Steve Vai's UVMC has a monkey grip - Why does this UV from P

[Captain Ron]

Hey,

does anyone know why STeve vai's UVMC from passion and warfare and slip of the tongue has a monkey grip but there are no production UV's with a monkey grip?

www.vai.com/machines/guitarpages/guitar029.html

I mean it cant be impossible to make if steve had one and he used it alot so there cant be a building problem.

anyone know anything about this,
thanks

(Edited by Captain Ron at 6:35 pm on Aug. 15, 2001)

[jemsite]

This has been discussed over and over with a definitive answer

Ibanez went a different direction with the Universe and these new models were omitting the Monkey Grip and Liion's Claw asthetics of the JEM. Darren (ATD) has confirmed this and said the monkey grip was not intended for that prototype UV77MC but cut in along the way before being painted. In so many words the offender was Joe Despagni, which is no surprise if you are familiar with his work and attitude. Do a forum search for more discussion, such as the topic below right from the source

http://jemsiteforum.com/discus/messages/31/2558.html

To clarify, the PAW UV77MC has the monkey grip airbrushed over for the cover photo. You can see more pictures in the Photo Gallery on Jemsite too... glen

edit - corrected link

(Edited by jemsite at 9:30 am on Feb. 18, 2002)

[iain]

That was the prototype. They eliminated the grip on all UV's to keep model differentiation, I believe. Incidentally, he gave that MC to Thomas McRocklin. Interesting that Vai.com doesn't mention that, instaed implying he still has it.

[Greg RG7]

Also..... *Just a slight observation.... on the COVER of P&W, * if they left the Monkey Grip in, *the hole of the guitar is kinda lined up "in the wrong place" *and would have looked like Vai was doing something to his monkey grip hole.

(lord knows, *I know you Jem fans have thought about it. *Its the price of the guitar that prevents it doesnt it...???)

hahaha

G-Zeus

[Sid Vai]

well....lets just say he's a special case

[Ekim]

Originally Posted by Greg RG7

Also..... Just a slight observation.... on the COVER of P&W, if they left the Monkey Grip in, the hole of the guitar is kinda lined up "in the wrong place" and would have looked like Vai was doing something to his monkey grip hole.

(lord knows, I know you Jem fans have thought about it. Its the price of the guitar that prevents it doesnt it...???)

hahaha

G-Zeus

Dude, that's sick! And funny.

[Steve Brand]

I once had the pleasure of handling the PAW UV at the UK distributors (little Thomas McRocklin had brought it in for all to see - just after Steve gave it to him as a thank you for his performance in the Audience is Listening video!). It was very obviously a prototype - various little shims here and there etc! Anyway, it was very noticably lighter than the production models and (acoustically) the low B was not as strong tonally as any that it was compared to. Could it be that it was for sonic reasons that the lion's claw and monkey grip routs weren't done in the production models?

The thick plottens.........