is this the best guitar ever

I saw this group twice in the early/mid 80s. The first was an amazing display of guitar pyrotechnics that was strangely uninvolving. The second time John McLaughlin was replaced by Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs fame. He was clearly the technical equal of his compatriots but he communicated such joy in his playing that he made the others appear like cardboard cutouts (albeit ones that could play at the speed of light). That was one my first lessons on the distinction between mere technical mastery and complete musicianship.