Do you agree with Steve Vai here?

[la szum]

Yeah, I’m not a fan of the Evolutions in the white JEM. I’ve had a 25 year love/hate relationship with them. Love them for leads but that’s it.

I think that is a decent summation of ALL of Vai's Signature gear. The Carvin Legacy is the same way. Super fat and warm,
which makes it borderline unusable for rhythm and chording work (flub, fart, fart, flub), but perfect for lead work and adding
much needed warmth to all the weedly-weedly bits higher up the neck.

I have thought about that quite a bit, and come to the realization that it is probably a preference because he seldom
chords with a lot of gain in his work---so why have a super tight and articulate amp/pickups/etc when that is what he
needs/does the least in his playing.

 

[DrewJD82]

I think that is a decent summation of ALL of Vai's Signature gear. The Carvin Legacy is the same way. Super fat and warm,
which makes it borderline unusable for rhythm and chording work (flub, fart, fart, flub), but perfect for lead work and adding
much needed warmth to all the weedly-weedly bits higher up the neck.

I have thought about that quite a bit, and come to the realization that it is probably a preference because he seldom
chords with a lot of gain in his work---so why have a super tight and articulate amp/pickups/etc when that is what he
needs/does the least in his playing.

Absolutely. I LOVE the Legacy, but had to put an EQ in the loop to chop some of those mids away when we did Pantera or anything metal. Hahaha and I was just watching the Sweetwater live gear Q&A with him, he jokes at one point “Ohhhh I don’t even play chords” His new Synergy mod is voiced a bit different than the Legacy, which is good. Love Vai and love the Legacy, but I wasn’t a fan of Vai with the Legacy for that whole period.

 

[la szum]

Yup. Not even V30s could help that amp.