Hello hello, and welcome to yet another installment of Famous Guitars! I’m like 98% sure that I’m your host Cassie. Either way I’m still writing another one of these things so does it really matter? It’s been a while since my last article, so I’ll just cut right to it and get to the absolute beast that is the Steve Vai Hydra.
Who is Steve Vai?
I’m sure everybody that’s reading this knows who Steve Vai is, but just in case someone doesn’t, I’ll go ahead and tell you. Steve Vai is the absolute madman behind iconic guitars such as the Ibanez JEM and the DNA with his blood in the paint. Wicked. He played with bands like Whitesnake and David Lee Roth’s group. He’s known for being the shredder to end all shredders. There’s literally nothing Vai can’t do, I’m convinced.
Now that everyone knows who Steve Vai is -which they should have already- let’s tackle the monster that is the Hydra.
What is that… thing?
I asked myself the exact same question the first few times I saw the Hydra. The Hydra is a triple necked guitar Steve had made by Ibanez. He says he’s always been interested in multi-necked guitars, and blames Jimmy Page and his double neck Gibson for it. His first monstrosity was the tri-neck Heart guitar, but Vai said he never did anything super musical with one. So later down the road he partnered with Ibanez (again) to make… this thing.
Creating The Hydra
Steve Vai has said that creating the Hydra took pretty much his entire career. He’d made other multi-neck guitars back in the day, but he wasn’t quite satisfied with what he’d done with them.
Later on -way later on- Steve found himself watching 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and the steampunk double neck guitar featured in that movie put him in a chokehold. Suddenly he knew what he had to do. The Hydra guitar would have a similar steampunk aesthetic, while being infinitely more terrifying.
Features (Boy There’s A Lot of ‘Em)
I don’t even know where to start with this one. As far as materials go, your guess is as good as mine. The necks are probably maple, but all the fretboards are different.The top neck is a half fretless 12 string guitar. The middle neck is a regular 7 string guitar, and the bottom is a headless bass guitar. With the lower two strings fretless. Because why not. If I think the tremolo on the 7 string neck is a Floyd Rose, but I’m not 100% on that.
The Hydra also features 13 harp strings, because 23 guitar strings wasn’t enough apparently. (yes I counted.) There’s also a metric tonne of buttons and knobs, half of which I’m not actually sure do anything. Knowing Steve Vai though, they probably all have a purpose. The guitar body is also packed full of LED lights and tubes and other greeblies just because.
Final Thoughts
So how do I feel about the Hydra? Well, to be completely honest with ya, I think it’s horrifying. I can barely even play on one neck and you’re telling me that Steve Vai can figure out a way to play on THREE at ONCE?? Yeah, sounds like witchcraft to me. Absolutely wild, Steve Vai is magical. As for the guitar itself, I actually think it’s really cool. I mean, how many guitars have LEDs? Not many! I can’t imagine how heavy it would be though. Steve Vai continues to amaze and confuse me.
And I would say that’s all I’ve got for today, but it’s really not! There’s so much information about this guitar out there I could write three episodes about it. I’m not going to of course, but if I wanted to I could. Steve Vai’s a madman. He should write a diary. Anyways, I’m gonna get out of here now, so I’ll catch ya later. Until next time, Rock on!
Guitar Glossary
Greebly: George Lucas’s term for “little details that make something more visually interesting” Also a word I’ve been dying to use.
Fretless Guitar: Exactly what it sounds like. A guitar with no frets on the neck, so you can make all sorts of weird sounds.
Tremolo: A device on a guitar that can temporarily change the pitch of the strings. Or make them go completely slack if you try hard enough.
Harp Strings: Strings that would usually go on a harp. Usually.
Headless Guitar: A guitar with no headstock, with the tuners at the back of the body.
