Steve Vai

In this video, Steve Vai was seen using his signature DiMarzio Evolution bridge pickup in his Ibanez JEM7V.

In the original two JEM prototypes, PAF Pros were in both the bridge and neck positions.

The Evolution® Neck and Bridge humbuckers are the result of two years of research to come up with the right sound for a very demanding player: Steve Vai and his Ibanez® Jems. Both pickups are designed for maximum impact and power. The neck pickup is fat, punchy and loud. The bridge pickup is tight, aggressive and louder. Both pickups have our patented dual-resonance configuration to reproduce more harmonic overtones than conventional humbuckers. Evolution® pickups are not polite-sounding, and they’re not for the inexperienced, but – if you’ve got the chops and a hot amp – your sound will burn. The Evolution® pickups were originally designed with live gigs in mind, but they have so much presence and definition that they’re great recording pickups, too; they slice right through even the densest mix.

Steve Vai is quoted on Justin Guitar as follows:

I have checked out Justin's site and found it to be comprehensive and informative. I have always felt that learning about music and especially music theory applied to the guitar, is helpful in finding your own unique voice on the instrument and expanding your creative horizons. Along with his insight into teaching and his fantastic abilities on the instrument, Justin has created a powerful go-to-place for anyone interested in exploring the instrument to their potential. Just don't hurt yourself.

He mentions in this video Ibanez UV7 which had three Blaze pickups.

Steve Vai has been listed on True Temperament's website as one of the users of the CNC-routed fingerboard. He can frequently be seen using this fingerboard on his guitar both live and in several videos such his lesson on Perfect Pedal Order.

Steve Vai is an educator on the online guitar lesson website TrueFire. His course can be found here:

• Alien Guitar Secrets: Passion & Warfare

In this video, Steve Vai's guitar tech Doug explains the different degrees of scalloping that Vai uses for different guitars:

"Flo": 3:29

"And here's another old guitar, this is the original "Flo" which has made a reappearence. This is a newer neck, it's a stock Ibanez neck that we lightly scalloped, and yeah, Steve sort of prefers a light scallop these days, and EVO Gold fretwire which is the jumbo size, not too big, not too small... and yeah this is a very cool guitar, classic Vai."

"Flo III": 3:58

"And here's another workhorse, here's "Flo III" which has been Steve's main guitar for maybe the past decade, maybe ten, twelve years. Y'know stock, it has the Fernandes Sustainer, slightly scalloped EVO Gold frets..."

"PIA": 4:53

"Here's a newer main guitar, yeah this is one of the new PIAs, and the PIAs are really great, they feel excellent, Steve's really happy with them. These have stainless steel frets, which you can't wear them out, y'know they're very durable, and they have a very glassy feel for vibrato, and this guitar it's slightly scalloped, it has a Sustainiac, which is something we're still kinda exparamenting with, it's fantastic, but Steve's just getting used to them, because he's been using Fernandes [sustainers] for, 20+ years, yeah? This guitar we're using on "Giant Balls of Gold"."

"ENVY": 6:26, 7:15

This is sort of the sister to "BO", "ENVY"! which is another PIA. This guitar, it's setup a little differently, this one has the kinda offset L.E.D.s. Yeah, this one's setup for "Bad Horsie", there's a slide, Thomas' classic velcro-slide situation lock, which works great, it's fantastic, it's never failed. Again Sustainiac, y'know 'cause he uses it for those songs...

...This one's scalloped a little deeper, and has Jumbo EVO Gold frets.

"Bruno"/"For the Love of God" Guitar: 7:40

...Yeah, you'll recognise this from the "For the Love of God" music video. This is the 7-String guitar Steve is using on this tour for "Zeus in Chains" and it's setup with 9-52 gauge strings tuned to Drop-A and this is a really great sounding guitar pretty much stock...

...No scallop here yeah, the 7-Strings we don't scallop.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio DP252/DP253 Gravity Storm Pickups.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio DP215 Evo 2 Bridge Pickups.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio Dark Matter 2 Bridge Pickups.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio Dark Matter 2 Neck Pickups.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio Dark Matter 2 Middle Pickups.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio DP701 Blaze Middle Pickups.

According to DiMarzio's artists page, Steve Vai uses DiMarzio DP704 Evolution 7 Pickups.

In the page dedicated to Flex-Able on Vai's website, he recalls purchasing of a copy of Audio Cyclopedia during his early days in Sylmar, California.

I bought this book called The Audio Cyclopedia. It’s a bible for anything that has to do with audio and studios. I studied this book and rebuilt the tool shed into a 2 room recording haven completely by myself. It took 8 months and cost $3,000. In the meantime I gave guitar lessons so I could buy food. I christened the place “Stucco Blue Studio” and commenced with all the nonsense.