Who are the greatest guitarists of all time? - Page 6

I like Mr. Scary- George Lynch

This should interest you: EXPERIENCE HENDRIX---2008 Tribute Tour

Featuring; Mitch Mitchell & Billy Cox
BUDDY GUY,Jonny Lang,Kenny Wayne Shepherd,Eric Johnson,David Hidalgo & Cesar Rosas(Los Lobos), Hubert Sumlin(Howlin Wolf guitarist), Chris Layton(Double Trouble),Doyle Bramhall II, Eric Gales, Mato Nanji

For me its Nov 1st at the Palms--Las Vegas

One of my favorite guitarists is Sonny Landreth. I am not sure anyone of the named players could play his style of slide. If you see him up close, it is amazing what he is doing.

In no order Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, and Mark Knopfler are my popular picks. I'm hugely into Neil Young and Randy Rhoades and I CANNOT believe no one has mentioned(I think) Zakk Wylde. He is a monster metal guitar player. He can play live like DragonForce plays studio(which they can't do live, lol).

As a guitar player and music student who has gotten to play with many very famous guy's like Buddy Guy. I could write a list a mile long on who I dig. But Jimi Hendrix is the greatest hands down, enough so that the greats think so. I love the Blues and Jimi took the foundation that the Blues guy's laid and built a freakin' sky scraper on it. He single handly invented what is rock lead guitar. Machine Gun is the greatest guitar solo ever played. Nobody since has been able to come close to something like it and music school's spend hours and years trying to pick it apart. While there are ton of guy's that have come before and since that are awesome, nobody has had Jimi's impact on Guitar and Guitar Players. Attending the National Guitar Workshop and the Southwest Michigan School of Music, I have yet to meet a serious player who don't agree, Jimi touches, Blues, Rock, Metal, Jazz, Country even Classical players in one way or another.

Nominating John Petrucci of Dream Theater with his techno axe.

Don't know why, but Dream Theater considers themselves a Class B act. They manufacture their own discs, and the last one I bought freezes all dvd players in the middle of the best song!

Mentioned a couple posts ago, but I'll drop Frank Zappa again.

Other than his actual guitar playing, he led some of the most musically "tight" bands I've ever heard in my life. Watching/listening to live performances, it was really like 1 person playing 20 instruments. The entire band acted on one instinct. Amazing stuff.

Not to mention he kinda spawned Steve Vai out into the world.

Also, Dimebag Darrell of Pantera fame. Some epic, memorable and emotional solos, and I'm not a big fan of shredders. He, though, really took a song and added "feeling" to it in a way VERY few in his genre ever have.

In no particular order...
Walter Becker (Steeley Dan)
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Peter Frampton
Jeff Beck
Santana

I am a great Dan fan, but I can't put Becker in that company. They had several better guitarists play with them over the years, such as Larry Carlton and Jeff Baxter.

Yeah Becker didn't even play most of the solos on Steely Dan songs.

Jeff Beck
David Gilmour
Tommy Bolin
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Joe Satriani
Edward Van Halen
Buddy Guy

For him to pick him I think he must've mistaken that he did - or at least thought that he was the "lead" guitarist on their albums (especially since all the others he mentioned are A-list).

He does play a lot more nowadays, though, I hear - supposedly plays a lot of the older guitarists parts live. (I can't imagine him playing the lead from "Bodhisattva", though. Maybe some of the later stuff, like "Josie".)

Has anybody mentioned Robert Fripp yet? I don't recall seeing his name, and I'm too lazy to look.

Larry Carlton did the Kid Charlemagne solo.

The guitar players associated with Steely Dan's classic Bodhisattva are Skunk Baxter and Denny Dias. It was never published exactly who was responsible for the solo but several blogs over the years have indicated that it was Dias giving that extraordinary performance. For the last several touring bands Jon Herington has been the primary soloist(very capable indeed), although Walter still manages to throw some riffs our way every now and then.

Yes, Robert Fripp has been mentioned a couple of times and deservedly so. A great live recording of 20th Century Schizoid Man can be found at Wolfgangs Vault,incredible performance from the Fillmore West.

In no particular order:

Brian May (Queen)
Al DiMeola
Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple)
Steve Hacket (Genesis)
John Petrucci( DT)
Mark Knopfler
Steve Howe (Yes)
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Paco De Lucia
John Mc Laughlin

Jeff Beck and Jeff Beck

I just found another reason not to like "U2" .."The Edge"? I have never liked their Music, doesnt move me at all, but someone actually picked that as their stage name? Sounds like someone suffers from an ego problem.

