Famous for: Being Holland's second guitar
hero (Jan Akkerman was first) and one of Whitesnake's
longest serving guitar players. One of the best
debut heavy albums of the early 80s. That leopard
print jacket that he seemed to virtually live
in during the Vandenberg band days. Designing
two of the coolest and best sounding signature
guitars of the Dino era. I still remember seeing
him in those Whitesnake videos — especially
Here I Go Again, drop to his knees with
his Fernandes guitar, and deliver a typical Vandenberg
solo, melodic, catchy, with a bit of flash at
the right time. I thought Adrian was the coolest
looking guitar player I had ever seen.
Infamous for: Adrian Vandenberg is an
enigma. Among guitarists, he is best known for
two things: Being one the two guys who replaced
John Sykes in Whitesnake, and being replaced by
Steve Vai in Whitesnake. Yet despite logging time
in this very visible band, Adrian failed to leave
a sonic mark there. Instead, his best and most
original work remains largely unknown. Worse,
some fans feel that Adrian never surpassed what
he achieved on the first Vandenberg album.
Influences
Obvious: There's some Jimmy Page in Adrian's
arranging and riff construction. Though Adrian
doesn't mention Eddie Van Halen as an influence,
a lot of people hear Ed in certain compositional
structures he uses. Songs like Friday Night
(Heading for a Storm) have that Van Halenish
sound. Several Vandenberg songs like Wait,
Alibi, and Waiting for the Night contain
flamenco style acoustic introductions —
all of which seem to borrow something from Ed's
Spanish Fly. Though Adrian has established
his own lead style, there's a Michael Schenker
influence in it. I hear some Ritchie Blackmore
influence, especially on the later Whitesnake/Manic
Eden albums, which feature some of the old Blackmore
snake charmer type scales. Jeff Beck for the unusual
note/scale selections and phrasing, Jimi Hendrix
(soloing), and Leslie West for his vibrato.
Not-so-obvious: Adrian also studied classical
music and piano, which you can hear in a lot of
his song structures and chord progressions. He
has listed the Beatles as an influence, citing
their more riff orientated rock songs like Taxman
and Paperback Writer. There's a bit of
fellow countryman Jan "the speed machine"
Akkerman in some of Adrian's quicker playing too.
Strengths
Balanced sensibility. With the band Vandenberg,
Adrian struck a very balanced mix of Euro-metal
and bluesy, British riff rock ala Free or Zeppelin.
There have been many great Dinos from continental
Europe: Uli Roth, the Schenker brothers, Hoffmann,
Jabs, Malmsteen. With the exception of John Norum,
none of them have written anything as bluesy or
sexy as the riff in Love in Vain, or Wait.
These types of riffs and songs typically come
from British or American guitarists. However Adrian
was able to deliver blues rock, and Euro-metal
with equal facility. What's more is that he often
blended the two styles nicely, by marrying bluesy
riffs with Euro style solos or intros.
Melodic Sense. Adrian is a very melodic and tasty
player who's lead work compares favorably to his
80s metal peers. Adrian utilizes this strength
to great effect on some of the excellent ballads
such as Burning Heart, and Do Angels
Die. You can also hear his melodic sense on
his beautiful classical acoustic pieces such as
Prelude Mortale.
Songwriting: Adrian displays a flair for songwriting
many different styles. As stated, he comes up
with riffy blues songs, like Back on My Feet.
Galloping Euro metal on Too Late and This
is War. Burning Heart is one of the
prototypical, metal power ballads of the 80s,
and still one of the best.
Taste: Adrian has always maintained that the
song is the all important product and thus has
always played for the song. He never over plays
or shows off for the sake of it.
Weaknesses
Being a versatile songwriter can get you in trouble
if you lose the path or follow the money or the
current trends too closely. After Vandenberg
— a debut album that remains strong to this
day, the next two albums, Heading for the Storm
and particularly Alibi, are more cliched,
pop-metal offerings which haven't aged as well
as the debut album. The songs on these albums
seem more labored and you can almost feel
the pressure the band must have been under from
the record company to produce pop-metal gold.
How Long is a sappy pop song that sounds
like Journey. Once in a Lifetime has a
feel like Every Breath you Take by the
Police. Whether these songs are your cup of tea
or not, it should be stated that Adrian's guitar
work and solos on these Vandenberg albums are
uniformly excellent.
