Jerry Garcia .
He could typically play almost any style, mimicing most of the greats mentioned here. His versatility, touch, feeling, spirit, etc... place him far, far above anybody I've heard.
Trevor |
I admire originality. I like artists who have distinct styles and who can be identified from the first note with your eyes closed to truly test the fidelity of your system.Technical prowess cannot replace the heart and soul and personal touch in music. That being said:
Steve Morse
Carlos
Clapton
Stevie Ray
Michael Hedges
Duanne Allman
Dickey Betts
Hendrix
the Edge
Billy Duffy |
Billy Duffy? There's an off-the-wall choice. But hey, I'm listening to him right now. "Everyday Nirvana. . ." |
Curbach, You and I must be kindred spirits because "Love" is their best album. Sanctuary, Rain and the title track certainly get your juices flowing if you like electric rock and roll. |
some who seem to be missing from the discussion
Reverend Billy G of ZZ Top
Robin Trower
Robben Ford (check out the band Jing Chi)
Scott Henderson (especially Vital Tech Tones w/ Victor Wooten and Steve Smith)
Warren Haynes of Govt Mule
John McLaughlin |
Jerry Garcia, Mark Knofler, Wes Montgomery, Barnie Kessel, B.B. King, Ry Cooder, Django, Chet Atkins, Michael Hedges and Jimmy Hendix. |
two more who have their unique sound....Charlie Hunter with his 8 string and Bill Laswell |
Steve Stevens and Randy Rhodes. Two incredibly talented individuals. Steve is fortunately still with us.
Chris |
Lindsay Buckingham most talented. Earl Klugh most mellow. |
I posted once on this thread already, but I hvae to amend my pick...to Jerry Douglas. This guy is simply amazing! |
Mark Knopfler
Laurindo Almeida
Derek Trucks
Jerry Garcia
Duane Allman
Tim Reynolds
I like all the above for different reasona and different styles of playing. |
My main man...Andres Segovia! |
Leo Kottke...liked him on vinyl...just saw him live and blown away. One of the best flatpickers |
Well, I guess I'll throw my hat in the ring, but it's too difficult to pick just one guy.
I'd have to say it's a toss up between Frank Gambale & Al Di Meola & Larry Carlton & John McLaughlin & about 500 other guys. |
If I had to pick one and only one - Stevie Ray |
I recently watched "The Song Remains the Same", I gotta say that Jimmy Page has got some special blues licks. I just realllly got into some of the fine subtle points of his playing. He is/was one hellava musician. These white boys can really do some blues! |
|
|
At age 55 I have Buscis2 beat for longevity in listening to guitarists and agree with his assessment that it's difficult to pick one musician. His choice of Steve Morse is certainly understandable, and Steve is #3 on my list. #2 is Mark Knopfler. I think I'm the only one on this forum to pick Martin Barre [Jethro Tull's guitarist as of the band's second album] as the best. Martin goes from the heavy handed playing of "Locomotive Breath" [still my favorite Tull tune] and "Steele Monkey" to the melodic work on "Budapest". He is not constrained by any one style or genre of music. The best thing about this forum is it makes us think about these things. Happy listening! |
Andy Latimer of Camel. Like everyone else, I can't pick one single favorite. Of the names that would be on my top 10, Andy is the only one who I didn't see mentioned here (tho I may have missed him). Some of the others on my list would include Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jimmi Page, Buckethead, Steve Hackett, John Abercrombie, George Benson, Robert Fripp, Neil Young. |
My Favorite guitarist is robert fripp, hes a progressive rock guitar player (from king crimson). |
The are many great guitarrists, but not that many that can trascend styles...I rather have a guy who can play classical, jazz, ragtime, blues and basicall fuse all the styles into a total that is greater than the sum of the parts...To, only Steve Howe and Richard Thompson fits that bill...Steve Hackett to some extent.
Its not about the style, its about which style these complete players wanna use to express the music...
