Who Are Your Favorite Guitarists?Music

[burnt_clutch]

4. Those dudes from Dragonforce and I can't be arsed to look up their names.

micheal jay fox?

 

[TopHat]

!

 

[GrumpEone]

I'm suprised by your lack of Zappa

1.) Yngwie Malmsteen
2.) Frank Zappa
3.) Jimi Hendrix
4.) Steve Vai (Who also played with Zappa)
5.) Robert Fripp (King Crimson)
6.) Ritchie Blackmore
7.) Dave Mustaine (MegaDeth)
8.) Carlos Santana
9.) Jeff Beck
10.) B. B. King

 

[under18carbon]

4. Those dudes from Dragonforce and I can't be arsed to look up their names.

Herman Li & Sam Totman.

My 5 personal favorites (in no order):

Steve Vai
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Ritchie Blackmore
Zakk Wylde
Kirk Hammett

 

[YSSMAN]

1) Eddie Van Halen. See him in concert, its absolutely amazing!
2) Slash. His style is so unique that you can easily pick it out of any kind of music.
3) Jimmy Page. Zepplin, need I say more?
4) Peter Frampton. Have you listened to Frampton Comes Alive? You should!
5) Eric Clapton. A single man able to play so many genres of music, well, its easily explainable.

Honorable Mention: Skwisgaar Skwigelf... Dethklok Rules!!!

 

[ND4SPD]

1.Jimi Hendrix
2.Jimmy Page
3.Eric Clapton
4.Stevie Ray Vaughan
5.B.B. King

 

[Kylehnat]

1)Benji Madden - Good Charlotte
2)Tom Delonge - Blink 182
3)Whoever that guy from Fallout Boy is
4)The bassist from Yellowcard
5)Avril Lavigne

Maybe the best list ever created.

Honorable Mention: Skwisgaar Skwigelf... Dethklok Rules!!!

I would have gone with Mashed Potato Johnson, myself. "Try to plaaaaaaay this!!!"

 

[exigeracer]

Tom Morello.

That's it.

 

[opendriver]

Joe Satriani
Slash
Hendrix
The dudes from Dragonforce, not MJF
Eddie Van Halen
Yngwie Malmsteen (had to copy that one)

 

[Solid Lifters]

1. Eddie
2. Joe
3. Gary Moore
4. Billy
5. Tie: David Gilmour and Jimmy Page

 

[Alfaholic]

1) Gary Moore
2) Slash
3) Dave Birch
4) Dave Gilmour
5) Randy Rhoads / Jake E. Lee (tie).

To be honest, that's my top five favourite guitarists, not what I think are the top five best guitarists, which would depend on what you use to measure guitar playing ability. On speed and accuracy, Yngwie would be no. 1 on the guitarists I've heard.

 

[Silverzone]

1)Benji Madden - Good Charlotte
2)Tom Delonge - Blink 182
3)Whoever that guy from Fallout Boy is
4)The bassist from Yellowcard
5)Avril Lavigne

Anywho:

1. Kirk Hammet
2. Dave Mustaine
3. Dimebag Darrell
4. Angus Young
5. Brian May

 

[Kylehnat]

^I was just kidding with that list. Avril Lavigne should be at the top.

 

[Silverzone]

^I was just kidding with that list. Avril Lavigne should be at the top.

Exactly what I was thinking. How Could Tom Delonge ever be better than Avril Lavigne.

 

[F1GTR]

1) Jimmy Page
2) Jimi Hendrix
3) David Gilmour
4) Tom Morello
5) Jack White?!

 

[Danoff]

The dragonforce dudes don't deserve to be listed here. Playing fast, and even accurately is not what makes you an awesome guitarist. In terms of raw guitar talent, I don't see how you can exclude any of the following guys from the top 5 list:

- Stevie
- Hendrix
- Van Halen

There are a ton of guys in my mind that compete for the last couple of spots. Frampton, Satriani, Vai, Page, Slash, Malmsteen, Clapton, King...

I think I'll vote for
- Slash
- Brian May

 

[GTveteran]

Ritchie Blackmore
Glenn Tipton
Kerry King
Jeff Waters
Alex Skolnick

What makes an Awesome guitarist is a person who can write aswell as play blindingly.

 

[Gil]

There are so Many excellent guitarists that have come down the pike that you almost can't make a list of the top 5 without coming up with 50 more an hour later.
My top 5: Not necessarily in order
Jimi Hendrix
Robert Johnson
Pat Metheny
Stevie Ray
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.

