Steve Vai, A Man and His Guitars: At Guitar Center 

Try using color when showing guitars

Not only is he an amazing musician but also a very interesting person to listen to. Steve Vai is just awesome !

The moment he said he knew the seven string would inspire kids in a basement, I knew he would mention korn.

Steve also invented hot dogs, oxygen, and the color yellow. A true innovator.

I love that when he says its Christmas when he looks at a guitar, I have the exact same feeling, love it!

Shame it's black and white, I'd like to see the colors on those gorgeous guitars

I wanna thank both Steve and Ibanez, my '87 RG plays like a dream. I'm glad Steve knew what to tell them, and Ibanez was smart enough to listen.

I love him because he's such an amazing artist yet he's so down to earth and humble. I remember the first guitar magazine I ever got had an interview with him and he would let regular people play on one of his guitars, like the one he'd be playing with on stage. I mean, how many musicians would do that? he's such a cool person

Steve didnt say that KORN were the first to use 7 string. He was just saying that they were the first to be heard in the popular more main stream music circles. Stop getting precious about everything. He actually said 7 strings were around before his 7 string....

Steve just seems like such a great guy

He loves telling that Korn story, which is good. It shows that he genuinely was impressed by them and that he ain't too proud to admit it to everyone.

Love Steve and his take on things. What a unique player and visionary.

Steve Via is such an amazing musician!

Thanks for the interesting talk about your guitar,.the best

...and I love Vai too he is an amazing player, musician, and also a great music entrepreneur

I met Stevie at the Guitar Center in Manchester Ct in 1999 I always wanted that white gem with the gold hard ware and I finally bought one from the Guitar Center it was $3400 best guitar I ever played ,probably the best neck ever made so comfortable and so fast you will fly off the fret board lol.steve was a gentleman to meet very nice intelligent man.

i saw one of his guitars at guitar center yesterday, it was blue and black, was absolutely beautiful

He speaks out of my heart

My guitars and motorcycles are like kids to me, I love them all.

Wow This is so great!!!!!

That last sentence of Steve is so true, it's not only modesty. I remember all those Vandenberg, Skolnick, Gilbert, Reb Beach etc. models and they are all gone. Some of the players got new signature models, but their original signature guitars disappeared from the market. I can't even find a photo of the original Ibanez Alex Skolnick Signature in black with white bevels, it's like it never existed. They are gone because their makers lacked the vision for a really iconic guitar. Reb Beach cut out a peace of wood and Vandenberg reversed the headstock, but basically their signature models were simple superstrats. The JEM was almost a whole new toy and will stay with us for the decades ahead.

I don't listen to his music but I like the dude. Not a guitarist either but it was very interesting.

Such a cool guy!

I'm not a Steve Vai fan, but I have to admit that this guy has definitely revolutionized the concept of guitar making.

YESSS!! now i know what to get vai for christmas.

that is all true. I just find that Steve and tons of people tend to exaggerate in these ads or perhaps it's selective memory pressured by the need to pump whatever product is being pushed. ? Locking "trems" (tremolo is the wrong term for pitch change, it is vibrato really) are the bomb diggety for staying in tune if you do the insane whammy stuff. I love Ibanez guitars.

I heard that Korn was originally called "Blow it out your Korn Hole" Later it became "...out your Korn Hole" then "Korn Hole" Until finally "Korn"

Leo Fender used names like that on numerous occasions. He wasn't a guitar player himself. Steve was one of the first people to have a cavity below his tremolo system to allow him to pullup. That much is true. In the frank zappa and alcatrazz days, his strats were setup floating. He had one of the original versions of the floyd rose without fine tuners as well then.

Such a Long-Jem-ity? ;D

One of my favorite guitarists !

I totally agree! Thats another reason I started building!

By far the MOST wisest guitarist

my new guitar is gonna be a jem. probably the 77 black and floral blue. I absolutely love IBANEZ. Steve vai is my favorite solo artist.

You just wanna hear him speak. Hes amazing

Thanx steve!

That's a simple explanation of why Ibanez guitars are chosen by virtuosos. Other trade marks, as Mayones, Skervensen, Hufsmidt and even Whashburn took many Ibanez ideas for heir models.

When he brought the 7-string Universe guitar, that opened so many creative doors for future bands. When I was growing up, Korn was my favorite band. Korn doesn't even exist without Steve Vai.

That black Jem 77 floral model is wicked!

yeah, he reinvented the guitar.... it feels simply natural and right....

steve vai..u're really amazing..

I would love to have them all.

jus all round awesome guy

Love my JEM with my whole soul ❤

I think this would look better in color. The 'black' guitar looks beautiful.

@gunsproof : Evo is his primary guitar. FLO is the guitar with the sustainer in it. Flo is what he used in whispering a prayer.

a true genius indeed.........!!! VAI....!!!

He has been really the father of the seven strings electric guitar. That's really cool ;)

This handle in the guitar body is very important IMHO cause if you get a guitar most often keeping fretboard you can make the strings be out of tune! Not saying that our have sweat so the freatbord is simply dirty soon. I am full of respect for Steve Vais not only as a musician but also as inventor!

Love the dark guitar.

perfect video

What a great guitarist!

Steve you are great!! I love your guitars i only use ibanez cause are great!

Uhem.......RE Invented, Thank You.

I think I’ve found what guitar I want to get. Right now I have a Squier Strat, and I’ve been saving up for quite a while. Looking at the things that Steve has done just with a JEM sums up what I want to do.

