FAD GADGETS
Rhodri Marsden on three of the latest must-have gizmos currently putting the prog in progress.
IBANEZ HYDRA
Isn’t there an old prog rock proverb that goes, “The more necks a guitar has, the better the music”? If there is, it’s of course balderdash, but fair play to Ibanez for constructing this cyberpunk monster of an instrument, which appears on Steve Vai’s album, Inviolate. Looking more like a weapon you’d use to vanquish orcs in World Of Warcraft, it has three vacuum tubes, wheels, pulleys, cogs, multiple pickups and an ethernet port. Vai probably hasn’t had this much fun since he got rid of his Fisher Price Activity Centre. Oh, and you can’t buy one, because only one exists, and Vai’s got it, and probably wants to keep hold of it.