Favorite Guitarists of All Time

No one mentioned Nels Cline?!!!




He can play numerous styles and do it with style.

(A lot of players on this thread just regurgitate a few old blues riffs.)

Mick Ronson.

he is surprisingly tasteful but every note is like... gah.

Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top once said that if he were to make a top 10 guitar players list that he would put Eddie Van Halen in the top 5 spots, then rest would start to fill up. I love that!!

My favorites:

Ed Van Halen
Dimebag Darrell
Zakk Wylde
Nuno Bettencourt
Steve Vai
Stevie Ray Vaughan

One of my favorite JP solos is undeservedly obscure: "Bye Bye Blackbird" from Joe Cocker's first album. Like all of his best stuff, it's a perfectly constructed solo from beginning to end.

In total agreement. His performance on Mike Watt's Contemplating the Engine Room is one of my favorite things, literal things, ever. He even manages to sound almost exactly like D. Boon for a minute.



Also,
Greg Ginn
Tony Iommi
Pete Townshend.

The way I play guitar can pretty much be distilled to these 3 dudes.

I heard that Watt gave Nels one of Boon's Telecasters and told him to channel D for the solo on Boilerman. It's an all-time fave of mine too.

jimmy page, eric clapton, carlos santana, jimi hendrix

Scott Cortez, Ryan Lum, Kevin Shields, David and Alan Curtis, Warren Defever

Vai & Halen.

Hendrix, Page.

Scott Henderson.

Brian Setzer.

Me.

Joe Strummer.

Josh Homme.

Nick McCabe.

Page Hamilton.

charlie christian
d'jango rheinart
stevie ray vaughn
jerry cantrell
alex skolnick
jon petrucci
greg howe

Steve Vai
Slash (only he can be so phisically ugly and yet so extremely attractive when he plays)
Billie joe Armstrong (I know he's nothing special, but I love him so much I can't leave him out of this...)
Eric Melvin
Buckethead
Keith Rickards
Carlos Santana

Daniel Ash (Bauhaus/Love And Rockets)
Peter Buck (R.E.M.)
Jónsi Birgisson (Sigur Rós)
Marty Wilson-Piper (The Church)
Wes Berggren (Tripping Daisy)
Ronald Jones (The Flaming Lips)

Tom Morello and Slash.

apart from the obvious ones hendrix, page, vai etc
i would like to give a special mention to nels cline
who i've only recently discovered and who has
just simply blown me away this past year

townshend

God, I'm old!

Dwayne Allman
Dickie Betts
Eric Clapton (Not that unplugged shite)
Craig Goldie (Dio circa Dream Evil)
Nick McCabe (The Verve)
Jake E. Lee
Jimi
Blues Saraceno
Ritchie Kotzen
John Connolly (Sevendust)
Jeff Buckley
Joel Stroetzel (Killswitch)
Robert Johnson
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Dave Grohl
Carrie Brownstein
Michelle Malone
Kat Bjelland(Babes in Toyland)
Ani DiFranco

And I hate to say it....
Courtney Love

zakk wylde
dimebag
kirk hammett
tony iommi
noel gallagher
adam jones
jerry cantrell

Nuno Bettencourt
Yngwie Malmsteen
Eddy Van Halen
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
Angus Young
Richie Kotzen
John Petrucci

OMG OMG OMG........its so orgasmic thinking about all that wonderful guitar sound!!!!!

John Squire

Andy Summers

Captain Sensible man..

Jesus Christ! this list has been goin on for years and Hendrix barely got like 10 hits! Any real guitarist knows Hendrix is THE man. Like 95% of the people listed were inspired by Hendrix, or their hero was inspired by him. Give credit where credit is due...

A sweeping generalisation there...

There's no doubting that Jimi H is an influential guitarist - and one that I love listening to - but he's not the 'be all and end all' of guitar-playing. For me, it's not all about your five minute solos and playing the guitar behind your back... it's originality that matters. For instance, if you listen to Kevin Shields playing on a My Bloody Valentine song, you can instantly identify that it's Kevin Shields who's playing - even if you're not familiar with the track. Same goes for artists like Kurt Cobain, Thurston Moore, etc. etc. They may not play intricate riffs - hell, some of them can/could barely even play guitar - but they have their own readily-identifiable styles that sound fucking awesome.

My top five (in no particular order):
Rory Gallagher
Johnny Marr
Adam Jones
Kevin Shields
Billy Corgan