Awesome thread - and WarAdmiral, good to see the included video of Gilbert. I was reading my way down this thread and just kept thinking "Paul Gilbert's lessons" as he really has a great way about his instructional videos and has a lot of awesome advice. I'm always seeking to improve my game on the ax, but I'm not into any egotistical (read: Petrucci) or non-sensical lessons. I'm not into looking good or sounding good only for one lick, I wanna have a barrage of sounds on tap, and make them perfect all the way along the path...
Nice thread - and for what it's worth, I play unplugged/un-amped about 50% of the time as it's just super easy for me to sit on the sofa with one of my guitars, hanging out, and racing up and down the neck doing all sorts of experimental stuff, knowing I'm not concerned about what's coming out of my amp.
Peace,
V.