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Quoted: Best technical player? Less ambiguous, but hard to evaluate because there are a shitload of excellent technical players, and for every one you can name, there is an unknown studio/session player that 99.9% of people never heard of that was just as good. Most influential? As I said in my edit above, this is the most exclusive list, but does influence = best? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Best technical player? Less ambiguous, but hard to evaluate because there are a shitload of excellent technical players, and for every one you can name, there is an unknown studio/session player that 99.9% of people never heard of that was just as good. Most influential? As I said in my edit above, this is the most exclusive list, but does influence = best? Absolutely not. Case in point... Slash. He was never a great guitarist. He could put together a good song in the studio, where you get infinity mulligans. Guns'n'Roses inspired a whole generation of guitarists. But slash could never play their songs live. Every live performance you see of them, he sucks butts. And then back to the unknown studio guitarists. The guys fat axel rose has touring with him now are those guys. A couple no-name dudes who learned to play guitar with GnR songs. They are playing Slash's songs perfectly without even trying. Quoted: In terms of technical proficiency, the top five guitarists of all time are probably all under 30 today. Kids learn techniques that didn't exist back then when they are 5Y/O Composition is a whole other question though. I mostly agree with this. This one girl on the youtubes has more technical abilities than most of the big rockstars. What she doesn't have is a band and a tour bus and her own songs and a record deal. Dragon Force - Through the Fire and Flames - Tina S Cover |
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They didn't make my top 5, but I'll throw them out as honorable mentions since I haven't seen them mentioned yet.
Billy Gibbons Rory Gallagher Robert Johnson |
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Steve Morse
Jimmy Page Jeff Beck Steve Howe/Trevor Rabin(Yes) Gilmore And many more... |
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To my experience(s) if you ask well known guitar players who the best players are, many of them will give you a name of a studio musician that you've never heard of.
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Not listed here but should be are Yngwie Malmsteen and (to my surprise) John Mayer.
Fixed for LOS Yngwie David Gilmour Jimmy Page SRV Charo (I very much dig her and Flamenco) Yngwie Malmsteen - Icarus' Dream Suite Op. 4 [Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra] Charo Live 1977 - Flamenco Guitar |
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Quoted: Absolutely not. Case in point... Slash. He was never a great guitarist. He could put together a good song in the studio, where you get infinity mulligans. Guns'n'Roses inspired a whole generation of guitarists. But slash could never play their songs live. Every live performance you see of them, he sucks butts. And then back to the unknown studio guitarists. The guys fat axel rose has touring with him now are those guys. A couple no-name dudes who learned to play guitar with GnR songs. They are playing Slash's songs perfectly without even trying. I mostly agree with this. This one girl on the youtubes has more technical abilities than most of the big rockstars. What she doesn't have is a band and a tour bus and her own songs and a record deal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpASSx0ecTU View Quote Yeah, Tina was one of the people I was thinking of. There's half a dozen kids from SK that are at the top of whatever style they play, the kid from Bernth, the whole fingerstyle genre is full of amazing players that don't need a band... Luca Stricagnoli does stuff nobody else does but it's all covers and mostly of songs I don't care for. The musical world has gotten so big in the internet age it's impossible to rank anything. The Rock Star era gave us a lot of the basic techniques though, some of those guys were real pioneers. I don't think there will ever be bands that big again. |
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In addition to those already listed:
Guthrie Govan Paul Waggoner Frederick Thordendal Sylvain Coudret Ben Weinman |
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Quoted: Ah, the glory days of boomer rock... In terms of technical proficiency, the top five guitarists of all time are probably all under 30 today. Kids learn techniques that didn't exist back then when they are 5Y/O Composition is a whole other question though. View Quote Which is why almost everything now feels like it doesn’t have any soul. |
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Quoted: Eddie VanHalen Stevie Ray Vaughn Eric Clapton Derek Trucks Mark Knopfler View Quote Close Stevie Ray Vaughn is the best I ever saw. Eric Clapton, sheer volume of great work in all types of music and for his days with Cream. Duane Allman, for a short career he was unbelievable. Jimmy page Eddie vanhalen Honrable mention Ted Nugent Buddy Guy mark Knopfler |
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Two pages and no Buddy Guy?
WTF is wrong with you cromagnons? Beat by 66 sec. |
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Jerry Cantell
Zakk Wylde Wolfgang Van Halen Tom Morello Marty Friedman |
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EVH is king.
The others listed are worthy. Don't forget Johnny Marr |
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Eddie Van Halen
Stevie Ray Vaughn Mark Knopfler Roy Clark Jimmy Page Honorable mention to Curtis Lowe! |
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Quoted: Which is why almost everything now feels like it doesn’t have any soul. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Ah, the glory days of boomer rock... In terms of technical proficiency, the top five guitarists of all time are probably all under 30 today. Kids learn techniques that didn't exist back then when they are 5Y/O Composition is a whole other question though. Which is why almost everything now feels like it doesn’t have any soul. That's it...it's sterile, listen to Boston's Hitch a Ride......Tom Scholz's guitar in that song was amazing...especially the outro solo, the emotion and soul in it just pulls you in. |
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Steve Vai is objectively better than most of the people on these lists. Not all, and of course there are many metrics.
