Recently got the Spice Box. What an amazing change. The tone in the neck pickup is so nice now. The midfilter ads a beautiful milder tone if required. My guitar now feels and sounds much more like a Blackmore Signature than it was when I bought it. I guess the Lace Sensor Gold AND the Spice Box bring much more of the Blackmore tone out than the factory configuration. I only my fingers, perfection and musicality would come somewhat closer to that of Ritchie it would sound so much more like I have in my mind.
I am glad you like it so much and appreciate the feedback. I agree it is an important part of certain Blackmore sounds. And yeah I dont like the stock pickup config in the signature model. That’s a lazy mistake from Fender.
Interesting..... One point: given that (according to the BSM website) the 'black box' contains a cored toroidal coil, it will massively affect the circuit inductance and thus the frequency-dependent impedance by changing and increasing circuit resonance. So although a passive design, it is very probable that the box does indeed increase selected treble frequencies at the expense of mid and bass. This is similar to amplifier input impedance reacting with pickup capacitance and inductance - and volume control resistance- thus creating a peak (a significant one for single coil pickups - hence their signature bright tone) at higher frequencies.
Thanks for explanation, i don’t know anything technical about electronics but sounds interesting. I kinda do hear an ever so slight difference (more treble) with the spicebox.
Hi Adam, great video! Although I'm not an expert on Blackmore's "Dawk" sound I think it would be good to point out that he didn't use the MTC on Burn or Temple of the King! His guitars were 100% stock at the time (other than the shielding and tuners) and he was still using the Aiwa preamp straight into his modded Majors when he recorded those songs. Dawk was not even in the picture back then. From what I know, the original MTC that Dawk installed in Blackmore's guitars was intended for the neck pickup only. Blackmore didn't use any tone pots with his bridge pickup originally. Some people who installed the original MTC by Dawk in their Strats report that it didn't sound right when wired to the bridge pickup. So in essence, for the exercise of trying to determine when did he use the circuit in his guitars for the first time, and because its effect was very very subtle on the overall tone, one needs to concentrate only on his neck pickup guitar parts. I won't be doing it since I believe it happened after Long Live Rock And Roll -but that's just my idea. :)
Yes of course, Dawk started to work for him around 1975 if I remember his website correctly. I always thought the MTC was already in the guitar for the 1977 munich video but maybe not. In another comment thread there is a string cxase for it being added by the 78 Atlanta show from Finyl Vinyl. I'll follow up on that. I played Burn and Temple of the king because these are songs he played on the ENGL with the lace sensors in 1995 and this video is mainly about that tone. But you are right it would have been clearer if I pointed that out. I never new about the MTC only being used for the neck pickup but it makes sense or at least for the mid filter as the BSM wiring only connects the spice box to the tone of the neck pickup.
@@DogwithtwoBones Ohhh, it makes sense now that you played those songs! Silly me, I lost track of Blackmore’s work after LLR&R. I know from the original MTC working only for the neck pickup from a guy who got it installed by Dawk himself and got to know him well. From your demo it sounds like the BSM version affects the bridge pickup too. Perhaps an additional feature?
@@mgalbu it is for me because I kinda like it. Maybe it’s one of those rare occasions when I dont want to completely copy him :D Anyway look up temple of the king from the 95 video, easily one of my top 3 epic Blackmore moments.
I kinda feel like there is something already in 77 on the munich gig but it’s hard to compare to the 78 tour because I only heard bootlegs. But you might be right.
@@DogwithtwoBones I have the full Atlanta 78 gig, there's a couple of tracks on Final Vinyl, you can tell it's been added by then. The last gigs of the Japanese tour in January 78 are different sounding. BSM's website says 78 too
Yes the spice box/mtc for later tones starting around mid to end of 70s. If you check out my channel you’ll find a lot of cool tones 72 BBC and MIJ style.
Dawk started w the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter. Later, he just made an LCR network using a sewing machine bobbin and matching the Q of the particular neck pickup. Dawk made a bigger deal out of the mtc than it deserves. He wanted to make money selling something. I have several and they just add smoothness to the neck pickup tone. It is a very minor thing.
@@DogwithtwoBones dawk had worked a long time but big rock acts were dying. Loud rigs, big analogue set ups were going the way of the dodo. He got involved in sharing rb info at my urging but it was too late. Blackmore was not the flavor of the day and he had hoped more people would be interested. He also got frustrated because rb’s rig is big, loud and expensive and people would ask him what pedal to buy to sound like rb. So he covered the mtc in epoxy but it is just an lcr network guys, not a holy grail. He wanted $10k to make Satriani a blackmore major (he passed) and offered to build rb strats at a high price but no one did (he did sell one rb guitar - not quite a backup but not quite a smash up just an experimental one but that was late 90’s.
