"Hush" -- Ritchie Blackmore's Cherry Red ES-335TD

Semi-hollow body with solid maple block down the center. This guitar weighs 8.00 lbs. and has a very fat nut width of over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Single-bound laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Serial number ("26457") stamped on the back of the headstock and on an orange label inside the bass f-hole. With the stop tailpiece holes visible and the "Custom Made" plaque most likely missing. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons (the first string tuner button is slightly shrunken). Two PAF humbucker pickups with outputs of 8.31k and 7.20k. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch and jack socket, all on lower treble bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge and factory short Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (the arm has been replaced). The pickguard has been removed and is missing. A red ground wire was put on by Blackmore between the three-way switch and the Bigsby vibrato (there is residue from the tape that was used). There is a small amount of finish checking, especially on the top of the guitar. There are a few marks on the top of the guitar, and two additional unexplainable holes on the bass side of the top of the body. The back of the guitar has some moderate belt buckle wear and some silverish markings. There are a few small surface marks and gouges on the sides, moderate surface wear on the bottom edge of the guitar (with the finish almost off), a few small marks and some finish surface wear on the neck, mainly on the treble side of the neck, a few little edge marks on the headstock, and some wear to the frets, but the guitar has not been refretted. We have carefully examined the guitar under a blacklight and confirmed that there have never been any breaks or repairs to the body or the neck. Housed in the original black hardshell case with orange plush lining and with "DEEP PURPLE" stencilled on the front and back in white lettering (8.00) -- the case handle is broken on one side, but all five fastening catches are working. Inside the case is one of the original studs for the tailpiece, a set of used strings, and two original Gibson black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. There are also two original baggage tags: the first, Air India to London AI-No. 798749 (baggage strap tag); the second, an Air Canada Cargo Air Waybill to Philadelphia (Air Waybill N37853325) pasted to a piece of card. Together with a color photograph (3 1/2 x 5 inches; 9 x 12.7 cm.) of Blackmore playing the guitar on stage with The Three Muskateers (ca. 1965) and two black and white photographs (the largest measuring 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches; 20.2 x 16.5 cm.) of him playing the guitar on stage with Deep Purple (ca. 1968).

This guitar was Lot 48 in the 7 September 1995 Christie's South Kensington sale ("Pop and Guitars"). According to Barbel Blackmore, Ritchie Blackmore played this guitar with Deep Purple between 1968 and 1971 (between In Rock and Fireball [1971], he switched from Gibsons to Fender Strats).

"Ritchie Blackmore, lead guitarist and co-founder of Deep Purple, was born in Weston-super-Mare, England. Emerging to fame in America in 1968 with the hit single 'Hush' Deep Purple has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic at London's Albert Hall, faced four thousand rioting fans in Stuttgart, and been smuggled out of a concert hall in Iceland in a paddy wagon. Blackmore's first guitar was a secondhand Spanish type which he since replaced with Stratocasters and Gibsons. Recently his solos have been pushed forward in Deep Purple's overall sound which has been recorded in the normal studio settings as well as less orthodox places such as when their album, Machine Head, was made in a hotel corridor in Montreux, Switzerland" ("Just Steal from Everybody": Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple by Martin K. Webb at http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/blackmore/rb1973xxxx.html). In this 1973 Guitar Player interview Blackmore was asked when he used his Gibson. Blackmore replied: "The last time I used it was on the Deep Purple In Rock album, I think. I prefer the Stratocaster because it has a more 'attacky' sound. At first I couldn't get used to the Strat after the Gibson. The necks are quite different. But now I can't get used to the Gibson again. A Stratocaster is harder to play than a Gibson, too. I don't know why. I think it's because you can't race across a Strat's fingerboard so fast. With a Gibson you tend to run away with yourself. It's so easy to zoom up an down, you end up just playing physical shapes rather than really working for an original sound."

In a December 1996 Guitar World interview, Blackmore discussed the track "Hush" which appeared on the 1968 album Shades of Deep Purple: "It was my idea to do Hush, a song by [session guitarists/solo artist South]. I heard it in Hamburg, Germany. So I mentioned it to the band, and we did it. The whole thing was done in two takes. We did the whole album in 48 hours. I liked the guitar solo -- especially the feedback. That was done with my Gibson ES-335, which I don't have anymore because my ex-wife stole it. I used that right up to the In Rock album, on Child In Time and Flight of the reason I changed to a Stratocaster was because the sound had an edge to it that I really liked. But it was much harder to get used to. When you're playing a humbucking pickup, you've got that fat sound and it's quite forgiving. But when you lay with Fender pickups, they are so thin and mean and edgy and hard. And every note counts; you can't fake a note" ("Speed King" by Morchedai Kleidermacher at http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/blackmore/rb199612xx.html).

There is film footage of Blackmore playing this guitar (on every track) with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 24 September 1969 (Deep Purple -- Concerto for Group and Orchestra). On the DVD Deep Purple -- Masters from the Vaults: Rare and unseen footage of Deep Purple performing for the TV cameras in Europe during the early seventies, he plays this guitar on two tracks: "Child in Time" and "Ring That Neck." On the DVD Playboy after Dark (Host Hugh M. Hefner at the Party. "All tracks recorded in N.Y.C. 1969-1970" [at the Playboy Mansion]), Blackmore plays this guitar on the Deep Purple tracks "Mandrake Root" (instrumental) and "Hush." He then teaches Hefner to play a chord using this guitar. Hefner talks with Blackmore and Jon Lord (Lord says they have been together for nine months). This is after they have had their big hit "Hush."

"There were indeed a number of firsts in the early days of the electric guitar, but in retrospect only few of them can be considered as true milestones. The double cutaway thinlines pioneered by Gibson in 1958 genuinely rank amongst the great original designs. Their graceful shape was truly innovative at the time and spawned several imitations such as Gretsch's revamped Chet Atkins series or the Guild Starfire. But perhaps the most important hallmark of the new thinline was their semi-solid construction. Indeed Gibson's prime objective was to design an instrument that would combine the advantages of both solid and hollow body electrics and therefore appeal to a variety of players, regardless of their musical style" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 77). This guitar is one of 420 "Cherry Red" ES-335TDs shipped in 1961, out of a total of 886 ES-335TDs shipped in 1961.

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