Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollyson Vai is Satriani with a sharper tone and slightly less talent.

Tone is a personal taste , can't argue about that ... I also prefer satch's tone anyway.
I really don't mean to be rude or offend you in personal at all, but since we're discussing technique , then saying that Vai is less talented than Satch means that either you don't know anything about guitar music , or you know nothing about Vai.