BlackerThanNight
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Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
Maybe this is a bit technical for here and maybe you've seen this already.
But here's a pic, that was posted originally by the late Rainier Duda I think, which excites the guitarists amongst us ! THis is an ENGL Sovereign 50 COmbo, used in Blackmore's Night
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10/4/2004, 15:44
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RitchiesHair
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
I think you can safely say that your theory in the tapedeck thread is correct.
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10/4/2004, 15:50
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Difficulttocure
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
waaah! cool!  
--- BBTOS(*) campaign
Bring Back The Opening Salvo
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10/4/2004, 16:14
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BlackerThanNight
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
quote:
RitchiesHair wrote:
I think you can safely say that your theory in the tapedeck thread is correct.
I wrote "SO at a guess Ritchie derives a lot of his tone from that little Aiwa tape deck and probably/possibly from some booster hidden under the scratch plate on his strat. It's possible that Ritchie makes very little use of the pre-amp stages of his amps. I noticed his ENGLS all seem to be set to a clean or mild crunch setting, none of which, in themselves, would give the sound he actually produces, so it is produced before it gets to the amp! SO even with the ENGL amps the tape deck is a major factor in the sound. "
If you look at these amp settings they won't give you the sound we've heard from Ritchie's recent live gigs. I've got several ENGL amps and they get very close to Ritchies sound, but they are not 100%. So I favour the Tape Deck, something under the pickguard, a mix of both or maybe just an" act of god" ! He is the Prince of Darkness after all !!
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10/4/2004, 16:16
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RitchiesHair
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
It appears that the lead channel is always off and he only uses the crunch channel so he's obviously getting a hell of a boost from somewhere for his lead sound, fiddling with the volume control alone wouldn't be sufficient and he can't adjust the tape deck in mid-song so I suspect that he does have some kind of booster circuit wired in under the scratchplate. There is one on the market available to us plebs but I'd imagine his is a bespoke custom job.
And the EQ is virtually flat, the tape deck must impart it's own characteristic EQ along with the compression and he must rely upon it to get his sound just right so he'll want to minimise the audible effect of the ENGL preamp as much as possible. I'd guess that the onboard controls are probably only used to fine-tune things for different venues if their natural acoustics accentuate or attenuate certain frequencies.
I'm inclined to say it's a mix of the two...or maybe even all 3. 
Last edited by RitchiesHair, 10/4/2004, 17:05
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10/4/2004, 16:48
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BlackerThanNight
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
If you watch Ritchie closely when he's playing there are occassions when he appears to make a very careful adjustment to the Volume control on his guitar, like he's feeling fo a specific point on the control. This is consistent with a 'detent' such as you get in the Blender Tone control and the like. Also again if you look closely at pictures of his guitar, you'll see that the Volume control sits a lot higher than the other controls. This is consistent with a push pull control, sitting higher in the 'out' position. SO all things considered it seems likely that something special lurks under that pickguard ! Question is well what is it !
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10/4/2004, 17:41
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RitchiesHair
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
I was standing about 10 feet away from him in Reading on the last tour during the encores and he played a little quiet passage in what I seem to remember was the beginning of Rainbow Blues and he made very careful and precise adjustments to the volume control before and afterwards and the change was far too dramatic to be just a standard volume pot.
As I said earlier, whatever he has is probably custom made but the characteristics of something like this would seem to fit the bill.
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10/4/2004, 21:58
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BlackerThanNight
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
quote:
RitchiesHair wrote:
I was standing about 10 feet away from him in Reading on the last tour during the encores and he played a little quiet passage in what I seem to remember was the beginning of Rainbow Blues and he made very careful and precise adjustments to the volume control before and afterwards and the change was far too dramatic to be just a standard volume pot.
As I said earlier, whatever he has is probably custom made but the characteristics of something like this would seem to fit the bill.
I've got a PA2 which I bought a few years back to test-out. It provides the same bost as the AB. Problem with it is that it generates a lot of noise and alters the guitar sound. It does boost the signal, but it's not really very useful. Sadly like a lot of these devices it was just fine at bedroom volume, but as soon as you put it on a stage it turns to rat !@#$. I imagine Ritchie could easily have had something similar made for him but without the noise problems. It could be something as simple as an existing floor pedal effect stripped and fitted hidden under the scratchplate, with most settings preset except the one he adjusts. Another strange thing is I heard stuff where he's swapped instruments with Roger Glovebox and when Roger is playing Ritchies guitar it doesn't sound the same, becuase the boost is off ! Strange but true. His current sound is as hard to nail properly as ever.
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10/4/2004, 22:26
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RitchiesHair
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
quote:
BlackerThanNight wrote:
It could be something as simple as an existing floor pedal effect stripped and fitted hidden under the scratchplate, with most settings preset except the one he adjusts.
That got me thinking, maybe it's something similar to a treble booster because he had the Hornby-Skewes pedal modified so he could adjust it just like he does with the mystery device and they were/are used for the same thing.
But he must have to use a noise gate for whatever it is.
I'd never thought about the different sounds when he's switched instruments on stage, I've always attributed it to the "touch of the master's hand" factor.
Last edited by RitchiesHair, 10/4/2004, 22:52
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10/4/2004, 22:52
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ByTor
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Re: Ritchie's Own ENGL Amp Settings
The Clapton signature Strats used to ship right from the factory with Lace Sensor pickups and a mid boost that was controled through one of the tone pots. I believe it had a center detent to it where the response was supposed to be flat, you could then either boost or cut some of the mids.
I've seen videos of Eric play live, and you can see him using the control to boost the mids, and thicken his tone up for leads, and then carefully roll it back down when the lead break is done. But this is all done with one of the tone controls, not the volume.
I've never cared much for the Lace sensors or EMG's so dont have much hands on experience with either.
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10/4/2004, 22:52
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