Who are your top ten favorite professional guitarist?Dead or Alive?

[raylaconico]

Metallica is my all time favorite band but IMHO Kirk Hammett shouldn't be on this list. He's not that good as a pure guitar player. I think the best guitarist on that list is SRV but I like Randy Rhodes' music more so I voted for him. If Eddie Van Halen was one of the choices I would have voted for him... What about Malmsteen?

 

[HJK]

Metallica is my all time favorite band but IMHO Kirk Hammett shouldn't be on this list. He's not that good as a pure guitar player. I think the best guitarist on that list is SRV but I like Randy Rhodes' music more so I voted for him. If Eddie Van Halen was one of the choices I would have voted for him... What about Malmsteen?

Yngwie! One of the fastest guns alive!
You should see him with G3 (Satch & Vai).
Great guitarist, lousy music (G3 excepted)

 

[omniviking]

Without Less Paul there wouldn't be much electric to the electric guitar.

To many to put in a list


Pat

 

[JTR357]

Without Less Paul there wouldn't be much electric to the electric guitar.

To many to put in a list


Pat

With all due respect to the great Les Paul(a great pioneer),I made the poll for post 1960 to narrow it down some.If we went into the 30's,40's & 50's it would be impossible to even make a top ten.It'd be more like a top 100,but the poll options only limit us to ten.

 

[pbubsy]

Favorite artist? That's one thing, but favorite guitarist: Jimi Hendrix.

I love his rock songs...what he's known for, but I'm a HUGE blues fan and his Blues album is amazing.

He learned how to play the guitar starting when he was 6 years old and his dad came home to find him listening to Muddy Waters on the record player and copying his music note for note He was to the guitar what Chopin was to the Piano...shit, maybe even more.

 

[JTR357]

Favorite artist? That's one thing, but favorite guitarist: Jimi Hendrix.

I love his rock songs...what he's known for, but I'm a HUGE blues fan and his Blues album is amazing.

He learned how to play the guitar starting when he was 6 years old and his dad came home to find him listening to Muddy Waters on the record player and copying his music note for note He was to the guitar what Chopin was to the Piano...shit, maybe even more.

+1:thumbup:agreed!No doubt he was born with it.A child prodigy.

I'll "one up" you on that...Did you know when he was a very young boy,he used to copy those old fashioned cartoons,where they were plucking & bending the strings?It may have been his earliest influence to his particular style.

Little "Jimi Trivi" for ya

 

[Culpeper]

Ritchie Blackmore
Jeff Beck
E. Van Halen

I forgot to vote for Jimmy Page

Carlos Santana (Santana has played with over twenty different variations of the band "Santana").

Joe Satriani
Nancy Wilson and Roger Fisher
Mark Knopfler
Rick Nielsen
Alex Lifeson
Duanne Allman
Joe Perry
BB King
Ted Nugent
Chet Atkins
Johnny Winter
Buddy Guy
Les Paul
Allen Collins
Chuck Berry
Robin Trower
Robert Cray
Roy Clark
George Harrison

....I'm getting tired. "I've got blisters on my fingers!"

 

[mwerner]

I'm glad to see that the original question involved "favorite" rather than the usual "best".
When any musician gets to a certain level of skill, it becomes a matter of taste. Style, phrasing, "musicality", tone, etc.
One could argue that (for instance) Jeff Beck had better "chops" than Clapton. However, I always liked listening to Clapton more. His stuff was more lyrical, more "musical" if you will.
Likewise Santana. You could criticize Carlos' technique; he's a "three finger" player, and does not display the speed and dexterity some players do. But virtually every note drips with emotion and "soul".
Back when I was reading Guitar Player every month, Frank Zappa had a monthly column for a while. (He mostly ranted against the music industry...) He was highly critical of players who tried to fit "10,000 gnat-notes" into every measure.

Rare are the players who can dish out a lot of those "gnat-notes" and still maintain a high degree of musicality. Doc Watson is one.....

