John has a particular fondness for Gibson Les Pauls, and for most of his career he has used the same black Les Paul Custom. During the Thin Lizzy days, at Phil Lynott's suggestion, John changed the pickup mounting rings, pickguard and toggle switch plate from the stock Gibson parts to pieces made of chrome, giving the guitar its unique look.
Neil Zlozower
John's main guitar is a 1978 model Gibson Les Paul Custom and it has been used for thousands of shows and on every recording John has made for the last 20 years. There are some serious signs of wear and tear. As you can see in the photo above, much of the finish has worn off the back of the guitar, and the neck has some worn spots, too. But all things considered, it's holding up well.
John has replaced the stock Gibson tuners with Grover tuners. The guitar also has a brass nut. There was a Gibson "Dirty Fingers" pickup in the bridge position for many years but that pickup started malfunctioning after all the years of wear. It was replaced with a lower output Gibson PAF re-issue pickup a few years ago. The guitar has been refretted several times. The current fret wire is a medium jumbo size and has a very different feel from the "Fretless Wonder" style frets Les Paul Customs often have. John likes the action on his guitars pretty low and he really likes the slick feel of the ebony fingerboards on Les Paul Customs.
Above is John's1959 Les Paul Sunburst. This Les Paul is pictured on the cover of the "Loveland" CD. It was also used for most of that recording. For those who are interested in Les Pauls, it doesn't get much better than this guitar! This model and year of guitar is about the most collectible guitar there is and this is a fine example. It doesn't have the most extremely figured maple top but it plays and sounds fantastic. John used this guitar for several shows a few years ago. However, he started wondering about the sense of subjecting a guitar of such value to the rigors of the road and switched back to his main black Les Paul Custom.
John has acquired some new guitars over the last year or two and we'll get some pictures of them up soon. Out of the new additions, this one is his favorite--an EVH Frankenstein. It's not going to replace his Les Paul, but it is a cool guitar.
Another new addition is this Joe Satriani Model Ibanez. What makes this special is that it was given to John by Joe himself after Joe had used it for a tour.
This a "Gary Rossington" model Gibson Les Paul. This guitar has an aged finish and a feel similar to John's1959 Les Paul "Sunburst".
Above is a photo of the "Rossington" Les Paul and the '59 Burst
John is also a fan of old Les Paul Juniors. Here are two of his from the 50's
John's 1985 '59 Re-issue Les Paul is sometimes taken as a back-up tour guitar.
Amps:
John uses Marshall amps and Mesa Boogie amps. His current favorite Marshall amps are 50-watt JCM 800's .
For much of the Whitesnake '87 album and first Blue Murder album John used 2 Mesa Boogie Coliseum heads. These amps have a Mark III pre-amp section but use six 6L6 power tubes--giving the amps180 watts each! John also owns several Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+'s, Mark III's and some rack mounted Mesa Dual Recto heads. Other Mesa Boogie equipment includes a Tri-Axis preamp and a Strategy 500 Power Amp.
For speaker cabinets, John uses Marshall 4x12 cabinets, Mesa Boogie metal grill "Half Back" 4x12 cabinets, Mesa Boogie 4x12 Recto cabinets and some custom made 4x12 cabinets.
Effects:
For the last few Thin Lizzy tours and Sykes tours John has been plugging his Les Paul straight into the amp--no effect pedals, no rack units hidden behind the amp--just guitar, cable and amp! During the 1997 Thin Lizzy tour he did use an old MXR Phase 90. The rack setup used during the later Blue Murder days included a Mesa Boogie Dual Recto Head, a Mesa Boogie Tri-Axis Preamp, a rackmounted Dunlop Crybaby, a Lexcicon PCM 41, a Lexicon PCM 70, and an H&H V800 Power Amp.
Strings and Picks:
John uses Ernie Ball Strings -- "Regular Slinkys" gauged at .010 to .046.
He uses custom printed Dunlop 1.14mm Tortex picks.
