Vai can shred like it aint nobodies business

hes in my opinion the best he started in classic rock got to good moved to techno or whatever. got to good made a 7 string guitar then he started kikin but at the seven

Vai has crazy talent! We don't hear much from the virtuoso anymore but his music will live forever as a certain standard for all guitarists who wish to play that style of music.

in my top 5

One of the most technically proficient and soulful guitarists ever to have lived, and the only person who could top Satriani. The man is one of the greatest songwriters the world has ever seen, and hell, he can even sing!
To all those who say that Vai has no soul... have you even listened to his music?
Example: one of the most beautiful compositions ever created: For the Love of God...

great player, but I hate his stuff

DLR and Mr. Vai could not display and influence us.

One of my Dad's faves

could only play by himself, can never have a normal band. His tone doesnt fit the public ears.

saw him w/ david lee roth, great performer, incredibly talented. Still love to watch Crossroads.

eh...

teha

amazing gutarist--remember half that i gave a ok or bad rating are great musicians --just not possible for them to be considered a great gutarist compared to the others

hes good but not the greatest

3

ok not my style

Driftwood, listen to Whispering a Prayer.  He doesn't even pull out the mad skills.  He just plays some beautiful music that soothes the soul.  He has the ability to kick it into high gear, but knows when to keep it real. Well, maybe he sometimes knows when to keep it real.  Five stars on tallent, 2 stars on tact.  I'll give him 3 total.  Joe plays more beautiful songs, but Steve can when he feels like it.

I'm sick of hearing that he's so great. He has yet to impress me. He's just another guitarist who can play very well but doesn't do shit with that talent.

Steve Vai playing with Mike Mangini is the greatest guitar/drummer combination in the entire history of music...amazing solos with a bit of Zappaesque.

Best ever

i loved his work on public image's generic,other than that?fave:bags

Steve Vai is second only to Buckethead, but for sheer technique and knowledge of the instrument, he is the unchallenged #1. 'Passion and Warfare' is the greatest guitar album of all time - just listen to 'For the Love of God' if you don't believe me. Genius.

Undoubtably a superb player, with a huge variey of tricks, but I still think Satriani has the edge as the best.

One of the true greats.  Stevie's axe technique second to none and hits the podium with FZ as one of the all time greats.

Steve is a master technichian and yes his music can be off beat. His solos are very original and no one really sounds like him, including his mentor Joe Satriani. His stuff with David Lee Roth and Whitesnake are totally different from one another and that shows his range. I like the stuff he did with Alcatrazz, he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen, just listen to "God Bless Video". This guy could flip his guitar in mid song and play it left handed and not skip a beat, he is great from both sides of the guitar(and it was upside down as well). His playing from the movie "Crossroads" (Eugene's Trick Bag and Head-Cuttin' Duel) is also some real interesting material.

Let's see. Why is Jeff beck the most important guitarist on the planet? Satriani Vai's teacher said, "If I could get a guitar lesson it would have to be from Beck."  And Steve Vai himself has said that his main influence was Jeff Beck.    Rest my case.

he is the best , nervermore one like this guitarist

i cant believe this guy get hammered on his review. This guy might not have a lot of hits but sure very well can smoke at least 95.9 of all the guitarist on this list.

You have to come up with something that people will like and enjoy. Steve Vai tried and tried but having a hard time getting his music across to the public. You cant just come up with some nonsense stuff and call yourself great. Other guitarist came up with some mean ass sound and riffs and it has blown people away. People would say, Wow, now that's the dude i want to listen to on an album. I think Steve should start a band with real singer and start coming up with something that people would enjoy listening to. Or esle he will never see a daylight of being on the Rock and Roll HOF list. Not yet so great Steve.

This isn't a question about songwriting...not sure why that keeps getting thrown in here. The greatest guitarist currently playing. He's got it all, great tone, great stage presence, and otherworldly technique. He seems to do something in each song that you didn't think was possible. Much more interesting that Ynwie...who only sounds like he is running through scales as fast as he can.

Everything this guy does sounds like some overlong run-on scale exercise. He is TOO studied, TOO technical and WAY TOO MUCH of a technician for my tastes. GONG!

Very impressive stuff , Songs like 'for the love of god', 'tender surrender' i got to admit those were kick your ass in the face songs. Some of the most technical shit i've ever heard. But he's no where Eddie and Clapton league.

In 1985 you though you were all that with Dave L. Roth. But you got nowhere. The world dont buy your BS. Keep practicing.

Great guitar ability but lacks emotion. He's alot better live than on albums. His style is good but only in small doses.

Technician ... boring

really great man on solo

im better then him

Technically, probably the strongest on this list, but he can get pretty "out there" for my taste.

Sure he's got all the licks and the speed but his material's patchy at best and dull or unlistenable at worst. Just cant say I enjoy listening to his own material though I liked his playing on the Dave Lee Roth albums and the jams with G3.

Too much flash, not enough substance. Good with the whammy, and with tapping, but only three stars for lack of originality.

A technical wizard. MTV once labeled him as one of the Eddie Van Halen clones ( along with Satriani, bettencourt, Bratta, DeVille, etc.)He could not write a song to save himself. David Lee Roth said that writing with Vai was trivial because his music never had a proper beginning, middle or end. It was one long endless solo.

Good, not great. Satriani is better.

I dont like steve vai's playing, but he is a good guitarist

His the Man!

Amazing technically and his creativity stems off of that. Not very impressed with his actual musical talent, has he ever had a piece so good that he inspired millions of beginning guitarists? The answer is no, and that is why he'll never be remembered in twenty years.

veryy good, the best of world in my opnion

He's good but he's a total loser, and you cant really compare herman li to steve vai since one is a solo performer and the other plays in a band and steve is also 20 some years older then herman. Thats a big gap, also steve might be better then him but dragonforce makes the nicer music and thats what counts in the end.

Very creative - the use of hardwares plus his great skills combined makes the true "VAI" sound. Amazing techniques with wah-wah, whammy bar, one-hand/two-hands tapping makes him the one of the most distinctive guitarist in the world. If you want to hear true vai-sh sound, here are some suggestions: "For The Love Of God" "Tender Surrender" "The Attitude Song" "Whispering a Prayer" "Lotus Feet" "The Reaper"

Steve Vai's good... but I'd have to say Herman Li puts up a good fight. There is only so much to know in playing guitar- using scales, tapping, all that other stuff I dont feel like listing- and once you have all that, being extremely fast is what to go for. And Herman Li is extremely fast. Of course, just because you're that fast doesn't make you that great. But if you can do what a great guitarist does at that speed... then yes, it does make you great.

Van Halen Rip-off. but still good