Sweet Child O' Mine

Guns N' Roses · Appetite for Destruction · 1987

The main riff is the Kris Derrig Les Paul replica with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro humbuckers into a modified 100-watt Marshall 1959 Super Lead rented from S.I.R., with a Roland SRV-2000 in a hidden delay mode adding the short repeats you hear on the intro. Set mids high and gain moderate: this is crunch and power-tube compression, not high gain, and the wah honk many players add is a fixed cocked position, not a sweep. Sources split on whether the intro is the bridge pickup with the tone knob rolled back or the neck pickup, so try both and pick the one that matches your guitar.

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

Tuning

Eb standard (down a half step)

The whole album is a half step down, so the riff is fingered in D shapes at the 12th/15th frets but sounds in Db.

Part: Riff

Guitar

Kris Derrig '59 Les Paul Standard replica · Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro (APH-1) zebras · bridge pickup, tone rolled back to about 6

Amp

Marshall 1959 Super Lead 100W (modified)

GAIN

10.0

BASS

5.0

MID

8.5

TREBLE

7.0

PRESENCE

8.0

Guitar World's Appetite tone breakdown lists this amp with Presence 8, Bass 5, Middle 8.5, Treble 7 and Volume I dimed into the Channel 1 top input (no gain or reverb controls exist, so Volume I is the gain figure); those knob values are documented for the sessions rather than for this track specifically. Accounts differ on the amp's identity and modder: Guitar World credits a 1977 Super Lead with a "Superkill" mod by Frank Levi and Glenn Buckley, guitar.com and Marshall forum research point to S.I.R. rental "Stock #36" (Slash requested #39, modded by Tim Caswell, but it was out on rental), and the often-repeated Silver Jubilee story is chronologically impossible since that amp arrived in 1987. Cabinet was a Marshall 1960 4x12 with Celestion Vintage 30s.

Pedals

Roland SRV-2000 · digital reverb used as delay (rack) · Producer Mike Clink's hidden delay mode on the intro: about 318 ms, feedback 30, output 50; longer 425 ms for the stabs and slide parts
Dunlop Cry Baby · wah · Stock Cry Baby, per Slash; swept on the outro solo, and many players park it around 60-70 percent travel for the nasal honk in the intro

Tone character

forward mids, no scoop · moderate tube breakup · vocal singing sustain · slight nasal honk · short slapback delay · tight, dry lows

medium

The riff is a string-skipping arpeggio pattern moved through four positions in steady eighth notes, so the challenge is clean picking accuracy and hitting each position change on time at tempo.

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