Well, thanks Metalhead and Lpdeluxe for so neatly camping out in both corners of the debate...
Personally, I'd LOVE to attribute it to "feel players are just jealous" and "talking about how important 'feel' is is just an excuse for not practicing," but it's obviously not that simple. I've basically got at least one foot in the "shred" camp, but all the same I totally agree that there's something to all this talk about "feel."
At the same time, again as a player with one foot in the shred camp and another sort of out in the Gilmour/SRV/Jimi land of things, comments like LPdeluxes just piss me off. Just because a guitarist is technically accomplished doesn't mean he can't play with feel, yet so many guys who make posts like that on guitar boards or slightly-less-argumentative comments like that in the real word just automatically close down their ears when they hear someone play a faster run and think, "oh no, this guy's a 'shredder,' he's obviously a machine with no soul!" That's completely nonsensical. How much "feeling" you put into a solo is completely unrelated to how fast you're playing notes - I've heard my share of machine-like closet shredders, but I've also seen and heard some incredibly heartfelt, emotionally moving guitar performances that just happen to rely on blazing technique, and I've also seen my share of guys playing "feel" blues lick solos where it's pretty damned obvious that they're playing a bunch of memorized licks, and making grimaces so we think they're playing with "feel." They're not - it's a paint-by-numbers approach to soloing, and it has nothing to do with how fast (or, in this case, slow) they're playing.
"Feeling" and "technique" aren't two sides of the same spectrum - they're totally unrelated. A blistering alternate picked run can add a sense of tension and emotion to a song just as much as a long edge-of-feedback sustained note - the guys who've impressed me the most are the ones who can do both. They're just two different textures or colors in your pallate, and if you're trying to take the listener to a certain place or paint a picture with a lead break, then obviously it's stupid to limit yourself to just one.
I'm not sure why you have fewer "shred" players bagging on guys playing slow, feel-y solos. They're certainly out there, though they're much rarer. The optimistic part of me would like to attribute it to the fact that there comes a certain maturity with the sort of dedication to ones' craft that's required to build up shred-worthy technique, but that's probably a load of bull. And I don't know if "jealousy" is necessarily fair, either - maybe it's something as simple as a guitarist is presented with a staggeringly impressive technical performance, and then immediately needs to justify it to themselves why they don't want to spend the time learning how to do that. Who knows - either way, shred guys are certainly lightning rods for criticism.
I think it's worth recalling a conversation I once had with a guitar instructor I studied under in college. He was a hell of a player, but was more of the blues, jazz, and acoustic school, while at the time I made no secret of the fact I was an inspiring shredder (the picture's a little more clouded today, but whatever). We were talking about Joe Satriani's then-new album, "Engines of Creation," and in particular his solo on "Until We Say Goodbye," which to this day is still one of my favorite lead breaks. His comment, and I'm paraphrasing, was something that I found very interesting and has stuck with me ever since: "A lot of guitarists rave about guys like B.B. King and Carlos Santana for hitting "that perfect note" and just holding it. That's definitely cool, but with those guys, that's
all they can do. With someone like Joe Satriani, he can do that too, but when you hear him do that it 'means' something a little different because with him you know it's a choice."
It's also worth pointing out, in a completely different direction, that the REALLY over the top stuff (think Rusty Cooley) exists for a totally different reason than, say, Jeff Beck, or even Satriani. Technique taken that far is just FUN. You don't listen to it for his subtle, tasteful melodicism - you listen to it because, holy shit, look at all the crazy things that guy can do to a guitar. I'd never play a Rusty Cooley album for a nom musician, whereas something like Satriani's "The Extremist" or Buckethead's "Colma" or Niel Zaza's "Staring At the Sun" are things that I have played in the past for a lot of my non-guitarist friends, and they've loved them. So, the question then becomes, for the truly over the top stuff, who's got it worst? The shred guys who appreciate a good technical display for what it is, no more, or the 'feel" guys who take themselves so seriously that they can't appreciate the humor and the element of fun that comes with something that patently absurd?
EDIT - and here's the one that blows my mind the most. Again, take Rusty Cooley. Go out and youtube some of his Chops from Hell lessons if they're on youtube, or if not maybe his "Betcha Can't Play This" lesson. You'll find all those "feel" players out in droves lambasting his playing for being "all technique, no feel," and somehow missing the point that what they're watching is a
lesson recorded entirely to display and teach technique. How is that even possible?
Listen to the stuff you enjoy, and I'll do the same, and I suspect we'll even have a fair amount of overlap. I just found this: 