Steve Vai

Steven Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960) is a three-time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. After starting his career as a music transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai recorded and toured in Zappa's band for two years, from 1980 to 1982. The guitarist began a solo career in 1983 and has released eight solo albums. Vai has also recorded and toured with Public Image Ltd., Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Vai has been a regular touring member of the G3 Concert Tour which began in 1996. In 1999 Vai started his own record label Favored Nations, intending to showcase as he describes, "...artists that have attained the highest performance level on their chosen instruments. Vai began playing guitar in 1973, at the age of 13. In 1974, he took guitar lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani and played in local bands, one of which was called "The Steve Vais". He was influenced by guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Glen Buxton, and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Vai attended the Berklee College of Music, afterwards recording a promotional piece for them in which he spoke about auditioning for Frank Zappa at age 20.

Videos

Equipment

Guitars
- Jackson Guitars (Vai only used these for a couple years back when he was endorsed)
- Ibanez Jem Guitars:

 

Notes: Steve Vai helped design his signature Ibanez JEM series of guitars. They feature a hand grip (referred to as a "monkey grip") cut into the top of the body of the guitar, a humbucker-single coil-humbucker DiMarzio pickup configuration with several different brands of pickup including Evolution, Breed and EVO 2.

   

He also uses Ibanez's Edge locking tremolo system, as well as an elaborate and extensive "Vine of Life" inlay down the neck. Steve also equips many of his guitars with an Ibanez Backstop, a tremolo stabilizer that has been discontinued. Steve also has a 7-string model designed by him named Ibanez Universe.

- Vai has been trying new necks from a Swedish company called True Temperment. One neck on FLO and one on EVO, his two fav guitars

- Ibanez Vai Euphorias acoustic guitars

- Gibson SJ-200 Acoustic guitar (end of 2011)

Amplifiers
- Carvin Legacy II Steve Vai signature amps

- Bogner Ecstasy amps

Effects

- Fractal Audio AXE-FX Ultra (started using in 2010)

- Ibanez Jemini Dual Pedal

- Boss DS-1 (Keeley modded)

 

- Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9 (Keeley modded)

 

- Morley Bad Horsie

 

- Morley Little Alligator Volume Pedal

 

- Digitech Whammy

 

- MXR Phase 90

 

- TC Electronics G system
 

- Peterson Strobostomp Tuner

 

Strings

- Ernie Ball RPS9 Slinky Custom Gauge guitar strings

- Ernie Ball Regular Slinky guitar strings

Picks
- Steve Vai has a bunch of custom signature guitar picks. They all are size 1mm thickiness. Check them out atSteve's site

Interesting facts: Over his long musical career, Steve Vai has used and designed an array of guitars. He even had his DNA put into the swirl paint job on one of his signature JEM guitars, the JEM2KDNA, in the form of his blood. Wild eh! Only 300 of these were ever made. Nowadays he mainly uses his white JEM7V, which is inscribed with the letters "Evo", mainly in order to allow him to distinguish between the guitars he uses onstage which are practically identical, his "Flo" guitar however is equipped with a Fernandes sustainer pick-up in the neck.

He also has a guitar named "Mojo" in which the dot inlays are blue LED lights. Additionally, he has a custom-made triple-neck guitar that has the same basic features as his JEM7V guitars. The top neck is a 12-string guitar, the middle is a 6-string, and the bottom is a 6-string fretless guitar with a Fernandes Sustainer pickup. This guitar was featured on the G3 2003 tour on the piece I Know You're Here.