When you look at the progression of Buckethead's albums, it is pretty odd. His first album was released in Japan only. Then he had a very electronic album and an acoustic album and a few others but around that time he joined Guns N' Roses.
I think with the extra income he bought some better equipment, perfected his performance, and got fed up with the music scene in general thanks in part to Guns but also past record companies he dealt with. Starting around 2004, he released one or two (or four) albums a year. Now with a solid fan base, he can release even more BUT I think the quality has suffered in a lot of instances.
Most of these Pikes are 28 minutes long. Of the 20 I have (and did a lot of sampling before deciding to buy), only a portion are great material. The guy is a genius, no doubt, but I think a lot of it he just regurgitates and knows he can make a decent profit off of. I'm kinda getting tired of the same drum machine sound. Thankfully, it is a great drum machine but on every single release, the drums are IDENTICAL.
Plus, he was having back problems so I doubt he left the house much so I bet he got bored.