Also, always felt U2 was a fashionable Band to jump on board and follow and get all giddy for, is that starting to die down?

Anyways, no Votes for Journeys frontman? Neals riffs have moved me, even if they are in the context of a love song half the time...Hard for me to comment on top Guitarist so I wont even try, as I am a Drummer.

I forgot about Neal Schon, one of my favorite solo's is in Everybody's Everything from Santana III

They are one of the most consistently popular and well regarded bands of all time. The Joshua Tree was like mid-80s, so they have been very popular for 20 years now. I don't think that's attributable to a fad or being giddy. If all they ever did was The Joshua Tree they'd be one of the great rock and roll bands.

It's a fad - just a big, long one.

The Joshua Tree puts me to sleep. Too monotonous and preachy for the most part. I don't particularly find preachy music to be "good Rock and Roll".

I would even go so far as to say that they are the most overrated Rock band of the last 20 years. Since when does popularity always equal good?

And think about it - do you ever hear other musicians saying that U2, or Bono, or The Edge is one of their influences or idols (not counting Coldplay, who just outright copies them for monetary gains? Actually, I like Coldplay's music much better - it's actually more creative - but Chris Martin is in dire need of a decongestant - or something that will take away the swelling in his nasal passages.)

Or, other than R.E.M., where the two bands have always been in some kind of phony, back-scratching relationship, also purely for monetary gains (another band that's been greatly overrated since their I.R.S. days long ago, and coasting on some kind of over-hyped-up image).

The pretentiousness of those two bands is unequalled these days.

I disagree, R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People is one of my favorite albums of the '90s. Sure Michael Stipe seems like he'd be a pretentious jerk in person, but the songs on that album are beautiful, in my opinion.

Other than that though the IRS stuff is my favorite too, Murmur and Document specifically.

Can't stand Coldplay myself, booooringg.

I don't know their music extensively, but I abhor Bono's arrogance in his interviews.

Maybe the guitar is just a fad as well? Really, I don't disagree with you about U2...saying The Edge is due inclusion in the elite of guitarists because they are a great group is kind of like saying Glenn Frey should be included because the Eagles are one of the biggest bands ever. It just ain't working for me.

You have to admit that preference for a group and their popularity is a subjective discussion and you could say that anything is "a fad - just a big long one." Maybe Pink Floyd was just a fad? U2 has to get credit as a great band, but that does not make the individuals among the greatest at their instruments. Look at the Beatles. Arguably the greatest band of all, and none of them rate as the best at their instruments. Competent, even creative and unique, certainly, but not in the elite.

Yep...I stand corrected...Larry Carlton is correct. Man that entire album ( Royal Scam) is just awesome. I forgot about Fripp... another great one

Joe Perry of Aerosmith gets my vote, based on what he just told the Boston Herald. Go Joe!

Given that Joe and Aerosmith are old, fairly irrelevant and out of touch with what people really want to hear these days...was the Herald article that big of a surprise?



j/k
sort of


On topic....I'll throw another vote in for Brain Carroll (Buckethead).

Down, you're certainly right that Aerosmith members are old, but they can hardly be deemed irrelevant, given their recent dedicated "Guitar Hero" release.

Seconded; great post.

Actually, part of the problem with rock and roll is that not enough people are willing to stand up and take a stand on anything. There's always room for light weight pop or mindless whatever, but U2 had principles and stood up for them.. That's a godo thing in my book. Maybe if more bands did that, we'd have young people who are a little more socially and politically aware. Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby speak to me very deeply.


If you mean popularity by 13 year old girls, it might not say much. But they were popular among a considerably more discerning and serious crowd, though they certainly have had their mindless young fans as well.

And the music from a production stand point is really good, particularly something like Achtung Baby. It's immaculately lo-fi and is the kind of thing that many musicians and engineers and producers would hold up as exemplars of the craft (Lanois and Eno were important there as well, and on Joshua Tree.) It's extremely organic and amazing vintage guitar tones.


I think that Edge is one of those folks who kept minimalist and tasteful guitar work alive at a time when most everything was synthopop. And yeh, I think he was quite influential among guitarists who consider that a good thing. You can tell that a musician has achieved a certain level of originality when you can hear something and just know that's almost certainly who it is, or where other guitarists use that person as a descriptive label for a whole style of guitar, and he is one of those guitarists.