John Sykes

John Sykes is a British guitarist who has played with Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake and Blue Murder, and is closely tied to the Gibson Les Paul Custom. His signature instrument is a 1978 black Les Paul Custom that he used in all his bands, with a silver mirror pickguard and poker chip added at the suggestion of Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott. Sources differ on where the Dirty Fingers humbucker sat, and Equipboard says the 1980s Dirty Fingers pickups were later replaced with Gibson Classic '57s. Gibson issued a signature model in 2006 and a limited run of just 66 Aged models.

His other prized Les Paul is a 1959 Sunburst that is on the cover of his 1997 album Loveland, which he retired from touring because of its value. A 1961 Stratocaster was used for clean studio tones, including Whitesnake's Is This Love, and a Charvel San Dimas covered tremolo-heavy songs on Whitesnake's 1987 album.

On much of the 1987 Whitesnake album and the first Blue Murder album he used two Mesa/Boogie Coliseum heads, and later he has used a 50-watt Marshall JCM800 into a 4x12. His strings are Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys, .010 to .046.