Aiwass, Jolly does have a good point. Being a good guitarist is not simply a black and white concept. Yes, it is obviously possible to become a better guitarist than Steve Vai. For that matter, there certainly ARE many guitarists who can blow Steve Vai out of the water in terms of technical ability, such as Rusty Cooley, Marcel Coenen, and so forth. However, we all know there's more to being a good guitarist than simply being able to out-shred one another. Indeed, a crucial part of being a great guitarist is creativity (ie. song writing, solo composition, etc) and tasteful playing. Therein lies the difference between a decent guitarist and an amazing guitarist. I certainly didn't mean to indicate in my first post that becoming better than Steve Vai was impossible, but rather unlikely. The reason I say this is because Vai has amazing song-writing skills, and that's something you cannot really be taught as a guitarist. Same concept goes for taste. You either have it or you don't. Musically speaking, Mr. Vai may not be the best shredder ever (although, let's give the guy some credit. He's pretty damn good), but he definitely makes up for it in the song-writing department. So, if you consider his shredding skills and song-writing ability together, you've got one hell of a great guitarist. While Rusty Cooley or Michael Angelo could probably out-play Steve Vai, I'd rather listen to Vai's music anyday over their crap. That's my opinion, though. :)