Steve Vai Rig

Steve Vai is the American virtuoso who jumped from Frank Zappa's band to David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile and Whitesnake's Slip of the Tongue before the 1990 solo landmark Passion and Warfare. The classic voice was a day-glo Charvel Superstrat nicknamed Green Meanie — the body chiseled out so the Floyd could pull up a fifth — into Jose Arredondo- and Lee Jackson-modded 100-watt Marshall JMP Super Leads. In 1987 Ibanez built his spec as the JEM (monkey grip, 24-fret Wizard neck, Lion's Claw cavity, HSH DiMarzios); the Ibanez Universe seven-string and Eventide H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer then defined Passion and Warfare and the first mass-produced 7-string rock record.

From 1999 he designed the Carvin Legacy VL100 and later Legacy 3 VL300 tube heads that ran every record and tour for roughly twenty years, with the white JEM7VWH nicknamed Evo as number one. After Carvin wound down its amp line, the live rig became Synergy SYN-2 racks loaded with VAI (Legacy-voiced) and B-MAN (Bassman) modules into a Fractal Axe-Fx III for stereo delay and reverb and a Fryette LX-II tube power amp. He still tours Ibanez JEMs — relic'd Evo replicas and Flo III — plus the current-production Ibanez PIA3761, with an Ibanez Jemini, DigiTech Whammy DT, and Cry Baby wah on the floor.