Yes, I know I've left off
Jimmie Vaughn (he did teach SRV after all)
Vai
Satch
Trey Anastasio
Clapton (though outside the blues, he plays with very little "heart")
Laurence Juber
Doyle Dykes
Chet Atkins
Alvin Lee
Monte Montgomery
and many more...
I seriously hope this list will be used to add to someone's music collection...

 

[GrumpEone]

I'm amazed that a few people think Slash ranks so high on that list. I like Guns'n Roses too, but I never considered Slash as an exceptional guitar player though.

 

[Alfaholic]

I'm amazed that a few people think Slash ranks so high on that list. I like Guns'n Roses too, but I never considered Slash as an exceptional guitar player though.

Can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you why he ranks so highly for me.

1) He's a genuine guitar hero - the kind of player that makes kids want to learn how to play the guitar, not because he's good, but because he's cool. His whole image works for me. The head full of hair with a cigarette poking out the middle, and that crazy hat. Might not be as politically correct now as it was in 1990, but it made him instantly recognisable. Gave him character, made people remember him. I'd recognise him in a crowd, but I doubt I could pick Zakk Wylde from a police lineup unless he was holding his guitar.

2) Slash tends to play melodic riffs, and he concentrates more on expression than on speed, or will tend to sustain a note and work with it rather than play a new note to fill the time, which makes his sound more recognisable. I would say the same thing about Gary Moore and David Gilmour. For me, it makes his playing very listenable.

3) He plays a Les Paul, and while he has a fairly distinctive tone, Les Paul players do in general tend to have an underlying warm, thick, smooth or creamy component in their tone that I really like. It's the thing Les Pauls are famous for, I guess.

Slash certainly wouldn't make my list of the five most skilled or five most capable quitar players, but he'll always be on my list of top five guitarists I'd most want to listen to.

I'd add Mark Knopfler to my list too, but I'm not sure who to remove.

EDIT: Oh, and that guy from Red Hot Chili Peppers. He's pretty good too.

 

[Pako]

In no particular order:

*Gimour - one of my favorite to listen to.
*Atkins - reminds me of my dad's pickin', not something I'd listen to on a regular basis, but O'le Chet is the man.
*Hedrix - decades ahead of his time.
*Vai/Satriani - different playing styles, but in the same league technical guitar gods.
*SRV - he's Stevie Ray Vaughn, need I say more?

Honorable mentions:
John Scofield
Eric Johnson
Eric Clapton
Billy Gibbons
John Petrucci
Carlos Santana
Herman Li (Dragon Force)
Alex Lifeson (probably the most under-rated)
Duane Allman
Jeff Beck
Warren Haynes
and many, many, more.

 

[Duke]

My top 5 rock guitarists are always going to be slanted towards expression and invention rather than pure technical wizardry, though you need both to reach the podium. So, in rough order, I'll go with:

1) SRV - goes without saying; possibly the most expressive player ever
2) Hendrix - added more to the electric guitar's vocabulary than anyone before or since
3) Jimmy Page - second only to Hendrix as a sonic visionary (to coin a term)
4) Dave Gilmour - lacks the versatility of the 3 above, but damn does he compose perfect solos
5) Zappa - his soloing is inhuman, and the thing is, he writes it that way, doesn't just go off on some left-field excursion.

I'll hold the #6 slot open for a variety of people.

A very good case was made for Slash above, so he and Sir Randall of Rhoades can hold down the metal part of the #5 timeshare.
The yin and yang of guitar, Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, are going to have to co-host their turn. Ice and fire? Earth and sky? Whatever they are, they're amazing together.
Jack White, while very loose and idiosyncratic, is highly expressive in his playing and relatively versatile, so he gets a turn.
Billy Gibbons (pre-Eliminator gets a turn for having an instantly-identifiable sound, and well-chosen solos as well.
It's also a tossup between Albert Collins and B. B. King for the blues slot. Both are highly emotive - Collins is raw as it gets; King invented slick. They'll have to co-host also when it's their turn.
Dave Navarro, though somewhat limited in his genre, clicked off some utterly amazing, tough-talking guitar in the early Jane's Addiction days.

9000-notes-per-minute speed gods like Yngwie and that Angelo guy just don't do it for me. Incredible training and practice. No soul whatsoever. Who cares if you can recite the dictionary at hyperspeed if you never have anything to say?

Two guys who will appear on many many lists but will miss my party are Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen.

Clapton is also a Master Technician who plays with no feeling of his own. Every emotion he manages to get out in his playing is co-opted from someone else who played it before he did. The only time Clapton has any expression is when he's trying to sound like somebody else. His own stuff is pure vanilla.