Luck: It's like the old lyric: if it wasn't
for bad luck, Adrian wouldn't have no luck at
all. Adrian was actually David Coverdale's
first choice for the lead guitar slot when he
revamped the Whitesnake lineup around the time
of Slide it In. Adrian turned the gig down
because the debut Vandenberg album was doing fairly
well at the time. Coverdale then turned to John
Sykes and the rest is history. Had Adrian taken
the gig, Whitesnake's follow up to Slide it
In would have sounded totally different than
the famous 87 album. Whether a Vandenberg-penned
Whitesnake album would have been as successful
is debatable. Regardless, Vandenberg eventually
signed on with Coverdale. But despite being in
Whitesnake for a considerable time, he failed
to achieve much of lasting value with the band.
He toured for over a year supporting an album
on which he only recorded one solo (Here I
Go Again). Following that tour, Vandenberg
and Coverdale began writing the album that became
Slip of the Tongue. In preparation for
the recording sessions, Adrian began trying to
get his hands in shape and decided to try some
isometric hand exercises. These exercises theoretically
promoted blood flow around the thin muscular tissue
of the wrist, thereby increasing suppleness and
stretch ability of the hand. Unfortunately for
Adrian, the exercises backfired. He damaged his
muscular tissue and the resultant swelling in
his wrists actually restricted his circulation.
To top it off, he had a bout of tendonitis which
compounded the problem and locked up both wrists.
His left wrist healed within a couple of weeks,
however, the right wrist took six months.
With Adrian sidelined and Geffen frothing for
the follow up to 87, Coverdale was forced
to find someone else to record the album. He hired
Steve Vai to record the album and do the subsequent
tour for a rumored $1 million. Vandenberg had
to endure Vai playing his riffs and songs
while Adrian was relegated to the backup guitarist
role on the subsequent tour.
Years later, Coverdale came knocking on Vandenberg's
door again. This time — perhaps reluctant
to make the same mistake twice — Adrian
did pull the plug on his then current band.
He probably shouldn't have. Manic Eden could have
gone on to become a first class heavy rock outfit.
Instead, Adrian played on Whitesnake's Restless
Heart, an album that gets mixed reviews and
wasn't even released in the U.S.
Dual guitar lineups. Adrian has stated that having
another guitarist in the band has a restricting
effect on him. He is much more comfortable in
a situation where he is the only guitarist, which
leaves him free to play at will. From a more objective
viewpoint, one could contend that Vandenberg virtually
disappears when he's paired up with a second guitarist.
In these situations, Vandenberg seemed to lose
his gunslinger Dino attitude. Take the two Whitesnake
tours where he was paired with Viv Campbell and
Steve Vai respectively. On both occasions, Adrian
elected to play a more supportive role, and the
other guys definitely took advantage of
it. The Adrian Vandenberg from Wait
and Welcome to the Club was MIA. He must've
missed the bus! Back then, Vivian Campbell still
played with balls and was going for it every night.
And of course, Steve Vai's middle name is overplay.
So laying back in those situations was a good
way to get buried. And for whatever reason, Adrian
rolled over and played right into it.
Adrian's tone also worked against him in the
two guitar setting. In the late 80s, most guys
were trying to fill up as much space as possible,
and using huge rack setups with a lot of preamp
gain. Adrian's signature tone was more of the
vintage Les Paul through a Plexi sound. On his
own albums, where he is the only guitarist, this
wasn't a problem. But in Whitesnake, Adrian was
unable to come up with a sound that could compete
in the mix with the other guitarists sounds. So
in a two guitar lineup, Vandenberg's personality
and sound faded into the background.
Tone
In Vandenberg, Adrian's tone was the classic
sound of a Les Paul through a Marshall. His main
guitar was a nice, tiger striped Les Paul Heritage,
on which he continually modified the pickups to
increase the attack on the notes. These modifications
also gave him a nice crunchy rhythm tone and a
thicker variation on Jimmy Page's Les Paul - Marshall
lead tone. Typically, Adrian would increase the
gain to get a hotter lead sound. At this time,
he also used a self-modified left-handed, heavily
flamed cedar/maple Schecter strat with a shaved
neck, a tremolo, and Bill Lawrence humbuckers,
or sometimes a single coil depending on the experimentation
stage. This guitar is featured in the Burning
Heart video.
With Whitesnake (87-88), Fernandes made Adrian
a signature superstrat which featured active pickups.
