Greatest Guitarist

[TheAllusionist]

Since we have some guitar players around here, I thought it would be fun to do list of who we think were the greatest guitar players were. I then thought, well I am getting old, so I better make mine of the last century since I don't necessarily know who is really hot now. I look forward to other's list, I tried to include the music I know, of course there are other nationalities and styles that I am unaware of and thus plead ignorance. These are just axe grinders that blow me away, whether it is old delta blues all the way to heavy metal, the emphasis was how good they are (I even put in Frank Zappa, who I don't like, but have to give him his props!)

The younger generation probably has opinions based on the game "Guitar Hero", but I have never played it, and I didn't focus on just killer rock artist.

So without further ado, I give you "Russell's Top 40 Greatest Guitarist of the last Century"

1. Stevie Ray Vaughn (Sorry, I just don’t think it gets better than this, actually I know it! LOL)
2. B.B. King (He is the King of Blues)
3. Buddy Guy (In the trenches for years, he is the shit! Check out BG & Junior Wells play the blues)
4. Eric Clapton (Mr. Slow Hand himself)
5. Jimmie Hendrix (I do live in Seattle after all and he is a legend and SRV built off of him)
6. Les Paul (Can you say Solid body)
7. Eddie Van Halen (His forced harmonics/tapping alone put him here)
8. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin just have to give him his dues lots of great riffs)
9. Jeff Beck (His instrumental Album is considered one of the best rock guitar instrumentals)
10. Carlos Santana (Legend of Woodstock and collaborator extraodinaire)
11. Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top - One of my favorites – Jimmie Hendrix’s favorite guitar player)
12. Angus Young (AC|DC Mr. Heavy strings, tune low and play hard! Live Album one of the best!)
13. George Benson (Legendary guitarist Jazz/Blues Guitar Player of the Year)
14. Robert Johnson (Old School Delta Blues)
15. Freddy King (If you don’t know who he is and play, you should)
16. Mark Knopfler (Dire Straights, deserves to be on the list)
17. Duane Allman (Allman Brothers Band)
18. Robben Ford (Prodigy that you may not know of)
19. Brian May (Queen – Probably most under rated/appreciated)
20. Robert Cray (My favorite, but technically perhaps doesn’t deserve to be on the top of list)
21. Yngwie Malmsteen (Is this guy fast or what?)
22. Gary Moore (Thin Lizzy and his solo blues album)
23. Frank Zappa (I don’t like him, but he is good)
24. Joe Satriani (Many would put him towards the top, personal taste puts him here)
25. Slash (Guns N’ Roses)
26. Joe Perry (Aerosmith)
27. Keith Richards (Rolling Stones)
28. Steve Vai (Another that may deserve higher ranking, but he seems to take credit for too much)
29. Kirck Hammett (Metallica)
30. Chuck Berry (Can you say Johnny Be Good and Duck Walk?)
31. Bo Diddley (Pioneer of Electric Guitar)
32. Allen Collins (Lynard Skynyrd – Southern rock which Country music now copies)
33. Peter Townsend (The Who)
34. Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac – I was surprised the guy can really play)
35. James Burton (Old School/Rockabilly – Elvis Presley, Rick Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis…)
36. T-Bone Walker (Old Blues)
37. Chet Atkins (Behind the scenes as a producer – Created ‘Nashville Sound’ should perhaps also be up top)
38. Jeff Healey (Another one of my favorites – Featured in movie ‘Road House - Highly underated)
39. Kenny Wayne Sheppard (Next generation of electric blues artist - Just married Mel Gibson's daughter)
40. Johnny Lang (Blues Prodigy that has unfortunately moved to Christian rock)


Of course I reserve the right to make changes once I see your answers or actually think about this! LOL Darn, I didn't squeeze Albert Collins, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Randy Rhodes (Ozzy), John Mayer, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Stanley Jordan in there, crap! I will obviously have to make this a top 50 when I get a chance.

