Vai, Satriani + Johnson Live - I assume you heard that one then
It's a good combination I think. All three great players. I personally like Satriani more, it's just that he seems to be the lightest, fastest type of guy. He's very natural-sounding, and I bet he likes what he does a whole lot (that's what the sound tells me).
I recall Hendrix being mentioned - well, as any real fan of guitar music, I tip my hat to the ultimate guitar hero, but not before mentioning that I still think his best work is in the Blues stream (as opposed to rock, as most seem to think). His blues is really heavy and really blue, and that's the way I like it.
Tom makes perfect sense
Another problem with songs is that they're always trying to tell you what the music is about, and when you want to think it's about something else, it becomes a problem. And sometimes it just gets a bit annoying.
Which reminds me of another instrumental guitar album I absolutely dig (from a while ago, but still) - Frank Zappa's "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar!". Yep, that's exactly what he did, and he was one hell of a guitarist!
Without the crappy vocals and a different bassist. Which kinda sucks because John Myung is my favorite bassist of all time. 
And I agree with you about Satriani, I really like him. I saw him and Kirk Hammet (Metallica), who Satriani taught how to play, playing at a blues house around here... they were really good. And it was really cool to hear Hammet play something other than metal. Got some nice guitar dueling done then, too. It got to the climax of the duel, and it was Hammet's turn. Hammet totally blew him away, or so we thought. Hammet, admittedly, was faster but once Satriani started playing again... 
