Seeing Thin Lizzy with John Sykes tonight!! (13th)

[Drew]

As for gear.. John's rig was just 2 4x12 cabs either side (no grill and front loaded speakers) and in the middle he had the roadcase with the 2 Jose modded Marshalls. He only used the top one, and the whole night he just plugged straight in with no pedals or FX. His tone was the heaviest Marshall tone i have heard, not kiddin. Even with all the gain switches cranked on my Cameron, it couldnt get the kinda gain his Jose was

Overall, i would say its the best gig i have been to all year! They really got the crowd working, and played tighter as a band than they ever did. Also John's voice is every bit as good as it always was, he sang his ass off even while playing harmony lines!! If Phil was watching down on them last night he woulda been fuckin proud!!!

Anyone who missed them on this tour... make sure you catch em next time!!!

John only uses one of the 4x12's. The other cab is hooked up the other amp and that is the back up rig. The way he plays makes those amps seem like they have more gain than they actually do. I'm not an over the top gain guy and I've played that amp and it doesn't strike me as having tons of gain. He has really strong hands and can wrestle notes out of those amps most people could not.

He also doesn't play that loud onstage as they keep his vocal mic pretty hot and if his rig is too loud, it bleeds into the vocal mic.

As for the sound on Bad Boy Live, I think the voltage in Japan changed the sound of his amp a bit and it didn't sound as full as it usually does in recordings (He was also using rented cabs). I still think it sounds better than most other live stuff. And it is all "Live" --vocals and all! Not 2 years with the Pro Tools rig, fixing up parts like other bands do.

 

[MrDan666]

John only uses one of the 4x12's. The other cab is hooked up the other amp and that is the back up rig. The way he plays makes those amps seem like they have more gain than they actually do. I'm not an over the top gain guy and I've played that amp and it doesn't strike me as having tons of gain. He has really strong hands and can wrestle notes out of those amps most people could not.

He also doesn't play that loud onstage as they keep his vocal mic pretty hot and if his rig is too loud, it bleeds into the vocal mic.

As for the sound on Bad Boy Live, I think the voltage in Japan changed the sound of his amp a bit and it didn't sound as full as it usually does in recordings (He was also using rented cabs). I still think it sounds better than most other live stuff. And it is all "Live" --vocals and all! Not 2 years with the Pro Tools rig, fixing up parts like other bands do.

Thanks for the info Drew! I didnt know John only used one of the 2 cabs.. Definitly sounds huge though, bigger sounding than most other guys 3cab rigs. Thats interesting that the amp isnt actually as gainy as it sounds, but John seems to be a very strong handed aggressive player so it makes sense!

Do you know which speakers John uses in his cabs?