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Quoted: To my experience(s) if you ask well known guitar players who the best players are, many of them will give you a name of a studio musician that you've never heard of. View Quote Lukather played guitar on Beat It for Michael Jackson. EVH played the solo. According conversations with my friend, Lukather believes EVH was next level better than anybody he had seen or played with. Without that info, I pretty much believe it myself. I think Roy Clark absolutely has to be there. You can round out the list with many named. Glen Campbell is amazing and doesn't read music. But to took lessons from Roy Clark. Do a deep dive into Roy Clark and anything with strings, he is a freaking savant. Hendrix, SRV, Gilmour, others. |
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So many old people lists. You know people are good at guitar in the last 20 years right.
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Randy Rhoades (if you couldn't guess that)
Synyster Gates Dimebag EVH Vai Best guitar solo I've heard in quite awhile just came out a couple weeks ago. Avenged Sevenfold - Cosmic (Official Visualizer) |
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Brian Setzer hasn't been mentioned. Defo in my top 5.
EVH Setzer SRV Tommy Emmanuele Eric Johnson |
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Quoted: Randy Rhoades (if you couldn't guess that) Synyster Gates Dimebag EVH Vai Best guitar solo I've heard in quite awhile just came out a couple weeks ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCxSpLumiRk View Quote I tried to listen to that album. I tried. |
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Quoted: So many old people lists. You know people are good at guitar in the last 20 years right. View Quote Sure. But none of the newer stuff by and large made near the impact that the players that made me into a rock and metal fan did. I did put Billy Strings in my list and he's a newer Bluegrass guy. I could have maybe put Jeff Loomis in my list, but he reallly is a late 90's and on guy. I was at as show and the Animals as Leaders guy was obviously technically impressive but his music was unmemorable and largely forgettable to me. There are a mllion technical wizards but few I hear write memorable riffage or solos. |
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Based solely on me liking their style. Not any particular order.
Sonny Landreth Alex Lifeson Slash EVH ( I don't particularly care for his style but I think he was an innovator) SRV |
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Quoted: Sure. But none of the newer stuff by and large made near the impact that the players that made me into a rock and metal fan did. I did put Billy Strings in my list and he's a newer Bluegrass guy. I could have maybe put Jeff Loomis in my list, but he reallly is a late 90's and on guy. I was at as show and the Animals as Leaders guy was obviously technically impressive but his music was unmemorable and largely forgettable to me. There are a mllion technical wizards but few I hear write memorable riffage or solos. View Quote Hmm. I would say Jerry Cantell is still writing and producing some memorable riffs. To be honest I'm not sure who is the primary guitarist for NIN right now but they're very impressive live. When the guitar hits in And All That Could Have Been it hits hard. Wolfgang Van Halen (son of EVH) is really good right now. |
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Quoted: My subjective opinion: 1. Nuno Bettencourt (just the best of all worlds, heart, soul, speed, never over processed) 2. Zack Wylde (tone, harmonic master) 3. David Gilmour (such emotion) 4. Stevie Ray (just jammed, not clean, just put it out there raw) 5. Eddie Van Halen (he inspired everybody post 70's, and while I'm not a huge Van Halen fan you can't deny he's the king. ) View Quote Gilmour forgot about him. Great guitarist |
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Jerry Garcia
Trey Anastasio Rick Mitarotonda David Gilmore Dickie Betts |
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Eric Johnson Jimi Hendrix Stevie Ray Vaughan Stanley Jordan Eric Clapton |
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Quoted: Hmm. I would say Jerry Cantell is still writing and producing some memorable riffs. To be honest I'm not sure who is the primary guitarist for NIN right now but they're very impressive live. When the guitar hits in And All That Could Have Been it hits hard. Wolfgang Van Halen (son of EVH) is really good right now. View Quote AIC is old too. I like Cantrell but not one of my top 5 list candidates. I will see Wolfgang open for Metallica in November so I will see how he does. I haven't listened to NIN in 20 years but when I saw them live on the Fragile tour they killed it. |
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Wes Montgomery
Buddy Guy (years from about 1958-1980 years) John Cipollina Grant Green or Kenny Burrell (can't make up my mind) Laurindo Almeida (thanks for playing this guy's albums back when I was a kid, Dad) ETA: Honorable Mention, Jimmy "Chank" Nolen, arguably the originator of funk guitar (James Brown band 1960s-1970s) |
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1: Jerry Garcia
2: Warren Haynes 3: Dickey Betts 4: David Gilmour 5: Jimmy Herring Top 10 would be way easier to answer. |
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Michael Schenker
David Gilmore Jeff Beck Stevie Ray Vaughn Eric Johnson |
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Quoted: Any list without Eric Johnson is automatically invalid. View Quote He's great, for sure! I went to high school with his goddaughter. Her mother is the woman on the cover of Venus Isle. I'd go something like this: 1. Nuno Bettencourt 2. Eddie Van Halen 3. Joe Bonamassa 4. Stevie Ray Vaughan 5. John Mayer |
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