Steve Vai

"For the most part, the record that I just finished is called The Story of Light, of the guitars I used usually this is the guitar I use - probably sixty percent of the time. This is Evo, which is a Jem and most people know the story of the Jem. I have a connection to it. You know, you infuse a guitar with a personality and it's based with the secrets you tell it and the DNA from your sweat and blood, and just the relationship you have with it. I know it's a very plain looking guitar but it has a lot of emotional investment in it. So it develops a personality. I mean it's just wire and wood, but you give it this personality and this is the guitar for me. It's not even the easiest guitar to play but it sounds great. It's unison. The frequencies of the wood in the body and the neck are the same, and usually that's hard to find, but that makes the notes sing a certain way. I use this a lot. I use it heavily in the album. She goes everywhere with me. I actually sleep with her sometimes. She has both an input jack and a whammy bar." says Steve Vai about his Ibanez JEM-EVO Steve Vai Electric Guitar.

Vai used this guitar (Serial #01751) extensively on the David Lee Roth tour. It was built by Vai's longtime friend Joe Despagni. It was later donated to Guitar Center/Rockwalk Hollywood, where it now resides.

Steve’s multi-neck playing is just one facet of what he does, but his use of 3-neck guitars is why he is on this list. Steve Vai’s Heart Guitar was first seen in a David Lee Roth video, but it evolved into a unique instrument featuring a 12-string neck and two 6-string necks. The 6-string neck facing away from him usually has a capo, and is tuned to a chord, while the 12 string doesn’t use a capo, but is also tuned to a chord. Of course, it is painted bright pink to make it easy to see from the back row. The whole instrument itself seems heavy and awkward to play, but Steve makes it look easy.

"This is the new Jem that Ibanez just came out with. The bones of the Jem have been the same for 25 years, which makes it the longest running signature series guitar in history, and the most successful - which I'm very grateful for! We're always trying to mix it up and come up with something a little different. Usually it's the aesthetic that's different...But this is the new seafoam green and it's really great to have the opportunity to experiment with guitars. And this one I got the idea for the color when I was in a parking garage and I saw an old thunderbird and it was painted seafoam green. These people who collect these cars are very serious about the paint jobs and everything. And, gah, I wanted to eat the color. It was like a candy. So I did the research and this is what came out: seafoam green. It's very cool. This specific guitar does have a sustainer, but the production models don't. I do use a sustainer - I started using it a lot ten years ago. I've pulled back because you don't want to keep repeating yourself" explains Steve Vai about the Ibanez JEM/UV Steve Vai Signature Electric Guitar.

"This is fabric under there. The fabric came from my curtains. When I was living in Hollywood we had these curtain fabrics and I really liked them. I thought that would make a great guitar. The interesting about having the fabric underneath here is that it has an effect on the sound. I think these are some of the best sounding Jems - the ones with the fabric," says Steve Vai about the Ibanez JEM Steve Vai 77FP Floral Fabric Print Electric Guitar.

"It was a very successful run. As a result, Ibanez a couple of years ago was interested in doing sort of like a kickback to the floral pattern. So I went and I found this fabric, which I like very much too. These are some of the fun creative things you can do when you're Steve Vai," explains Steve Vai himself about his Ibanez JEM77FP2 Steve Vai Signature Electric Guitar.

"The Flo 3, which I used a lot on the record, I use a lot because it's got the sustainer and it just feels good. This whole guitar is slightly scalloped. It doesn't matter if you slightly scallop it or heavily scallop it - it's going to be the same pretty much," says Steve Vai about his Ibanez JEM-7 V WH Steve Vai Signature Electric Guitar.

"This is a great model too. This is the 20th anniversary and it's very heavy. It's like a dipped guitar, but the dip is on the inside. It's got this really cool light inside it and it illuminates the whole guitar," explains Steve Vai about his Ibanez JEM20TH Steve Vai Jem Electric Guitar.

"This is a great one. The DNA guitar just was a 10th anniversary. The reason why they call it a DNA guitar - this was Ibanez's idea which was odd coming from them - is they wanted to mix my blood in the dip for this short run of guitars. I thought 'ah, that's pretty macabre' and you know it's weird for Ibanez to do this but I said 'okay.' So I went down to the local hospital, and I didn't give a little bit of blood - I gave a lot! I mean vials of blood. I mean I felt like a KISS comic book. They dumped it into the vat and you can actually see that's all my blood. That's kind of weird. I told Ibanez that in like 100 years, if they're cloning and if they can take these pieces of blood, and take the DNA from it and clone me and make another Steve Vai, maybe that guy can get his fucking music on the radio," says Steve Vai about Ibanez Jem DNA Electric Guitar.

"With this guitar I broke out the seven string for a bunch of tracks on this record, which I haven't done in a while. This is the one I like the most. It's the burnt seven-string. This is really a dipped guitar. There are some of them around. Ibanez made a bunch of them, and I just took a blow torch and I just burnt it up and then scraped it up, and I got this. It just has a nice tone and a nice feel. You know you go back and forth, I had trouble going back and forth from the six and seven string but now it's much easier. I use this guitar on Weeping China Doll, Valorum, and the Story of Light," explains Steve Vai about his Ibanez Universe Burned Seven-String Electric Guitar.