[d.sign]

Well, I really like your list and your taste... we could argue on the order, but I would have to give couple of more names to it, I think you would agree
1. Peter Green - best blues guitarist and singer in his days (early Fleetwood Mac, 1967-1971) on this side of Jimmy Hendrix
2. Roy Buchanan - blues with a touch of country... great old telecaster sound
3. Richie Blackmoore - Deep Purple, futher of the classic-metal guitar
4. Albert King - since you have two King-s on your list, there should be three I think...

[TheAllusionist]

I thought it would make a good list and people could discuss musicians and order of the list. I would not pretend to be an afficianado or expert in music. I use to play a bit, my real exposure was in my father being a musician and really well know guitar teacher in central Washington (Before moving there, a studio musician in Seattle and before that California) where I grew up. He taught private lessons and at the community college at times and his students did real well in that they would get into GIT (Now MI), sort of like the 'Julliard' of Guitar Playing. He also managed bands as well as had them over the years.

Needless to say our house was constantly filled with musicians, whether they were locals or stop overs from tours. I actually love music and if my father hadn't been such a difficult personality whose world revolved around music and thought ours should to if we were going to play, I would probably be heavily into guitar playing. I opted for sports, a bit more popular and outside of the starving musicians circle. So, I listen to and love guitar driven music and was innodated with all sorts of music most my life. I will say that my dislike for Zappa is probably because we were forced to listen to blaring avant garde jazz all the time as a child, sorry Frank! LOL

So technically I am talking out my butt, I do know how true muscians think and feel about a lot of those on my list and of course I listen intensley and form my own opinions, but I won't begin to say technically my opinions are better than anyone else. I will say that SRV played the most effortlessly of any I have seen and if guitar playing was my life and I was told I would only be able to play one song, but I could play it just like anyone, I would choose Stevie Ray Vaughns version of Jimmy Hendrix's "Little Wing" and second might be his "Riviera Paradise".

My favorite on the list is Robert Cray, no one puts the emotions into their playing better than he, and his clean vocals cut to the heart strings. But favorite doesn't mean best, so I put him around 20.

Branko,
This list can easily grow to 100 I would imagine, I actually look forward to peoples opinions that differ from mine, perhaps I will find a new artist or really listen to their body of work that I may have glossed over, alwasy looking for great artist.

Peter Green, if you really like him I will take your word that he is that good, when it came to Fleetwood Mac I was actually blown away by some live stuff Lindsey did. Maybe it is because he was so much better and creative than I had thought he would be, I like being impressed! LOL

Roy Buchanan, Not really aware of his guitar prowess, think of him as a strong white blues artist so to speak. Kind of reminds me of white blues bands that tour around the micro breweries such as one of my favourites "Too Slim and the Taildraggers" and maybe the reason some bands I like sound like Roy is that they are copying him and I just wasn't aware of how good he was.

Richie Blackmoore, Definitely, I just wasn't ever a huge Deep Purple fan, but he deserves his props. Funny story, a friend in college told me about the first time he saw ZZ Top perform. He was at this Deep Purple Concert and the opening band came out and they looked like some scraggily cowboys and the crowd got upset and booing until they really got into playing. He said the crowd was dumb founded and Deep Purple was a distant second to the show ZZ put on. Not my story, my friends, but since I am a ZZ fan, I thought I would tell it.

Albert King, Most definitely as well, my last too entries may not even squeeze into the last century (Johnny Lang and Kenney Wayne Sheppard), it is close, but they could be responsible for the younger generation respecting blues. Another young artist that is really giving blues a strong presense is John Mayer, try listening to his Trio, he probably should be on the list, he is very good student of the likes of Buddy Guy and Claption. Since we are on Alberts, how about the Iceman Albert Collins?

At times it was hard to separate the guitarist from the band, in that you may really like the band or the artist body of work, but do they deserve to be on the list based on their guitar playing? An example of that would be George Harrison of the Beatles, that is where I had problems.

