the blackmore strat plays very well.
i like it much better than the YJM strat

_________________
sombody get me a doctor!

repeat sorry

_________________
No no and no

Across the board, the Duncans are your problem. They are seriously overwound, single coil pickups with large, strong magnets. Such a design not only invites noise but because they are way above and beyond typical Strat pickups' specs by any stretch of the imagination, they surely aren't going to sound like any traditional Strat pickup either.

The middle Duncan pickup is reverse wound/reverse polarity to that of the other two. So, when it is combined with one of the other two, they become humbucking. Hence, this is why in only positions 2 and 4 of your toggle is there no noise.

One more thing: Before someone starts telling you to shield the daylights out of your guitar, I guarantee you, it will NOT solve your hum problem.

_________________
You dig?

Hey guys,

Thanks for your answers, I ended up returning the guitar...really disappointing. I posted a longer explanation to this thread about MIMs: http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?p=254286#254286

What was your opinion of the scalloped neck job?

I wonder if those necks are MIA.

Just curious.

I also heard the scallope is much less serve than the YJM.

_________________

I think the neck job was fairly good, although bending wasn't as smooth as on the YJM. I felt some resistance while bending i.e. at the 5th fret, even more than in non-scalloped necks. It felt like something there was not polished well enough. Weird.

I heard that all necks on MIMs are MIA. But the headstock (and the body) on the Blackmore showed much rounder edges than the Malmsteen and all the other Strats I've seen. I don't know what could have caused that if they're all made in the US?

Scalloping on the Blackmore was indeed much less severe than on the YJM. I thought that anybody could be confortable playing it right away, unlike the deeper scalloping that takes some adaptation.

I am interested in a Blackmore, but from the discussion here am a little reluctant to purchase one. I take it that Blackmores are MIM's and they are very noisy. I wonder how much control the artist has over his namesake guitar. Ritchie's stratocaster, the one he plays, had played for years, is "vintage white", not the "olympic white" that fender is producing. Unless he has changed recently, the production model is the wrong color. I cannot imagine he would be satisfyed with a inferior product with his name on it. I never see Ritchie use a middle pickup because its not there. He swithches from bridge to neck very quickly and nowhere in between. If you go to 'youtube" and type in "Ritchie Blackmores guitar collection" you will see him describe his strat. His wife is verry pretty.

As far as colours, I think they went for Ritchie's guitar look in the early 80's:

http://www.webdiscover.nl/Gitaar_Braban ... ckmore.png

I suspect that same Strat aged into "vintage white" and it's the one he still uses today.

He's definitely using different pickups than the ultra noisy Seymour Duncans. I don't know why they put those instead of the Sensor Lace Ritchie actually has.
And the thing with the plastic cover instead of a real middle pickup didn't look so well in my opinion. I never use that pickup anyways (and I prefer the 3-way switch), but I still like my guitar to look good. At least they should have put a dummy pickup, not that ugly piece of plastic.

If I were you, I wouldn't buy this guitar without trying it first. Look at the finish in the body. The paint job on mine had plenty of defects. Bend the A and B strings at the 15th fret and check for buzzes. In mine the buzzing was very strong from the 12th position all the way down. A very bad fret job IMO. (That said, I had kind of the same problem with my YJM. Had to pay $60 to have the frets leveled). Play it unplugged and check for tone and resonance. Mine sounded lower in volume when compared to the Malmsteen, and the body didn't resonate as much. Since this is a $1200 MIM (and comes with NO guitar case!), I'd assume it's their top of the line? It should feel at least as good as a good MIA.

I hope you find one that you like, I'd love this model to be very successful so one day they decide to make it at the Fender Custom Shop...like John Mayer's...but let's just leave it at that.

mAx

I thought about that, the color change, but am convinced it started out "vintage white" I have the 1993 DVD of the "Hell or high water tour" and hes playing a "vintage white" rosewood with black knobs black pickup covers and the middle pickup removed with a black gap cover installed.

