A couple things:
-both you and your friend should work on your intonation a little bit. It could be that your guitars are not in tune with each other but every time either of you played longer notes it was very obvious that the intonation wasn't quite there
-both of y'all could use some work on your vibrato. Yours was either non-existent OR was very uneven and just....well it had that kind of Kirk Hammett thing going on as they call it.
-your timing seems kind of choppy. It was really noticeable during the phrase you played at about 1:12 (note: you can hear what I'm talking about with the vibrato right before thatand you can hear some of the intonation issues in the low notes you play right after). Generally speaking when people have timing issues during slow parts, they have the same problem during fast parts. You've got the speed down, but try practicing very precise patterns with a strong rhythmic feel. Practice playing accents and work on knowing where you are in relation to the downbeat.
-phrasing is another thing. All of your phrases start right on the downbeat, which makes everything feel very stiff. This is accentuated by the overall cut-and-paste feel of the solo. From a listeners perspective it's like "alright, here's my scale patterns. Now, this is a new phrase and I'm going to show you some sweeps. Alright here comes some more scale patterns". Another thing that would realy help is to allow some breathing room. I'm not saying this in a "solos aren't all aobut shredding" kinda way, but it'd be great to hear you break up your phrases a bit by adding some long notes, changing the dynamic a bit, articulating differently during different parts of a solo, etc. I like to compare guitar solos to someone giving a speech. Speeches are a lot more effective when the speaker uses things like accentuation of certain words and syllables, changing his tone and volume to add dynamic, using pauses, etc. Nobody wants to hear some guy talk in monotone. And one more thing....that slide-out to the upper frets you do at the end of almost every phrase. GREAT tool to use sparingly, it's little quirks like those that add interest to a solo. Things like that lose effectiveness when done all the time though.
- As far as your friend goes, just some quick things aside from what I already mentioned....his biggest problem seems to be that he doesn't even look comfortable playing, he's got no authority/confidence to his playing whatsoever. Perhaps it's just a bit of red-light fever (which everybody has at one point or another), but he just wasn't "on". He doesn't seem to have the technical ability or fretboard knowledge to execute the ideas he's hearing in his head. He does seem to have a pretty decent concept of phrasing, but it wont matter until he can accurately convey his musical ideas. His intonation was pretty bad for the most part and his sense of time (though probably cureable simply by working out his technical issues) also needs work.
That being said, you've got some pretty nice chops going! Though I picked on a few things in the above paragraphs, you've definitely got it in you to be a really solid player with a little bit of work in the right areas. Also, I apologize if it seemed like I went overboard on the criticisms or if I sounded like a prick for doing so, my intention was neither! I'm simply bored and haven't had a good rant on the musicians corner for a while. Besides, an accurate judgement of someones overall musical talent can't be made based on a 2 and a half minute youtube video.
BTW, nice choice of axes (to both of you)! A UV will probably be what I go with if I ever decide to take the seven string route again.
I did have some digital recording stuff, but I had to sell that along with my POD to finish paying my ensemble fees last semester. I just don't have enough money to justify buying a digital camcorder right now either. I gladly accept donations though!
