. "yes..his equipment back then had to do with it.....though his Ibenez guitars had humbuckers, they weren't the heavy-guage humbuckers like one sees in Gibson Les Pauls....along with the fact he used lighter guage strings (possibly even xl strings..but I am not sure about that)......finally, many of the artists back then, including George Lynch of Dokken, Paul Gilbert, and Satriani's protoge Stev" . . .