Steve Vai, Joe Satriani

I think they are both great guitar players .I have never been a vai fan , but always liked satriani s music which can have alittle more groove to it.If you are into guitar instuemental music you should check out the band plankton.From a song structure and listenability stanpoint I like plankton even better than the more well known high profile satriani.sound bites available at amazon or cd baby

I've never been a big fan of shredding but there's no denying they are very talented.

I like Satriani and Vai a lot. I think they both fall into the category of "musicians' musicians." They are true athletes on the guitar, able to perform super-human fretboard skills that can be most appreciated by other guitar players. If you like emotional, artsy, soulful performances, they aren't for you; but if you want to inhale guitar virtuosity, these are the dudes!

I've always been a big fan of both Joe S. and Steve V.  I've seen them both live a number of times and they're both amazing performers.  Keep in mind I've been trying to play guitar for over 30 years, though.  As far as being "accessible" to your average music fan, unfortunately, I don't see their appeal being that wide-ranging.  I still remember a guitarist friend bringing over a cassette of Joe's "Surfing with the Alien" and being absolutely knocked out at what he was doing even back in the mid-80's.  My first few shows also blew my mind, though lately I've been less than impressed with his stage show as he seems a bit, umm...complacent, like he's just "going through the motions".  Vai has impressed me every single time I've seen him, either solo or with the G3 tour in 2001 (once on each coast!).

Although I agree that they both perform "super-human" fretboard skills which are probably only fully appreciated by guitar players, I disagree that they don't have songs which are soulful or emotional, i.e. Joe's "Always With You, Always With Me", or "Crying", or Steve's "For the Love Of God".  Anyone who can listen to these songs and not be moved in some way is lacking some basic emotional component, but that's just my opinion. 

Vai has always been super-cool in person, signing autographs and chatting with fans like a certain other amazing guitarist we all know and love.  I've never met Satriani, I felt like he blew off fans after his G3 performance in '01 where we waited for a couple hours at the stage door and met Vai and John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, and Mike Keneally from Vai's band (formerly with Frank Zappa) and Billy Sheehan, but no Satch.  Oh well.

Guitar fans should definitely check these guys out if you haven't heard them...Surfing with the Alien or Flying in a Blue Dream for Satch and Passon & Warfare for Vai.

Keep on rockin' the blues.....and Happy New Year!

CarljMD