limited edition Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster. Limited to 2013 production, the guitar is a replica of the black Fender Stratocaster Blackmore played with Deep Purple in the early ’70s.
The Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster has a two-piece alder body with a lightly worn Black urethane finish, a ’69 “U”-shaped maple neck, 7.25″-radius maple fingerboard with medium jumbo frets, and custom ’69 Stratocaster pickups hand-wound by Fender legend Abigail Ybarra. Other distinctive features include three-way pickup switching, Schaller® tuners, Micarta nut, four-bolt neck plate stamped with the serial number and the stylized Fender “F,” and a vintage-style synchronized tremolo equipped with Blackmore’s distinctive custom ¼” arm. Each instrument also includes an exclusive rear-headstock tribute decal, certificate of authenticity and orange-line black textured vinyl case with a “Fender Amp” logo.
As omner of a Classic 70 I only can say beautiful!!!
Wow, this is great, the Blackmore strat from the glory days (although I’m sure he is pictured with a sunburst guitar in my Machine Head liner notes). Presumably this guitar will be a ‘pre-scalloped’ version. When exactly did he start with the chisel anyway?
Woody.
i dont like the trem arm.
another “cool” guitar for the doctors, lawyers and japanese CEO’s to enjoy.
if you broke down the materials [what fender corp pays] it would break down to about $80.00.
i imagine the tab on this will be slightly more than a MIM strat. and more than one will be wall hanger, conversation pieces in the offices of non playing wall street dudes.
sigh.
They must be short of new ideas… I would have prefered the Fender custom shop to release the only one that really counts, the Oly White RW scalloped, as close as possible to the original, just like the Gilmour’s Black strat …
( I heard about a USA Signature model released in the past but I wonder if it is myth or reality.)