FLOWER POWER
STEVE VAI’S FIRST collaboration with Ibanez, the JEM, debuted in 1987. In the more than three decades since, the revolutionary instrument (and let’s be frank — with its monkey grip handle, “lion’s claw” tremolo cavity, five-way HSH pickup options, deep cutaway and eye-popping fluorescent finishes, among other features, it was indeed groundbreaking) has become firmly established as one of the most popular, celebrated and instantly recognizable designs in modern guitardom.
The JEM has undergone updates and modifications since that first iteration, from changes in pickups and fretboard inlays, to wild new finishes (floral patterns, a limited-edition swirl with Vai’s blood mixed in) and even a 20th anniversary acrylic-body-with-LED-lights model. All the while, Vai acknowledges, “Ibanez has been extraordinarily supportive of all of my ‘imaginative meanderings’ over the years.”
As if to prove his point, Vai recently unveiled — exclusively to Guitar World — his latest JEM-related imaginative meandering with Ibanez — and it’s a big one. So big, in fact, that this creation is not even a JEM at all. Rather, Vai has spent the last few years developing and designing a brand-new guitar with the company: the Ibanez PIA.
For the design, Vai says, “I wanted
