This is Slash’s guitar from Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on its own: the intro riff, the rhythm parts and the solos. The song is from Appetite for Destruction (1987) and was the band’s only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Editor’s note: See the lively debate in the comments down below as to whether this track is authentic (and add your thoughts if you like). We’ve left it up since the consensus seems to be that it is, and people are still enjoying this.
GUITAR only (Slash):
What to listen for
- The intro riff. Slash has said it began as a string-skipping warm-up exercise. Isolated, every note rings clearly.
- Tone. The sound is a Les Paul-style guitar into a cranked Marshall, with very few effects.
- The wah solo. The final section switches to a wah-pedal solo that’s much easier to follow without the band.
Track facts
- Album: Appetite for Destruction (1987)
- Produced by: Mike Clink
- Guitars: Slash (lead), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm)
- Chart: No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (1988)
FAQ
Who played the Sweet Child O’ Mine intro?
Slash.
What album is Sweet Child O’ Mine on?
Appetite for Destruction (1987).
More: Guns N’ Roses and our isolated guitar tracks.
Hey people
I have been recording for over 25 years. I have isolated many tracks in my day. It is normal for things to sound a little unlike what you are used to hearing them isolated. I think this sounds authentic and I think Slash is a great player. even great players have little noises and imperfections in their playing, thats what makes them genuine, remember he is human and this was earlier on in his career. Mixing all of the instruments together help hide imperfections and can actually trick your ear. As well this track has been put together by pulling other tracks and blending them together. It is likely he did not record this in one take. some of the clean channel takes could be izzy’s guitar blended in as well.
just my two cents… remember that Slash liked to drink a little lol maybe even some recreational drugs?- I think the passion in this track is awesome – I will use it to tweak my rendition of this when I play it live with my band. I find this very helpful.
Ha Ha!!! this is horribly not the recording from appetite. Not even close!
Editor note: Thanks for the comment/opinion. I think over time the consensus is this is a re-record done for the Guitar Hero game, possibly still by Slash, possibly by another guitarist. By far the vast majority of GH tracks are authentic.
This is 100% NOT the original from the Appetite album. Whether or not it’s the man in the top hat on a different take or something… well… debate away. I think it is not.
I have studied this song and solo to DEATH using a DAW, and Transcribe (a very good slow downer software), and I have played it for years. There are many spots where this deviates. I put this version into Transcribe and analyzed it next to the original, and it’s not it. BUT… it’s so good that it is worth leaving up IMHO.
This is definitely not the original, or at least, as we know it. It’s possible this could be comped from alternate takes, but you will also notice that it is very sterile and lacks much of the intentional noise and groove of Slash’s usual playing (see the Welcome to the Jungle track).
Also note the lack of “power” and confidence in the sustained notes. Slash has a very identifiable and awesome vibrato when sustaining high/bent notes. Some of the solo is different. Check out the ascending run where it goes up just near the end of the solo. Seems some notes are out of place.
Lastly, just listen to the timbre of the guitar on the final descending notes and the neck bend at the end. Very different from what’s on the record. This is a great knockoff, but it’s not the real thing.
ps the digital sounding metronome at the beginning seems to me to be an anachronism for 1987ish. Seems more likely they’d use a urei click or something else. I could be wrong about that part.
Its almost flawless, hard to pick out exactly where it deviates from the original. The only solid evidence I could find, is at 3:57 on the above video. The descending slide is completely different to the original (at around 4:40 on my recording).
This is taken from Guitar Hero II and there were only 4 tracks from that game that were actual master recordings and this is not one of them.
I’ve read the comments above, and i’ve seen the ‘there’s too many people saying it is’ post.
This is simply not Slash.
Guitar Hero & Guitar Hero II only had copyright clearence from 4 artists to use master tracks, all the others gave permission to re-record cover versions of the songs to be used in the game. I’ve read interviews with the makers Red Octane where they going into details about how they got amazing session musicians and pain stakingly tried to recreate classic guitar sounds.
By the launch of Guitar Hero III and the release of a new rival game: Rock Band, the makers of the games had access to multi track recording sessions for every track on the game, (i’m guessing record labels realised that it was a good thing for them to be involved in these games!) and artists even began recording songs and guitar solos just for the game.
So for the most part, these tracks that have been ripped from songs are the real deal, but not for most of the songs that were on the original Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero 2 games.
This is not from the original song, it’s the Guitar Hero II re-recording by Wavegroup. It’s easy to tell because, when the chorus starts, there’s an extra strum on the first note, as if the guitar was choking.
[slowpoke]
The easiest way to verify the track is to put it in a DAW, time-sync it with mix/master and hard pan it left while the master is on the right.
I already compared it, both with the album and GH version, and… I won’t spoil it, check that yourself.
Editor note: Please tell us what your research shows…
This doesn’t sound anything like Slash – the chorus lead and solos are miles off.
As for proof, besides having ears and listening (what more proof would you need?!) a quick YouTube search for “RockBand Sweet child o mine” brings up videos showing people playing along with the cover version, and that cover version has the exact same guitar track above. I tried to post a URL but my comment got filtered.
This is not a studio multitrack master.
Editor note: Welcome to the debate Andy. There are too many people saying it’s authentic for us to remove it. One point regarding your comment: You seem to infer that if a track is from the RockBand video game, it is definitely a cover. That is simply not true. We have seen in our research that the vast majority of RockBand tracks are taken directly from original multitrack masters, whether or not this one is. We have too many tracks on here to listen to each note for note vs. the original tunes so we let people’s comments be the guide.
This is most definately authentic. This is what Slash laid down for the song SCOM. This track and most that you find here on the web are master tracks used to create the Guitar hero apps.
If you do some research about this, you will find that this is the case. To the trained ear, there is no doubt that the tracks such as Van Halens Running with the Devil is with no doubt the actual isolarted track that Eddie cut.
If these were fakes, it would be painfuly obvious to us.
the solo is completely different. I’m surprised that isn’t obvious to everyone.
the tone, some of the parts and timings.
It’s just a rip from Guitar Hero 2. The version featured in the game is a cover, not the original master recording.
Editor note: Thanks for the comment J_K and welcome to the debate. Note that this is not our track so we have no dog in this fight but do you have any evidence proving that theory? Every other GH track seems to be authentic.
That’s not actually Slash playing the guitar in this recording.
Editor note: Thanks for the comment. We are aware that this track has some controversy attached to it. There are many comments pro and con on this track you can see by viewing on YouTube directly and we did not post the track (or any tracks on the site for that matter) so cannot 100% verify its origin. However, probably the most compelling argument that it is authentic is that a guitar track recorded during this era is essentially always many tracks that are “comped” together. So it is unlikely that any one, two or even more tracks when combined would even contain all the elements of the guitar track created for this tune’s final mix. There are sections where what is played is different from what is heard in the final mix for certain, but there are other sections that sound dead on, both in terms of tone and notes played. In the end, there probably exists no single track available for people to listen to with all of what was in the final mix. This track is probably only part of what was used. It also could be a fake for certain. Any info you could offer that could unearth the truth would be appreciated as we do try to include only authentic tracks on the site. It has become extremely popular on here by the way, slotting in currently as the second most popular track on this site.
Interesting to hear the dry Les Paul/Marshall tone parts. They really cut through in the mix probably because they are so ripping and bright.