The Best Guitarist Ever....?

#1

Another big passion of mine is music, I'm a guitarist although not a very good one but I love to play and I love to listen, mostly to rock and blues but really to whatever sounds good to me at the time. I've been fortunate enough to see David Gilmour just recently in Glasgow and I thought he was brilliant, he played for around 3 hours albeit with a short break and he started with three tracks from Dark Side...played On An Island in it's entirety, had a break then came back and played Pink Floyd stuff from then to the end, starting with Shine On and finishing, before his encore with Echoes, unreal man, a Pink Floyd concert in all but name....oh, and with just 2000 people instead of 100,00..as I said just brilliant.

So, what about a poll on what you think is the best guitarist ever...here's my top ten in reverse order....

10. Jeff Beck
09. Stevie Ray Vaughan
08. Paul Kossoff
07. Steve Howe
06. Peter Green
05. David Gilmour
04. Eric Clapton
03. Rory Gallagher
02. Jimmy Page
01. Jimi Hendrix

What do you think? Am I close to what you would choose.........

#2

Jimi Hendrix easy...

#3

Jimi Hendrix is at the top but someone you didn't have on your list but I think is an amazing guitarist is Santana. That guy is so good

Bot · #4

My dad made me listen to Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner a while ago... he said towards the end it sounds like he's falling down a flight of stairs. lol

#5

Yeah I always sort of forget about Santana and he is an excellent guitarist. Obviously, all of this is in the ear of the hearer just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that but it's good to see how others view things. For example, I really, really don't like Steve Vai....not that I don't think he's a great guitarist, to be truthful, he's probably the best rock guitartist in the world today but I don't consider what he plays to be music in any form, he's 'just' a shredder....whereas I really love Peter Green's style, he has had more influence on me than anyone else except for Dave Gilmour maybe. Some people might say. it's just sour grapes on my part that I can't play like that but to be honest I wouldn't want to.

Incidentally guys, I aoplogise for posting this in the wrong thread in the first place, really sorry and thanks for sorting it out. I'll get there soon....I hope!

#6

Since I'm not a guitarist (I occasionally hit things /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />) I'll just throw in the name "Steve Vai" cause he has one of the best songs EVER if you ask me and that's Fire Garden Suite

#7

Angus Young once fell off a stage and still didn't miss a note...Gotta show him some love...

Again, I go for your favorite Guitarists favorite guitarist...

Dick Dale...

Dude burned through strings like none other, and pretty much influenced everybody on that list that touched strings...You listen to that shit he played, and you are left with no doubt that he could probably blow any other guitarist out the water....

#8

I can't argue with that, he was very good indeed, I was just never very keen on anything he played, all very surfy for my tastes, I like blues and rock much more hence my choices but I do acknowledge his place in the annuls of music and I know how influential he was.

#9

I can add one to your list....

Steve Hackett, renowned for his innovative and ethereal guitar work and for being a master of a myriad of guitar techniques, including tapping. Though many people often credit Eddie Van Halen (another possible candidate IMHO) for inventing this technique, it was actually Hackett who first mastered it.

In addition, Hackett's guitar solo in the song "Firth of Fifth", from Genesis' 1973 Selling England by the Pound album, is considered by many to be one of the great electric guitar solos. That, by itself, should put him on this list.

#10

Again, Hackett is a fine guitarist, I really like Genesis as well, the early stuff where he played anyway. Really, there are obviously a lot of guitarists who have a claim to be on the list, I think that Lindsey Buckingham is probably the most underrated guitarist ever and I've seen him up close and personal twice....I also didn't mention people like Keith Richards, innovative for a number of reasons but not a virtuoso however, how many of the guitarists on the list that I started with could claim to have written a song as good as 'Sympathy for the Devil' or 'Gimme Shelter'? Classics both.
It's really each to his own but I find this sort of thing fun to think about.

Here's another question to consider if you would......

If you had to sum up everything you loved about music and everything you hated in one song (for each category...) what would those songs be?

For me...to sum up everything I love about music Neil Young's 'Powderfinger', and everything I hate; Bon Jovi 'Always'....again, what do you think.

It's also just occured to me that this maybe should be a new thread, if it should please tell me and I'll start a new thread for it.