I've only started using Guitar tab this year. The tab helps get my fingers where they need to be. But I've got to hear the tune to play with feeling. I learned "Maple Leaf Rag" with tab (and MIDI beeps) but only got the feel right after hearing it on a piano CD.

Also, it takes me forever to memorize the order of things with tab. By ear, remembering how many times for this lick and what movement follows that one sticks in my mind quicker.

I used to be a typesetter. I would type all day, reading someones stories the whole time. At the end of the day, I couldn't tell you about any of it. Uses a rote area of the brain, I guess. Bypasses the memory banks. In the eyes out the fingers. Brain is in Burmuda.