The Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster was Ritchies favorite box for live and studio recordings like the famous 1971 "Machine Head" or the later 1974 "Burn" session. The HS-S Master in front of a Vox AC30 gives you the unique sound of the well-known rock hymn "Smoke on the water". Compared to its forerunner, the HS-S sounds a tad more aggressive with more mid-range with the guitar’s volume pot fully opened, a little bit similar to a WahWah sound. But the higher the pre-amp volume of the amp is dialed in, the more this midrangy tone will be forced into the background because now the saturation of the amp will generate the necessary harmonics. So it´s up to you to chase the sweet spot of the HS-S unit. You will have to raise the pre-amp volume of a Marshall Major noticeably because this amp is a very clean sounding one. To have some good reserves when dialing in the pre-amp volume Blackmore had his Major amps modded early with a cascaded pre-amp design right from the factory.
Demo by Leon van der Meer (EN)
Demo by Haiko Heinz (EN)