Nail the ToneBon Jovi

Wanted Dead or Alive

Bon Jovi · Slippery When Wet · 1986

The song's rhythm bed is a mic'd Ovation 12-string acoustic, fingerpicked and recorded dry and close so the octave strings do the work — very little dirt anywhere until the chorus. Sambora said the electrics on Slippery When Wet were all Stratocasters, and the chorus power chords are a mid-forward Marshall crunch, more push than saturation, with the acoustic still audible underneath. Keep the amp gain around halfway and let mids carry it; the size on the record is studio reverb, not more distortion.

Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The intro and verse rhythm is a 12-string acoustic in standard tuning played fingerstyle in Dm; electric power chords only join at the choruses and outro, and live Sambora covers both on his Ovation double/triple-neck.

Part: Rhythm

Guitar

  • Ovation 12-string acoustic
  • Fender Stratocaster · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JCM800 2203

GAIN
6.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.0

Sambora's documented amp of the period, not confirmed for this specific session; a Bon Jovi fan-archive rig list credits a Custom Audio preamp into a Mesa/Boogie Simul-Class 2:Ninety for the clean sounds in "Wanted Dead or Alive," but that describes his later live rig, not Little Mountain Sound in 1986.

Amp

Clean tube combo (for verse electric layers)

GAIN
2.5
BASS
5.0
MID
5.0
TREBLE
6.0
REVERB
3.0

The 12-string acoustic was mic'd, not amped; the thin clean electric arpeggios under the verses sit on a barely-breaking-up clean amp with studio plate reverb and light delay rather than pedals.

Tone character

ringing 12-string chime · dry and open acoustic · clean electric shimmer · mid-forward chorus crunch · arena-sized reverb tail

easy

Fingerpicked arpeggios over Dm, C, F and G shapes that walk down the neck — easy chords, but the picking hand has to stay even and the position shifts have to land cleanly on a 12-string.

Want this on your own amp?

These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.

Adapt it to my gear

Sources