Lots of people talk about who the greatest guitar player of all time might be

Take a break from that shit, my brother. You’ll go crazy otherwise. Unless you’re out here single-handedly taking on the NWO, enjoy life while you still have it

Nah. Nobody beats Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Eric Clapton nearly drove off the road when he first heard Stevie on the radio. Had to pull over, and stopped and waited for the radio announcer to say who it was. Eric Clapton.

Oh yeah, this is GREAT!!!!! He was 'one if the best'...

John Lee Hooker also also said Stevie was the greatest. And John Lee saw a few players in his day.

Oh i agree completely, the problem with the jazz virtuosos is they are be pretty inaccessible to mainstream audiences, the same can be said of Holdsworth on guitar, the hilarious thing is this thread is three pages in and almost every guitarist mentioned in this thread all said holdsworth was the best,

Vai, Guthrie, Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Shawn Lane, Greg Howe, Zappa, Gary Moore, Santana, Satriani... it goes on and on, all of em..'its a silly thing to say, who is the best, but probably Holdsworth was the best.'

When Holdsworth died the family didnt even have the money to pay for a proper burial for arguably one the greatest ever, so basically a ton of guitarists like the ones mentioned above all chipped in and raised money for it, i think something like 70k was raised in the end.

I think when Holdsworth died, Victor Wooten was saying how it was a shame as the regular music fan would simply have no idea, and know nothing about his legacy, under the radar outside of veteran musicians.

respectfully, B B King.

Squid for thought. :)











Last Edited by JustmeTX on 03/23/2023 10:15 AM

yawn

Pastorius was also out of his mind. It was his complete lack of self-awareness that got him killed.

It's not so much who could play the best [mechanics] as who could write the best riffs. For me it was Randy .
R.I.P.

Everyone knows it was Marilyn Monroe.

Absolutely, mad genius.

That percussive technique at 1:04 is nothing less than virtuoso.

Matt Heafy

I will agree on Django Reinhardt. He was mesmerizing. His music was beautiful. Heartwarming.

His real name was Jean Reinhardt, French born from a gipsy Christian family, later nicknamed Django. He died in 1953 two years after I was born.

My dad was a big Hot Club de France fan. The music of my childhood.

Yep. And his buddy Pat Metheny deserves a mention in this thread.

Ritchie Blackmore #1

Joe's definitely godfather of jazz guitar. I'll add John McLaughlin to best jazz guitarist list.

Interestingly enough many metal guitarists in the 80s-90s era were also classically trained.

As for the most amazing guitar players in history.

#1 Jeff Beck, Roy Buchanan for 1st place tie

#2 Guthrie Govan, Monte Montgomery for 2nd place tie

#3 Pantheon of greats. Hendrix, Clapton, Duane Allman, SRV,
Zappa, Van Halen, Jeff Healey, Satriani, Vai, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West

#4
*Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, Jaco Pastorius top 3 picks for best bass players

Great minds think alike (see my above post, we posted same time)

Dude ever write any good songs? I'll take songwriting over wanking off on a fretboard any day but that's me.

Like most art, music is far to subjective to personal taste to claim a "greatest"

I've been playing guitar for 45 years. Having immersed myself in many different genre's, I could argue with myself who the greatest is and not come up with a winner.

There are many greats in every genre, and lots of them have dabbled or crossed over into other genres here and there, or infused certain styles with their own genres, like rock does with the blues.

For instance, I know it would be bias of me to select a hard rock or metal guitarist as the greatest, because that was my core style through the years. So it is my "preference" so I'd throw EVH or Rhoads out there...not for technical, or flash, or ingenuity, or even adapting other styles to metal...but for all of it combined, and for the sheer number of people they impacted, influenced, or gained as fans.

Start AT 16.30



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jim matheos of Fate's Warning
criss olivia of Savatage

both top guitarists

.

Sorry OP, unless your guy has sold 100 million records he's not the greatest, is he good? sure but not great.

I can go anywhere in the world, ANY FUCKIN WHERE, walk up to any person and ask them to name one Van Halen song, and they’ll name 5.

Just “shredding” or “noodling” on the guitar is neato but if you can’t bring you’re trade to the masses you are just another Guitar Center dork employee. And that’s what you’re thread is. Dorks no one in the real world knows about cause they can’t write a note to save their life.

SRV is a distant second. He actually wrote some very impressive music but unfortunately died too soon…just not enough volume.

Same here, 45-years now. And I'm also Canadian. We'd get along pretty well, eh. Bet we have a lot of tunes in common, too.

nice progressions but...

There are a lot of guitar players that can play well, but what is important, is to be able to WRITE the original music that people enjoy hearing them play.

I like "tone" players, like Mark Knopfler, who can extract so much information from a single note.