Hey there, seeing as I haven't met you before....nice to know you're into Satch and Vai....if you havent already, check out Paul Gilbert....he should be next to 'legato' in the musician's dictionarry. I'm currently learning how to do tapping so i can increase my range with speed. I can play fast but I always feel i keep everything very compact, i havent mastered shredding from one end of the guitar to another. Just thought I'd share that :)
'There's no such thing as bad weather, there's only the wrong clothes...'