New Steve Vai song – “Gravity Storm”
Check it out! Here’s your first taste of a completed track from Steve Vai’s forthcoming album, The Story Of Light. Preorder it from his site!
Steve Vai’s DLR-era Marshall stack is for sale!
If you were thinking of buying Eddie Van Halen’s Diver Down/1984 Kramer Frankenstrat but were holding off until you could find just the right amp to pair it with, look no further: Steve Vai is auctioning his Marshall 100 watt Plexi modified by the legendary Lee Jackson and used on David Lee Roth’s Eat ‘Em And Smile album, with some of the proceeds going to his Make-a-noise foundation.
There’s plenty of info at GuitarTV and on the eBay auction page itself, but here’s a snippet:
“The 100 watt Marshall JMP was given to Ted Templeman by Steve Stevens during the NYC recording sessions for “Eat Em and Smile.” The amp was then modded to Steve’s liking by Lee Jackson, famous for performing sought after custom modifications to Marshall amplifiers for top artists in the 1980′s and 1990′s. It was Steve’s main amp for the “Eat Em and Smile”sessions and used on the entire David Lee Roth tour. The 100 watt plexi head features an extra gain stage, frequency adjust control, effects loop & master volume. The head has been well maintained in Los Angeles and features matching Drake transformers, KT88 quad-matched power tubes & hand-selected pre-amp tubes to Steve’s liking.”
NAMM 2012: Carvin Legacy III Steve Vai signature amp
Awww. Look at the little Carvin Legacy III. Well, when I say little, I only mean in size, because this is a 100 watt amp. Or a 50 watt amp. Or a 15 watt amp. And it has EL34 power tubes! It’s a three-channel, rack mountable amp with foot switchable boost, and it’s available in optional Vai green which seems to match Steve’s new Sea Foam Green Ibanez Jem. Here’s some info from Carvin:
Carvin and legendary guitar virtuoso Steve Vai are proud to introduce the new Legacy 3 Series Amplifiers. This 100W all-tube 3-channel amp is the result of countless hours of design and development by Carvin engineers, working closely with Steve Vai, to develop the sound Steve demands and any guitarist can appreciate. The Legacy 3′s circuitry combines the best elements of the Legacy I and Legacy II, in a compact chassis. Channel 1 & 2 are the same as the original channel 1 & channel 2 circuitry found on the Legacy I. Channel 3 is a 2nd lead channel with a high gain switch. Features of the Legacy 3 include a master volume control, which controls the volume of all 3 channels without affecting preamp gain settings; a variable, footswitch controlled master boost; variable, channel-assignable reverb; and internal LED lighting which can have different colors assigned to each channel, MIDI in/through compatible with standard MIDI controllers, effect loop, bias and impedance switches, and much more.
NAMM 2012: Ibanez Jem Evo!
New from Ibanez this year: the 25th Anniversary Ibanez Jem Evo! It’s a replica of Steve Vai’s legendary Jem, complete with all the details: mismatched control knobs, tape on the neck pickup to stop the string getting caught under there when you pick too hard, new-looking neck compared to the smashed-up body, Edge bridge, and of course Evo’s infamous neck joint crack (cosmetic only, in this instance, I hope). This guitar comes with certificate of authenticity, special hardshell case, and a silver DiMarzio strap custom-made for this release. With an RRP of over $10,000 it’s not cheap, and with only 100 guitars being produced (all of which are already sold to dealers) they won’t be easy to find.
Steve Vai + Gibson acoustic = cool song idea
From Steve’s YouTube channel: “Steve received a new Gibson acoustic and this is the first thing he played on it. It was improvised on the spot but may be a full song one day.”
Nice guitar! Personally I don’t own a Gibson acoustic but if I did I’d totally go for a J-185. What about you?
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com