Ibanez (アイバニーズ, Aibanīzu^?) is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce the seven-string guitar.

The Hoshino Gakki company began in 1908 as the musical instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten, a bookstore company. The Ibanez brand name dates back to 1929 when Hoshino Gakki began importing Salvador Ibáñez guitars from Spain. When the "Salvador Ibáñez" workshop was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, the "Ibanez Salvador" guitars were no longer available, so Hoshino Gakki bought the "Ibanez Salvador" brand name rights and started making Spanish acoustic guitars in 1935, at first using the "Ibanez Salvador" brand name, and then later using the "Ibanez" brand name.

The modern era of Ibanez guitars began in 1957 and the late 1950s and 1960s Ibanez catalogues show guitars with some wild looking designs. Japanese guitar makers in the 1960s were mostly copying European guitar designs and some of the late 1960s Ibanez designs were similar to Hagström and EKO guitar designs. Hoshino Gakki used the Teisco and FujiGen Gakki guitar factories to manufacture Ibanez guitars after they stopped manufacturing their own guitars in 1966 and after the Teisco guitar factory closed down in 1969/1970 Hoshino Gakki used the FujiGen Gakki guitar factory to make most Ibanez guitars.

Steven Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. After starting his career as a music transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai recorded and toured in Zappa's band for two years, from 1980 to 1982. He began a solo career in 1983, has released eight solo albums and won three Grammy Awards. He has also recorded and toured with Public Image Ltd., Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Vai has been a regular touring member of the G3 Concert Tour which began in 1996. In 1999 Vai started his own record label Favored Nations, intending to showcase as he describes, "...artists that have attained the highest performance level on their chosen instruments."

Vai began playing guitar in 1973, at the age of 13. In 1974, he took guitar lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani and played in local bands, one of which was called "The Steve Vais". He was influenced by guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Glen Buxton, and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Vai attended the Berklee College of Music, afterwards recording a promotional piece for them in which he spoke about auditioning for Frank Zappa at age 20.

Tosin Abasi is a Hollywood, CA based guitarist who is best known for playing in the instrumental progressive metal band Animals as Leaders. Before Animals as Leaders was formed, he was the guitarist for the technical metalcore band Reflux. He has recorded and released two albums with Animals as Leaders: a self-titled debut and Weightless.

Tosin Abasi is a self-taught guitarist. He was the guitarist for the Silver Spring, Maryland based metal band PSI. He joined Reflux in the early to mid-2000s. During a Reflux show, Prosthetic Records noticed his skill and offered him a record deal as a solo artist. At first, he refused saying he didn't feel comfortable with his skill level to write his own record. Afterwards, Abasi enrolled at the Atlanta Institute of Music, and after he graduated, he contacted Prosthetic Records asking if the offer still held. He then formed his "solo" project, Animals as Leaders, the name loosely being derived from the book Ishmael. At first, producer Misha Mansoor (from Periphery) programmed all the drums and synthesizers in the album, but Tosin then chose Javier Reyes and Navene Koperweis on rhythm guitar and drums, respectively.

Herman Li (Chinese: 李康敏, Hanyu Pinyin: Lǐ Kāng Mǐn; (born October 3, 1976) is a British musician and record producer. He is perhaps best known as a guitarist for the power metal band DragonForce.

Li draws influences from rock, all sub-genres of metal as well as video game music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 80s, early-90s arcade, and PC games. For example, Li has been known for making several Mario-type noises in the song "Through the Fire and Flames" on Inhuman Rampage. His playing style consists of fast descending and ascending legato and staccato licks, exotic scale runs, making extensive use of the harmonic minor and Phrygian dominant scale, extreme use of his whammy bar, quick full ascending and descending sweep picking arpeggios, alternate picking and tapping (especially two-handed) on the higher frets as well as incorporating many other shred guitar style techniques. Li is left-handed but learned to play right-handed. Recently, he has started to use a device called the Hot Hand that sits on his right hand like a ring, which causes extreme vibrato when shaken, giving him greater capacity to emulate certain video game sounds. Li has stated John Petrucci's fast guitar playing heavily inspired his own style.

Kiko Loureiro (Pedro Henrique Loureiro, born on June 16, 1972 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a Brazilian Heavy metal guitarist, member of the band Angra.

Loureiro began studying music and playing acoustic guitar at age 11. Inspired by various artists, mainly Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Randy Rhoads, he moved to the electric guitar at 13 and by 16 had already joined two bands, Legalize (Edu Mello - vocals, Dennis Belik - bass and Alja - Drums) and A Chave, and was playing in nightclubs in São Paulo. At 19, he helped co-found Brazilian power metal band Angra, with which he still plays. [1]

Due to the increase in popularity of power metal, Loureiro has become quite successful, both playing in Angra and as a solo artist. He is known for his tremendous technical skill on the guitar, frequently incorporating such techniques as two handed tapping, sweep picking (full sweeped arpeggios), alternate picking, artificial & natural harmonics and combining legato & staccatto in the same run or phrase. He is also well known for both his instructional and demonstration videos as well as for writing columns for and appearing on the cover of magazines Cover Guitarra, Guitar & Bass, and Young Guitar.