This sharing of opinions is amazing to me. I guess the answer to my OP is “Well, sorta, usually, depending…”
Jerry Garcia and his legacy have been a pretty interesting way to experience the question.
I got to take in a few hundred Dead shows with Jerry (and have probably listened to an absurd number of recordings). I’ve also taken in almost twenty years of shows with people sitting in for his part–probably fewer than a hundred live, but a good number of excellent recordings. Not just cover bands (e.g. DSO), but incarnations of the Dead, so most other variables were held constant.
So there’ve been a wide range of absurdly talented musicians emulating another absurdly talented musician. Not replacing; emulating. Great sound, and I’m far from a stick-in-the-mud type who thinks they’re not worth listening to without Jerry, but there’s never been a time when I could close my eyes and not be able to tell the difference. Great music, yes, but not the same music.
Warren Haynes has been the best way feel the question. He’s toured with the band, playing Jerry’s parts–but clearly playing as Warren Haynes. He’s covered Dead tunes outside the band, and his personal style came through a little more. Now he’s touring with the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration. Not only is he playing much more as Jerry than of Jerry, but he’s playing Wolf (I’ve never heard Wolf live, but have given it an atrocious amount of attention to its sound over the years).
This is a case of a musician on par with his talent with a couple decades of familiarity playing his music live, who is making a concerted, studied effort to emulate him, and playing on some of the same equipment. Yet as joyful as it is to listen to him, it remains one subjective hair away from being indistinguishable.
And I laughed out loud. Apparently I was the only one. 
Gotta add Orianthi (aka- Orianthi Panagaris) the 29-year old female hottie that played on Michael Jackson’s last tour and is respected by greats like Carlos Santana!
Context? Astronomy? Something from a song or equipment-related? I know he played a custom guitar that he built himself for a long time, but I only know of that because they started selling them a long time ago and it was a Big Deal to my guitar-playing friends (sorry if rusty memories are off; I just checked Wiki and it seems to back up the cobwebs).
Cool short video of British comedian Bill Bailey showing how The Edge would sound without effects: Bill Bailey - U2 Failure - Part Troll - YouTube
That’s pretty funny.
I used to be able to pick out Waddy Wachtel when I heard him.
The guys who have an instantly recognizable sound (for me, at least):
Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
Brian May of Queen
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
The Edge of U2
David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
Billy Gibbons of ZZTop
In reference to the comedic video posted upthread a couple posts, I think The Edge is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Yes, his sound is identifiable, but how much of that is his multi-rack effects and processors? Strip all that away and hand him a basic electric guitar through a clean channel on just a straight amp without any of those effects and does he still sound like himself?
No, he really doesn’t sound like “The Edge” when he switches the effects off. He shows this himself in It Might Get Loud. He turns off the delay pedal for a minute, plays the same part he was playing a moment before, and comments how it’s not much without the effects.
The fact that he does this himself makes me give him credit for at least being self-aware.
I always used to think that, but if you listen to some of the links to Floyd tribute bands, does that still hold true?
Cool, I’ll have to check that out. It is interesting that he makes note of that by his own admission.
Yeah, I wonder. Like you said…if you closed your eyes and you didn’t actually know you weren’t listening to Gilmour, I’d suspect most of us would go “Ah! Dave Gilmour!”.
Bingo.
Even to a player it’s often surprising how much of the tone is created by the technique, even when using a pick. I did a bunch of internet collaborations with other musicians. One of the crowd was a guitarist who used a fairly ordinary guitar and a POD XT (fairly ordinary software amp/cabinet modeler). Other guitarists frequently asked him about his gear and how he got that great tone. He always responded literally (talking about the gear). Finally one day I chimed in and said “It’s not the gear. It’s the way he uses his right hand. He’s pulling a tiny bit of extra harmonic content by brushing his thumb against the string as he plucks, among myriad other subtle but fruitful techniques. If you want to sound like him, you can’t do it by using his gear; you have to learn to play like him.” He really appreciated that post!
I bought a classical guitar from a friend who was studying classical guitar at university and needed a better instrument. That was 35 years ago, and I still can’t play a single note and get it to sound like him when he played the same single note.
There really are players who you can often identify with just one note. Chris Thile on mando is one example. Bela Fleck on banjo is another. Tony Rice on acoustic guitar. And they’re all using a pick!
Of course, these guys put a LOT of effort into gear selection, customization, and maintenance. But IMHO all that is far less important than their technique and their approach to improvisation or comping.
Well, while a lot of folks identified Clapton on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, we didn’t know it was Harrison’s guitar until he was cornered in an interview, where the newsperson said “So, that’s not even your guitar gently weeping?” and Harrison says “Well, actually, it was Clapton playing my guitar. So it was my guitar, after all.” (Or words to that effect.)
LOL, not “anyone” but certainly by many. I bet that for any famous and easily recognized artist, there is at least one imitator who very few people would be able to tell from the original artist. I bet there are guys who could even fool the original artist: “Is this you, Eric, or an imitator?” Eric: “Oh hell, how would I know? Sounds a lot like me, and sometimes I don’t even sound that much like me.”
That just means that there are great imitators. Which doesn’t really mean much, does it? Other than comedians, rarely do imitators achieve fame, nor should they. It’s a nifty and admirable skill, it’s just not star material.
Regarding The Edge and his gear, I’m reminded of Waters of Pink Floyd when someone accused Floyd of being gear jockeys, making all that stuff using electronics rather than “actually playing music”. Water’s response was something like “Fine. Give anyone a chance to play with the gear and see what you get. It won’t sound like Pink Floyd, unless they’re intentionally copying us.” (Or words to that effect.)
Same with The Edge. Sure, a lot of his sound comes from his gear, but it’s not trivial gear. You don’t just plug it in and turn it on and bang you sound like him. Instead, you take a long time assembling all that stuff, figuring out the order (the order in the signal chain can make a huge difference), tweaking for hours and hours, and finally you might come up with his sound for a particular song. And then you still have to play his riffs.
I confess I’ve spent hours and hours trying to duplicate some guitarist’s sound (way back when – I don’t bother any more). It was illustrative, but usually the biggest thing I learned was it’s far more productive to find something that fits the bill than to find something that sounds identical.
Stories of SRV’s gear hunting are mythic in proportion. The guy spent a lot of time and effort searching for the holy grail. But you could have had him step on stage with anyone’s strat and amp, and he’d still have sounded far more like SRV than anyone.
At jams and sitting in on keyboards on his gigs, I’ve played with a guy from the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, admitted to the Musician’s Hall of Fame, and who appears in that Muscle Shoals movie. He’s a real tone freak, preferring vintage telecasters and small tube amps. But I’ve heard him play lots of different guitars (even my jazzmaster, which he didn’t care for) and all sorts of amps from expensive boutique items to an old Princeton or a new Blues Junior, and I can never really tell any difference (other than, when he plays a strat, it sounds like a strat). He’s generally a bit louder than any of the other guitarists, but is so totally in control that the volume is a delight, and he makes everyone else on stage sound better. No matter what he’s playing.
HOLD UP. Who?
Yeah - is it Jimmy Johnson? I thought he was a Gretsch guy…
FGiE - you haven’t seen It Might Get Loud? I started at least a thread or two about it. I also participated in a “how does the Edge get his sound?” thread a few years ago…
I can hear Adrian Belew quite easily myself! In fact, I feel like I know him so well through his music we could be brothers.
Will McFarlane. Great guy, amazing guitarist, and a schlock player like me is truly lucky to get to play with him. The guy on the right in this pic: