![1991, a historic moment for electric guitar as Joe Satriani [pictured in a ball cap] jammed onstage with Spinal Tap, who are pictured here with Nigel Tufnel on the far left with a T-style, Derek Smalls in a yellow T-shirt with a headless bass, while a pouting David St. Hubbins cradles a Les Paul.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9jG3kJPyDZPNsUVv7e3CYP-1920-80.jpg.webp)
Today is a historic day for cinema. What is surely the loudest movie of all time, and most definitely the loudest sequel, opens across theaters worldwide – Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.
It’s a story that finds the legendary UK rock institution putting the wheels in motion for a reunion. Guitar World has already spoken with Nigel Tufnel, whose custom-made Marshall amp will be testing the integrity of your local multiplex’s sound system (it goes to infinity).
We have also dissected the trailer to document all of the new guitars in Tap's collection. And it is no spoiler to say that there will be a lot of electric guitars on display – among them, it turns out, some very special Ibanez JS Series Joe Satriani signature guitars.
To see them turn up 34 years after their epic jam in 1991 is blowing Satriani’s mind, who reveals on his Instagram that these Japanese high-performance electrics were custom-finished models that he gifted to the band.
“It’s a fine line between reality and fantasy... But nothing’s more real than seeing your Ibanez JS guitars played by the legendary Spinal Tap,” writes Satch. “Let’s all raise our goblets of Tap Water to the greatest band that ever was.”
Satriani, of course, has actually played on a Spinal Tap album. Introduced to the band in the late 1980s via Steve Lukather, who would be in the control room manning the desk for 1992’s Break Like the Wind, he joined the likes of Jeff Beck, Slash and Lukather on the star-studded title track – though there is an argument that says Cher’s guest turn on Just Begin Again was the highlight of the album.
“I jumped onstage with them a few times to play either bass or guitar, and we just started up this friendship,” said Satriani, speaking to the RIPaLivecast in 2020. “And it’s amazing, those guys are amazing musicians. They are really interesting, disciplined musicians.”
Spinal Tap share those sentiments. Firebrand lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel has spoken about Satriani’s ridiculous technique, admitting that even slowing down footage of him failed to yield any insight as to what he was doing on the instrument.
“I did have a chance to slow it down on a video once, and it was still too quick,” admitted Tufnel. “So I don’t really know what he’s doing. Otherwise, you know, I would do it.
“I look at it, [how] his fingers move, and I say, ‘Yeah, yeah, but where are they going?’ You can't really be jealous of something you can't fathom. And that's my situation.
“You see, if I was close to doing what he could do, I would feel some envy, I suppose, but I just don't understand it a lot of the time. I mean, I hear what he’s doing and I like it, but I can’t copy it.”
That’s not to say that Satriani was not intimidated by Tufnel and Tap. This is the band, after all, who wear tight trousers, armadillos and, above all, volume. Tufnel says the sheer power of his Marshall put the frighteners on him.
“He was very frightened, mostly from the volume, because he plays a bit lower than we do,” says Tufnel. “My new amplifiers now go to infinity, and I think that idea was very scary to him, because most amplifiers go to 10, but I made the jump to infinity.”
It will be interesting to see if Satriani still feels intimidated after getting 3rd Dragon to build him a custom tube amp from the ground up to recreate Eddie Van Halen’s guitar tone on Sammy Hagar’s Best of All Worlds Tour. Maybe that will come in the threquel.
For Spinal Tap, this is only the continuation of the end. And those Ibanezes? Well, two have been custom painted by the late Donnie Hunt, the San Francisco-based artist and friend of Satriani’s who provided the JS3 models with a unique aesthetic.
“Donnie was a wild, inspired artist who painted anything and everything in his environment,” said Satriani, speaking to Guitar World in 2024. “He painted a lot of my stage clothes for the first few tours I did as a solo artist.”
The other JS model, which Tufnel is pictured in Satch's post played on stage, was painted by Satriani himself.
“Back in ’91, as a thank you gift for letting me be a part of the band’s legacy, as it were, I gave them two guitars and a bass painted by Donnie Hunt,” writes Satriani. “They in turn had Donnie paint a vibroharp for me, complete with the Tap logo. Recently, I gave Nigel a JSART guitar I painted. He’s pictured using it on stage (red lighting) although we'll have to wait and see if it makes the final cut!”
Take yourself to your local cinema tonight and find out for yourself. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is showing now.
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