I think this conversation should be guided towards the fastest LIVING guitarists or guitarists who STILL play. While it is important to recognize the great ones who've passed away or succumbed to illness (R.I.P Shawn Lane and poor Jason Becker), it would be more interesting to speculate on who the current fastest guitarist is. Although, it's more or less impossible to tell, unless each candidate played the exact same passage in a competition or something and we used slow-motion camera work to count the notes in a given time. And that, my friends, is ridiculous.