"This was a guitar that I actually had made for the Experience Hendrix tour. I had two of them. I hand painted this. The thing about it is it was a tip-of-the hat to Jimmy because he had painted his Monterey guitar and it was very psychadelic - 60s psychadelic. So I thought, 'what can I do that's kind of like 2000 psychadelic.' And I took Sharpies and I just painted this trying to make my version of contemporary psychadelic would be. My son put his hand on there (in the back) and I got lyrics and all this. I was so proud of it and I showed it to my wife. She said 'it looks like a 12 year-old girl painted it,' and I said 'oh no.' Then I went and told her 'screw you, haha.' That's the cherry blossom guitar. Now, Jems have the scallop on the top. I like that because you get up here, and these frets, it's pretty hard to grab the string when they're that small. Now in trying to achieve a sound similar to Hendrix, I was doing this Hendrix tour, and well you can't really get that sound because it was all in his fingers, but anyway I wanted that single coil sound so I had them make me these single-coil pickups which are very traditional to Stratocasters. Usually I like rosewood boards. The maple mix has a little more of a warmth to it, and they don't bite as much, but you don't need that when you're using a single-coil pickup because they're so bright,' explains Steve Vai about his Ibanez Strat-Style Solid Body W/ Custom Paint "Cherry Blossom" Electric Guitar.

"I have a record called The Ultra Zone, and the Ultra Zone, on the cover it's this illustration of me as this kind of alien character and I'm playing this really weird guitar. So Alistair took it upon himself to make this guitar for me, and here it is: it's the Ultra Zone guitar. It's really, really cool. And he made the case too! What's really cool is all the lights its got in it. And it's really easy to play. It sits really nicely," explains Steve Vai about the Emerald Guitars Ultra Zone Guitar.

This Ibanez Steve Vai Euphoria EP7 in green with quilted maple top was used on recordings like the silence is warm inside as well as in 2013 for the recordings with the Metrople Orchestra in Holland.

This particular model was used by Steve on Where the Wild Things Are, Real Illusions: Reflections as well as in the studio for the Wall of Light recordings in 2013.

"It's really nice because the pickups that I'm using - the Aura. It has a really controllable sound. We tried different pickups but controlling the guitar live is a challenge. So this responds better than the other stuff that I've tried. And I need a backup for that, which I use virtually every night."

"Yeah, I was working on some of the cool things I was doing in Moon. This is one of the cool things, or at least I think it's cool. It's a little tricky because the notes doesn't work with the same pitch when you whammy them."

This guitar was launched in 1987 as a limited edition of 777 guitars only worldwide. Steve keeps this one in his collection.

This guitar was launched in 1987 as a limited edition of 777 guitars only worldwide. Steve keeps this one in his collection.

Steve Vai used this guitar for a performance on 'Visual Sound Theories' on a song called 'Kill The Guy With The Ball'.

Steve Vai used this guitar for an acoustic idea and keeps it in his collection.

This one of the few vintage guitar that Steve Vai ownes.

This is one of few Talyor acoustic guitar that Steve Vai has in his collection. It's usually placed in the studio.

"Ibanez Jem Acoustic Prototype No Serial Number This beautiful Ibanez acoustic was built as a prototype for a possible Steve Vai acoustic model. The development continues to evolve and change. It features a tree of life inlay on the neck, and a deep cutaway below the neck for easier access to higher notes. This guitar is always close at hand in the Harmony Hut studio."

Ibanez Custom ("Red Lace") Serial #: F616858 This guitar, "Red Lace", is a custom guitar built by Ibanez to specs provided by Steve's 1993-1996 guitar tech Roger Bell. The body is mahogany with a maple top, with humbucking pickups in the bridge and neck positions and a single-coil pickup in the middle (Red Lace's pickups are DiMarzio Evolutions). The neck you see here is actually from a Jem 7WH, fitted to Red Lace when the guitar's original neck had to be replaced. Steve has used this guitar as a spare onstage, and Mike Keneally used it every night on the G3 and Fire Garden tours. Red Lace was auctioned for charity in 2001.

Ibanez Jem Custom Mirror Top "BO" No Serial Number This black-bodied Jem prototype features an acrylic mirror veneer, mirror pickguard and pearloid binding. The reflective front of this prototype is crazed around the armrest area. Ibanez have since experimented with the reflective material considerably before perfecting the process of bending it over the curved section of the body. The fret markers are blue LED lights, and the headstock is installed with a red laser in the end. The guitar is also fitted with a Fernandes Sustainer - now commonplace in many of Steve's newer guitars. The guitar made its on-stage debut in late 2001 when Steve used it to play "Bad Horsie" live during the European tour. Tuned to C, the mirror-fronted Jem is always close at hand in the studio, where Steve is currently using it for many tracks on his new album.

Ibanez Universe 90th Anniversary Prototype Serial #: F9822053 This beautiful guitar is the only 90th Anniversary Universe ever built. It is in excellent condition and is kept in The Harmony Hut - Steve's home studio in Encino.

Ibanez Jem 77FP (with synth controller) Serial #: 262339 This is a standard Jem 77 Floral Pattern fitted with a Roland GK-2A Synth controller. The synth pickup sits between the bridge and humbucker pickup, and a small cable runs over the tremolo to the small controller module positioned to the right of the tone knob (and affixed with velcro). This guitar is part of Steve's Harmony Hut arsenal.