Great Guitarists

Cafe Society
1

List The 5 Best Guitarists In Your Opinion

  1. Jimmy Page
  2. Eric Clapton
  3. Slash
  4. Mark Knopfler
  5. Jimi Hendrix
    If Kirk Cobaine is mentioned no one will ever hear from me again :smiley:
2

Bono! :d :d :d :d

3

Sorry, I mean :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

4

Nevermind, this thread is pointless.

5
  1. B.B. King
  2. Steve Howe
  3. Jimmy Page
  4. Stevie Ray Vaughan*
  5. Jimi Hendrix
  • How could you leave Stevie Ray Vaughan off?
6

(Not necessarily in this order)

  1. Joe Satriani
  2. Yngwie Malmsteen
  3. Slash
  4. Jimmy Page
  5. Vinnie Moore
    LilShieste
7

My favorite guitarists:

Mark Knopfler
Eric Johnson
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Jeff Beck
Eric Clapton

I make no claim that they are the best. Their playing pleases me. Steve Howe is more technically proficient than any of my choices, but I don’t enjoy what he plays as much as these five.

I’m pretty much with ZebraShaSha on this. What does “best” mean? How would you compare Jimmy Page to Chet Atkins, for instance? It’s all down to what we each like.

8

Martin Barre
Manny Charlton
East Bay Ray
Joe Satriani
That one guy who I can’t remember

9

Good choices and you are correct, this is more of an IMHO or Café thread.

I am surprised that you have no love for Jimi Hendrix. :wink:

I will be one of the few that mention Steve Howe.

Jim

10
  1. Jimi Hendrix
  2. Charlie Christian
  3. Stevie Ray Vaughan
  4. Django Reinhart
  5. Andres Segovia
11

… And because you put Slash above Page and Clapton, I going to throw in a gratuitous mention of Kurt Cobain out of spite.

12

I don’t think he is often mentioned in threads like these but Steve Morse is a pretty impressive guitarist. He almost always picks every note and doesn’t do many hammer-ons or sweeps. Nuno Bettencourt is also crazy good.

13

I also wanted to add Buckethead.

14

Can I just say that I find it terribly amusing that Slash ranks only third on your list in spite of your self-identification as a GNR devotee? :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyhoo… here’s a few gems in no paricular order:
Di Meola, Eric Johnson, Nuno, Paco De Lucia, Pertrucci, Vai, Satriani, Slash, SRV

15

I’m just listing rock guitarists because that’s what I know the most about.

  1. Jimi Hendrix (not even close, in my opinion)
  2. Eddie Van Halen (reinvented the instrument in the 80’s, fantastic soloist)
  3. Jimmy Page (for his compositional ability as much as his technical skills)
  4. Stevie Ray Vaughan (general, all around virtuouso)
  5. Eric Clapton (not the fastest player or the most technically flashy, but one of the most purely expressive. Superb vibrato. He has great “feel”)
16

I completely agree. Both for ability and for innovation.

I have heard other make similar claims. I am a teen of the 80’s and I went to a few VH concerts. I don’t buy the reinvention idea. He never seemed better than Jimmy Page and less innovative then Steve Vai as an example of the same generation. Joe Satriani is another I would put above him for power guitar.

What makes you say that he reinvented the instrument? He was very good, but not one of the greatest in my opinion.

Jim

17

What about Charo?

18

Satriani and Vai were both influenced by Van Halen and use some of his techniques.

EVH’s most significant innovation was his tap-on technique (sounding notes by “tapping” directly on the fret with the pickhand) which expanded the range for what kinds of intervals could be played quickly on one string and opened up a new vocabulary for melodic expression during solos. This technique was copied by everyone in the 80’s, believe me.

EVH was also a great, lickety-split, player anyway and very unusual and inventive with phrasing. He took the art of rock guitar solos from what had become more or less standard, blues-based, pentatonic scales and “boxes” to a much more free form, almost jazzy kind of style. Melodically, Van Halen’s solos sometimes remind me of “Giant steps” era John Coltrane in terms of phrasing and tone.

Another quality EVH had at his peak was the element of surprise, the ability to punctuate his playing with notes or bursts which go in unexpected melodic or dynamic directions.

It’s hard to talk about this stuff with words. None of it is as complicated as it sounds. It would be easier if I could just show you some stuff on a guitar or play a CD.

Anyway, rock guitar playing went in a distinctly new direction right about the time everybody first heard “Eruption” on Van Halen’s first album.

19

Discussions of the musical arts, even those that have “IMHO” written all over them, are probably better suited to the Cafe Society Forum.

Off you go.

[ /Moderating ]

20

Are you sure about that? It sort of sounds a little like Clapton fans who claim he invented string bending (something BB King’s fans also claim he invented.) Lots of old time jazz guitarists used tapping - you can hear it on several of Django’s peices, for example. I don’t recall anyone tapping as much as EVH, but to be fair, the technology for pickups and solid guitars just wasn’t there prior to the 60’s.

Not that I disagree with you about EVH being totally awesome - I’ve said many times that no one ever sounded like they were having as much fun as EVH - but I think he’s awesome just 'cause he’s, y’know, awesome.

In all seriousness, I would swap her out on my list with Hendrix. (In my opinion, Hendrix’s strength was his innovation - my list is based on technical guitar playing ability only, which he is clearly in the top ten, but Charo edges him out.)