Okay heres the deal. My friend and I are arguing about the greatest guitar player ever to play. I want to know what you dopers think so you can shed some light on our argument. I am going with Jack White of the White Stripes based on talent and philosphy. Who do you think is the greatest of all time.
Steven Vai and Jimi Hendrix come to mind.
The same guy I post every month to the greatest guitar player thread - Tonino Baliardo.
Try a search.
Frank Zappa, but more for his compositional talent than anything else.
Tommy Iommi deserves props for developing the heavy metal guitar style.
Jack White? Yeah, he’s talented, but he pales next to common names that turn up in these threads (Jimmy Hendrix, for example). And his philosophy (all computers are evil when it comes to music) is decent when applied to the White Stripes’ music, but applied everywhere, it seems really, really silly.
Slash. The last four and a half minutes of estranged are breathtaking.
Brinsley Schwarz. No, really.
Wow. I figured someone too young to know any better would bring up Jack White, but the OP? 
Also, let’s make it explicit that this thread is only about rock guitarists. They are not the only ones out there, but they are all that have been mentioned. Can one even really compare jazz or classical guitarists to rock ones? What about blues or country guitarists?
If I had to name someone I’d have to say that Hendrix did things with the guitar that nobody at the time every had, and paved the way to a future filled with inferior imitators.
I like Carlos Santana’s style better as a personal preference, and he did fine fusion jazz as well, but I don’t know enough to know how to formally compare him to Hendrix.
Is this the greatest guitarist to ever play rock, or anything?
If ‘anything’, I’d nominate Django Reinhardt and Andres Segovia.
In pop and rock, my short list would include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, Clapton, Chet Atkins, and Hendrix.
Wow,
No ones mentioned Eddie Van Halen.
He gets my vote 
George Harrison for his sparing yet gorgeous solos. Then Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa.
I highly suggest you check out TUCK ANDRESS. I doubt many people would know who he is, but he’s absolutely incredible.
- Freewill39.
Also, many fans of jazz would throw Pat Metheny into the mix. He’s also quite amazing.
- Freewill39.
Hendrix and Santana come to mind as my very favorites. Slash also. Does anyone remember Ted Nugent? Was he a great guitar player or just so loud that it deafened me back in the dinosaur era as my son calls it? Also, Joe Satriani, perhaps?
Jimmy Page, he really was very, very good. Rory Gallagher (amazing guitarist who proved once and for all that you don’t have to be black to be an amazing blues guitarist). Eddie Van Halen is a good choice as well, damn good.
I was disapointed I had to get to post #15 to read JP.
What kind of guitar players are we talking about? Only electric? Because for me I am a huge Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds,and Ani DiFranco fan
There are so many ways to rank a guitarist (fastest solos, best rhythm, best vibrato, finest compositional skills, good lyricist to boot, etc., etc.)…and few win out in more than a few catagories.
Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page seem to me to have been some of the most well-rounded guitarists in rock. Jeff Beck also comes to mind. Mick Ronson is seemingly unknown to most rock enthusiasts, but he was simply breathtaking (go rent Ziggy Stardust right now, to watch and hear what I mean…those facial expressions are classic!) Randy Rhoads is THE metal guitarist, if you ask me. I also think Eddie Van Halen deserves some real accolades. Everyone made such a big deal of his hammer-on style and blazing solos, but if speed is all you care about, you can sit around listening to Yngwie Malmsteen noodle away. Eddie could lay down some wonderful rhythm, but nobody every gave him the credit he deserved for that.
Funny how the 90’s and 00’s haven’t really produced any guitarists of real note. They get faster and faster, but never really inspire. People don’t seem all that interested in real musicianship (which is about way more than chops) anymore, even though Punk is pretty much a dead genre.
A guitarist I love for no especially good reason: David Gilmour. No arch-technician, he still had a wonderful aesthetic, that peaked (IMO) around Wish You Were Here and The Wall. Plus, he’s one of the few guitar heroes of mine I can play along with.
In addition to grouping by styles, I would have to distinguish between lead guitar (soloist with a band accompanying) and solo guitar.
For rock lead guitar, I would probably choose Hendrix, Page and Steve Howe. And although he never really made it big enough to quit his day job, Danny Gatton was IMO as good as any of the above.
A second category here would be people who weren’t necessarily virtuosos, but geniuses – they innovated and influenced others. This would include Chuck Berry, Kurt Cobain and many others. It would also include Hendrix, which explains why he still tops so many polls – both virtuoso and genius, he was truly, completely great.
In jazz lead guitar, I am not as well-versed, but I love Django and Charlie Christian.
My choices for the greatest solo guitarist would include Chet Atkins, George Van Eps, Merle Travis, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, John Renbourn and Leo Kottke.
I’m pretty much ignorant of classical guitar, and defer to those who know more.
My favorite music is Delta blues, and my personal choices there would be Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House and Skip James.
I usually don’t get involved in these threads, but I get so tired of seeing one after another go by without mentioning Lou Reed. Listen to “I Heard Her Call My Name” and try to tell me that he wasn’t one of the most influential guitar players of all time.