Features Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster Ritchie Blackmore's Strat Guitar Electric Solidbody Solidbody Electric Guitar with Alder Body, Maple Neck/Fingerboard, Three Single-coil Pickups, and Ha Description Product Description Electric Guitars - The Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster solidbody electric guitar is a rock icon. Ritchie wrote Deep Purple's classic "Smoke On the Water" on his 1968 Strat, and the Custom Shop's luthiers have painstakingly re-created that legendary instrument for your heavy riffing pleasure. You get period-correct appointments, including a 2-piece alder body with a lightly worn finish, a luscious, beefy U-profile neck, and three custom '68 Abigail Ybarra hand-wound single-coil Strat pickups. Create your own rock history, with the Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster.Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster Solidbody Electric Guitar at a Glance:This axe has a whopper of a backstoryPeriod-correct appointmentsLightly aged finish and hardware for vintage vibeThis axe has a whopper of a backstoryThe Fender Custom Shop Ritchie Blackmore Tribute Stratocaster has a backstory we know you'll find interesting. Ritchie wrote Deep Purple's classic "Smoke On the Water" on his 1968 Stratocaster. All double-stops a fourth apart, the G minor blues scale main riff (a favorite of budding guitarists), is ofter misinterpreted as consisting of barre chords. The lyrics tell the story of the December, 1971 evening that the Montreux Casino in Switzerland burned to the ground while the group watched from their hotel. It's a long saga that includes references to Frank Zappa, a flare gun, heroic deeds of the Montreux Jazz Festival director, and smoke on the waters of Lake Geneva. And fire in the sky. Let's just say that few guitars are infused with this much colorful history.Period-correct appointmentsRitchie Blackmore's iconic Strat is a '68 - about three years into Fender's CBS era, and you'll appreciate that this Custom Shop re-creation sports the appropriate period-correct appointments. First - and most obvious - is the large '70s-style headstock with vintage-y Fender F-stamped Schaller tuners. The three Custom Shop single-coi