Vivian Campbell

Cazmarzak

New member
Anyone know which pickups he used during his DIO days and in what Guitars? I know that later on he used a Full Shred, but some of the earlier pics I have of some of his guitars look like a Duncan Invader with those LARG pole pieces.

I didn't think that they made the Invader back then. Oh and I also am looking for info on his, Last In Line, Holy Diver and White Skull and Crossbones guitars if any one knows ANYTHING. Thanks!
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

Cazmarzak said:
Anyone know which pickups he used during his DIO days and in what Guitars? I know that later on he used a Full Shred, but some of the earlier pics I have of some of his guitars look like a Duncan Invader with those LARG pole pieces.

I didn't think that they made the Invader back then. Oh and I also am looking for info on his, Last In Line, Holy Diver and White Skull and Crossbones guitars if any one knows ANYTHING. Thanks!


I'm pretty sure the Invader was around in the 80's but I have heard that it had a different name.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

I think he used Kramer guitars in the 80s, with the JB and and Full Shred. Later on he used Gibson lps.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

What guitar is he using on the Def Leppard DVDs? Looks like a Kramer beak headstock (like on the USA Pacers), but no logo. And the trem looks routed, which the Kramer beaks weren't...
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

In the Dio days, he usually had either a beak or strathead Charvel, or sometimes his black Les Paul. I think I remember him saying it was a JB, in both the Charvels and LP.
In the 90's, I did a show with him, and he was using Tom Andersons, like he does with Def Leppard. Stock Anderson pickups. Those are the big pole pieces you may be talking about.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

I loved his playing in Dio. I felt he was quite underrated for that time (early 80's) WTF happened? It's like one day he woke up and just packed away the big 80's guitar mojo with pig squeals and dive bombs. Sad day.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

Yea it was a sad day for me also when he decided to totally change his style and sell out! Now I've heard that he doesn't even want to talk about his Dio days, well I'm sorry maybe things didn't work out with Ronnie Dio, but it seems to me if it weren't for him, We wouldn't even know who Vivian is.

The pickups with the huge pole opieces were in guitars of his back in 1984, before he was using the andersons.

Besides his style, he also went from using these guitars with col looking graphics and floyds to using Boring looking Gibsons :(

I haven't seen the Def lepard DVD but I have a DVD of Dio from 1986 and he is usieing a white guitar, that looks similar to the Kramer Pacer and it has no lofgo on it either. He aslo used it in the recording of Stars, and Adirian SMith used it to record his harmony parts as wel.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

I think I read on the Tom Anderson web site that Vivian Campbell uses an Anderson pickup, I think an HS3 ro something to that effect, and it's supposedly his favorite. Just look around on the site, you may find it. Those pickups tend to have large polepieces
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

JammerMatt said:
I loved his playing in Dio. I felt he was quite underrated for that time (early 80's) WTF happened? It's like one day he woke up and just packed away the big 80's guitar mojo with pig squeals and dive bombs. Sad day.
I'll tell you what happened -- in a recent (within the past 6 months) interview with Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Campbell said he thinks metal is stupid, particularily metal from the 80's. He hates the old Dio songs, and hates when people walk up to him and flash him the horns. He said he will never play metal again, and thinks that metal heads are immature idiots (in essence) ...
After reading that, I threw out anything I had with his guitar playing on it, and will never spend a dime on anything he does. He's a complete arse.
Even if he doesn't like that style of music any more, what right does he have to knock it fans or the people that have been influenced by it?? :evil:
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

VC used the JB for a while then went to the invader in his charvels
in his black les paul he used a full shred in the bridge and neck


viv.jpg

vivdio2.jpg
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

VIV was a favorite but i'm just an "immature idiot" glad i don't have my kramer nightswan !!!!!! or i might have had to do something "immature" with it !! maybe he should give back the money he took from whitesnake since someone might think that was 80's metal and if he gets a check in the mail for his work in DIO i'm sure he just gives it away to the "immature idiots fund" to help us who bought the albums/tapes/cd's/shirts/tickets/ect of the 80's hard rock/metal era . hey VIV just shut the @#$% up and play your guitar !!!!!!!!!!!
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