@@2500BC i can understand that too. He was on this respect at the wrong interaction of culture and internet. I emailed with him a couple of times like 15 years ago but back than I did not have the money to buy anything. And now it is too late, for me.
Great demo! I've been listening to a lot of 80s Rainbow and Purple lately so that really nailed Blackmore's tone! Do you know if the Spice Box works well with humbuckers?
Normally it would be treblebooster.net but Bernd the founder recently passed away unfortunately and it is unclear what will be the future of BSM. As of now they do not accept orders.
What do you think I could get for the original dawk mtc on ebay? I have 3 I bought in 2014 Funny story, about 8 months before Dawk passed, I lost my phone on the side of the road. I turned around and found it but it was partially ran over. I plugged it in to the car and it started auto dialing Dawk over and over and over and I couldn’t stop it from dialing and it wouldn’t shut off because the buttons were gone. Rip Dawk.
Funny story :) rest in piece indeed! I honestly dont know how much people would give for it but I might be interested in one if we can make a deal just to compare it with the spice box.
In the pre-Web era I literally gone mad to try to understand why when HE lowered the volume the treble remained ... Then with various studies trying to steal the secrets of the guitarists I discovered the treble bleed and I have it on practically all my guitars. I knew about the existence of that 'magical box' when I finally arrived at the forum where the secret was revealed, but I never implemented it... I don't know why, maybe in the end trying to imitate him I discovered my 'own' sound... However your search is really interesting and of great help for everyone.
I can imagine. Even though my growing up coincided with the internet turning to what it is, i still kinda remember the dark ages when magazines were the only source of knowledge. I hope some day I find my own sound and maybe even stlye too but good to have fun researching all this in the meantime. Just glad others enjoy it too.
Actually, Mr. Duck did his MTS for a slightly different effect than you say. This box at Ritchie guitar was tied to a neck pickup. This was done so that Ritchie did not become thin and stay warble while playing at volume 3 and getting a clear sound. MTS has nothing to do with the bridge pickup. And one more little thing. When playing BURN try to play each downbeat with your thumb on the 3rd fret of the 6th string. In total, for each cycle, you should have 6 or 7 (too lazy to count) times a note on G on the 3rd fret of 6 strings. And one more thing put treble and bass to zero on your amp and 10 to middle. Put volume and gain on 10 in preamp section. Then put necessary volume on amp itself. Tulajdonképpen Mr. Duck az MTS-ét egy kicsit más hatásért csinálta, mint ahogy Ön mondja. Ez a doboz a Ritchie-nél egy nyakszedőhöz volt kötve. Ezt azért tették, hogy Ritchie ne legyen vékony és neszű, miközben 3-as hangerőn játszott, és tiszta hangot kapott. Az MTS-nek semmi köze a bridge pickuphoz. És még egy apróság. A BURN lejátszásakor próbáljon meg minden leütést úgy lejátszani, hogy a hüvelykujjával a 6. húr 3. hangján van. Összességében minden ciklushoz 6-7 (túl lusta számolni) hangot kell kapnia a G-n a 3. 6 húrból álló hangon. Állítsd a magas és mély hangokat nullára, a középeket pedig 10-re az erősítőn. Az előerősítő részben állítsa a hangot és az erősítést 10-re. És állítsa be a hangerőt a közös erősítőn.
Thanks for your tone tips! I have tried those amp settings previously and they didnt work for me. I usually play the downbeats with my thumb in burn and man on too, sometimes even smoke. That’s sort if the live way of doing it indeed. I never had the mtc so I didn’t know it was only for the neck pickup. I thought Bernd designed the installation of the spice box the same way. But others have already pointed out that in fact the mtc was for the neck pickup only. Thank you for informing me!
Oh my god what an amazing tone! Can you please share the settings on your amp? I have an old Savage so I think its basically the same. Also, do you have available tabs or lesson for that song? I wanted to learn that solo for years!
Lesson is coming next week but send me an Gmail to dogwtb and I’ll send you a photo of the amp. It’s a good thing I take a pic because my toddler likes to turn my knobs and he messed up the settings since :D
I am kinda picky and it is hard to put together a Blackmore cover band I would like to play is but we are actually working on one right now. I am curious to see if it works out the way I want it to, has potential for sure.
He definitey did. You can see them on several videos 1993 come hell or highwayter, 1995 Rainbow dusseldorf and basically all the Blackmore’s night stuff.
