No. 0721983·heavy-metal·4 blocks
Holy Diver
The riff and singing solo that launched Dio's solo career. Vivian Campbell recorded Holy Diver at Sound City Studios in 1983 on a wine-red Gibson Les Paul Deluxe he'd refinished matte black — loaded with a DiMarzio X2N in the bridge — pushed by a Boss SD-1 into a stock, cranked Marshall JCM800. No rack, no scoop: just a hot Les Paul and a Marshall on the edge, which is why the leads sound so vocal. Standard tuning.
Signal path · input → output · 7 blocksLive values · Fractal Axe-Fx
Guitar
Gibson Les Paul Deluxe (refinished matte black)
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Studio Comp
TS808 OD
Brit 800
4x12 V30
Plate
Filter Tilt
Studio Comp
← Studio compression
Threshold
-34dB
Ratio
2:1
Attack
8s
Release
200s
Mix
0.3
Level
0dB
TS808 OD
← Boss SD-1 (boost)
Drive
2
Tone
5.5
Level
8.5
Brit 800
← Marshall JCM800 2203 (stock)
Drive
6.5
Bass
5
Mid
6.2
Treble
7
Presence
6
MV
6.5
Cut
4
4x12 V30
← Marshall 4x12 (Celestion-loaded)
LowCut90Hz
HighCut11000Hz
Level
0dB
Plate
← Studio plate (light)
Mix
0.1
Decay
1.1s
Predelay
0.0ms
Filter Tilt
← Tilt EQ (global brightness)
Tilt
0.5
CenterFreq
1000Hz
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 072
The riff and singing solo that launched Dio's solo career. Vivian Campbell recorded Holy Diver at Sound City Studios in 1983 on a wine-red Gibson Les Paul Deluxe he'd refinished matte black — loaded with a DiMarzio X2N in the bridge — pushed by a Boss SD-1 into a stock, cranked Marshall JCM800. No rack, no scoop: just a hot Les Paul and a Marshall on the edge, which is why the leads sound so vocal. Standard tuning.
— Vivian Campbell
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