# Great Guitarists
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 24, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500 "2007-04-24T19:50:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@GNR\_JUNKIE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GNR_JUNKIE)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/1 "2007-04-24T19:50:03Z")
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 š
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/2 "2007-04-24T19:56:09Z")
Bono! :d :d :d :d
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/3 "2007-04-24T19:57:26Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Socks]
Bono! :d :d :d :d
[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I mean šššš
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### Author:  [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/4 "2007-04-24T19:57:38Z")
Nevermind, this thread is pointless.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/5 "2007-04-24T20:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=GNR JUNKIE]
1. Jimmy Page
2. Eric Clapton
3. Slash
4. Mark Knopfler
5. Jimi Hendrix
[/QUOTE]
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?
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### Author:  [@LilShieste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilShieste)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/6 "2007-04-24T20:10:43Z")
(Not necessarily in this order)
1. Joe Satriani
2. Yngwie Malmsteen
3. Slash
4. Jimmy Page
5. Vinnie Moore
LilShieste
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/7 "2007-04-24T20:23:18Z")
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 donāt enjoy what he plays as much as these five.
Iām pretty much with **ZebraShaSha** on this. What does ābestā mean? How would you compare Jimmy Page to Chet Atkins, for instance? Itās all down to what we each like.
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### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/8 "2007-04-24T20:25:19Z")
Martin Barre
Manny Charlton
East Bay Ray
Joe Satriani
That one guy who I canāt remember
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/9 "2007-04-24T20:26:21Z")
[QUOTE=Crotalus]
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 donāt enjoy what he plays as much as these five.
Iām pretty much with **ZebraShaSha** on this. What does ābestā mean? How would you compare Jimmy Page to Chet Atkins, for instance? Itās all down to what we each like.
[/QUOTE]
Good choices and you are correct, this is more of an IMHO or CafƩ thread.
I am surprised that you have no love for Jimi Hendrix. š
I will be one of the few that mention Steve Howe.
Jim
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### Author:  [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/10 "2007-04-24T20:30:13Z")
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Charlie Christian
3. Stevie Ray Vaughan
4. Django Reinhart
5. Andres Segovia
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### Author:  [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/11 "2007-04-24T20:32:14Z")
ā¦ And because you put Slash above Page and Clapton, I going to throw in a gratuitous mention of Kurt Cobain out of spite.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/12 "2007-04-24T20:33:23Z")
I donāt think he is often mentioned in threads like these but Steve Morse is a pretty impressive guitarist. He almost always picks every note and doesnāt do many hammer-ons or sweeps. Nuno Bettencourt is also crazy good.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/13 "2007-04-24T20:40:39Z")
I also wanted to add Buckethead.
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### Author:  [@recessiveMeme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/recessiveMeme)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/14 "2007-04-24T20:45:01Z")
[QUOTE=GNR JUNKIE]
1. Jimmy Page
2. Eric Clapton
**3. Slash**
3. Mark Knopfler
4. Jimi Hendrix
[/QUOTE]
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? š
Anyhooā¦ hereās a few gems in no paricular order:
Di Meola, Eric Johnson, Nuno, Paco De Lucia, Pertrucci, Vai, Satriani, Slash, SRV
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/15 "2007-04-24T20:54:06Z")
Iām just listing rock guitarists because thatās what I know the most about.
1. Jimi Hendrix (not even close, in my opinion)
2. Eddie Van Halen (reinvented the instrument in the 80ās, 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 āfeelā)
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/16 "2007-04-24T20:58:55Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
1. Jimi Hendrix (not even close, in my opinion)
[/QUOTE]
I completely agree. Both for ability and for innovation.
> [@](#):
>
> 1. Eddie Van Halen (reinvented the instrument in the 80ās, fantastic soloist)
I have heard other make similar claims. I am a teen of the 80ās and I went to a few VH concerts. I donāt 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
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/17 "2007-04-24T21:08:05Z")
What about Charo?
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/18 "2007-04-24T21:28:21Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
I have heard other make similar claims. I am a teen of the 80ās and I went to a few VH concerts. I donāt 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
[/QUOTE]
Satriani and Vai were both influenced by Van Halen and use some of his techniques.
EVHās most significant innovation was his tap-on technique (sounding notes by ātappingā 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 80ās, 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 āboxesā to a much more free form, almost jazzy kind of style. Melodically, Van Halenās solos sometimes remind me of āGiant stepsā 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.
Itās 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 āEruptionā on Van Halenās first album.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/19 "2007-04-24T21:29:52Z")
Discussions of the musical arts, even those that have āIMHOā written all over them, are probably better suited to the **Cafe Society** Forum.
Off you go.
[/Moderating]
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### Author:  [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-guitarists/401500/20 "2007-04-24T21:37:41Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
EVHās most significant innovation was his tap-on technique (sounding notes by ātappingā 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 solosā¦
[/QUOTE]
Are you sure about that? It sort of sounds a little like Clapton fans who claim he invented string bending (something BB Kingās fans also claim he invented.) Lots of old time jazz guitarists used tapping - you can hear it on several of Djangoās peices, for example. I donāt recall anyone tapping as much as EVH, but to be fair, the technology for pickups and solid guitars just wasnāt there prior to the 60ās.
Not that I disagree with you about EVH being totally awesome - Iāve said many times that no one ever sounded like they were having as much fun as EVH - but I think heās awesome just 'cause heās, yāknow, awesome.
[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus]
What about Charo?
[/QUOTE]
In all seriousness, I would swap her out on my list with Hendrix. (In my opinion, Hendrixās 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.)
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