guitars, I don’t enjoy [them] as much. When
I play my own, I get a thrill out of it. That’s
been a constant thing with Jackson.
Campbell: Mine is a bastardized Les Paul
Custom with a silver-sparkle finish. It
started life as a ’ 78 Les Paul Custom that
I bought at a pawnshop in Nashville in
1993. It had a great neck, which was the
reason why I bought it. Then it got run
over by something very heavy when I was
traveling to Europe. What remained of the
guitar was the headstock, the neck, and the
front pickup. I had the guitar re-bodied
with a 1958 Jimmy Page-style knock-off
body, so it’s smaller and a little bit lighter
than a regular Les Paul Custom. I refret-ted it with Dunlop 6000 fretwire, which I
have on all my guitars. It has a DiMarzio
Super 3 in the bridge, which is the same
one that Phil uses in his Jacksons, and
TonePros hardware. I’ve got a 300k pot on
the Volume knob, so it cleans up a little
more when it rolls off. Basically, the entire
guitar has been reworked, but there’s something about that guitar that just sounds
and plays great.
“For Def Leppard, I have the typical
switching system, with a refrigerator
rack full of digital delays and stereo
processing—which is necessary.”
—Vivian Campbell
You guys have different amp rigs for Def
Leppard, depending on where you are in
the world, as well as separate rigs for your
side projects, right?
Campbell: For Def Leppard, I have the typical switching system, with a refrigerator rack
full of digital delays and stereo processing—
which is necessary. My Def Leppard rig hasn’t
changed for years, but this year I swapped out
my Marshall cabs for Engl cabs, which sound a
lot brighter to me. I’ve also put in Engl power
amps, which have a lot more flexibility. I’m still
using the Marshall JMP- 1—I’ve had it in my
rig for 15 years—but in addition to those, I’ve
been given a couple of Engl preamps to try.
I also have a brilliant-sounding rig that I
built for the Thin Lizzy tour. It’s basically a
Mojave Scorpion 50-watt head and a Mojave
4x12 cab. It’s a very direct signal path.
With that rig, I run my Les Paul on a cable,
because I don’t like what a wireless does to
your guitar sound—but in Def Leppard
I have to use a wireless because of the size
of that stage. With Thin Lizzy, it’s my Les
Paul into a Dunlop Hendrix Wah pedal to
a Way Huge Angry Troll boost pedal to the
front end of the Mojave. The Mojave doesn’t
have an effects loop, but it has an adjustable
line out, so I take the line out and feed that
into the front of a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo.
