Favourite Guitarists

Ed King.

Jack White

Walter Trout.

 

Al Di Meola

Paco de Lucía

 

Not any order (and who says you have to be ancient to be a great, influential musician):

Alex Lifeson

David Gilmore

Pete Townshend

David Gilmour

Mark Knopfler

Geddy Lee

Nils Lofgren

 

 

Plenty more could go on either of these lists.

Prog:

Steve Hackett
Steve Hillage
Steve Howe
Robert Fripp
Franco Mussida (Italian prog great)
Gabriel Federow and James Mac Gaw (from Magma)
Fred Frith (from avant-prog band, Henry Cow)

Jazz:

Allan Holdsworth
John McLaughlin
Mary Halvorson
Alex Machacek
Ralph Towner
Pat Metheny
Frank Gambale
Steve Morse
Terje Rypdal

Metal (progressive and technical):

Paul Marsvidal (Cynic)
Daniel Goldenlow (Pain of Salvation)
Ron Jarzombek (Spastic Ink, and Blotted Science)
Robby Bacca (The Contortionist)
Tosin Abasi (Animals as Leaders)
Acle Kahney (Tesseract)

 

 

I’ll add three more:

Link Wray

James Burton

Dick Dale

flynehome -- Love your choices.

Mario Suzuki John Denver.

John Williams, Narciso Yepes, the Romeros.

Jaco.

Favorite? These are mine:

1. Johnny "Guitar" Watson

2. George Benson

3. Carlos Santana

Thank you, @mewsickbuff . The OP asked for favorite guitarists, not lists of who people think are the greatest. I don’t believe there really is a greatest guitarist, but there are plenty to love and admire.

These are the ones that make up a lot of my listening

Lightnin Hopkins

Peter Green

Jeff Beck

SRV

Kenny Burrell

Buckethead 

 

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Derick Trucks, Jeff Beck, Joe Pas, Peter Berstein, Stevie Ray V.  The young lady that played for Michael Jackson What1s her name family? Buddy Guy.

Some of the best young jazz guitarists to check out:

Mary Halvorson

Lionel Loueke

Gilad Heckselman

Charles Altura

Miles Okazaki

Lage Lund

Matthew Stevens

Mike Moreno

Julian Lage

Nir Felder

(I probably forgot someone.)

Andre Segovia

Derek Trucks

Eric Clapton

Duane Allman

There are no bad answers, just personal preference.

many of my favorites are mentioned - add a few more

Mike Oldfield

Andy Latimer

+1 Buckethead

Good lists. I agree with just about all of this. Two names I didn't see were Roy Clark and Danny Gatton. 

Just to add one in the Country section, for sheer professionalism:  Tony Rice  RIP

And in the Classical Guitar mastery:  Paco de Lucia

Best innovator....Hendrix....Best all around....Atkins...best Picker...Scaggs......Funnest to listen to....Beck.......best style...Blackmore.

1.Johnny Winter

2.Jimi Hendrix

3.Rory Gallagher

4.Kim Simmonds ( just passed 12/13/22)

5.Robin Trower

6.Carlos Santana

7.Joe Satriani

8.Joe Bonamassa

9.Freddie King

10.Albert King

11.BB King

12. Albert Collins

13.Luther Allison

14.Toni Iommi

15.Martin Barre

16.Allan Holdsworth

17.Al DiMeola

18.John McGlaughlin (sp)

19.Frank Zappa

20.Jimmy Page

21.Jeff Beck

22.Christone Kingfish Ingram (very young)

23.Alvin Lee

That's good for now, includes Rock Blues and Fusion

 

 

Fun topic. So many greats above. I don't think I saw Ricky Wilson from the B-52's mentioned. Extremely underrated. Also, +1 for Johnny Marr (The Smiths) -- so melodic. And I may have missed Marc Bolan (T-Rex) being mentioned. 

Agree on music streaming and discovery. I'll throw on some Rory Gallagher later. :-) 

Hans Theesink (Especially on Songs Of the Southland)

Stevie Ray Vaughn

Julian Bream

Frank Zappa, Prince, Robert Fripp, Buddy Miller, Mark Knoffler, Billy Springs, other usual suspects.

Lately I have been listening to Eddie Roberts. Started with The New Mastersounds and other collaborations. Jazz, funk. Very well produced and recorded.

So many greats listed. I would add Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin on "Love, Devotion, Surrender" as beautiful. 

Don’t forget Paul Kossoff.

Unique and Great: This guitarist is often overlooked

Kossoff was brilliant in staying within the song- nothing flashy but tasty as hell. The first Free album is my favorite-- it was produced by Guy Stevens (who later went on to produce the Clash for whatever that is worth) for Chris Blackwell at Island. It is not a very produced sounding record- they just let it rip. Which is what blues (even British electric blues) should be. I think Mr. Blackwell took over production of their second album because he wanted a more polished product. (Blackwell had great ears and an affinity for interesting music).

An early UK copy -- doesn’t have to be a first which fetches some money-- of Tons of Sobs-- gives you that band at its unvarnished best in my estimation.

Apparently, Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s singer, was hugely influenced by Free when he heard them back in the day with Stevie Winwood. Love Kossoff. And Rory G.

In case somebody missed them :)

Bryan Sutton, Marcus Smart and Billy Strings

They’re all in my tight rotation along with any generation of Allman Brothers guitarists and the incomparable slide work of Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George.

@retrofan 

Are you sure you don’t mean Marcus King? You must be a Celtics fan. 

