Still Of The Night guitar tone

The rig Whitesnake used

Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.

Signal chain

The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.

1. 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom

   1

   primary guitar

   guitar
2. Mesa/Boogie Coliseum (Mark III Preamp)

   2

   sole amplifier, used on rhythm and lead voices

   amp
3. Mesa/Boogie 4x12

   3

   speaker cabinet

   cab
4. Shure SM57 on 4x12

   4

   close mic

   mic
5. Studio Hall Reverb

   5

   mix ambience

   reverb

Why we think this is right

This is a well-documented rig and the curated prior states it precisely: Sykes's 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom into a Mesa/Boogie Coliseum driven by a Mark III preamp, through Mesa 4x12 cabinets, close-miked with an SM57. I accepted every curated claim without change. The huge rhythm sound is the result of many stacked passes of that one rig rather than of layered different amplifiers, so there is a single amp block here, switched between its rhythm and lead voices — a clean-to-lead move on one Mesa is a channel change, not a second amplifier. The era check matters on this record because of the usual trap: RULED OUT here, no DigiTech Whammy, which did not appear until 1989, two years after this April 1987 album, so nothing in the middle section can be a Whammy. Also ruled out for this track: no wah, no phaser, no rotary speaker and no fuzz box — none is documented and none is audible. The dramatic slow middle passage is played on the same guitar and amplifier with the gain pulled back and heavy hand vibrato; I have modelled it that way rather than attributing it to any device, because no source I have identifies one.

Sources

• Curated prior (confidence 88, strongly likely studio chain): 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom > Mesa/Boogie Coliseum with Mark III preamp > Mesa/Boogie 4x12 > Shure SM57, from artist interview and guitar publications.
• Guitar-publication coverage of John Sykes's rig for the 1987 Whitesnake album.
• DigiTech Whammy introduction (1989) used for the era check against an April 1987 release.
• Own analysis of the released mix: one high-gain amplifier voice used across stacked rhythm passes, a low-gain middle passage on the same rig, and no filter, modulation or pitch effects audible.

More example tones

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• BatteryMetallica
• Sad But TrueMetallica
• Summer of '69Bryan Adams
• Sweet Child O' MineGuns N' Roses
• You Shook Me All Night LongAC/DC