I can’t comment on the accuracy, but here’s a good cover by a player called Mark Gibson. You can clearly see what he plays.
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Cool! Thanks. It was hard to tell from the actual footage but it looked SLane was doing two notes/two finger pentatonics up the neck and I see this guy doing 3nps it looks like. Gonna have to watch more closely
Most of Shawn’s pentatonic stuff is 2 notes per string, but he often used three finger combinations (1 2 3) or (1 2 4) on pentatonics, like when playing ascending 3s or 5s or to “spread” a coordination over two boxes.
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Gotta come back to this thread when I get some more time - I think beyond “this is a cool blues lick,” often times the “why” of what makes the lick cool is usually pretty cool and can open the door to some other cool possibilities.
Favorite low hanging fruit examples - the fast pull off break after the jet whooshing noises in “Surfing with the Alien” is basically the “Red House” intro, just jacked up to 10. It’s not obvious how they relate listening to them or seeing a tab, but the harmony is the same basic principle, with taking a tonic dominant triad of the 3rd, 5th, and b7th and shifting it down a half step implies a IV7.
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If people want to attach that to their posts that would be a great idea! I haven’t worked out the theory behind the examples I gave yet haha. But it’s usually just a couple outside notes mixed in real well
Got a chance to look more closely and he’s doing the first few runs 2NPS in groups of 5s I think. I can see the finger switching but it looks like a 3NPS on camera
Edit: @Tom_Gilroy I wanted to check out Shawn lanes instructional video, specifically the part where he goes over his pentatonic groupings of 4 and 5, but I cant find that section. Tried clicking through the whole video and getting lucky but no success. Looked at other SLane threads, but maybe Im just missing it. Do you know a timestamp or clip for this section of his?
Edit #2: Think I got it! Right around 4:12 it starts! Guitar Lesson - Shawn Lane - Power Solos (REH Complete) - YouTube
Yes, this. Shawn, John Norum and Michael Schenker all use three fingers to do 2nps pentatonics.
For those unaware, high e string, 15 fret with ring finger, 12th fret with index, b string 15th fret with middle finger, 12th fret with index. You have to turn your fret hand wrist a bit, but it allows you to play really fast between the two strings, because the ring finger isn’t crossing strings.
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Not always though. In the shawn lane instructional he demos groups of 5 using 2nps
From like 7:40 onwards, when he’s playing the very fast pentatonic 5s, how is he picking that? Have you ever worked that out? He alt picks when he shows it slowly. But sped up I can’t tell
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The straight 5’s are like EJ where you economy pick. D D U D U repeated
I think as he goes up the neck he throws a couple other groupings/coordinations in there to mix it up.
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That’s kinda what I mean, though - those are almost never just random outside notes. They’re usually somehow meaningful in the underlying harmony even if they’re not actual pentatonic scale tones, and usually implying some sort of harmonic movement that isn’t technically there. Understanding WHY those notes sound cool can often open other doors and suggest other interesting things. 
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Fair enough. I guess what I’m saying/asking is, do you think these guys build these licks with that idea in mind? Or they just kind of go for it and know these notes sound a bit outside so I’ll toss them in the lick. I could see maybe a mix of both. I can also just say when I play live, and I hit licks similar to these I’m not really choosing them based on their harmonic intention. It’s more like I know this little flurry will make this sound cool and outside and then I execute. If that makes sense lol
I started studying gypsy jazz and the book that I’m going through starts with the pentatonic scale, then adds all of the chromatic notes around it in terms of scale tone (2,3rd,etc.) that works for gypsy style. I also have the old guitar grimoire, and the Hungarian minor covers many of those same notes.
From there, the book talks about thinking about each chord and not the scale. In a traditional ii, IV, V, playing the arpeggios mostly, but that if you think about the pentatonic scale, these specific outside notes work for each of these three different chords. In that context, they learn that these specific outside notes work over the ii chord, and these different outside notes work over the IV. It ends up being free form in the moment, but they are targeting inside notes for the downbeats (usually).
Shawn’s stuff and frankly, most improvisers are just playing over standard chord changes. They might have substituted chords, but the head chord changes are usually just blues changes at their core.
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Tasty playing! Great musicians all around.