+1 Joe Satriani

Warren Haines 

In no particular order...

Richard Thompson (with Fairport, with Linda and solo)

Jim Messina

Ralph Towner

Carlos Santana, particularly Santana III, Caravanserai, Lotus and Welcome

Larry Coryell’s post Fusion recordings

David Hidalgo and Cesar Rojas of Los Lobos

Derek Trucks

Jimi

Jeff Beck, in particular Rough and Ready and Blow by Blow

Mick Taylor

John George and Paul on White Album, Let it Be and Abbey Road

Allman Bros.

John McLaughlin, particularly Mahavishnu MK1, Shakti and his acoustic trio recordings with DiMeola and de Lucia.

Ronnie Earl

Danny Kirwan

Albert Lee

Grant Green’s Blue Note recordings

Bert Jansch

Warren Haynes

EC with Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith and the Dominos

Freddie King (after he switched from the LP to the 345/355)

Peter Green

Tony Rice

Garcia -- ’70 - ’77

Pat Martino

John Abercrombie

Bill Connors with RTF and his subsequent acoustic ECM recordings

Bob Weir, particularly ’72 - ’74

Roy Buchanan’s early recordings

P. Townshend with The Who and on his own

J. Page’s acoustic playing

The Hellecasters (Jorgenson, Donahue, Ray)

BB King

Keef , particularly Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile

Little Feat (George and Barrere) 

 

 

 

List looks pretty complete. I would add John Frusciante the on and off again Chili Pepper. Some of the most beautiful tone and feel in Rock.

Memorable moments:

  Leo Kottke, in the middle of 12 string magic breaks the hi g string and without missing a beat starts transposing around it...Utah late 70's

  Santana, last note of the Caravanserai performance rings for at least 2 min after the band had departed the stage...Newport News early '70's

  Dicky Betts making Elizabeth Reid cry with his little finger...William & Mary early '70's  (maybe inspired Roy Buchanan or vice versa?)

  Steve Miller, my ears still ringing 2 days after standing in front of his speaker stack...Newport News early '70's.

Some great choices listed in this thread. My list includes:

 

Django Reinhardt

Kenny Burrell

Tony Rice

Mark O'Connor (and he's an even better fiddle player!)

Jimi Hendrix

David Gilmour

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Jerry Garcia

Trey Anastasio

Bill Frisell 

Julian Lage

It's so weird to me that Trey Anastasio is never on these lists.  He's the most lyrical, most virtuosic and has played more (very extended) riffs and more versions of those riffs than almost all the guitarists on many of these lists put together.

It's just so weird to me

Wife caught Richard Thompson in the mid-80's. Changed a broken string during a tune and never stopped.

Jimmy Page

I'm not a fan of Bonamassa, not a big fan of SRV, either, though I acknowledge their talents

Neil Young w/Crazy Horse I have not seen mentioned.  Down by the River. Cowgirl in the Sand.  Great stuff.

 

 

 

 

 Roy Buchanan was my favorite several years back. His version of "Hey Joe" in my humble opinion was better than Hendrix's.I noticed Eric Clapton didn't make your list. 

I forgot Doc Watson!  

I have to agree wit everyone here as "favorite guitarists"  like someone else above been playing the guitar for 50 plus years.  To me Danny Gatton was the top.  Al DiMeola, Winters, Duane, Eric Johnson, Roy, Beck, SRV, Howe, Green, Jan Ackerman, god just so many great players, some technically advanced, some just played beautiful music.  Too many blues guitarists to name beginning with Robert Johnson.  I played with Coryell and Carlton way way back in the day.  I sure miss those days.

Thanks for reminding me of all the memories.

 

 

@baylinor once again you're spot on. Love your picks.

Rich Robinson is a phenomenal guitar player...    Jason Isbell , another great guitarist...

Dont beleive I saw Albert Collins , Carlos Santana, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray, and James Burton.

Pat Martino

Jim Hall

Louis Stewart

Bill Frisell

Billy Gibbons

 

Paco Pena
Andres Segovia
Julian Bream
Narcisco Ypes

“Carlos Santana”

Paco De Lucia

Earl Klug

 

Andres Segovia 

The GOAT:  SRV

New commer: Billy Strings

 

Lots of great lists (nice one @audi-owe!), many of my faves---but not all---already mentioned.

 

Al Anderson (The Wildweeds, solo, NRBQ)

Dave Edmunds (Love Sculpture, solo, Rockpile)

Albert Lee (Heads Hands & Feet, Emmylou, The Everly Brothers, solo)

Ry Cooder

James Burton (Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Emmylou)

George Harrison

Steve Cropper (Booker T & The MG's)

Paul Burlinson (The Johnny Burnette Rock 'n' Roll Trio), a fave of Jeff Beck.

Don Rich (Buck Owens Buckaroos)

Roy Nichols (Merle Haggard)

Richard Thompson

Kenny Vaughan (Lucinda Williams, The Fabulous Superlatives, solo)

Nokie Edwards (The Ventures)

Scotty Moore (Elvis)

Carl Perkins

JJ Cale

Buddy Miller

Danny Gatton

Evan Johns

Tony Rice

Albert King

Freddie King

 

There is a separate category reserved for three whose influence exceeds all others:

 

Grady Martin

Hank Garland

Merle Travis

 

I am tempted to bring up the subject of the large number of UK guitarists included in lists not containing the original guitarists the UK guitarists are emulating. But I won't ;-) .