Interestingly, in the 1995 Rainbow in Germany live video, you can see that RB had painted the Lace Sensors black, but a lot of the black paint had come off - so they look a bit strange, haha.
@@DogwithtwoBones Thanks, Dog. I searched around your channel and found you actually did some Rock Crusher videos. I probably saw them before but, dammit, I'm old and forget things ;D One other question - I couldn't make it out in the video - do you use Lace Sensor Golds or HOT Golds? And do you use the same Lace Sensor model in both the neck and bridge? Your channel, your playing and your dedication to RB is killer, as always. Thank you for keeping the spirit of Blackmore alive.
@@DogwithtwoBones Dog! Why did my other comment get deleted, the one about comparing the Blackmore and USA Stratocasters? Because it had links in it, or...? Sorry if I did something wrong, Dog 😇
I listened to it with my eyes. Ritchie Blackmore was right in front of me.
Glad the costume helped, I kinda felt silly in it. I mean it is great for attending a Blackmore’s Night show in a castle but my room is different :D
Recently got the Spice Box. What an amazing change. The tone in the neck pickup is so nice now. The midfilter ads a beautiful milder tone if required. My guitar now feels and sounds much more like a Blackmore Signature than it was when I bought it. I guess the Lace Sensor Gold AND the Spice Box bring much more of the Blackmore tone out than the factory configuration. I only my fingers, perfection and musicality would come somewhat closer to that of Ritchie it would sound so much more like I have in my mind.
I am glad you like it so much and appreciate the feedback. I agree it is an important part of certain Blackmore sounds. And yeah I dont like the stock pickup config in the signature model. That’s a lazy mistake from Fender.
Interesting.....
One point: given that (according to the BSM website) the 'black box' contains a cored toroidal coil, it will massively affect the circuit inductance and thus the frequency-dependent impedance by changing and increasing circuit resonance. So although a passive design, it is very probable that the box does indeed increase selected treble frequencies at the expense of mid and bass. This is similar to amplifier input impedance reacting with pickup capacitance and inductance - and volume control resistance- thus creating a peak (a significant one for single coil pickups - hence their signature bright tone) at higher frequencies.
Thanks for explanation, i don’t know anything technical about electronics but sounds interesting. I kinda do hear an ever so slight difference (more treble) with the spicebox.
Just wondering if you could do the Catch The Rainbow intro from either Live In Munich or On Stage. Amazing video as always, brother.
The intro maybe but don’t have the energy to tab the whole song live.
@@DogwithtwoBones No, no not the whole song haha. The intro is hard to tab as it is.
Hi Adam, great video! Although I'm not an expert on Blackmore's "Dawk" sound I think it would be good to point out that he didn't use the MTC on Burn or Temple of the King! His guitars were 100% stock at the time (other than the shielding and tuners) and he was still using the Aiwa preamp straight into his modded Majors when he recorded those songs. Dawk was not even in the picture back then.
From what I know, the original MTC that Dawk installed in Blackmore's guitars was intended for the neck pickup only. Blackmore didn't use any tone pots with his bridge pickup originally. Some people who installed the original MTC by Dawk in their Strats report that it didn't sound right when wired to the bridge pickup. So in essence, for the exercise of trying to determine when did he use the circuit in his guitars for the first time, and because its effect was very very subtle on the overall tone, one needs to concentrate only on his neck pickup guitar parts. I won't be doing it since I believe it happened after Long Live Rock And Roll -but that's just my idea. :)
Yes of course, Dawk started to work for him around 1975 if I remember his website correctly. I always thought the MTC was already in the guitar for the 1977 munich video but maybe not. In another comment thread there is a string cxase for it being added by the 78 Atlanta show from Finyl Vinyl. I'll follow up on that.
I played Burn and Temple of the king because these are songs he played on the ENGL with the lace sensors in 1995 and this video is mainly about that tone. But you are right it would have been clearer if I pointed that out.
I never new about the MTC only being used for the neck pickup but it makes sense or at least for the mid filter as the BSM wiring only connects the spice box to the tone of the neck pickup.
@@DogwithtwoBones Ohhh, it makes sense now that you played those songs! Silly me, I lost track of Blackmore’s work after LLR&R.
I know from the original MTC working only for the neck pickup from a guy who got it installed by Dawk himself and got to know him well.
From your demo it sounds like the BSM version affects the bridge pickup too. Perhaps an additional feature?
@@mgalbu it is for me because I kinda like it. Maybe it’s one of those rare occasions when I dont want to completely copy him :D
Anyway look up temple of the king from the 95 video, easily one of my top 3 epic Blackmore moments.
shielding, tuners and scalloping?
