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.
