John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

  • MESA

    Votes: 2 33.3%

  • Marshall

    Votes: 4 66.7%
  • Total voters
    6
Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

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Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

I've heard he used both on Whitesnake's eponymous (1987) album.

No JCM combo. He used the same set-up he used for Whitesnake 87: Two Boogie Mark III (no stripe) Coliseum heads slaved together and then double tracked for rhythms. There was a slight bit of chorusing from a Lexcion PCM41. He ran them into 2 stock Boogie Metal Grill Half Back cabs with the stock speakers (C90's on top and EV's on the bottom). John's technique of putting vibrato on chords makes it sound like there is even more chorus going on than there really is.

He can't recall but he says he may have done some parts here and there with his Jose modded Marshall. He also used a Roland JC120 for some clean stuff. He did record very loud. At the time, it was the only time Little Mountain Studio had noise complaints from neighbors.
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Trace of Voodoo Amps sez:

I love the tone on the Whitesnake record as well as the Blue Murder records and John is amazing player (great tone and vibrato!) I favor the tone on the Whitesnake record (Still of The Night, etc) but the Blue Murder tones were great as well! I always though the amp was a Mesa Coliseum as well as that is what I had heard for years. I believe John also said that is what he used on that record. I even went to far as to track down and purchase a Coliseum. I am presuming he said he used this in the studio to misdirect people?

I say this as; Years ago when I was recording a record at Phase One Studios in Toronto Canada I became friends with one of the engineers that was assigned to work with our band. He was one of the on staff engineers and worked for the studio. Before we arrived he was given the task of reorganizing the tape library. There were some amazing safety copies of iconic records that were in that library and there was a safety copy of that record. Along with the session track sheets were notes regarding a Marshall & Les Paul for the guitar tracks. A Strat was also listed on the songs that contained clean parts.

I had never heard a regular Marshall sound like that and I have always loved that tone so I was very curious. Lord knows I would have loved to have that tone! (lol) Approximately one week later I was able to meet the gentleman who owned the studio at that time when we were there. He also had owned the studio at the time that record was being recorded. He had a lot of great stories but the one that is relevant to this thread is that he recalled John's Modded Marshall going down during the tracking of the rhythm guitar tracks. The studio had a repair tech on staff (IE: they had old vintage Neve consoles, tape machines, outboard gear, etc that required constant maintenance) and he offered to have a look at the amp to see if he could fix it for them. John insisted that the amp be sent to the gentleman in CA who had modified it. This was a big to-do at the time as there was 3 weeks of down time at the studio that the label was paying for though nothing was being recorded. Back in those days the big studios had lock-out rates that were pricey even by today’s standards. In the end it was obviously water under the bridge as the record did in fact sell very well and the guitar tone is still amazing to this day. Naturally I was dying to know who the tech was as I really wanted that tone but when I asked him if he recalled the name of the tech that John sent his amp to he said Jose was his first name but could not be certain of his last name.

I have always wanted to work with John as I have always loved his playing. Fast forward to a few years ago; I was able to talk with a gentleman that was John’s guitar tech at the time. He said John has been using Marshalls that Jose Modded for a long time and was not interested in using anything else. Apparently John spent some time purchasing several Jose Modded Marshalls around Los Angeles CA area and eBay in order to find one that sounded like his main amp so that he had a back up. We have worked on a lot of Jose A Modded amps and Jose did a lot of Mods that were different from one another, all cool in their own way. There is one that will get you that tone and while it does not do cleans very well the gain tones are certainly in line with John’s tone. It was what Jose referred to as his “Studio Mod” as the volume is padded down. Earlier on he would install a transformer isolated line out (which sounded best to me ears) and later on it was resistor based. This was done to capture the amps tone and send it to either a power amp or to effects and then to the power amp.


Much the same as a lot of great guitar players who have amazing tone (EVH, etc) there can be conflicting reports with regards to which amps/gear were used on various records. Again, I am only sharing my own experience in the hopes that it helps. I have been a long time fan of John's and regardless of what amps he uses - he is an incredibly talented player as well as an outstanding singer.


All the best to everyone here;
Trace
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Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

Sykes SoTN and Zakk's No More Tears tones are 2 of my absolute favorite tones, strange, I don't own a LPC...

Interested read about Sykes using Jose modded Marshalls on the WS album, I had always heard it was a Mesa Coliseum. Pretty sure he has toured with Dual Rectos, but not sure if he has recorded with them. I've also heard that he had some Marshall heads retrofitted with 6V6s but can't provide any proof of that, maybe that was one of the mods Jose did for him? (don't quote me on that, like I said, I can't provide evidence or even a link at this point)
 
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Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

Love Sykes. Very cool that Valley of the Kings was posted. Was playing my ESP Eclipse in drop-D a few days ago and did as I often do, and cranked up the amp and PA, and played along with Valley, as well as Blue Murder (and then tuned back to E and played Billy). Such a killer album. Wore it out when it was first released in the late 80s. Name my cat Billy after the latter song. He lived to be 18 years old.
 
Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

devastone said:
Sykes SoTN and Zakk's No More Tears tones are 2 of my absolute favorite tones, strange, I don't own a LPC...

Interested read about Sykes using Jose modded Marshalls on the WS album, I had always heard it was a Mesa Coliseum. Pretty sure he has toured with Dual Rectos, but not sure if he has recorded with them. I've also heard that he had some Marshall heads retrofitted with 6V6s but can't provide any proof of that, maybe that was one of the mods Jose did for him? (don't quote me on that, like I said, I can't provide evidence or even a link at this point)
Click to expand...
I always heard the MESA Colliseum & Modded Marshalls too but didn't know the details but sure could hear them. Always loved his tone/playing.
 
Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

I always thought it sounded more British/Marshall-y, but I have only briefly played a Mesa Mark decades ago, and have never even seen a Coliseum in person, so I don't have a good point of reference.
 
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Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

Can't count how many times I cranked this in my Camaro

 
Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

Really interesting. I owned a 50 watt JCM800 4010 112 combo before I got into Mesas. I really liked the tone of the Marshall when it was cranked. I would sometimes use it with '66 Fender Bandmaster 212 cab. But I really had three issues with it. One, I missed reverb. No efx loop, and the pedal reverb didn't sound right to me with the amp distorting. Two, it sounded terrible at low volume...it really needed to be cranked to have any fullness. And three, it just wasn't versatile enough. With a good dirty tone, I couldn't get a good clean tone. And it was really finicky with dirt boxes in front; I never did find one that I was totally pleased with, yet they worked great with my Fenders.

So I walked into a pawn shop one day and saw this Mesa head. The guy said it was a .50 Caliber, but I could tell it was a Mark III, with about 38 big bottles in the back of it! A Coliseum!!! It had a $450 tag on it and I couldn't write the check fast enough! Two days later, another store had a matching 412 C90/EVM Half-Back cab, and I grabbed it too. I got it cheap because it was in rough shape, but some black sealant, and fresh paint on the metal grill had it looking fresh. It turned out to be better than I ever could have hoped for. I became a better player...people coming up to the stage to compliment me on my tone...to the chagrin of the band's LEAD guitarist. Lol! I had great clean rhythm tones, heavy crunch tones, and that soaring, singing Boogie lead tones. It was like having the best of my BF Fenders, the Marshall and MORE in one package.

It is pretty controllable at low volume, but once the MV is above 2.75 it really begins to shine. I've been able to use it in small tavern gigs and on outdoor festivals. On the full power setting, notes just explode out of the amp, so dynamic. Most of the time I use the half-power setting, and it is just a glorious sounding amp. And every guitar I've plugged into sounds good. I think the loudest I've ever had it was at 4.5 on the MV at an outdoir concert. Of course the cops got called...he did ask me to turn down, but added that it sounded great, lol!

I've acquired two Simul-Class Mark III 112 EVM combos (and a Mark IV and the Mark V series), and they're great too. The Simul-Class tone is even creamier, a little less punchy than the Coliseum. The Mark IIIs don't need as much fiddling as some of the later amps. I basically set my IIIs in the sweet spots recommended in the manual and forget it.

I'm certainly not the player Sykes is. But, having had both the Marshall and Mesa, my choice was clearly the Mesa for my style and my material. I still love those Marshall tones, though.

Bill
 
Re: John Sykes tone, MESA or Marshall ?

Boogie Bill said:
Really interesting. I owned a 50 watt JCM800 4010 112 combo before I got into Mesas. I really liked the tone of the Marshall when it was cranked. I would sometimes use it with '66 Fender Bandmaster 212 cab. But I really had three issues with it. One, I missed reverb. No efx loop, and the pedal reverb didn't sound right to me with the amp distorting. Two, it sounded terrible at low volume...it really needed to be cranked to have any fullness. And three, it just wasn't versatile enough. With a good dirty tone, I couldn't get a good clean tone. And it was really finicky with dirt boxes in front; I never did find one that I was totally pleased with, yet they worked great with my Fenders.

So I walked into a pawn shop one day and saw this Mesa head. The guy said it was a .50 Caliber, but I could tell it was a Mark III, with about 38 big bottles in the back of it! A Coliseum!!! It had a $450 tag on it and I couldn't write the check fast enough! Two days later, another store had a matching 412 C90/EVM Half-Back cab, and I grabbed it too. I got it cheap because it was in rough shape, but some black sealant, and fresh paint on the metal grill had it looking fresh. It turned out to be better than I ever could have hoped for. I became a better player...people coming up to the stage to compliment me on my tone...to the chagrin of the band's LEAD guitarist. Lol! I had great clean rhythm tones, heavy crunch tones, and that soaring, singing Boogie lead tones. It was like having the best of my BF Fenders, the Marshall and MORE in one package.

It is pretty controllable at low volume, but once the MV is above 2.75 it really begins to shine. I've been able to use it in small tavern gigs and on outdoor festivals. On the full power setting, notes just explode out of the amp, so dynamic. Most of the time I use the half-power setting, and it is just a glorious sounding amp. And every guitar I've plugged into sounds good. I think the loudest I've ever had it was at 4.5 on the MV at an outdoir concert. Of course the cops got called...he did ask me to turn down, but added that it sounded great, lol!

I've acquired two Simul-Class Mark III 112 EVM combos (and a Mark IV and the Mark V series), and they're great too. The Simul-Class tone is even creamier, a little less punchy than the Coliseum. The Mark IIIs don't need as much fiddling as some of the later amps. I basically set my IIIs in the sweet spots recommended in the manual and forget it.

I'm certainly not the player Sykes is. But, having had both the Marshall and Mesa, my choice was clearly the Mesa for my style and my material. I still love those Marshall tones, though.

Bill
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$450 for a Coliseum schweet ..... i gotta say my 3 channel Dual Rec is the best sounding amp at low volume that i have. Thats great when i can't crank it. Sounds great at any volume.
 
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