Eddie is a little better. I could listen to him noodle around all day, and he does an admirable job as the only guitar in a 3-piece outfit. He stays off the list, however, because he never manages to catch the feeling of his own songs. Cool as each solo is, you could snip 90% of them out of the song they come from, and plunk them into some other VH song, and it would fit (or not fit) just as well. That's a fatal flaw in his playing. There's a reason he did 500 guest solos for other artists. All he had to do was whip out 30 seconds of flash and send the tape off to whoever was writing the check that month.

 

[Gil]

I was gonna put down all three Kings, but I couldn't remember Albert.
Albert, Freddy, and BB, are THE blues Elderstatesmen of guitar.
Throw a little Muddy in the mix and you pretty much have it.
But then there's Buddy Guy, who was an inspiration to none other than Hendrix.

See, I told you I'd come up with some more...

If anyone asks who Muddy is...They should have their MP3 player, CD player, Cassette, and record player REVOKED.

 

[Shannon]

In no particular order:

Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) — Riff master! And he can hold his own on the lead front as well.
Adam Jones (Tool) — Again, it's all about the riffs.
Marty Friedman (Megadeth) — Probably one of the greatest improvisers around.
Joe Satriani — Well, he taught Vai and Hammett how to play so he must be up there somewhere.
Michael Romeo (Symphony X) — Can shred like Yngwie, but no where near as boring to listen to.

I would've loved to have put Dave Gilmour up there somewhere, but there wasn't enough room. There's also a bunch of metal guitarists worth mentioning, like Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth. Slash gets an honourable mention for not necessarily being a particularly great guitarist, but easily accessible and likeable.

 

[Kylehnat]

My top 5 rock guitarists are always going to be slanted towards expression and invention rather than pure technical wizardry, though you need both to reach the podium.

I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. Shredding for the sake of shredding doesn't make somebody a great musician. Creating a unique sound is what tickles my fancy. Here's 5 guitarists that I think do this very, very well:

Daron Malakian - System of a Down: I absolutely love the middle-eastern flair he throws into the music (harmonic minor scales and tremelo picking are prevalent in most SOAD songs). He also creates very unique rythym sections.

Matt Bellamy - Muse: Very talented musician who is good at mixing traditional riffs with downright bizzare ones. He also uses distortion masterfully--rarely is it too much or too little. Excellent use of chromatic scales as well (which is hard to pull off successfully). His piano/classical talents often come through on the guitar, making for a very operatic sound. Some credit is due to Mr. Wolstenholme--without a fantastic bassist behind him, Matt wouldn't be able to go off on some of those fantastic musical tangents...

Adam Jones - Tool: Another very talented overall musician. How he comes up with some of those riffs, I'll never know. The fact that many Tool songs are incredibly long, but never repetitive, are thanks in large part to him. He's another great guitar story-teller, and his use of effects is also exceptional. Anyone who thinks Drop-D is for losers has never heard Adam Jones.

Mark Morton/Willie Adler - Lamb of God: It's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, but the two of them together come up with some of the most original songs out there. Both are 100% competent in lead and rythym parts. Randy Blythe is one of the best screamers out there, but sometimes I just want him to shut up so I can listen the guitars.

James Hetfield/Kirk Hammett - Metallica: One without the other would be useless, but together, they have created some of the best, most-original, most-memorable songs of all-time. Their sound is instantly recognizable.

By the way, I'm playing "Master of Puppets" in my head right now. Do I have to pay you royalties for that, Mr. Ulrich?

 

[Alfaholic]

Gaah! I'm running out of space completely. I need to add a nod to ex Tea Party front man Jeff Martin too. Not the most successful of bands internationally, but Jeff's playing is really versatile and he hits the expressive mark too. His riffs are worth a thousand words.

He's another for my increasingly innaccurately title'd Top Five Guitarists list. *







* paraphrase shamelessly stolen from Douglas Adams

 

[Max Powers]

My top 5 rock guitarists are always going to be slanted towards expression and invention rather than pure technical wizardry, though you need both to reach the podium. So, in rough order, I'll go with:

1) SRV - goes without saying; possibly the most expressive player ever
2) Hendrix - added more to the electric guitar's vocabulary than anyone before or since
3) Jimmy Page - second only to Hendrix as a sonic visionary (to coin a term)
4) Dave Gilmour - lacks the versatility of the 3 above, but damn does he compose perfect solos
5) Zappa - his soloing is inhuman, and the thing is, he writes it that way, doesn't just go off on some left-field excursion.

I'll hold the #6 slot open for a variety of people.

