Guitarists Who Kept Trying To Learn After Becoming Stars

I think Steve Vai still develops and evolves.

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I agree… but, I think for the most part it’s less his technique that’s evolving, so much as his phrasing. He’s - if it’s possible - become MORE immediately recognizable since Passion and Warfare, where even tossed-off improvised lines these days sound distinctly like him.

@RG1077XL @Drew
Vai was talking here about how a bad IV screwed up his ability to do crossroads style picking stuff.

I feel like Holdsworth became more technically proficient as time went on, at least up into the 90s or so

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Agreed. And the Holdsworth’s last gig there’s some recordings of it on youtube and I felt that there was this one segment where my jaw just dropped and his tone during that segment was gigantic. He was still evolving even to the end. I felt really bad for his poor daughter, they were supposed to have easter lunch together and he didn’t show up so she drove over to his place only to find his body. Too sad. A big loss for the guitar world and music in general actually.

Another guy for me who improved over time would be Canadian guitarist Ian Chrichton of Saga - he was almost like a DiMeola style flatpicker during the first 3-4 Saga albums then gradually incorporated more techniques as time went on. He then showed what he was capable of on a tune called “Giant” from their “Throwing Shapes” record: flatpicking, legato, sweeping, tapping, the whole nine yards taken at a breakneck clip.