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A friend invited me to Steve Vai's concert in a small Tampa Theatre last night. Man is he awesome! He makes that guitar talk. Bill Sheehan was no slouch either he played a double neck Fender Precision style Bass and just wailed. The keyboard player also played guitar and with a second guitarist and Steve, the three part harmonies at warp speed were incredible. He even did an acoustic set and played one of Sharon Isbin's songs. Great Concert.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Dave,

Sounds like a great show. I saw him and Sheehan back in the day when they were with David Lee Roth.

What guitar did he play for his acoustic set?

Jeff

Wow! that must have been some show! About the Acoustic...I believe it was an Ibanez...It was hard to read the logo. But it had that infamous "vine" inlay and an oblong sound hole, Venetian cutaway. I didn't like the sound of it. It sounded "tinny". But maybe that was just the mix.
A friend of mine, James Lomenzo (White Lion fame), just finished a tour with Roth playing Bass. Pretty wild although nothing like the VH days. Ahhhh it's tough getting old!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Hey Dave, Did they have Mike Mangini on drums by any chance?

I heard he was playing in Steves band, we used to hang together way back in the early 80`s.

I would be cool to get in touch with him.
Matt

I saw Vai at a Blues Festival in Pistoia last summer. Ripping it up in the central square of a medival/renaissance old Italian city. The man's got wild, wild chops, and his drummer and bass player are scarier than he is, or almost. The bassist was playing shred solos that the vast majority of good shred guitarists would never, ever have been able to keep up with. Insane amounts of energy.

I was more impressed with Tommy Emmanuel's overall skill, feel and timing, and the music 'spoke' to me more, but Vai's hard to beat for a big, bombastic, instrumental rock guitar kinda show. Amazing how two virtuosos (and they both surely are) can be so vastly different.

The acoustic was probably his signature Ibanez.

His site says the Ibanez is now kept in his vault. I'm betting it was a Guild.

Don A38426.8016203704

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

I don't think it was a Guild...The sound hole was oblong and from bass to treble side not heel to butt like we usually see. I also think a Guild would have sounded better. The guitar really didn't have a good rich sound...maybe it's just me...I don't know why...I'll tell you one thing...Steve on a piece of junk would sound good! He tore it up! I agree Mattia sometimes it gets a little "out there" but when it's in the "zone" it's awesome. I like more melodic stuff myself. Vai has some more simplistic, melodic tunes and he played several. The Theatre was really cool...it was very small and setup like an old spanish mansion/villa/court ( hard for me to put into words). Anyway I have tickets for Acoustic Alchemy in May at the same place... four rows from the stage!!!!!!!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"