Thanks for sharing buddy, I actually pulled yours up on Napster and played a track or two as I responded. I find myself Playing some older bands once in a while and recognizing how good they were, but never really listened to their body of work so I didn't know. Examples would be Robert Palmer, ELO, Heart (Actually I have always liked them, but their whole body of work is exceptional), Queen, like I said, Brain May is probably the most underated of all time and Freddy Mercury was one hell of a singer. So I like hearing about older artist, because I may have never really given them the time they deserve. A little secret that I don't let get around, I really like some of the Bee Gee's stuff, so really, what could I know about music! LOL

[TheAllusionist]

I found these listings of rock greats by decade, thought it was interesting, but who is this buckethead I keep hearing about? Man I am getting old (Actually my brother saw him play with Axel Rose and he said he was awesome):

90's
John Petrucci
Kenny Wayne Sheperd
Tom Morello
Buckethead
Marty Friedman
Zakk Wylde
Vito Bratta
Dimebag Darrell
Mike McCready
Jerry Cantrell

80's
Eddie Van Halen
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
Yngwie Malmsteen
Randy Rhoads
Eric Johnson
Paul Gilbert
Steve Morse
Jason Becker

70's
Jimmy Page
Richie Blackmore
David Glimour
Duane Allman
Brian May
Carlos Santana
Tony Iommi
Angus Young
Ry Cooder
Mick Ronson

60's
Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Jeff Beck
Frank Zappa
Keith Richards
Peter Green
Pete Townshend
Dave Davies
Steve Cropper
George Harrison

50's
Chuck Berry
Bo Diddley
Mickey "Guitar" Baker
Scotty Moore
Lowman Pauling
Cliff Gallup
James Burton
Eddie Cochran
Link Wray
Carl Perkins

[d.sign]

Well, as once Clapton said, best guitarist in the world - there is one in every crowd...
So I believe it is all based on the music one listen... But since we are here in the very similar waters, especially if you like Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King...
Jeff Heally is also my favorite... not to mention the Clapton... (one of the best guitar parts done ever is his solo on the While my guitar gently weeps, by Beatles)

What I can not believe is that you do not aknowledge the Peter Green who did some of the most emotional and sensitive guitar playing ever recorded. I am talking about the time when Clapton left John Mayall and Green step in. After those classics he recorded with Mayall, he formed his own band Fleetwood Mac. You should know about some classics they did, if not the blues stuff which is hard to find this days.
Here are couple of songs you most definitely should know about -
1. Black magic woman - much better guitar than in Santana version
2. Albatross - really soft guitar playing by all three guitarists of Fleetwood Mac
3. Need your love so bad - real classic... B.B. recently did his version... not as good as Peter really...
4. Fool no more - best white blues ever recorded in both old and new version... one done in 1969 and second some 10 years latter...
It is not coincidence that Gary Moore get to make a tribute album - blues for Greeny... if you can find this recording take it and you will hear all the best songs by Green, but you should find the originals also...

As for your story about musicians background in family and that stuff, I think it is real richness in the feeling and love for that music you got from there, if not real fortune and money (I am often disgusted by looking at fast accumulated fortunes of some new generation musicians with their Hollywood houses and car collections...there are even some Seattle guitar bands among them)...
My love for the guitar was not driven by family background (except that my favorite uncle had a bass and played in the time of my growing up, but he never had learned me anything about playing)...
At the age of 14 I discovered the blues, I felt in love with E.C., Fleetwood Mac and Dire Straits... In next couple of years I was very persistent to learn to play such music... Of course it was far from easy... it took me about 3-4 years to get near... then I discovered S.R.V. and realized that some of those heights I will never reach...
But I am happy to say that in my time I was really good in blues guitar... I wish that I can send you some of the recordings I did back then... Now I play only at my home on acoustic guitar, sort of old blues mixture... But I plan to buy new Strat this year and small amplifier, one old Fender if I can find it...

