« So nice! »

SPECS
BodyShape: Thinline Original Body
Neck: Mahogany Neck
BackSides: Solid Mahogany Back and Sides
Top: Solid Engelmann Spruce Top
Rosette: Original Metal Plate Rosette
Tuners: Gold Grover® Tuners with Brown Pearloid Knobs
Pickup: Fishman® Acoustic Matrix™ Pickup
Electronics: Fishman® Aura® IC Preamp with Steve Vai Original Pre-set Sound
Fretboard: Rosewood Bridge and Fretboard
Saddle: Ivorex II ™ Nut and Saddle
BridgePins: Advantage™ Bridge Pins
Strings: D'Addario® EXP™ Strings
Finishes: Black Pearl High Gloss Finish


UTILIZATION

This guitar is super cool! Designed by Steve Vai and Ibanez, this has a lot of nice high-end features, quality craftsmanship, and classy cosmetic adornments. The pearloid tuning knobs, vine inlay, and nice binding are all very classy looking, which is surprising, because it could have been a very gaudy look. The I've always been a fan of acoustics with mahogany back and sides, as they tend to allow the subtle details of fingerstyle picking ring out with clarity and balance. This does that, for sure.

SOUNDS

The tone of this guitar is unreal. As I mentioned earlier, the fingerstyle playing is very clear. Playing with a pick affords the guitarist to use a huge dynamic range - this guitar will get pretty loud acoustically, but it will also play soft, subtle tones distinctly. Plugged in, the guitar is a veritable chameleon of sonic timbres, with the Fishman Aura being able to get a bunch of different types of sounds. This is great for both live settings and even in a recording studio environment - there is no quacky piezo tones of yesteryear - this sounds like one is changing guitars!

OVERALL OPINION

What a breath of fresh air. After years of electric virtuosity, with flashes of acoustic brilliance, I'm glad that Steve Vai had the sense to get his own acoustic model out there with Ibanez, something that had his genius input. His ideas have helped advance electric guitar design, so it is fitting that he is doing it again with the acoustic realm. I'd highly recommend trying to find one of these guitars and trying it out.