Again if you look at the youtube video of him showing his guitar collection it reaffirms to me that its "vintage white" I am not sure what kind of pickups he is using or 3 or 5 way switch, only that hes says he never used the middle pickup and that it was in the way and had it removed. he tells a funny story about having spent 3 days scalloping a guitar only to have a lutier re-plain it without asking before hand during a re-fretting job. He evidently has a wicked temper. I would have hated to be that well meaning lutier. "No good deed goes unpunished"

Having said all of that, I would like to own a blackmore but would not buy one unless I could see it firsthand, and then would never play it, keep it ofr investment. But I hate ot pay 1200.00 for what is essentially a MIM standard with a scalloped fretboard. I wish fender would do him justice and modify the American standards to blackmore specs. Ritchie deserves that much respect.

thanks

That's Candice Night, a compelling performer in her own right..

Yes, She is a great singer.

She is wife number 4. I hope, and evidently she is, good for him and he can relax out his days with her. They seem to be "made for each other"

Ritchie's actual strat is a '77. His backup is a '74. When originally purchased, it was Olympic White and it faded after many years of gigs and exposure to the elements. Eventually over time the new ones will fade as well.

I read a recent article about the new Blackmore strat and what I didn't know was that Ritchie swapped out the original single coils for Schecter ST-500's. I knew they weren't original, but I wasn't aware they were Schecter. In the same article, according to his long time tech Dawk, it said he never used Seymour Duncan's. Yet on the House of Blue Light tour in '87, he can clearly be seen with two dbl blade pu's instead of the Schecter's:



If those aren't Duncan's, what are they? DiMarzio? The article never said. After those is when he went to the Lace Sensors.

_________________
The mind is like a parachute; it doesn't work unless its open-FZ

This copy is based on the guitar he used with Rainbow than Purple.There is a dummy pickup in the middle and the bridge is reverse wound so your twin pickup position has noise cancelling and since there is only a 3 way switch it is an option only for this guitar.The pickups are Seymour Duncan Quarter pound flat ssl-4 which are supposed to mimic the Schecter F-500ts he was using at this time and also Gold Lace Sensors were another big fave of his if you want to upgrade. Under the back cover there are 3 springs Blackmore used 4 the one second from the bottom removed. The U shaped neck is finished with polyurethane. There is a bullet truss rod and the much maligned 3 bolt /micro tilting neck fixing.If you are rough with your neck you can find it shifts. You can always try another Stillwell mod gluing it in with epoxy. Just dont change your mind.------ Well this is a combo of two reviews there is nothing here saying about the guitar being hum noisy in fact just the opposite but you are the one with the guitar is it dead noiseless when both pups are on they also say they are very hot maybe to hot. Well I hope you get everything working right .GOOD LUCK

As long as you use single-coils you will get hum. Plain and simple. And as Martian stated shielding will not solve the problem. You could have tried putting in some Dimarzio vertical humbuckers. They sound great. I use them and am totally happy with the sound.

And do not buy a Hum Debugger. While it does tame the hum somewhat it introduces unwanted artifacts into your sound.

Blackmore never used Quarter pound pickups and he isn't using Lace sensor silver but gold. Also the finish is not like a "mirror" as you said because it is the 70s style finish and that was how Strats used to look back then. Moreover, it is normal that you get the 60 cycle hum you ought to know that if you are an experienced player. Regular single coils have the hum but these have much greater output hence the hum is louder. Middle position uses both pickups in conjunction similarly to a humbucker so the hum is canceled. It is a great guitar, you shouldn't have returned it because there was nothing wrong with it. You could've replaced the pickups with the Lace sensor golds and perhaps do Dawk's MTC modification as I did and it is just what Ritchie uses, I've seen it on one of his Night concerts recently. It is actually exactly the same if not better than my actual 1972 American Standard. A stunning piece of gear! P.S. His guitar used to be Olympic white as well it just became Vintage white over the years