Steve Vai Despangi Swiss Cheese stolen guitar seems to have been recovered

Hahahah I loosen the locking pads all the time without taking them off to tune a Floyd guitar. I only take the pads off when changing strings. I have this stupid OCD thing where I need the fine tuners to be dead center if I pick it up and see they’re off, so I’ll just loosen the pads and tune it at the headstock.

This is a pretty cool story that started off seemingly going nowhere, only for a 180 to pop up towards the end, leaving a bit of a cliffhanger!

I’m anxious for this book to come out and for once, my nerding-out on gear may have actually paid off in that I was able to give Jeorenn and Mikey some history on EVO that’ll be going into the book. (Non-Vai/JEM fans can stop here cuz this going to get hardcore nerdy)

The JEM7V production models all came with ebony fingerboards until they started making them with rosewood boards in the 00’s. Someone asked Vai why at one point and he simply said he couldn’t tell the difference between rosewood and ebony. EVO has had multiple necks on it over the years and after seeing closeup shots of the neck that was smashed in Australia in ‘97, I realized it had a rosewood board, so I got a hunch that EVO has only ever had rosewood boards and never had an ebony one, despite the production models all having ebony.

I’ve been friends with Roger Bell, Vai’s former tech, for quite a while via FB so I hit him up to see how much he remembered from his Vai days. Turns out he remembers quite a bit and actually still owns the very first neck EVO came with, along with the Pogo JEM (Ibanez sent Vai 5 JEM7V’s when they were working on the Evolution pickups, Pogo and EVO were 2 of those 5) that Vai gave him at the end of the Sex And Religion tour. EVO’s very first neck warped so he had to change it, I’ve got pics of the original neck….with a rosewood board. It then got the neck that was seen on all the promo shots of Vai from ‘93-‘97 (black Ibanez logo without the word JEM written on the headstock), this was the neck that got smashed in Australia and was swapped out for a black headstock/pink vine inlay neck that Vai had on it for a few years, then swapped it out for a few others until settling on the one that’s currently on it.

Conclusion being, EVO has never had an ebony fingerboard. The choice to use ebony was an aesthetic choice made by Ibanez and the switch to rosewood was done to match what Vai was actually using the entire time.

Someone started discussing it in a JEM FB group and Jeorenn and Mikey joined in, where I unloaded all the pics and confirmation from Roger. I don’t mind if I don’t get any credit for it because it was just a fun rabbit hole for me to go down, but it’ll be pretty cool to see how it works it’s way into the book they’re working on.
 
It was indeed Vai's strambotic guitar, and he is happy to have it back. Reunited at what it seems like a Starbucks. Thanks to Iván Gonzáles.

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Edit: the link above to Vai's Facebook doesn't seem to work. Try this one: Steve Vai Facebook Post
 
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Crazy. It'd be awesome to see a GPS tracker showing where the guitar traveled after being ripped off in Pasadena.

The thrill of knowing there are still guitars in closets, attics, under beds and stashed away for decades is something that has me not losing hope I can own a vintage Strat someday. I got close with the 70's Fender bass my friend's uncle had in a closet but she went MIA in regards to me buying it. Just need to be in the right place at the right time!

And regardless of how many guitars Vai has now, it's gotta be awesome to be reunited with these older guitars he lent out or were stolen.
 
Man that's a great ending to the story. Very cool that a lot of famous stolen guitars have been reunited in recent years. Frampton's Les Paul Custom, Page's LP Custom, Billy Corgan's Gish Strat, Jerry Cantrell's EVH, etc.
 
Jarick said:
Man that's a great ending to the story. Very cool that a lot of famous stolen guitars have been reunited in recent years. Frampton's Les Paul Custom, Page's LP Custom, Billy Corgan's Gish Strat, Jerry Cantrell's EVH, etc.
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Zakk Wylde’s original Bullseye, which, literally, fell off the back of a truck. :rofl

Imagine driving on the highway, passing some roadkill here and there and then there’s a guitar case and inside it is f*cking Zakk Wylde’s original bullseye, just chilling there. If I remember right, it ended up in a pawn shop. (It did, where it was bought for $250)
 
DrewJD82 said:
Zakk Wylde’s original Bullseye, which, literally, fell off the back of a truck. :rofl

Imagine driving on the highway, passing some roadkill here and there and then there’s a guitar case and inside it is f*cking Zakk Wylde’s original bullseye, just chilling there. If I remember right, it ended up in a pawn shop. (It did, where it was bought for $250)
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Slight OT, I remember going out driving around looking for the guitar (was at the show before) and was emailing Barbaranne Wylde back and forth. She had an AOL email lol
 
mk5 said:
Slight OT, I remember going out driving around looking for the guitar (was at the show before) and was emailing Barbaranne Wylde back and forth. She had an AOL email lol
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Hahahha it took a while for some AOL’ers to move over. Back in the day Petrucci’s wife handled some things via his forum through an AOL e-mail address as well, but that was right around 2000, so fair enough.
 
Did he ever get the "Steve Eye" Soloist back?
I remember seeing the "Eat 'em and Smile" tour and he was playing the Performances with the Playboy pics on them because his other guitars had been stolen. One of those turned into the Jem, eventually.
 
eaeolian said:
Did he ever get the "Steve Eye" Soloist back?
I remember seeing the "Eat 'em and Smile" tour and he was playing the Performances with the Playboy pics on them because his other guitars had been stolen. One of those turned into the Jem, eventually.
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I want to say yes but can’t remember for sure.
 
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