Greatest Guitarist of all time...

[ScoobySteve]

Originally Posted by MrMusashi

cobain was a musical rulebreaker, and for that he deserves appreciation... even though i find the whole grunge era a sidetrack in music history

we want the funk! give us the funk! awwwweeeee...
repeat for 8 minutes

MrM

Oh, I'll take me some Earth, Wind and Fire any day of the week.

Love me some of that good ol' Funk!

[mgs316]

There are great players, but greatest embodies more then just skill, it's influence, innovation, etc.

I fricken love John Petrucci and his skill is hardly matched, but can he be mentioned in the greatest guitarist conversation? No.

I'd think it's a short list: EVH, Vai, Page, Claptop, Hendrix, SRV, and some of the other blues legends plus others that I'm obviously missing.
Then you have your secondary studs like: Satch, Lifeson, Gilmour, Malmsteen, etc.
Then my third column would be the Petrucci's, Gilberts, Lynchs, Bettencourts of the world.

The tough part is where do you stick a Jerry Cantrell? He was the most influencial guitar player to come out of the "Grunge" era, all the bands today are spawns of AIC's sound. Where does he fit?

There is not right or wrong, but Jack White isn't a guitarist, he just happens to play guitar and should not be in the discussion.

[Eilif]

Obviously, this is subjective. But another problem--perhaps the biggest problem--with asking or stating who the greatest is, is that there is usually no definition or criteria for "greatest", and that's where the whole thing usually falls apart.

Examples of what "greatest" could mean:
1) most influential (and if so, in which genre?)
2) most technical skill (and even this needs further definition: are we talking picking speed? the ability to shred? what exactly?)
3) most musical? (and what, exactly, would "musical" mean?)
4) most recorded?
5) all of the above?
etc. etc. etc.

And then another issue is that the lists usually start with the 1960s, but there were plenty of great guitarists before then. What about Chet Atkins? What about Wes Montgomery? What about Les Paul? And what about guitarists in genres other than rock, such as Glen Campbell?

Anyhow, these I think are why asking or talking about the "greatest" is difficult to do with a decent degree of objectivity. It all goes to a lack of definition of the term and a set of objective criteria with which to judge, so it ends up just being a popularity contest of sorts.

[GGK]

Favorite sounds much better, and it's all relevant to musical taste as well as style.

Duane Allman
Steve Howe
Keith Richards

I Love them all for their musical contributions; they could be tops in their individual genre, overall, well you folks decide

Bring on the "BASS"

[Volt]

Sit all the "greatest" contenders down somewhere together and see who can outdo all the others in every style of music.
Not really a very good way to decide who's best..........but I'd love to be listening to that jam session.

[ScoobySteve]

I think this thread needs more cowbell.

[pjc812]

I had a student once who wanted to learn every song on a Blink 182 CD.

Before my brain stopped my mouth, I blurted "wow, you're not setting your sights very high are you?"

Didn't Hendrix at one time credit Phil Keaggy with being the greatest guitar player in rock and roll at one time? I seem to remember hearing that.

Anyway, I haven't seen Keaggy mentioned yet but he definitely sits near the top of my list.

[jamminjim]

here's the RS list

best of all-time

this list is totaly skewed and skewered noted by it's absences... like Al DiMeola and Eric Johnson for instance

PS at least they got #45 right...

there's this list too

nuther list

[guitarman23]

well in my opinion i can only pick steve morse since he's the one that made me love music, never used to really listen to music at all, i was a PC gamer a while back and he just changed my life with his playing and watching him play and have fun with "deep purple" really moved me, thats how i think hes the greatest for me....

[abrocks22]

Hendrix hands down. electric national anthem was incredible

[Hey_JoeGto]

If it were me ...

I would say, Couple song examples
Zakk wylde-- Machine gun man
Steve vai-- Whispering a prayer
Hendrix--- Little wing, Angel
Srv---..Lenny
John Frusciante... Under the bridge

Many more but its all who you like..

[radrock]

I love these thread because it always comes back to "What makes a guitarist great?" Speed? Charisma? The skill to sell millions of records? Redefining the instrument? All of these things are important in their own right, and very few accomplish all of these things.

No one mentioned Michael Hedges. That guy reinvented the acoustic guitar and didn't sell many records at all. He wrote absolutely beautiful compositions.

Phil Keaggy is a genius. True story. Keaggy opened up for Hendrix and a reporter asked Jimi "What's it like to be the greatest guitar player." Jimi said, "Ask Phil Keaggy." EVH used to always talk about Phil in interviews. Geez, the guy used to win fingerpicking awards all the time and he's missing a finger!!

......and yes, rock and roll IS dead unfortunately. Only the mighty Mastodon can save us now.

[radrock]

Originally Posted by pjc812

I had a student once who wanted to learn every song on a Blink 182 CD.
Before my brain stopped my mouth, I blurted "wow, you're not setting your sights very high are you?"

Unfortunately, to that kid and countless others, that is as high as the sights go.

[brasco68]

Originally Posted by radrock

No one mentioned Michael Hedges. That guy reinvented the acoustic guitar and didn't sell many records at all. He wrote absolutely beautiful compositions.

Michael Hedges R.I.P. Wonderful player.

[chriseb]

Tommy Emmanuel rarely gets a mention

He's an acoustic playin' legend