Mmkay, here is all my guitar schmick, excepting acousticness.
DISCLAIMER: I am not actually a Vai whore. It only looks that way.So first off, here are the guitars.
Epi LP, which has been re-jiggered to death. Tailpiece, tuners, pickups, tone/volume pots, wiring etc. are all new from when I bought it used four years ago. The new pickups are a Seymour Duncan JB and a Lace Transbucker. It's great, sounds really fat and powerful.
And my baby, the JEM7V. No mods, no nothing. It was pretty amazing right out of the box when I ordered it from Ibanez. (No one in this city ever has these things just in stock.) The pickups are tight, hot and articulate. The neck is super-speedy and wide - great for pretty much anything you throw at it. Trem is awesome, never have tuning problems with it no matter how goofy I get. And the monkey grip is just fun.
Next up, amplifier! It's a Carvin Legacy, sounds basically like a hot-rodded JCM800, but with a much better clean sound - and dirty as well, imo. Switchable 50/100w, EL34/12AX7, blah blah blah. It's not a metal amplifier, but it has great thick sustain and a really crunchy Marshally tone. The clean channel is either fat as can be without the presence (great for jazzy stuff) or almost Fender-ish with the presence kicked in. I was pleasantly surprised at the wide range of tones available from this amp, and that it's not at all Vai-in-a-box.
Also, it's LOUD. Holy Jesus is this thing loud. I'm running it through a 2x12 and it can practically peel paint off the walls at four.
Finally, pedals.
The Silver Dragon I never use since getting the Legacy, just don't need it. The gain levels are too huge to use before the gain channel, and the sound into the clean channel is mediocre. So it just sits there looking pretty.
The Boss OD-3 is what I use into the amp's dirty channel. Level all the way up, gain all the way down. It keeps the character of the amp's distortion intact but adds punch and a tiny bit of dirt on the palm muted stuff. It's a great pedal, doesn't do everything but it does what I need it to do.
The MXR Phase 90 is a script logo, so it's supposed to be the "vintage throwback." It sounds fun, really swooshy and great for clean stuff. And it's nice to be able to ape Van Halen once in a while. And it doesn't have that nasty clipping problem that the block logo ones are so well known for, which is a definite plus.
The Boss Flanger is for 80s solos and fat clean stuff. I use it occasionally on clean chimey stuff, or when playing Bark at the Moon or any Ratt/Dokken ever.
Finally, the Boss Delay. I am a delay slut, so having this is lovely. It sounds nice, no complaints.
