Like the U2 song says,stuck in a blues rut, and cant get out

[xjem]

I have been playing for around 14 years on and off and was better when i was 18 than i am now, i stopped playing shred guitar coz i thought it was childish :S ( yeah nutz i know ) and started to write on the acoustic...now i just wanna shred like i used to and better.....i have a decent technique can play with reasonable speed etc and do most of the tricks, but ive been stuck in a blues scale rut since i was 18, and im 28 now !!!! any tips on a good not too hard step up ????

Im thinkin what i need is to learn to cover the neck with scales etc or modes, anyone recomend a good one in particular ( frank gambales modes no more systery set me back mentally for years, i couldnt hack memorizing ALL those modes that are SO similar to one another..) to sound more like vai and less like ****e ??? thanks for any help guys..........

[pawel]

I would start by learning the basic major and minor scales for the whole neck and then just take it from there....You will soon start to recognise where your pentatonics and blues scales come in and you will have much more sounds to play around with...

[Lenny]

I started learning the C-major scale all over the neck. 3 notes per string. That was the only thing i practised for months. After a while you will have no problem transposing those shapes to other keys. Just be aware of the "mixolydian shape", "lydian shape" etc and you will have total controll.

Lenny.