 

[RiderOfThePlague]

Marc Rizzo

 

[Guyon]

Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Cody Kilby, Leo Kottke, Tony Rice, Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening, Julian Bream, Roger Hudson.

 

[rogerwidlow]

Jimmie Vaughn
Monte Montgomery
Duke Robillard
Duane Carleton
Angus Young
Buddy Guy
Joe Louis Walker
Sonny Landreth
Evan Johns
Don Leady

 

[STEELWHORE]

SRV
Clapton
Hendrix
Zappa
Blackmore
Page
Vai......i cant believe he barely gets a mention
Satriani
Rhodes
Hammett
Alvin Lee
George Benson

,I'd add Roy Buchanan to this list of amazing guitarists. :thumbup:
Lol !
Doug

+1 on Roy Buchannan,..his blues guitar could make a grown man cry....friggin beautiful!

and lets not forget Mr Joe Walsh and Mr David Gilmore

 

[Mike Kerins]

Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jimmi Hendrix
Buddy Guy
Eric Clapton
Carlos Santana
Roy Clark
Kenny Wayne Shephard

Sorry, but Jimmie Vaughn can't hold a candle to his late brother.

 

[SPXTrader]

Good choices, but I'd like to add David Gilmour, Melvin Taylor and Joe Walsh.

 

[JTR357]

Likewise Santana. You could criticize Carlos' technique; he's a "three finger" player, and does not display the speed and dexterity some players do. But virtually every note drips with emotion and "soul".

I really regret not including Carlos in my top ten.His is definitely one of my favorites.Like you said technique,speed aside,he is IMO one of the most soulful guitarists in the world.He's very religious too.Did you know he has a mural of JC on the back of one of his amps.He's said he gets his inspiration by playing for Jesus when he's on stage.

 

[JTR357]

Muddy Waters[youtube]WaIT0mKJ7D0[/youtube]


Jimmy Hendrix
[youtube]-QRAuuJmoOQ[/youtube]

 

[JTR357]

Hendrix-Red House

[youtube]CjOQ9r35uiU[/youtube]

SRV-Scuttle Buttin'


[youtube]pDT7a8oUK0c[/youtube]


Eric Clapton: Groaning The Blues


[youtube]WxTWQD91b5c[/youtube]


Carlos Santana


[youtube]WxjBYbUnxZk[/youtube]
[youtube]nXkGVAwWIrk[/youtube]



...it's impossible to choose the best,only your favorite.




.........& that's even tough

 

[JTR357]

Eric Clapton & Dwayne Allman on Guitar.....priceless

[youtube]NVUnnXjrezc[/youtube]

 

[jdm61]

Post 1960 and I only get ten........well, here it goes and in no partiuclar order.
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
Jeff Beck
Robert Fripp
Frank Zappa
Eddie Van Halen
Peter Green
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Duane Allman

If this was a bigger list, the next few guys on it would be Steve Howe, Randy Rhodes, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, David Gilmour, Michael Schenker, John McLauglin. A lot of what I considered when picking these was how much they shaped their particular form of rock, which is why guys like Vai and Satriani aren't there and why Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley WOULD be on the list if it went back past 1960. They are great, but they were essentially following in the footsteps of Van Halen. The same argument could be made for guys like Peter Green (replaced Clapton in the Bluebreakers) SRV (copying Hendrix and Albert King) and Gilmour(Fripp made the "official list" instead because he kind of invented the prog genre and Gilmour, Howe and Trower made the second string) But even the guys who were riffing off of other heavily did their own thing. Some guys, like Hendrix and Allman did it so well, you tend to forget their influences even though they wore them on their sleeves

 

[JTR357]

Post 1960 and I only get ten........well, here it goes and in no partiuclar order.
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
Jeff Beck
Robert Fripp
Frank Zappa
Eddie Van Halen
Peter Green
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Duane Allman

SRV (copying Hendrix and Albert King)

+1:thumbup:Nice lineup

I don't think SRV was "copying" hendrix,as much as improvising his work & making it his own.