Vivian Campbell - Kramer Nightswan
Vivian Campbell is a guitar god to almost every guitar player that is 28 to 45 years old. This is because he was one of the guys who at the beginning of it all really got out there and gave each and every one of us something to shoot at. Vivian's first album with Dio was "Holy Diver" in 1983. The other two that he played on were "Last in Line" in 1984 and "Sacred Heart" in 1985. It is easy to say that I am sure that every one who is reading this, owns those three CD's. If not you must be under 20 years old, and you should go and get them, because that is where a good portion of our music today comes from.
After Vivian stopped working with Dio, he filled in for and played along with Adrian Vandenberg in Whitesnake. Vivian didn't record the record, but played live on the tours. After Vivian's stint with Whitesnake, he started his own band call "River Dogs". Next he became a member of Def Leopard. He was filling for Steve Clark, passed away (alcohol related).
If you want to read the history of how the Nightswan model came about, see the prototype in the "sold section" of the star page. This is another that was made by Buddy Blaze for Vivian using Warmoth parts, not by Kramer. It originally started out as a warmoth body and neck with a blue and black crackle finish. You can see photos of Viv playing with Ritchie Sambora. It has the original paint and a normal dot neck. Later Kramer replaced the neck with the neck that you see now, which is a normal wavy inlays for a Nightswan. In the 90's when crackle wasn't cool any more, Viv had his guitar tech do a relic job on it and it turned out pretty cool.
If any one can get me some photos of Viv playing it after the relic job, I sure would love them. I did buy this one directly from Viv through his guitar tech. I was able to get the original warmoth neck as well. So this history is 100% correct that I have here.