A very good case was made for Slash above, so he and Sir Randall of Rhoades can hold down the metal part of the #5 timeshare.
The yin and yang of guitar, Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, are going to have to co-host their turn. Ice and fire? Earth and sky? Whatever they are, they're amazing together.
Jack White, while very loose and idiosyncratic, is highly expressive in his playing and relatively versatile, so he gets a turn.
Billy Gibbons (pre-Eliminator gets a turn for having an instantly-identifiable sound, and well-chosen solos as well.
It's also a tossup between Albert Collins and B. B. King for the blues slot. Both are highly emotive - Collins is raw as it gets; King invented slick. They'll have to co-host also when it's their turn.
Dave Navarro, though somewhat limited in his genre, clicked off some utterly amazing, tough-talking guitar in the early Jane's Addiction days.

9000-notes-per-minute speed gods like Yngwie and that Angelo guy just don't do it for me. Incredible training and practice. No soul whatsoever. Who cares if you can recite the dictionary at hyperspeed if you never have anything to say?

Two guys who will appear on many many lists but will miss my party are Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen.

Clapton is also a Master Technician who plays with no feeling of his own. Every emotion he manages to get out in his playing is co-opted from someone else who played it before he did. The only time Clapton has any expression is when he's trying to sound like somebody else. His own stuff is pure vanilla.

Eddie is a little better. I could listen to him noodle around all day, and he does an admirable job as the only guitar in a 3-piece outfit. He stays off the list, however, because he never manages to catch the feeling of his own songs. Cool as each solo is, you could snip 90% of them out of the song they come from, and plunk them into some other VH song, and it would fit (or not fit) just as well. That's a fatal flaw in his playing. There's a reason he did 500 guest solos for other artists. All he had to do was whip out 30 seconds of flash and send the tape off to whoever was writing the check that month.

I really don't even need to make a list since it's almost exactly like this one

SRV, Hendrix, Paige, and Gilmour make up my top 4 in that order, my fifth spot is kind of up for grabs, it's a toss up between John Frusciante or Duane Allman, I can't decide at the moment.

Honorable mentions include: Dave Navarro, BB King, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Zappa, and John Fogerty.

Also, I totally agree about artists such as Satriani and Malmsteen, while they have incredible talent, they do play with almost no passion, and it becomes very mundane very quickly.

1)Benji Madden - Good Charlotte
2)Tom Delonge - Blink 182
3)Whoever that guy from Fallout Boy is
4)The bassist from Yellowcard
5)Avril Lavigne

How could I forget about Good Charlotte and Tom Delonge?

 

[Greycap]

Honorable mentions include: ... and John Fogerty.

That really surprised me, as much as I like John's music (and that's pretty damn much) he's never been reputed as one of the top names. Then again, the CCR classic "Pagan Baby" is a good indication that the guy can play with the best, as long as he can decide the style. It's not the outstanding speed, it's not the odd tricks, it's the ability to make simple things sound extraordinarily good. His music has the feeling that many "technicians" lack.

I don't even try to make a full list as I can't decide all the names but I'll pick one that hasn't been, oddly enough, mentioned yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, the master of the red Telecaster, Mark Knopfler.

 

[Max Powers]

That really surprised me, as much as I like John's music (and that's pretty damn much) he's never been reputed as one of the top names. Then again, the CCR classic "Pagan Baby" is a good indication that the guy can play with the best, as long as he can decide the style. It's not the outstanding speed, it's not the odd tricks, it's the ability to make simple things sound extraordinarily good. His music has the feeling that many "technicians" lack.

I don't even try to make a full list as I can't decide all the names but I'll pick one that hasn't been, oddly enough, mentioned yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, the master of the red Telecaster, Mark Knopfler.

It may be skewed by how much I enjoy CCR, but he has written some amazing songs and he plays with more feeling and soul than most other guitarists.

I guess you kind of made my case for me though. I just feel like CCR is one of those timeless musical acts, and Fogerty has been the driving force behind them. He may not be able to play 50 scales in a row as fast as Joe Satriani can, but I'd rather listen to Fogerty any day.

 

[Alfaholic]

Clapton is also a Master Technician who plays with no feeling of his own. Every emotion he manages to get out in his playing is co-opted from someone else who played it before he did. The only time Clapton has any expression is when he's trying to sound like somebody else. His own stuff is pure vanilla.

I was going to keep quiet about Clapton, but since he's now been mentioned.... I must say I agree with you 100%. I might also add that some of the guitarists that I really love to listen to have a knack of playing something that's actually quite easy to play but sounds amazing, and sounds more difficult than it really is. Clapton seems to do the opposite. I find a lot of his stuff is a lot harder to play than it sounds. To me that seems back to front. The skill is in making easy sound hard or skillful, not making difficult sound basic. And his squeaky solo at the end of Layla is just awful (personal taste of course..)