John Sykes

Give Me All Your Love

John Sykes · Whitesnake · 1987

What Makes This Sound Unique

The most commercial-sounding Sykes track — a radio-ready hard rock song where the guitar tone is warm and approachable rather than aggressive. The Les Paul neck pickup provides singing sustain for the melodic solo, and the 1987 production gives everything a pristine, polished quality.

  1. 1Gibson Les Paul Custom (neck pickup for solo)
  2. 2Marshall JCM800 (moderate gain)
  3. 3TC Electronic 2290 (delay, prominent in solo)
Gain / Volume7
Bass7
Mid7
Treble6
Reverb3

Neck pickup, moderate gain — the melodic ballad-adjacent nature of the song requires warmth over aggression. The delay adds dimension to the sustained solo notes.

How to Play It

Melodic single-note solo with wide vibrato — Sykes's solo on Give Me All Your Love uses his characteristic wide arm vibrato on each sustained note, producing the operatic quality that makes the solo feel like a singer rather than a guitarist.

Achievable With

Les Paul neck pickup → Marshall at medium gain → Boss DD-3 delay (200ms) → practice wide vibrato: the motion comes from the elbow rotating, not the wrist bending.

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Other Song Rigs

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Thunder and Lightning

Thunder and Lightning · 1983

Sykes's work with Thin Lizzy — a harder, slightly rawer tone than the polished 1

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Bad Boys

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From the Whitesnake self-titled album — Sykes's Les Paul/Marshall combination at

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Love Hunter

Love Hunter · 1979

Sykes's earliest major recording with Whitesnake — the 1979 tone is rawer and mo

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