John Sykes Live ‘95 Rig

Mr. Willy":3q50ggaf said:
Thought the G12-65s where with a Jose Marshall that was used only on the solo for Is This Love. The Mesa Boogie MKIII Colosium was through EVs.
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Could be....I've read where it was the EV/MC90 Mesa cabs mixed with the 65 cabs as well. I wish Drew would see this and chime in, pretty sure what I read came from him lol...
 
Back from the dead necro bump
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The graphic on that Mark would have been pretty brite no? The far 2 sliders look all the way up.
 
oh oh! let me flex on this... :ROFLMAO:
i used to own one of Sykes' weird ass custom 4x12's from the 80's that Rik from Wizard made for him. It was THICK wood probably 18 ply like Orange, if wasn't just solid wood. not 100% sure. the back was totally sealed. no screws, just glued together and finished over. no tolex... it was painted black. front loaded with the old Hiwatt style slanted front baffle that is a vertical slant, not the usual horizontal slant. and yes, 4 of the sweetest sounding 65's i've ever had. DUMB ASS ME got rid of it (i was in my early 20s...didn't know better) because it did weight a million pounds and had no wheels. There is video of him with these on stage out there. i remember it being well balanced, and TIGHT/STIFF low end.

this has nothing to do with the original question, but its still an interesting piece of Sykes / Wizard amps history.
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JimAnsell said:
oh oh! let me flex on this... :ROFLMAO:
i used to own one of Sykes' weird ass custom 4x12's from the 80's that Rik from Wizard made for him. It was THICK wood probably 18 ply like Orange, if wasn't just solid wood. not 100% sure. the back was totally sealed. no screws, just glued together and finished over. no tolex... it was painted black. front loaded with the old Hiwatt style slanted front baffle that is a vertical slant, not the usual horizontal slant. and yes, 4 of the sweetest sounding 65's i've ever had. DUMB ASS ME got rid of it (i was in my early 20s...didn't know better) because it did weight a million pounds and had no wheels. There is video of him with these on stage out there. i remember it being well balanced, and TIGHT/STIFF low end.

this has nothing to do with the original question, but its still an interesting piece of Sykes / Wizard amps history.
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Not trying to derail the thread... I missed out on one of his Wizard cabs for sale locally maybe 20 years ago - that he ended up buying back.
 
That is really cool!!!
I didn't know about those cabs!
Man, I think both Sykes playing and tone were some of the best ever, and till today, when I listen to some BM I still get amazed on how great he is.
On the Wizard cabs, I used to have the prototype # 1 for AC/DC during the very early 2000s. It was a freaking cool cab, and I wish I would've kept it. Rick really know how to make amazing sounding stuff!!!
 
SBlue said:
That is really cool!!!
I didn't know about those cabs!
Man, I think both Sykes playing and tone were some of the best ever, and till today, when I listen to some BM I still get amazed on how great he is.
On the Wizard cabs, I used to have the prototype # 1 for AC/DC during the very early 2000s. It was a freaking cool cab, and I wish I would've kept it. Rick really know how to make amazing sounding stuff!!!
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To me John Sykes was the Renaissance man of the mid 80's hard rock scene. Great image, songwriting, singing, playing, and tone. It's just not fair that he is so talented.....lol...
 
Fusionbear said:
To me John Sykes was the Renaissance man of the mid 80's hard rock scene. Great image, songwriting, singing, playing, and tone. It's just not fair that he is so talented.....lol...
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I know right? I remember how disappointed I was with Whitesnake for letting him go, because I loved Coverdale's vocals, but then I've heard Sykes singing and I was blown away by his voice!
He is incredible!
 
Fusionbear said:
To me John Sykes was the Renaissance man of the mid 80's hard rock scene. Great image, songwriting, singing, playing, and tone. It's just not fair that he is so talented.....lol...
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Yep and unfortunately so completely ok with doing nothing lol I mean I get it, if I had those royalty checks coming in I would probably do nothing too but damn would it be nice to have more music from the guy
 
I reached out to Michael Nielsen who did some work for Sykes years ago, but his tenure started in ‘98, so it’s been tough getting info on the live ‘95 tone. I’d guess it’s Mesa amps… but is it the Mark, the Racto, or the Tri Axis ???

And Norlin LPCs kick ass. I like em better than any of the other periods (for hard rock at least).

The PCM 70 was written up to be used for room reverb. The high gain amp switcher and juice extractor are both self explanatory. I’d guess the PCM 41s are for delay/echo. Maybe one is a backup. His guitar with Dirty Fingers pickup is well known. It’s down to the amp and cabs…

Although he’s been known to use a 61 strat for clean tones, and I saw pics a long time ago that I can’t find anymore that he had a strat head Charvel natural with a locking term on it ,(I think it was a Kahler) that wouid explain the whammy parts in some of the tunes. It had two humbuckers.
 
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It's interesting to read/hear all that happened with him and Coverdale, and Sykes getting fired. When he's asked about it now, Coverdale's response is "I don't want to dwell on negative things, I'm just thriving on positivity right now" and "I don't want to talk about the past." Must be nice to gloss over doing things like that to another human being and being able to put your head on your pillow every night to sleep.
 
Fiesta Red said:
It's interesting to read/hear all that happened with him and Coverdale, and Sykes getting fired. When he's asked about it now, Coverdale's response is "I don't want to dwell on negative things, I'm just thriving on positivity right now" and "I don't want to talk about the past." Must be nice to gloss over doing things like that to another human being and being able to put your head on your pillow every night to sleep.
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Especially since Sykes gave him the success he had. Coverdale is an opportunistic scumbag.
 
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