ICON

Trey from Morbid Angel was the first person I remember seeing/hearing playing a seven string. 91/92'ish on their Covenant album, very distinctive tone seven's have. Way before Korn.

when the master speaks, you keep quiet and listen!

behold the legend

hes god. he really is good. he understands music to the last. theres no such thing called the best type of music eyes. he loves all.

@IllusionaryMind8 I agree with you, as a matter of fact you could press down the tremolo (Floyd Rose) in a Kramer guitar back in the mid 80's, Kramer American or Kramer Focus, all the way down until you saw the strings just hanging completely loose, and it would not get untuned from doing so, also in Jackson guitars, that's why you see guitar players like George Lynch, Reb Beach, Warren Demartini, and even Paul Gilbert using Kramers in their early stages, what Ibanez and Vai really created...

cool that he really think of the important things for revolution.

Steve Vai is mint.

Some salty folks in here for sure. Not much of a korn fan, however its well known vai did a lot for the 7 string gaining popularity. The man himself also said he is a fan of all kinds of guitars. Him and Mr. Gilbert did in fact help popularize the modern floating trem production guitar. Remember that Mr. Van Halen had a sort of Frankenstein that wasn't a readily available model. OH and of course he has an ego, have you seen what he can make a guitar do? So stop crying and enjoy the talent these older guys give us before they call it quits. It may be many years before we get a revival of actual guitar music.

Damn, just the other day while I was practicing I was thinking I wish you could pull up on the whammy bar instead, I didn't know they actually existed.

When ya can play like Steve, you can have as big an ego as possible

En blanco y negro, como un reportage entrevista antigua!

Korn just unlocked a new achievement: Be mentioned, in a good way, by Steve Vai. Congratulations!

I won't say Steve Vai is the best guitarist in the world (even if it's likely) but he is the best speaker in front of a camera. No other guitarist talks as good and open as he does.

First time I've seen him without glasses or shades. He looks like he has Red Indian in him, even though he's Italian

This guys head is so fuckin huge, I am speechless.

lucky bastuds. :) That design by Floyd was great. he is a RICH mo fo right now.

i think i can relate to what his syaing, and most guitar players probably do... every tiem i go into a guitar shop, no matter which one it is im taken away by the beauty of all the guitars, i wish i have money to buy them all

He's really well spoken

most of the time....yes

@2:51-3:04: And that is why Steve put tapes on EVO's neck pickup.

I love the guitar he plays how i wish i could afford one.......

True genius

3:00 Low E string caught in the pickup. Tape around the pickup usually does the trick. He does that on his EVO.

+1980'sRare&Unreleased Thats really your opinion. Ibanez cheaper models are just that, beginner guitars, but their higher end guitars like Vai' and Satch's models and the prestige range are fantastic and well built guitars. They have a great sound for rock of any sort and are also quite versatile. The only guitars that compare to the playability of the higher end Ibanez are PRS guitars.

I don't know for sure that he came up with that idea, but he very well may have done what he said he did to make it work. Floyd Roses werent always floating trems. They were just double locking trems that you could dive bomb and stay in tune. Look at a Charvel. There is no cutout under the trem so it could be pulled up - it just sits flat on the body like a vintage trem and that's how Floyds were originally done. SV is just saying he took a Floyd guitar and removed the wood so you could pull up.

Guit-artist, Demi God,people pant and gasp the axe,Via breathes with it,sings,and speaks through it,and Ibanez worked with him on every aspect of the gem-universe,and still to this day,those are his,I had an 80's Gem,no guitars off the shelf at that time without a $10,000 + price even came close

sure but recessing it wasn't done before, first appeared on the meanie green, which was Steve and Wayne Charvel coming up with the perfect axe, the prototype for the Jem and the blue print for the superstrat.

You and me both Steve, you know it.........

"like everyday is like christmas" he says that in every interview :P

Is this guy colorblind ?

Truly a Genious

"and there it's just like look out". Fuckin awesome!!!

I like the Js Ibanez it's awesome.

I did not like Flexible when it came out. I went back and listened to it a couple of years ago, it was amazing to me.

My first Floyd was in oh... 1983? It had the fine tuners obviously. But I can't even remember how an original Floyd could be tuned then if not for fine tuning AFTER locking it. Yeah, a regular strat won't have any room to pull back w/o carving the body out there. Wasn't Eddie VH the first guy to really use the Floyd Rose system? I'm not a trivia buff. hahaha I'd love to get a device to let me lock the bridge in place and drop top string a step. but... being broke..

Love my JEM!

I agree with you 100 % .Steve the man . Ibanez guitars Are the bomb everything else just don,t cut it.

5:45 floral pattern 2, UV20th, EVO... wow, is a true dream

Are you sure about that? I know the Floyd Rose system was around for a few years before Vai broke-through, but I thought the recessed tremolo cavity was from Vai's Green Meanie.

I never got why they didn't go for the ouside coils in the split positions, being a 24 fret guitar it is already challenged in get real Strat sounds..... maybe they tried it and it din't sound right to Steve, who knows.

Sei un mito 👍👌👏💪

Steve when are you going to record another album as good as passion and warfare ? ?

my favorite guitar is the Ibanez Iceman. the guitar KISS used.

0:19 of course it's like christmas to him, he can buy any guitar he wants 😭

the one he's holding from 1:03 is so gorgeous and expensive. you can google it.