From This Group, Who Is Your Favorite Guitarist?

Cafe Society
1

Just from this list, who’s your favorite to listen to, in order? Who do you think is the most skillful? Give an explanation if you like.

Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Duane Allman
Stevie Ray Vaughn

My choices:

Most Skillful:

Hendrix
Vaughn
Clapton
Allman
Page

Favorite to listen to:

Page
Allman
Vaughn
Clapton
Hendrix

2

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Let’s move this to Cafe Society.

IMHO > CS

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3

Most Skillful: I’m not qualified to answer this so here’s my guesses.

  1. Jimi Hendrix - Maybe skillful isn’t the right word here for me, but he goes up for innovative. He’s the one that stands out as the most “different” in his technique so he gets the top billing.
  2. Jimmy Page -Guitar God to me.
  3. Stevie Ray Vaugh (I’ve watched the clips of him playing the guitar behind his back… that gets points from me).
  4. Clapton -He’s damn good. But just on a skill standpoint- but when I think of each other the others above him, something unique about them stands out, that’s why they each get a higher spot on clapton. I’ve never really seen Clapton take the risks or innovations or odd playing styles. So he gets high marks, but he doesn’t get to walk away from the show with the trophy. But he’s the standard benchmark i’d say.
  5. I’ve never really listened to The Allman Brothers, so Duane gets last dibs on all accounts.

Favorite to LISTEN To:
Hendrix, Page, Vaughn, Clapton, Allman

4

So, wait - are you asking about them as guitarists or as musicians? 'Cuz isolating guitar is a whole 'nother thing from, say, songwriting and/or production skills…

5

Skills
Hendrix
Clapton
Page
Allman
SRV

Listen to
Hendrix
Clapton
Allman
SRV
Page

Page/Zep is just so over exposed I have a hard time listening. That said, Page although sometimes considered sloppy, had some real talent and production knowledge.
I was a huge SRV fan at one time but the over exposure thing works against him as well.
Hendrix is pretty over exposed too, but it doesn’t seem to matter with his stuff. I can always listen to him.

6

I knew I was going to get a question like this… :stuck_out_tongue:

To the question of skill, as guitarists. To which you prefer to listen to, I guess it doesn’t matter so much, because it’s what makes you want to listen.

7

Skill: Hendrix, Clapton/SRV
Hendrix could do things with a guitar that no one could do. Maybe still.

IMHO: Duane left us too soon for real evaluation. Jimi was so stand-out that it doesn’t matter, but I wish we could have heard more of Duane.

Page could play great stuff, but in the studio has as many takes as he wants. When playing live, Jimmy–well, they’re not mistakes because music is all about choices, so–makes some poor choices.

Clapton & SRV were absolute solid masters. Go get some live footage of them in concert–listen for mistakes. Call me when you find some. I’ll wait…

Listen to: Clapton, then Duane/SRV/Jimi/Page–can’t cut the slices thin enough to make a difference.

8

Skill:
SRV
Allman
Clapton
Page
Hendrix

9

Using only guitar players from your list:
Stevie
Jimi
Clapton

As others have stated: guitar ability is not quantifiable. You can play it, or not. The rest is subjective.
That’s why I’m sorry you didn’t have Randy Rhoads or Jorma Kaukonen on your list.

10

Hendrix is wonderful, but Duane is Duane. Duane Allman is the truth.

I’d order that list this way:
Allman
Hendrix
[kind of a gap here]
Eric Clapton
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jimmy Page

That’s listening preference. I’m not sure how to sort out the skill levels.

11

To listen to:

SRV
Clapton
Duane
Hendrix
Page
Skill is a lot harder to quantify

SRV- Many think of him as a Hendrix copy. He could do Hendrix and more. He was expanding his range steadily when he died.

Hendrix- For his time very inovative. Not sure how he would have aged.

Clapton- When compared to most others in his generation he was god. Made the template for what a lead guitar player should be.

Page- Very skilled in the studio. Sucks on stage.

Allman- Fantasic at what he did. Probably a more narrow range than the others which explains his ranking at the bottom. Given more time, who knows?

12

It’s hard to rate them but I would say Hendrix had the better ear. His sense of timing for blues rifts was above the others. SRV was just coming into his own sound and I think would have been the better player all around. Heck, I like them all so it’s a tough call.

13

I can’t rate them, skillwise, because they’re basically different flavors of “10”

Listening:

Hendrix
SRV
Page
Allman
Clapton

14

Can’t rate for skills, since I don’t play.

To listen to:

Allman
Clapton
Hendrix
SRV
Page
(sorry, never jumped on the Zep bandwagon.)

15

Don’t play guitar so I can’t rate them in terms of skill. The arguments I’ve heard from musicians are all over the map.

To listen to:

Hard rock Clapton
Page
Hendrix
SRV
Allman
Soft rock Clapton

16

I am struggling to get past this, too. I can say that stylistically, I play in a way that most echoes Jimmy Page, but think that comments on my strengths and weaknesses as a player more than the level of respect I have for each of them. I would play like each of them if I could…god, wouldn’t that be great.

Besides, you didn’t include Jeff Beck.

17

I’m not going to rate skill, but in terms of favorite to listen to, going from most favorite to least: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, and Clapton. Clapton’s the only one I really don’t care for in that group.

18

Or my husband, Derek Trucks. :wink:

19

As a guy who’s played the guitar for probably a couple thousand hours over 30 years, I hope you won’t mind if I add another perspective or two to this conversation.

First, the requested favorites, in order:

Hendrix- what sets him apart from the others is his ear. He seems to have some god-given skills that the others lack - a soufullness, melodic inventiveness and improvisational ability that maybe has yet to be equalled. Never mind all the noise and feedback, or that Everybody and His Brother can now do a passable imitation, just listen to “Red House” on “Isle of Wight” for an idea of what one man can do with a guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IDd6QPFAz0

Duane Allman- could be pretty pedestrian at times, and would be nearer the other end of my list, except for his divinely inspired playing with the slide. Listen to “Statesboro Blues” live for a sample (couldn’t find a link).

Eric Clapton- until Hendrix came around, it’s said that you’d see the infamous “Clapton is God” graffiti all around London city, and not for no reason. His early stuff with the Bluesbreakers and Cream was pretty damn intense. This version of “Crossroads” isn’t the iconic one, but it’s still pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm3Er3F51cA

SRV- mostly a master regurgitator of other people’s styles, and could channel Hendrix or Albert King endlessly. Can summon a lot of intensity, but I’d call him the least unique voice among the bunch.

Page- as a soloist, doesn’t bring enough fire to really catch my ear (except in a few instances) but shines as an all-around musician. When you factor in his abilities as a composer/arranger/producer, you’ve got a true renaissance man, one of the most talented and influential rock icons ever.

Now as for the question of skill, none of these guys presents any real problems for me in terms of how hard their stuff is to play*, with the exception of Stevie Ray. His hardest stuff is very precise and takes a bit more work - even on light gauge strings, and SRV played with impossibly heavy ones - which distances him from the pack, followed by Hendrix, and then the rest. The gaps aren’t huge, though - they’re all good.

*Shawn Lane or Danny Gatton, OTOH, I guess I’ll never catch up to.

20

SRV, Duane, Eric