@@michaelkarlsson5966 Of course! How to forget the scalloping
You can tell on the live recordings the difference in 1977 early 78 and 1978 post May, it seems like the MTC was first used on the US tour from MAY
I kinda feel like there is something already in 77 on the munich gig but it’s hard to compare to the 78 tour because I only heard bootlegs. But you might be right.
@@DogwithtwoBones I have the full Atlanta 78 gig, there's a couple of tracks on Final Vinyl, you can tell it's been added by then. The last gigs of the Japanese tour in January 78 are different sounding. BSM's website says 78 too
First one was a Bill Lawrence Q-Filter
I feel so much his Rainbow period. Great job!
Thanks, that’s my favourite too.
if you want a 1972 tone you need pickups from the alnico 5 cbs design with a treble boost and a Harley Benton ac tone box
Yes the spice box/mtc for later tones starting around mid to end of 70s. If you check out my channel you’ll find a lot of cool tones 72 BBC and MIJ style.
Q filter and mtc was late 70’s. RB in 72 had the black 68 maple cap strat and rare 4 bolt 71 sunburst.
Dawk started w the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter. Later, he just made an LCR network using a sewing machine bobbin and matching the Q of the particular neck pickup. Dawk made a bigger deal out of the mtc than it deserves. He wanted to make money selling something. I have several and they just add smoothness to the neck pickup tone. It is a very minor thing.
Interesting, i can definitely imagine anyone wanting to profit from a thing like this. Thanks for the info.
@@DogwithtwoBones dawk had worked a long time but big rock acts were dying. Loud rigs, big analogue set ups were going the way of the dodo. He got involved in sharing rb info at my urging but it was too late. Blackmore was not the flavor of the day and he had hoped more people would be interested. He also got frustrated because rb’s rig is big, loud and expensive and people would ask him what pedal to buy to sound like rb. So he covered the mtc in epoxy but it is just an lcr network guys, not a holy grail. He wanted $10k to make Satriani a blackmore major (he passed) and offered to build rb strats at a high price but no one did (he did sell one rb guitar - not quite a backup but not quite a smash up just an experimental one but that was late 90’s.
@@2500BC i can understand that too. He was on this respect at the wrong interaction of culture and internet. I emailed with him a couple of times like 15 years ago but back than I did not have the money to buy anything. And now it is too late, for me.
@@DogwithtwoBones it took a lot of effort to get to the heart of things w dawk but he was a good guy. He built me a major eventually but it took years
Great demo! I've been listening to a lot of 80s Rainbow and Purple lately so that really nailed Blackmore's tone!
Do you know if the Spice Box works well with humbuckers?
I have no idea about humbuckers but now that you mention it, it is a very valid and relevant question.
Hola, donde puedo conseguir el sistema spice box para comprar?
Normally it would be treblebooster.net but Bernd the founder recently passed away unfortunately and it is unclear what will be the future of BSM. As of now they do not accept orders.
Thank you Thank You!
What do you think I could get for the original dawk mtc on ebay? I have 3 I bought in 2014
Funny story, about 8 months before Dawk passed, I lost my phone on the side of the road. I turned around and found it but it was partially ran over. I plugged it in to the car and it started auto dialing Dawk over and over and over and I couldn’t stop it from dialing and it wouldn’t shut off because the buttons were gone. Rip Dawk.
Funny story :) rest in piece indeed!
I honestly dont know how much people would give for it but I might be interested in one if we can make a deal just to compare it with the spice box.
I would be happy to buy one MTC if you have it for sale.
In the pre-Web era I literally gone mad to try to understand why when HE lowered the volume the treble remained ... Then with various studies trying to steal the secrets of the guitarists I discovered the treble bleed and I have it on practically all my guitars. I knew about the existence of that 'magical box' when I finally arrived at the forum where the secret was revealed, but I never implemented it... I don't know why, maybe in the end trying to imitate him I discovered my 'own' sound... However your search is really interesting and of great help for everyone.
I can imagine. Even though my growing up coincided with the internet turning to what it is, i still kinda remember the dark ages when magazines were the only source of knowledge.
I hope some day I find my own sound and maybe even stlye too but good to have fun researching all this in the meantime. Just glad others enjoy it too.
@@DogwithtwoBones Listening to you is always a great pleasure!
@@Vigilius60 thank you, I appreciate it!
