Hmm another thing to think about in the whole vai leaving ibanez/jem would be, what guitar would he play?
I cant think of a manufacturer that has a model even close to the jem in ferms of features for steve. I mean lets face it - he designed it for his huge hands, his ridiculous use of the whammy bar, his funky monkey grip? Think that aint a big deal, how many times during a show does he reach for that monkey grip and swirl :roll: it round his head?! Every gig i've seen.
JP basically had an RG with his signature on it, i know there is more to it than that, but boil it down and thats what JP did. He doesn't go mad with his whammy bar and his stage presence is far more under-stated that SSV, so so long as the company he goes (EB) to produces a fast 2 octave neck, then he can sign his name on the dotted line. (i know it sound like i'm slaggin' JP i'm not i love the guy - just making a point)
Steve on the other hand would need his new company to build a model from scratch, or heavily customize a current model.
Lets see, gibson, nope just cant see it? jackson, doesn't he break their necks every time he picks one up? b.c. rich? ssv makes passion as well as war :wink: carvin, possibly but they would need to up the quality from what people tell me.
The only thing i could think of is him going back to his old strat....modding guitar himself...
In short, if steve left the contract...he would still play the jems i think, because i think he honestly loves them, he wouldn't design a guitar he hated would he?
steve = jem
jem = steve
I know ibanez have their bad points, but so does all of the big names. You wanna see high prices go to uk and buy a les paul STANDARD..and count the change out of $3000. Fender, have biger QC ssues than ibanez i think.
When it comes down to it, we here love ibanez cause they are contemporary guitars that are more subtle than the jacksons b.c rich and have features that go above and beyond the traditional names.
Basically we cant have everything, try playing bad horsie on a les paul or a strat for that matter. Even a low range RG could pull it off (albeit with horrendous lo-trs useage).
And for that i'm thankful for.
I think steve will stay with ibanez, and even if he didn't - most of us would
track7