Steve Vai
Latest about Steve Vai

NAMM 2023: Ibanez announces bumper signature guitar drop, introducing new models for Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Lari Basilio, Paul Stanley, Martin Miller and Ichika Nito
By Matt Owen published
Finishing techniques never before used on Ibanez models, revived retro classics, new-look iterations of famed favorites and celebratory models headline the standard and limited-edition collection

Steve Vai’s prototype Hamer JEM – one of many models built before the virtuoso partnered with Ibanez – goes up for auction
By Matt Owen published
Before the JEM777 was launched in 1987, Vai was approached by numerous brands to build the model of his dreams. Hamer's own valiant attempt is estimated to sell for $60,000

Seven-note groupings can add some serious spice to your solos – just ask Steve Vai
By Andy G Jones published
Looking to add the unexpected to your improv? Septuplets might be the answer, challenging the audience and yourself

Steve Vai's childhood home practice rig is up for sale – but it's not what you think
By Jackson Maxwell published
In the setting where he first learned guitar, Vai practiced – many years later – for New York-area shows with a rig far more impressive than the one he used as a young beginner

Steve Vai: “Everything I play, in mind, I derive from the blues scale. It just might not sound that way when you hear it against all those weird chords”
By Amit Sharma published
Steve Vai tells the amazing story of his ‘lost’ album with Johnny ‘Gash’ Sombrotto – biker music where he “shut up and played rock guitar” on songs written to “make people put their fists in the air”

Steve Vai recalls the time an A&R rep told him to ditch the pinch harmonics because they sound “like a dying whale”
By Matt Owen published
Some unsolicited six-string advice sought to veto Vai's use of the humble harmonic squeal – though was met with a frank response from the guitarist himself

Watch Steve Vai shred on command for Jacob Collier as the pair work on Whammy-laden collaborative track
By Matt Owen published
Vai is set to bring his six-string wizardry to Collier's upcoming album, Djesse Vol. 4, which will also feature Willow

Devin Townsend says seeing Steve Vai play guitar made him give up shredding
By Matt Owen published
A young Townsend entered the studio to record vocals for Vai's 1993 Sex & Religion, and left with a drastically altered outlook on what kind of guitar player he wanted to be

It turns out Steve Vai isn’t sitting on an unreleased Ozzy Osbourne album after all: “I spoke a bit carelessly”
By Matt Owen published
After seemingly revealing the existence of a “real heavy” album he recorded with Osbourne in the '90s, Vai has now set the record straight

Steve Vai says he once recorded an entire album with Ozzy Osbourne – and used an Octave Divider on all his rhythm guitar parts
By Matt Owen published
The pair originally met in the '90s to write a track for Osbourne's Ozzmosis album, but got “carried away” and recorded a “real heavy” record as well
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