Latest about Steve Vai
The 'Vai Special' puts a distinct spin on May's legendary guitar, and was meticulously spec'd by Vai himself – with a few Ibanez JEM inspirations to boot
Vai handed him the Passion and Warfare guitar and produced his debut album, only for his protégé to give it all up. Decades later, McRocklin came back stronger – and pursued his own guitar path
Thomas McRocklin would go on to become Steve Vai’s protégé. But his first major gig was opening for the Prince of Darkness
Unlock every pick color – from warmth and brightness to the secretive clarinet tone
The ahead-of-his-time guitar great recalls starting a trend followed by Steve Vai and Tosin Abasi, why he had to quit a Joe Satriani tour, and why he sometimes aimed to be the worst player in the room
While it’s easy to think of Ibanez as a company that’s solely at the cutting edge of metal machines for the modern age, they’ve also innovated much further afield, producing timeless acoustics, semi-hollows, and hollowbodies
Steve Vai, Eric Gales, Rick Beato, and Mateus Asato are among the guest stars who will take part
While the Texas virtuoso loved session work, he preferred to take more time over his creations – and his experiences paved the way for him to become one of guitar’s all-time greats
The small-but-mighty modeling amp has become a must-have travel companion
The 24-year-old explains how he merges prog and glam, and escapes the “originality ordeal” of an ancient instrument by hopping between Fender, Gibson, PRS and Ibanez (even if he prefers to write on cheap knock-offs)