Actually, Mr. Duck did his MTS for a slightly different effect than you say. This box at Ritchie guitar was tied to a neck pickup. This was done so that Ritchie did not become thin and stay warble while playing at volume 3 and getting a clear sound. MTS has nothing to do with the bridge pickup. And one more little thing. When playing BURN try to play each downbeat with your thumb on the 3rd fret of the 6th string. In total, for each cycle, you should have 6 or 7 (too lazy to count) times a note on G on the 3rd fret of 6 strings. And one more thing put treble and bass to zero on your amp and 10 to middle. Put volume and gain on 10 in preamp section. Then put necessary volume on amp itself. Tulajdonképpen Mr. Duck az MTS-ét egy kicsit más hatásért csinálta, mint ahogy Ön mondja. Ez a doboz a Ritchie-nél egy nyakszedőhöz volt kötve. Ezt azért tették, hogy Ritchie ne legyen vékony és neszű, miközben 3-as hangerőn játszott, és tiszta hangot kapott. Az MTS-nek semmi köze a bridge pickuphoz. És még egy apróság. A BURN lejátszásakor próbáljon meg minden leütést úgy lejátszani, hogy a hüvelykujjával a 6. húr 3. hangján van. Összességében minden ciklushoz 6-7 (túl lusta számolni) hangot kell kapnia a G-n a 3. 6 húrból álló hangon. Állítsd a magas és mély hangokat nullára, a középeket pedig 10-re az erősítőn. Az előerősítő részben állítsa a hangot és az erősítést 10-re. És állítsa be a hangerőt a közös erősítőn.
Thanks for your tone tips! I have tried those amp settings previously and they didnt work for me. I usually play the downbeats with my thumb in burn and man on too, sometimes even smoke. That’s sort if the live way of doing it indeed.
I never had the mtc so I didn’t know it was only for the neck pickup. I thought Bernd designed the installation of the spice box the same way. But others have already pointed out that in fact the mtc was for the neck pickup only. Thank you for informing me!
My American Ultra has a built in treble bleed. Is that comparable?
I think so but not sure about the extent. I'd say the spice box is more than a treble bleed. For example it also has a mid filter.
Oh my god what an amazing tone! Can you please share the settings on your amp? I have an old Savage so I think its basically the same. Also, do you have available tabs or lesson for that song? I wanted to learn that solo for years!
Lesson is coming next week but send me an Gmail to dogwtb and I’ll send you a photo of the amp. It’s a good thing I take a pic because my toddler likes to turn my knobs and he messed up the settings since :D
Sent! Thank you very much
The Circle is one of my favourite Blackmores night tracks it was good to hear . Are you in a Blackmore tribute band ?
I am kinda picky and it is hard to put together a Blackmore cover band I would like to play is but we are actually working on one right now. I am curious to see if it works out the way I want it to, has potential for sure.
very good,I will buy one to install!!!
Great, let me know how you like it.
By the way? Did Ritchie really use lace sensors ever? I can't remember this fact. Thanks.
He definitey did. You can see them on several videos 1993 come hell or highwayter, 1995 Rainbow dusseldorf and basically all the Blackmore’s night stuff.
@@DogwithtwoBones thanks
Interestingly, in the 1995 Rainbow in Germany live video, you can see that RB had painted the Lace Sensors black, but a lot of the black paint had come off - so they look a bit strange, haha.
Are you always using the Rock Crusher with your amps? Do you recommend it?
Yessir on both counts.
@@DogwithtwoBones Thanks, Dog. I searched around your channel and found you actually did some Rock Crusher videos. I probably saw them before but, dammit, I'm old and forget things ;D
One other question - I couldn't make it out in the video - do you use Lace Sensor Golds or HOT Golds? And do you use the same Lace Sensor model in both the neck and bridge?
Your channel, your playing and your dedication to RB is killer, as always. Thank you for keeping the spirit of Blackmore alive.
@@OldGuitarMan thank you! I have the old fender lace sensot golds. As far as I know that’s what he used/uses.
@@DogwithtwoBones Dog! Why did my other comment get deleted, the one about comparing the Blackmore and USA Stratocasters? Because it had links in it, or...? Sorry if I did something wrong, Dog 😇
@@OldGuitarMan i haven’t even seen that, so no idea. Must have been youtube.
When will you review other Rainbows albums and songs? What about Love's bo friend?
I am planning on doing something from the Down To Earth album sooner or later.
@@DogwithtwoBones great choice too!👍
When you had the hat on you looked like mac from IASIP
Before he got jacked I bet :D
como se llaman esos gorros?
Google Oktoberfest Hofbrauhaus felt hat.
👍👍
Interesting, every musical stuff in that video has a Blackmore's signature, but every stuff of that sounds like an ordinary Chinese musical equipment.
Seems like one of them classic agree to disagree situations ;)