Shawn Lane is an obscure but extremely gifted guitarist from Tennessee. He was given his first guitar at the age of four, and has spent almost his entire life practicing and attempting to master his craft.
His first solo album, Powers of Ten was written, produced, and recorded entirely by Lane himself. He played all the guitar, bass, and keyboard music on the album. He used a drum machine for the drum tracks. His second solo album The Tri-Tone Fascination is a great instrumental mix of pop, jazz, rock, and of course...shredding, with very well written songs and great production.
Shawn's guitar technique is quite literally, unrivaled to date. He is extremely versatile, being able to play all types and styles of music at any speed, with remarkable tone and feeling.
As an aside, I have an instructional video of Shawn Lane and I couldn't even understand half of what he was talking about. Then he would proceed to play licks at speeds physically impossible for myself, ascending, then descending, then five note, six note, seven note variations. His technical ability continues to amaze me to pieces.