[raymers]

great taste u got, mister!

u gotta add

50's : Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Leadbilly, John Lee Hooker

60's:hmm...u got them all I guess.

70's:
LESLIE WEST (Mountain)!!!greatest ever!
Malcolm Young of course
Ace Frehley!
Mick Taylor!
Ed King (the man behind most of Skynyrds best licks and riffs, extremely underrated.)
Gary Rossington
Wayne Kramer
Fred Smith
Ron Ashton
Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton
Dave Hill
Johnny Thunders and Syl Sylvain maybe?
Johnny Ramone of course

80's:

Mike Clark (Suicidal Tendencies)
Pig Champion
Scott Ian
James Hetfield and Kirk Hammet
Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman

90's/00's
Tim Sult (Clutch)
Matt Pike (High On Fire)

hm, cant think anymore..

Yeah, I play a Gibson Flying V in my band Rock Metal Soldiers,( check it out on myspace.) we dont make any money but we gig around and record, and thats the fun part anyhoo. rock on!

[TheAllusionist]

Great stuff guys

Raymers,
Good stuff, it is really hard to pick because it depends on what you listen to, heavy metal artist really like the rippers/grinders that play real fast, blues artist like the feel and emotion. The ones I hear a lot that I guess I would have to listen to their body of work to see what I am missing would be the likes of Ace Freeley and Johnny Ramone, I guess I just haven't paid attention to them real closely as guitar players. But like I said before, what do I know actually! LOL Great stuff and I like your additions in the later years, I don't know some of them and will have to check them out.

Guitars: old Harmony solid body with re-wound humbuckers for maximum distortion, Guild solid body S60-D and an arch top Guild Artist ? not the Award but similar, it was actually my dads work horse, he had an Artist Award, but that was his 'baby', mines sits stored away. I guess most would want a Gibson and a Fender Strat, Strats seem so versitile in sound.

Branko,
It is not that I don't acknowledge Peter Green, I wasn't really familiar with him, that is why I bowed to your opinion, I had none, I didn't know. The track you sent me was great, yes he was really good. Reminded me a bit of the "Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play the Blues" sessions, great stuff, probably my favorite orthodox blues. So understand when responding to your input, if I don't know, I say I will have to agree with you since I don't know.

Basically I grew up as a kid singing along with Elvis and the Beatles and trying to play Chuck Berry and listening to 70's rock. From Junior High through High School listened to to R&B and Pre-Rap i.e. Sugar Hill Gang because that was what was in at the schools I went to. Out of High School I fell in love with ZZ Top while building my 47 Chevy coupe (There vidieos with hot chicks and a 33 Ford were my inspiration) and in college I bought my first Robert Cray cassett and was blown away with the emotion he envoked, I was hooked and started listening to a lot of Blues which tied back into a lot of the type of music my dad had listened to, but I had rebelled against in a way. So if you always listened to and liked blues, you have been listening to it longer than me and probably appreciated/recognized it growing up and listening to music in general.

Would have loved to hear your playing in the day

[neil]

Thanks Russell for this Thread. Thanks Everybody for your contributions. Great stuffs no doubt. There are lots of great guitarist you mentioned. Few of them my favorite too.
I like to add few name in the list. I really like them very much.

John McLaughlin English jazz fusion guitar player
Eric Clapton English rock guitarist
Paco De Lucia Spanish guitarist and composer,Modern Flamenco style.
Al Di Meola Latin jazz guitarist and Italian American jazz fusion
Don Felder American rock Guitarist, Former Guitarist of Egales
Steve Vai American rock Guitarist
Carlos Santana Everybody Knows him
John Petrucci Main Guitarist of Dream Theater
Roger Waters Former Pink Floyd guitarist
David Gilmour Guitarist of Pink Floyd

[d.sign]

Yep, Waters and Gilmour deserve to be recognized...

[Rotten42]

Jeff Beck FTW


I've never been so blown away at a concert than when I saw him.

Jazz great, Joe Pass was also amazing