This Ibanez Universe UV77MC is one of the four original production model Ibanez Universe UV77MC guitars that Steve Vai owned and used on a nightly basis during the Whitesnake “Slip Of The Tongue” tour, and Steve has played this guitar in front of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. This is the same guitar used by Steve in the “MTV Rock’n’Jock” performance of The Star Spangled Banner, which can be seen here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyCRSZjtYBI The guitar still has the original strings on it from the last show of the Whitesnake tour, and was lovingly cared for by Steve’s guitar tech from the David Lee Roth “Skyscraper” and Whitesnake tours, Stan Schiller – who Steve gifted the guitar to at the end of the tour. The pickups were changed from green to custom-wound yellow DiMarzio Blaze pickups during the tour as Steve was experimenting with different pickup winds. As this was a touring guitar, the guitar has a lot of wear on the edges and corners, and belt buckle rash right down to the bare wood on the back of the guitar from countless live shows and Steve’s elaborate belt buckles (hey, it was 1990). Each dent and chip tells a story from the guitar’s rich history. The guitar has tape on the underside of the headstock to hold picks. Interestingly, the guitar also has a Jem neck plate rather than a Universe one.