That should have said “directly on the fretboard,” not the fret. if you tap directly on the fret, you get shit (unless you’re executing a tap harmonic).
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Brian May
Jimi Hendrix
Kirk Hammett
John Doe
Surely you must have meant…The Edge?
Other players had done it before, but in a limited capacity and not much in rock. Van Halen basically took a little used and little explored technique and completely blew it up in ways that hadn’t been tried before. The gear helped, of course, but those super fast triplets and quadruplets sounded completely new when Van Halen first broke. He really popularized it, was the best at it and was almost synonomous with the technique in the 80s as far as guitarists were concerned. For a few years there, you were nothing as a guitarist if you couldn’t tap. The basic technique is actually very easy to learn, but at it’s most developed (like say, using all ten fingers on the fretboard, almost like a piano) it’s extremely challenging.
When you put it that way, I agree with you entirely 
I’d say that his tapping, as revolutionary as it was, is only about 5% of what makes EVH fun to listen to though. Listening to him is like watching a really excellent stunt pilot pull off all kinds of loops and rolls and spins. He has an adolescent’s joy at making fun, loud music while maintaining scientists’ level of precision and an pro athlete’s discipline. He’s just fun.
Oh, I agree completely. The word “athletic” comes to mind when I hear him play. The whammy dives (I didn’t mention his skill with the whammy bar but he was great at that too), the pick slides, the volume swells, his precision with harmonics, his over all agility and his ability to always make it look so effortless, spontaneous and fun. He was The Man for rock guitarists in the 80’s.
Rockers:
Jimi Hendrix
Robin Trower
David Gilmour
Frank Zappa
Robert Fripp
Jazzbos:
Terje Rypdal
John Abercrombie
Grant Green
Wes Montgomery
Sonny Sharrock
Folkies:
Richard Thompson
John Fahey
John Renbourn
Martin Carthy
Joni Mitchell
Bluesmen:
Buddy Guy
Skip James
Albert King
Mississippi John Hurt
B.B. King
I choose not to comment on the rankings - I tend to agree with the other posters who claim them as somewhat pointless - fun to discuss, but you need to really lay out criteria and that can get pretty ambitious…
As a guitarist who grew up in the late 70’s, early 80’s I have to completely agree with **Diogenes’ ** statements about EVH. You know how fashion completely changed to baggie shorts and shaved heads in the late 80’s early 90’s - and if you trace it back, it starts with Michael Jordan? Well, same thing with guitars - with Eddie, everybody had to build themselves a parts-o-caster with a locking whammy and humbucker at the neck.
Everything about Eddie was accepted as gospel - of course you had to do dive-bombs, tapping, octave harmonics. Of course you had to turn your nose at the concept of a Tone control on your guitar. You had to have a classical-style, wide/flat neck profile and Dunlop frets finished just so.
From a style standpoint, his smile-all-the-time and make it look easy playing, coupled with Diamond Dave’s showmanship gave birth to hair metal. From a guitar choice, technique, features and style standpoint, the discussion started with what Eddie was doing and only moved out from there. That held true until Slash came along and reminded folks what a Les Paul could really sound like (even though he played a replica). Steve Vai and Satriani have never had anywhere near the influence of EVH - not even worth discussing.
Jeez, it’s taken me 20 years to unlearn most of that stuff - sure it was wonderful for Eddie - but that’s like saying you need the same car as a NASCAR champion.
“Dimebag” Darrell Abbott
Carlos Santana
Randy Rhodes
Loe Kottke
I’ve tried to think of a female player, but the best I can come up with is Ani DiFranco.
Oh, man, I can’t believe I forgot to include Mimi Fox in my jazz list! :smack:
Maybe not the best guitarists, but here are my favorites:
- Brian Setzer
- Dick Dale
- Brian May
- Django Reinhardt
- Reverend Horton Heat, aka Jim Heath
I am no guitar afficianado, so mock me if I am wrong about this, but what about Nancy Wilson?
As a rock guitarist, Nancy Wilson looked good in spandex.
1.Brian May
2.David Gilmour
- Don Rich
- Merle Travis
- Jeff Beck
- Neil Young
- Jimi Hendrix (by some distance)
I am amazed that anyone sees Eric Clapton as a guitarist of any kind of worth. To me he is just a second rate plagiarist, outranked by the players he stole all his licks from
mm
Hmmm…intersting choice. I’ve really only been exposed to him tangentially via a single album, this one:
http://www.jeffgower.com/rypdal/revsugar.html
But I remember being impressed by his playing ( this was back when I was going through a heavy ‘fusion’ phase ).
- Tamerlane
SORRY !!! Not John Doe but Billy Zoom
Poison Ivy Rorschach of the Cramps is an amazing rockabilly/psychobilly/punk guitarist.
Jimi Hendrix was said to have called Phil Keaggy of Glassharp and the guy from ZZ Top (then Moving Sidewalks) his favorites on separate occasions- one assumes he was tripping at the time.
My favorites are:
Jazz
Django
Wes Montgomery
Charlie Christian
Slim Gallard
Joe Pass
Grant Green
Rock
Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Eddie Van Halen
Country
Merle Travis
Junior Brown
Folk/Acoustic
Leo Kottke
John Fahey