The thing about shredding is that generally one note on a guitar doesn't have the same resonance as it does when played by a sax or other horn. A lot of the time choosing whether to play one note for a bar or half a million should come down to a rhythmic decision, whereby a note held for a particular time can do different things for the way the phrase flows. Even Vai uses single note pauses in parts. Shredding is like a rollercoaster, where the speed is just a bit too much for your system, you need gaps wherre you slow down to let it sink in. The biggest mistake novice shredders make is not knowing when people's ears have reached saturation point, where any more notes are just going to push the listener away, rather than draw them in.