By the end of 1988, Adrian had developed a relationship
with Peavey, and this union produced the Peavey
Vandenberg signature guitar — a uniquely
modified superstrat shape with fiddle cuts in
the body. Adrian favored the mahogany bodied,
neck-through customs, sometimes with a radical
puzzle pattern graphic on it, or a striped arch
top. The guitars could be equipped with either
Floyd Rose or Kahler locking tremolo systems.
Pickups consisted of either a Peavey single coil-humbucker
combination or a humbucker-humbucker combination.
With Vandenberg and Whitesnake later, Adrian
used modified Marshall 100 and 50 watt amps. Two
Marshall JCM800 2240s, two 50 watt Super Leads
and some Mesa Boogie amps were favorites. These
went through 4x12s loaded with Celestions. He
occasionally used a 70s cry-baby wah as a parametric
EQ ala Schenker and some light chorus to fill
things out. There is a very distinctive,
kazoo-like notched wah sound in his tone on the
debut, self-titled Vandenberg album. Around
the Restless Heart and Manic Eden period,
Adrian used a more Plexi-like tone. He also used
a nice, clean tone (Dark Shade of Grey)
at this time as well. During his association with
Peavey he used some Peavey derived VTM-65 amplifiers,
and Peavey effects units for a touch of delay
and chorus.
Guitar Style
Adrian Vandenberg is an interesting player to
analyze. He didn't really burst on to the
80s metal scene the way, say, Randy Rhoads did.
He and his band's first album were more of a well-kept
secret. His closest stylistic peers are
players like Michael Schenker, Matthias Jabs,
and John Norum. Of those, he's most like Norum
— in that he's a continental European guitarist
who doesn't always sound like one. Like his native
Holland's geographical location between Great
Britain and Germany, Adrian's guitar style sits
squarely between British blues-based riff rock
and the European lead style we're used to hearing
from German and Swedish guitarists. As stated,
Vandenberg is more bluesy than most continental
European guitarists. Without that foundation,
Coverdale would have never been interested in
him for Whitesnake. In general, he's blusier than
Schenker and Hoffmann, but less bluesy than Blackmore
and not as Neo-classical as Uli or Yngwie.
Rhythmically, Adrian offers a bit more than the
standard rock metal fare of root 5 and root 6
bar and power chords plus open string pedal tones.
He is fond of triads built around major or minor
7ths and 9ths, along with slightly obscure phrasing
and timing of some chords and riffs as well. The
sharp 7th (Pushing Me) tends to feature
a lot on the Manic Eden album as do single note
grooves and riffs (Gimme a Shot) in the
style of Jimmy Page. Vandenberg is also an excellent
acoustic player who's style leans more toward the
classical than folk.
With his band, Vandenberg, Adrian developed a
lead style that encompassed speed and attitude
combined with impressive use of classical scales.
As with Blackmore in the 70s, Vandenberg commonly
mixed blues based compositional riffs with aeolian
minor solos, arpeggios and other Neo-classical
devices. He excels in playing extremely melodic
lines in the dorian and aeolian modes —
somewhat reminiscent of Michael Schenker in flavor,
but with a more 80s flash sensibility. For example,
when Vandenberg became part of the all-stars version
of Whitesnake, he added a modern metal tricks to his
style. Adrian added pick scrapes, pinch harmonics,
rapid-fire pull-offs, two-handed tapping, and the
occasional whammy work — usually a dive or a slur.
Staccato palm muting on the low strings is a characteristic
Vandenberg trademark.
Vandenberg's solos are usually compositional
and well-thought out. He knows how to use the
blues scale to add that sexual element into a
guitar solo and likes to start slow and work towards
a crescendo. Many of his best solos are the classic
"song within a song." Good examples
include Burning Heart and Don't Fade
Away.
Vandenberg's lead style changed when he injured
his wrists. He was still a fast player, retaining
some of his earlier lead traits, but he adopted
a slightly mellower lead tone and became a lot
more expressive and emotive after his injury.
He also incorporated more of a Hendrixy groove
to his playing.
Vibrato:
As is common for many players who begin on Les
Pauls, Adrian developed a very nice, wide, controlled,
expressive vibrato. Like Michael Schenker, Adrian
was influenced by Leslie West's vibrato. He also
knows how to milk the vibrato for effect, especially
when adding that little extra touch to intense
bends, ala Jeff Beck.