shred-dog said:
VIV was a favorite but i'm just an "immature idiot" glad i don't have my kramer nightswan !!!!!! or i might have had to do something "immature" with it !! maybe he should give back the money he took from whitesnake since someone might think that was 80's metal and if he gets a check in the mail for his work in DIO i'm sure he just gives it away to the "immature idiots fund" to help us who bought the albums/tapes/cd's/shirts/tickets/ect of the 80's hard rock/metal era . hey VIV just shut the @#$% up and play your guitar !!!!!!!!!!!
Hehe ... I was thinking something similar about the endorsement + royalty money, too. :D
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

I thought when he joined Def leppard, Phil Collen was ragging on him and basically mocking on him for playing metal in his Dio days. Maybe that gave VC a complex. He should't feel ashamed as I thought more highly of his playing than anything Phil Collen ever put out. If anyone should be mocked shouldn't it be Phil Collen. The only one dorkier in the 80's than Phil Collen (trying to be ultra cool in black leather but looking like a nerd) was Rob Halford sporting a mullet during the Turbo sellout period for Priest.

If VC claims metal was "stupid", then Def Leppard's hair metal of the 80's was 10x the stupidity of Dio. Def Leppard along with the infamous hair metal bands of the late 80's destroyed the integrity of good metal bands.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

Fusion1 said:
I thought when he joined Def leppard, Phil Collen was ragging on him and basically mocking on him for playing metal in his Dio days. Maybe that gave VC a complex. He should't feel ashamed as I thought more highly of his playing than anything Phil Collen ever put out. If anyone should be mocked shouldn't it be Phil Collen. The only one dorkier in the 80's than Phil Collen (trying to be ultra cool in black leather but looking like a nerd) was Rob Halford sporting a mullet during the Turbo sellout period for Priest.

If VC claims metal was "stupid", then Def Leppard's hair metal of the 80's was 10x the stupidity of Dio. Def Leppard along with the infamous hair metal bands of the late 80's destroyed the integrity of good metal bands.
I dunno about that but i DO KNOW that ronnie busted his balls and ridoculed him to death after VC got that mullet cut in DIO
:laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

Jester700 said:
What guitar is he using on the Def Leppard DVDs? Looks like a Kramer beak headstock (like on the USA Pacers), but no logo. And the trem looks routed, which the Kramer beaks weren't...
Kramer did made a USA Baretta II back in the late '80s with beak headstocks, rear-routed trems, and 3/4 size "soloist" body. I've got one that's a 1988 or 1989 model. The Kramer Krazy, Vintage Kramer, and Kramer Maniaxe websites have details on these Kramer axes if you're interested. :wink:

I'm with Gearjoneser on the pickups. I think he used the JB before the Full Shred, but I have seen pics of him with an Anderson guitar with large polepieces, but it wasn't an Invader. He may very well have used one, though. I'm a large fan of Last in Line and Holy Diver. They certainly sound like a JB to me. :)
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

What pisses me off is Vivian Campbell has to play second fiddle to that transvestite Phill Collin!

Snowdog
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

What's with all the Phil Collen hate?? That guy smokes bigtime if you've never seen him live. No to mention he's been part of writing some great songs that have easily stood the test of time. Him and Steve Clark were an amazing guitar duo before Clark died.
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

ranalli said:
What's with all the Phil Collen hate?? That guy smokes bigtime if you've never seen him live. No to mention he's been part of writing some great songs that have easily stood the test of time. Him and Steve Clark were an amazing guitar duo before Clark died.
Uh ... NO!
First of all, Mutt Lange wrote almost all of their songs. Secondly, Def Leppard is marginally good, at best. They are great as Mutt Lange's marionettes, tho!
 
Re: Vivian Campbell

TwilightOdyssey said:
Uh ... NO!
First of all, Mutt Lange wrote almost all of their songs. Secondly, Def Leppard is marginally good, at best. They are great as Mutt Lange's marionettes, tho!


Oh, I didn't realize you were sitting in on their recording sessions.....LOL!!!

Marginally good?? Haha....ok buddy...tell me another one.
 
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