is possibly technically the best rock guitarist I've ever heard; I'll check out Shawn Lane and Jason Becker before I pass judgement. He's quite like Malmsteem but in my opinion even better. Listen to Evolution and Maximum security - they're the only ones I've heard but I can guarantee that they are excellent. There's a guy called rusty cooley who produced an instructional video called "shred guitar manifesto" - there's a video of him playing some mega sweep picking and it's horribly demoralising, it ain't just fast he covers some serious fretboard in the process too.
Isn't this emphasis on speed a little irrelevant though? If you want to hear speed nothing beats a keyboard (if you like Jazz piano check out Art Tatum, if you don't you are missing out), for me the great thing about the guitar is it's shear expressiveness, that's why I rate Satriani as probably the best guitarist ever. While we're on the subject of great players I notice that nobody has yet mentioned A WOMAN, why are so few of them playing electric guitar? If you've ever heard Jennifer Batten you may well feel - as I do - that guitarists just don't get better. She can play Satriani style stuff, scott Henderson, Holdsworth, you name it she kicks ass at it and her tone is awesome.
If I couldn't laugh at myself how could I laugh at someone less ridiculous?
