So my Vai interview.....

[badger71]

...went very well. I found out Monday that we'd be doing the interview at Steve's home in LA. That kinda threw me off since I figured we'd end up in some office building somewhere...We bypassed the main house and went into Steve's home studio/man cave....the "Harmony Hut". As my crew was setting up the camera, lights, and mic, in the back room, I was marveling at the wall of rack gear in the entry room. My camera guy then asked me if I had seen the other room yet. I looked in and there was a wall of guitars two tiers deep....about 6 Legacy heads....and two Legacy Cabinets....and a pedal board with various effects. Gotta say this, the man uses what he endorses....Jems, Geminis, and Legacies were present and in use. It was great to have a sit down with an icon...very level headed, focused, and intelligent.

We have a museum that is part of our organization. When the museum was created, various mfgs. donated/loaned historical instruments to the collection. One of the instruments was a Loch Ness Green Ibanez Jem....#777...the last instrument Vai signed of that model. When the point of my interview came to bring in Vai's relationship with Ibanez and his guitar design, I brought out that guitar. It was very touching to see the wave of nostalgia go across Vai...He kept saying "wow, how did you get this...where...?...etc..."... It was like I had brought back a long lost pet. Anyway, here's Steve with that guitar with a wall of Legacys behind him....don't mind my bald head in the shot.

 

[guitar_god123456]

 

[tweed]

Awesome!!!

 

[Jakem]

KILLER!!!!! Post the whole interview, man! That 777LNG is hot as tits! Did you get a Legacy II in sight?

 

[dstroud]

Man, that is so awesome!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Congrats - bitchin' opportunity man and very cool about that guitar!

I took lessons from Vai in the early 80s between the Zappa gig (he was still doing some transcribing free lance for Frank) and Alcatraz. He is a very inspiring guy and was very encouraging to me... At the time he was in the house in Sylmar and he had a studio in a converted garage-type building that he recorded and gave lessons in. He played me a lot of trippy stuff that he had recorded or was working on, some of which ended up on Flexible Leftovers... He was really moving his style/technique from the Zappa jazzy style and Hendrixy stuff to the over the top stuff he did in the 80s...

Steve

 

[guitarslinger]

Nothing is harder than playing guitar while starstruck.

did you try to jam with him?

What rack pieces did he have? A bunch of power amps VHT, Soldano, eventides, Roland delays, etc?

Did he have any preamps? CAE? SOldano?

 

[badger71]

KILLER!!!!! Post the whole interview, man! That 777LNG is hot as tits! Did you get a Legacy II in sight?

I think we may put up blurbs in the future. The interviews are more for historical purposes. However, I do like to put in pieces that we can later use for potential music product/music interest marketing. He had the prototype for the Legacy II there along with the hardtail JEM proto. I didn't get the opportunity to play/hear either one of them.

 

[badger71]

Nothing is harder than playing guitar while starstruck.

did you try to jam with him?

What rack pieces did he have? A bunch of power amps VHT, Soldano, eventides, Roland delays, etc?

Did he have any preamps? CAE? SOldano?

No, he was pretty focused on editing some product that he was working on while my crew was setting up and I didn't think it would be appropriate to interupt. As far as the rack gear, I'm not much of a rack afficianado....but I think we got some stills and if I get a chance later to go through the material and see if I can make anything out. From the looks of things, thouugh, alot of it was various effects and he had triplets to quads of everything. I'd guess it's stuff that isn't made anymore and/or stuff he doesn't use too often at the "Mothership" studio in Hollywood.

 

[Digital Jams]

I have to respond to this.................

HOLY SHIT YOU WERE IN THE HARMONY HUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please post the still shots of the rack gear if possible, I am thinking Eventide and Roland SDE-3000s out the ass were there I am wondering if the "For the Love of God" 7 stringer was still in there.........love to get my pic taken with that one.

I would have been begging for Steve to break it out and dime it with that bank of 3000s and Lexicons!!!!!!!!

 

[Jakem]

I have to respond to this.................

HOLY SHIT YOU WERE IN THE HARMONY HUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please post the still shots of the rack gear if possible, I am thinking Eventide and Roland SDE-3000s out the ass were there I am wondering if the "For the Love of God" 7 stringer was still in there.........love to get my pic taken with that one.

I would have been begging for Steve to break it out and dime it with that bank of 3000s and Lexicons!!!!!!!!

Scott, do you mean the burned one that was made to look like Jimi's burned strat?

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

That top LEGACY is modded. cuz there are 3 knobs over the carvin emblem on the left. Or that is the prototype?

 

[degenaro]

Very cool! Out of curiosity who/what was the interview for?

 

[Digital Jams]

I have to respond to this.................

HOLY SHIT YOU WERE IN THE HARMONY HUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please post the still shots of the rack gear if possible, I am thinking Eventide and Roland SDE-3000s out the ass were there I am wondering if the "For the Love of God" 7 stringer was still in there.........love to get my pic taken with that one.

I would have been begging for Steve to break it out and dime it with that bank of 3000s and Lexicons!!!!!!!!

Scott, do you mean the burned one that was made to look like Jimi's burned strat?

Yup and he used it for the Jemini pedal video, black Steve was laying the fucking wood sounding like you were walking down the hallways of god himself! That is why I asked if it was still in the hut since the vid was shot there.

 

[tweed]

 

[badger71]

I have to respond to this.................

HOLY SHIT YOU WERE IN THE HARMONY HUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please post the still shots of the rack gear if possible, I am thinking Eventide and Roland SDE-3000s out the ass were there I am wondering if the "For the Love of God" 7 stringer was still in there.........love to get my pic taken with that one.

I would have been begging for Steve to break it out and dime it with that bank of 3000s and Lexicons!!!!!!!!

There were a couple 7 stringers in there, but I don't know which one you mean. I'll dig around later for any shots that might apply. Here's a shot of the rack gear....I'll let you experts decide what it is....sorry, no real close ups.

 

[badger71]

That top LEGACY is modded. cuz there are 3 knobs over the carvin emblem on the left. Or that is the prototype?

 

[Digital Jams]

I have to respond to this.................

HOLY SHIT YOU WERE IN THE HARMONY HUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please post the still shots of the rack gear if possible, I am thinking Eventide and Roland SDE-3000s out the ass were there I am wondering if the "For the Love of God" 7 stringer was still in there.........love to get my pic taken with that one.

I would have been begging for Steve to break it out and dime it with that bank of 3000s and Lexicons!!!!!!!!

There were a couple 7 stringers in there, but I don't know which one you mean. I'll dig around later for any shots that might apply. Here's a shot of the rack gear....I'll let you experts decide what it is....sorry, no real close ups.

SHAZAM!!!!!

Yup, some 3000s, SDEs, Ranes, and stuff I have no idea what it is.

Thanks for the pic!

 

[guitar_god123456]

I have to respond to this.................

HOLY SHIT YOU WERE IN THE HARMONY HUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Please post the still shots of the rack gear if possible, I am thinking Eventide and Roland SDE-3000s out the ass were there I am wondering if the "For the Love of God" 7 stringer was still in there.........love to get my pic taken with that one.

I would have been begging for Steve to break it out and dime it with that bank of 3000s and Lexicons!!!!!!!!

There were a couple 7 stringers in there, but I don't know which one you mean. I'll dig around later for any shots that might apply. Here's a shot of the rack gear....I'll let you experts decide what it is....sorry, no real close ups.

 

[Digital Jams]

This is the 7 string I am talking about, according to his site it should be in there somewhere,