Steve Vai is a guitar icon recognised by all as one of the worlds most talented and recognised rock/metal guitar players. His career ignited when he began playing guitar with Frank Zappa in the early 1980’s before going on to join the David Lee Roth Band a few years later.
He later gained celebrity status after appearing in the Hollywood film “Crossroads” with “The Karate Kid” star Ralph Macchio playing the part of Jack Butler – The Devil’s own awesome guitar player, in the famous guitar duel at the climax of the film. A long time admirer and user of Ibanez guitars it seemed a natural progression that Vai would ultimately become their star endorsee …
In collaboration with Ibanez Vai designed the Ibanez Jem range, instantly recognisable by the “Monkey Grip” handle integrated into the main guitar body. The body is crafted from Basswood – as is most of the Jem range perfectly complemented by a combined 5 piece Maple & Walnut neck and Rosewood Fret Board.
The pick-up configuration is the now traditional H-S-H which translates as a Hum-bucker at the bridge position, a single coil pick-up at the middle position and a secondary hum-bucker at the neck position, all of which are the Dimarzio Breed models. A five-way blade type pick-up selector switch provides a wide range of tonal options and the pick-ups are attenuated and equalised by a single volume and additional tone control.
The locking tremolo bridge is the Ibanez Edge Pro and features a unique Sound Metal Chip on each saddle which help increase sustain right at the most critical area, the intonation point. To avoid the problem of string holder blocks getting lost during string changes, the Edge Pro's sliding string holders are actually part of the bridge and won't drop from the saddle unit. With the Edge PRO design, there's no need to cut off the ball of your strings when installing new strings as is the requirement with other locking tremolo systems.
The neck is tastefully decorated with an intricate design of leafy vines – known as the Steve Vai “Tree of Life” design. The body is in black with a mirror-style scratch plate creating a very cool image and a unique look for the Jem 77V.