I’ve mentioned him before but Tosin Abassi just does amazing things with a guitar. Alos, while he isn’t famous yet I would also say my son. That dude just rips on an axe! 
Allan Holdsworth
Frank Gambale
Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin “Spaces” is a great shred.
this reminds me of a funny story. One of these guys signed a record deal but then their album sales were terrible. The record company was shocked because he always drew big crowds at LA clubs. Then they realized that the crowds he drew were almost all other guitar players , not typical music fans.
I saw Paul Gilbert do a small clinic and he was very good , he let a lot of kids play with him and they were thrilled to do that . He also had a very good sound even though he just had an amp he picked up locally , not anything special .
Most shredders don’t impress me unless they’ve got something interesting to say with their playing. Give me an emotional or original player every time over a guy who plays too many notes to fit the song.
That said, some guys can cover all the bases. Guthrie Govan is as good at what he does as anybody is, IMHO.
And George Lynch remains my favorite '80’s shredder. He never sounded this good live, AFAICT, but sweet Jesus, can he paste together some tasteful studio shredding (solo starts at 4:50):
Steve Morse
John Petrucci
[quote=“Enter_the_Flagon, post:24, topic:802714”]
Most shredders don’t impress me unless they’ve got something interesting to say with their playing. Give me an emotional or original player every time over a guy who plays too many notes to fit the song.
That said, some guys can cover all the bases. Guthrie Govan is as good at what he does as anybody is, IMHO.
And George Lynch remains my favorite '80’s shredder. He never sounded this good live, AFAICT, but sweet Jesus, can he paste together some tasteful studio shredding (solo starts at 4:50):
[/QUOTE]I agree about Govan. I’ve never dug into Lynch. I find myself not into his persona - the jacked, tipped shredder is the opposite of my cuppa. I’ll check out the clip. ETA, yeah: incredible technique, but so formally rococo in execution that my “guitar primitive groove” instinct shorts out. Feels like another instrument I am hearing. It’s not a bad thing, but I think about players one my side of that line differently vs experts like Lynch.
For me, Paul Gilbert is the best pure shredder, although Herman Li gives him a run for his money and is almost certainly better at this point in time. Yngwie Malmsteen is of course on every shredders’ list, although his repertoire is limited and he hasn’t evolved in 30 years. Steve Vai is one of the best as well.
Chris Impellitteri doesn’t get enough credit for his skills, especially given this: White and Perfect was with Graham Bonnet who has worked with Vai and Malmsteen in the group Alcatrazz…
I guess I like players who are melodic with their playing.
Here are some known and unknowns:
Cinematar - YouTube
BucketHead when he isn’t being weird - YouTube
Shawn Lane R.I.P Rice With The Angels - YouTube
Andy Timmons Andy Timmons - Electric Gypsy - YouTube
Patrick Rondat - YouTube
John Petrucci Animate-Inanimate - John Petrucci (Suspended Animation) - YouTube
Dimi Nalbantov Vanias Garden - YouTube
That’s a start anyway.
There are a lot of YouTube shred guitar contests. If you search for them you can find a lot of incredibly talented unknown guitar players. Here are 2 such contests: “Guitar Idol” and “Andy James Guitar Solo Contest.”
Jeff Beck was right, there is an amazing guitarist on just about every block.
In the 2 handed taping category I think it is hard to beat Stefan Joubert:
Man, I can’t imagine playing guitar that way. It’s different that Stanley Jordan, Kaki King and certainly Jeff Healey who played the guitar in the same position. Guitar is just so versatile.
I generally don’t like shredding for the sake of shredding, I like emotion and depth as well. That is why my favorite shredding guitarist is Jeff Loomis, hands down. There are others more technical, (like Chris Broderick), I Jeff’s composition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruipSVgXBl4Jeff Loomis