Five years ago, Michael Mesker in collaboration with Rufus Publications, began a journey to capture the most expansive creative overview ever assembled of one singular guitarist’s collection of instruments. That subject being Steve Vai. A guitarist who has pushed the envelope of innovation consistently for decades.
The end result of Mesker’s crusade features over 100 of Vai’s most famous guitars captured in exquisite detail, and presented in a two-volume large format photography book. There are over 1,000 full color pages, all photographed, designed and researched by Steve’s long-tenured Art Director Mesker, who first explored Vai’s famed guitar vault in December 2002 and marveled at the history contained within.
Vai has shared an interview with Mesker about the making of the book. An excerpt is available below.
Q: You always were a walking encyclopedia on Steve’s guitars, knowing more about the details than anyone else on the planet – Steve included – making you the authority when it comes to Steve’s guitars. How did this come about? What was the original appeal on Vai’s guitars back in the day?
Mesker: "I have a degree in Art History and practical photography, and it conditioned me to observe and analyze fine detail, and it also taught me how to research an artist’s body of work. For subjects I’m genuinely interested in, I like to have a well-versed knowledge of the topic, and for some reason, my brain is really good at retaining trivia and factoids. Ask me anything about Prince, or Zappa, and it’s the same.
Again, in the early days when I was reading the guitar magazines from cover to cover, I remember seeing photos of Steve playing guitars like the Green Meanie, and noticing how its appearance evolved in the space of a few years. I recall seeing the article about the stolen guitars from the David Lee Roth rehearsal space and seeing the picture of Steve biting the “DiMini” guitar while lying in front of his guitars, and trying to examine each guitar as closely as I could.
When I first started working with Steve as one of my clients 15 years later, I would come by the Mothership studio to shoot behind the scenes photos while he was working on the Real Illusions sessions, and I’d hang out, and he’d play me stuff and we’d discuss it, and we quickly became friends.
I wanted to update the “Machines” guitar gallery section of Vai.com, as many of the images in the gallery at that time were scanned from a Young Guitar magazine special issue. I wanted Vai.com to be the one-stop-shop for true and correct info about Steve’s guitars, and also attempt to track guitars after they left Steve’s hands.. Steve gave me the keys to the vault. This was before the Harmony Hut was as big as it is now, so most of Steve’s older guitars were stored in the vault, with a smaller selection at the pre-renovation Harmony Hut.
Opening each case was like a snapshot of rock’n’roll history. Plus, Steve has a lot of identifiable guitars, often with finishes that have subtle differences, and I was able to make a lot of connections quickly – and for the first time, see so many little details in the guitars that were impossible to see before. Each was kind of like a little clue or a thread to be pulled. Why does this guitar have this neck? Why is that Jem shaped differently to that other Jem? Where did this guitar disappear to? Right away I saw the potential of a book. It just took 18 years for the stars to align."
Read the entire interview via Vai.com here.
All of Steve Vai’s best-known guitars from studio, stage and screen, spanning his four decade-long career are featured beautifully in this work of art. The guitars seen in grainy 1980s music videos are explored in high resolution detail highlighting their peculiarities, blemishes, configurations and modifications. The book chronicles his earliest instruments, including his first Contessa acoustic and his famous “Sticker Strat” used from Berklee to Zappa. His eye-popping 80s guitars from the David Lee Roth and Whitesnake tenures are captured in detail as are the many iconic instruments he’s utilized from the 1990s through today.
Alongside all of the photography laboriously captured by Michael Mesker, the story behind each guitar with measurements and notes from Steve himself are featured in the layout. The deeper storyline explores the guitars that contributed to the development of the Ibanez Jem, detailing prototypes and experiments conducted over the course of many years. Author Michael Mesker has also unearthed and documented a number of notorious guitars that were stolen, missing or given away through the years.
Over these pages are guitars that include The Green Meanie, the Crossroads guitar, the Performance guitar pre-Jems: the Flame guitars; the final Ibanez Jem prototypes; the Universe prototype and the whole cast of Whitesnake guitars, EVO, FLO, FLO III, the Hydra, the Heart Guitar, the white Triple Neck, and many more.
The book will be available in three tiered offerings. First, a Standard Edition which presents the 2-volume book housed in a slipcase encompassing 1,000+ pages combined in a 9.5” x 13.5” (241mm x 343mm) page size with a retail price of $400.00.
The Deluxe Edition, priced at $777.00, is a larger A3 size of the 2-volume book in a slipcase, signed and numbered by Steve Vai. It will be limited to 500 copies. The page size is 11.7” x 16.5” (297mm x 420mm). It also includes a selection of ten framable photo prints from a random assortment of the guitars in the book. It also includes “case candy” of used picks, strings, guitar parts all from Vai’s guitars and some random tour ephemera.
There will be an Ultra Edition, limited to only 14 units that includes all of the items in the Deluxe package, plus an Ibanez JEM 77WFP “White Floral Pattern.” A highly limited edition run of these instruments have been hand constructed by the Ibanez Japan Custom Shop. The guitar will come with a signed certificate from Steve, who will also give each of the instruments a unique name which will appear on the documentation. This is the first Japan-made Ibanez Jem in five years, with an Alder body, a five-piece neck, rosewood fretboard, Tree of Life inlay, vintage white floral pattern fabric finish, DiMarzio Evolution pickups, LoPro Edge tremolo and matching Cliplock strap. Steve Vai will be bringing this new guitar out on the BEAT tour which will stage 65 appearances across North America from September 12 in San Jose through December 18 in Highland, CA.
Pre-order now, here. All books and guitars will ship late March, 2025.
Steve Vai shares, “I was approached by Rufus Publications back in 2019 with an interest to create a high end and compelling book of 100 of my most unique and used guitars. I knew there was only one guy that could do this job most effectively and that was Michael Mesker, who was eager to do it. There isn’t anyone who knows the history of my guitars, nor has the artistic overview of photography and forensic attention to detail as he does. Mike spent 5 years compiling this book and photographing the guitars with a quality technique that will blow your mind. He scoured the globe to find many of these guitars, as I had given many away or sold them through the years, but he tracked them down and got the necessary shots. The results are stunning and the book is a masterpiece. I didn’t realize how diverse, eclectic and innovative my guitar collection was until I saw this book. Besides the documenting of various models, this book is the penultimate definitive word on the history of the Jem and the guitars that were part of its evolution. It’s magnificent and I’m blown away.”
Michael Mesker comments, “There are few guitarists in the same position as Steve – who designed and refined a guitar that accommodated his own personal idiosyncrasies, rather than play a guitar designed by somebody else. That in turn helped redefine what players came to expect from guitar manufacturers, and guitar equipment at large. From the groundbreaking Ibanez Jem (and by extension, the RG) to the popularization of the 7-string in the realm of rock and metal, Vai’s impact on the guitar itself extends beyond just his playing and musical output. And from a visual standpoint, so many of Steve’s striking-looking guitars have become iconic stand-out characters in the canon of rock’n’roll.”