Santana and Clapton? please!! |
Believe it or not, there are more names that haven't mentioned. Oh, my top 10 list would include many of the names listed above: Jimi, Steve Howe, BB, Al Di Meola, Duane Allman, Pat Metheny, Clapton, Santana, the Edge, Pete T, etc. But here are three that haven't been mentioned: the underappreciated Robbie Krieger of Doors fame, progressive rock's Phil Manzanera, and Mick Ralphs of Mott the Hoople and Bad Company. |
|
I can't let any of my guitar heros from some of my favorite albums slip by this thread: Joe Perry, Joe Walsh and Steve Miller. Some of the most recognizable riffs of all time came out of these guys. |
|
Belew...good call....very versatile, and he knows his stuff! |
Phil Keaggy can play it all. I saw him live many years ago at some christian college in N.J. and was blown away. Without a doubt one of the best, but alot of people won't listen to him because he is into the Jesus thing. TG |
Richard Thompson, Tom Verlaine and Django Reinhart |
Jorma Kaukonen. A talented guitarist that has just gotten better and better.... |
Jimi Hendrix gets my vote. I had narrowed it down to 11 guitarists. Each guitarist was awesome for their own style of playing-(David Gilmore, Steve Howe, Dicky Betts, Eric Clapton, Richie Blackmore, Neil Young, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, John Mclaughlin, Johnny Winter). It's really amazing that so many gifted guitarists came out of one era. |
i like phil keagy, steve howe, and adrian belew too: theyre all really great and i do have extensive expossure to them all. i still like robert fripp most of all (i have all the phil keagy albums, all of yes... and some of howe's solo stuff, and i have a lot of various stuff adrian performed) |
After reading every last post.
Glenn Campbell must be mentioned for being one of the best.
For my favorite Dan Fogelberg. |
Must agree with Glenn Campbell and add Roy Clark to the list of great country pickers. |
Let's not forget Duane Allman. |
How could we forget duane allman? (i just hit the side of my head with the butt of my hand). One of the greats. Imagine what he might have become. |
Tommy Emanuel is really good, and chet atkins... and Segovia, Paco Delucia, Sabicas... to name a few more |
Hard to name just one, so I'll go for a few of my favourite rock/blues guitarists
Jeff Beck
Roy Buchanan
Jimi Hendrix
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Johnny Winter |
Andre Segovia - One of the greatest musicians of all time.
As far as favorite rock guitarist - Randy Rhoads
Most talented IMHO - Frank Gambale or Steve Vai.
Rob |
|
Fripp. the guy can do anything, also Hackett, then Wilson from PTREE, and Ed from Ozric tentacles. keep an eye on this guy, he rips!!!! |
|
Not a single mention(that I seen) for the utterly amazing late guitarist Michael Hedges? I'm shocked! Best guitarist I ever seen. |
there are simply too many....so let's turn this around. Who is the most over-rated? To start out a bit controversially...for me one is Steve Vai. Great technique, no soul nor character. It ain't music to me. Don't get me wrong I do like metal at times. Eddie Van Halen is kool when he is on (well in the early days). |
It's hard to argue against SRV, Jimi, Clapton, and a bunch of others, but my personal favorite is Lindsey Buckingham. He has a great tone, and his finger-picking style is pretty unique for the rock idiom. He's also an extremely melodic player--one of the most melodic I've ever heard. I met him when I was 12 years old, and he was really nice to me, so he's my sentimental favorite. |
henryhk,
I agree. Steve Vai has some songs that are great, and he can play anything at any speed. But he chooses to play off the wall stuff with sound effects to the point where it just gets silly. Another one that has talent on Vai's scale is Frank Gambale.
Van Halen had his day and wrote some great music. But he sucks by today's standards. He should have stayed retired. If fact, Randy Rhoads was a much better guitarist at the same time Eddy was popular, but he didn't live long enough to really be noticed at the time. He has been noticed ever since. |
Mark Knofler, Andres Segovia, Jeff Beck, Al DiMeola, Alex Lifeson...in no particular order. |
I'm not sure how you decide this, but I noticed on this site, Factory direct, that Acoustic Disc has a new cd coming out which features over 20 guitarists and 20 mandolinists each playing on the same two vintage instruments.
What a great way to compare styles of David Bromberg,
Del McCoury, John Jorgenson, Tony Rice, Martin Taylor...
etc. etc.
It's called Tone Poets
JG |
I'm stunned that no one has mentioned Harvey Reid, certainly one of the best guitar players around. If you're not aware of him, check out www.woodpecker.com |
|
