One of the most difficult things for the shred guitar players is to get the correct balance between technique and melody...

Which guitar player do you think that achieves the best balance between melody and shredding?

One that comes to mind for me is Jeff Loomis. He can really shred it out but alos use alot of melodies in his songs

Cool choice. I mostly know him because of his killer shredding stuff but it's true that he composes nice melodies.

off the top of my head, this guy first comes to mind:



Also, Vinnie Moore

Hmm, Vai has the correct balance, although he uses lots of different techniques, and uses whammy a lot.

I like the way Andy Timmons and Eric Johnson are playing

Buckethead


after 2:20 for me this is the perfect fusion btwen shred and melody

John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, Alex Hutchings...

Friedman, Satch, Vai..

yeah, all those are fantastic players!! I would choose Steve Vai but Marty Friedman and Vinnie Moore could be good choices too for this topic!
and even Buckethead uses to play lots of nice melodies and killer shred licks.

Andy Timmons, Guthrie Govan, Steve Lukather, Mattias Eklundh, Bret Garsed and the list could go on

I'm going to go with Satriani.. I love Marty and Vinnie but Satriani seems to have the best balance of everything, he always has had this level of maturity and restraint. I don't think I've ever heard anything from him and thought 'Oh, Joe.. that's a bit too much'

You gotta love this one:

That kicks butt.. what a tone ! I like the way he uses the 9th on the main melody, instead of going straight to the 3rd which would be the obvious approach.. like at 1:10

Ben, after I listened to this guy talk about music I felt so inspired, I could've knocked him over the stage, grab a guitar and sing the life out of myself

I discovered him only one year ago and I got impressed of his tasty playing... his tone, his melodies are so beautiful.