What Pickups for 1987 Whitesnake tone...?

[leolyonsofficial]

I have a les paul 1995 standard, mahohany with maple cap. How do i get this tone?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I would say Holydivers myself, though as it was John Sykes on guitar, some may argue for the Cold Sweat.

[Telerocker]

I tend to say Cold Sweats in this case.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I think both could do the job. The 1987 album had a very smooth and organic feel to it in my mind, which is what makes me think Holydiver but the Cold Sweat is a lot more organic sounding than many ceramic pups. The Cold Sweats have all the tightness you'd need but not the warmth, which is more the Holydiver. I think it may boil down to what your guitar and amp are like in terms of tone. If your guitar and amp produce a warm, smooth and rich tone anyway, I'd go with the Cold Sweats, but if they tend to be a bit brighter and tighter then I'd go Holydiver.

[ericsabbath]

between the cold sweat, holy diver, miracle man and both versions of the nailbomb, I'd dare to say that the cold sweat is the least close to his tone
cold sweat sounds sharper, less compressed and less mid heavy than anything I've heard from Sykes
but they all work pretty fine

[Slartibartfarst42]

I agree that the Cold Sweat is a bit too sharp and less compressed, hence my first choice would be Holydiver unless the amp and guitar were doing something quite special. I find the Nailbomb far too aggressive and '90s' for the Whitesnake tone. I think that if you're looking for anything with that classic smooth 80s tone, the Holydiver simply has to be your first port of call. Having said that, if your guitar is very middy, like a maple neck-thru usually is, I think the Miracle Man is an excellent shout. Although ceramic, it has a lot of the smoothness, warmth and compression of the Holydiver.

[ericsabbath]

the bombs sound fine for his late blue murder tones

the painkiller set should work pretty well for the old stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emscEB0_aac

[FELINEGUITARS]

The Cold Sweat was aimed to be the Sykes Tone
However in the original guise the neck pickup was a lot hotter - in fact it was the same as the Miracle Man neck  pickup (and the Set nearly got called the "Bad Boy 87" by Tim before he settled on Cold Sweat).
I think you do want a Ceramic option and the CS does that well although a ceramic Nailbomb or Ceramic Warpig would still do the trick, or with a fizzy amp even a Rebel Yell would sound the part.

[darkbluemurder]

Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell (both bridge models) get very close.

The amp has a lot to do with achieving such tones. I believe Sykes used a Mesa Mark III Coiiseum head on 1987 but any high gain Marshall based amp should be fine for these tones.

Cheers Stephan

[leolyonsofficial]

The rebel yells sound quite versatile for clean tones also. I take it the yells are ultimate late 80s where the diver is more early/mid 80s?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I wouldn't say so at all. The Holydiver is certainly classic early to mid eighties tone but the Miracle Man is more of a late eighties tone. The Rebel Yell has more of a vintage feel to it, although a modern pickup.

[Dave Sloven]

Every clip I've heard of the RY just screams Ratt to me.

[Kiichi]

Every clip I've heard of the RY just screams Ratt to me.

It can certainly nail the Round and Round tone to a T. A lot of classic hair metal really. Yet it also can do so much more since it also has the modern component. For modern metal and pop punk it works lovingly as well I find. When it fits the guitar it nails anything you want to throw yourself in a pose to play if I may say so.


Does that make sense?^^