I have been to hundreds of guitar sites on the net and what has come up as a bit of an issue is a lot of blues and soft rock guitarists are saying " We dont like shredders. They dont play from the heart and just try and play fast all the time". Well this really got me angry when people started refering to steve vai and joe satriani as shredders. These two guitarists, along with many other of the accused, are always under fire due to the fact that people think "they are only shredders". If you guitarists actually knew what you were talking about and actually listened to their music before making such a stupid and uncalled for judgement for two of the most innovative guitarists ( along with many more in their time)you would realize that 99% of their music is from the heart and not shredd. So dont class them as shredders because the only thing you have heard them play is one fast run and that is nothing to judge them by. You may think, "well I dont like vai or satch" which is fair enough as we are never going to agree on who the best guitarist is but stop wasting this great sites time by stating things that are completely incorrect. As for Yngwie Malmsteen, yes he is a shredder,yes he plays fast most of the time but the harmony, theory and heart and soul put into his music is far greater than most blues players. With all the stuff that happened to him in his life at least give him some credit for what he has done for guitar and especially music as a whole. And for those who think Page, Hammett and Halen are the best, actually sit down with someone who knows a little about guitar and figure out why because all they produce is great creativity, poor technique (sure anyone can get it right on a CD but what about live????) and poor execution of harder techniques which only qualifies for a professional and not the best.

But all in all, if you are going to say people who shredd are not creative and dont play from the heart, then we must talk about John Petrucci. He has better technique than anyone that has ever been heard commerciallly, he writes the most beutiful and creative solo's ever and his theory is above exceptional and most of all, he does play shredd but he can play blues better than 99% of people on this planet. So blues players, I'd love to hear your arguements as to why you think vai and satch are shredders and what you have against people who shredd. My understanding is that you are just jealous that we can play so fast and also play the blues exceptionally well and you cant. If not, please tell me what the real reason is cause I would love to hear it.