Tone library / Bon Jovi / Wanted Dead or Alive

Wanted Dead or Alive amp settings — Marshall MA-15

The Bon Jovi guitar tone for “Wanted Dead or Alive”, dialed in for a Marshall MA-15 with a Fender Player Stratocaster. Studio version, Slippery When Wet (1987)

Original rig

Marshall JCM800 100W, Gibson Les Paul Standard (bridge humbucker), Guild F-512 12-string acoustic for verses, Heil Talk Box for solo

Warm moderate crunch with strong midrange, vocal-like singing quality on leads, spacious arena reverb

Amp settings — Marshall MA-15

CHANNELOverdriveBRIGHToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	6
Bass	4
Mid	7
Treble	6
Presence	6
Reverb	4
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE7 VOLUME10

Why these settings

Your MA-15 is Marshall-voiced like the original JCM800, so EQ translation is direct. However, your Strat's single-coil bridge is brighter and lower output than Sambora's Les Paul humbucker—compensate by rolling tone knob to 7 to tame ice-pick highs and dropping treble by 1 from the original. Mid stays high at 7 to capture that vocal, singing lead quality. Gain at 6 delivers the moderate crunch without excessive saturation.

PRO TIPFor the iconic talk box solo section, without a talk box use your wah pedal parked at various positions while picking to simulate vowel shapes—or roll your tone knob dynamically between 3-8 while sustaining notes to fake the 'talking' effect.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Marshall MA-15. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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Song, artist and gear names are used to identify the tone being matched; ToneAdapt is not affiliated with or endorsed by the artists or manufacturers mentioned. Settings are AI-generated starting points — trust your ears.