Six of the Best & Three of the Rest......Rock Guitarists

[jewman22]

Not really in order, all 6 are true masters of the strings.
1.Brian May - Queen
2.Eddie Van Halen - Van Halen
3.David Gilmore - Pink Floyd
4. George Harrison - The Beatles
5.Jimi Hendrix - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
6.Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin.

These 3 come close but not quite at the top. Still excellent guitarists.
1. Alex Lifeson - Rush
2. Billy Gibbons - ZZ-Top
3.Tony Iommi - Black Sabbath.

 

[troutface]

I would add Roy Buchanan, Ry Cooder, Glen Campbell, Walter Becker.

 

[Infantry23]

Hendrix
Jeff Beck
Eddie Van Halen
BB King
Santana
Dave Matthews

 

[briarbuck]

After working in a guitar store for three years, I am thankful for every day I don't hear SRV. He could play, but man...it's just guitar for guitar's sake and recycled over and over. Musically uninteresting to me.

My favorite players are the ones who may not be as technically skilled as others, but make great music. I'd rather hear John Lee Hooker, Fred McDowell or RL Burnside thump the shit out of one chord for 5 minutes, make people dance and sing from the heart than hear Clapton not miss a note and sing some lame, recycled "blues" number while he falls asleep. It's like hospital food, his music. Flavorless oatmeal. Fight me.


I'm very opinionated on this matter.

Mark Knopfler is, in my mind, the best electric guitar player alive. He knows how to rock a stadium with the minimum of effective notes and has his own voice. David Gilmore a close second. They serve the music first, always.

Malcom Young could get an entire stadium jumping with three chords. Angus was just frosting on the cake.

But honestly, give me early 90s Neil Young, with Crazy Horse. His guitar sounds like fucking planets colliding and it rocks like nothing else. I'll take two notes of THAT over a soulless Clapton solo. If Clapton's music is a Ferrari, Neil Young is the dump truck that runs over it and crushes it to dust.

And none of these electric players can do what Leo Kottke can do.

Like I said, I'm opinionated on this. Fight me.

I saw Kottke in a small bar in Columbus in 1984. EPIC show.

 

[weezell]

Frank Zappa
Les Paul
Clapton
SRV
Hendrix
BB King

 

[craig61a]

I'm surprised not to see Punky Meadows in the list...

 

[crawdad]

Not one mention of Yngwie Malmsteen. Tsk…

 

[jerry]

Zappa
Hendrix
SRV
Vai
All the guys who played on Steely Dan recordings

 

[LotusEater]

 

[hauntedmyst]

Not a big rock or rock guitarist guy but I like Prince and Joe Santorini

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Stopped reading when I saw that Hendrix did not make you list."

Though I love Hendrix and have much of his material on vinyl, CD and DVD, I regard him more as an innovator, and as such is perhaps the top innovator.

"I would add Roy Buchanan, Ry Cooder, Glen Campbell, Walter Becker."

I'm so glad you mentioned Roy Buchannan. I have a DVD of a live concert of his somewhere but for the life of me couldn't recall his name and it was really bugging me.

Some great musicians been listed here, and some quite obscure

Chris, glad you mentioned Steve Jones, I'm a huge Pistols fan despite their repertoire being somewhat limited.

Mick Jones of The Clash was very talented and Joe Strummer was pretty nifty on his Earthquake Weather solo album.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[hawky454]

(my personal favorites)

Robert Fripp
Jimmy Page
Adam Jones
Tom Morello
Jimmy Hendrix
George Harrison

 

[ssjones]

All great names, my list would be similar.

Of current guitarists, Tom Morello is one of my favorites, the more I learn about him, the more that I enjoy his music. He has several shows on XM and I try not to miss any of them.

The lines are blurred these days - what is "rock"? Sturgill Simpson a great example. He's considered country (well, acid country), but that's rock to me.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

All I will add is that all mentioned are good, but when you look outside of what’s popular, there’s a whole world of Flamenco guitarists and jazz guitarists that focus on the balance of technical and art beyond what I hear being mentioned as “the greatest” here.
I’m not a fan enough to know any of these guys, nor do I listen to them regularly, but I am pretty sure that even a mediocre flamenco player can out play most mentioned.

 

[ssjones]

All I will add is that all mentioned are good, but when you look outside of what’s popular, there’s a whole world of Flamenco guitarists and jazz guitarists that focus on the balance of technical and art beyond what I hear being mentioned as “the greatest” here.
I’m not a fan enough to know any of these guys, nor do I listen to them regularly, but I am pretty sure that even a mediocre flamenco player can out play most mentioned.

Classical guitarists would also be be world class (Comoy's collector, Neil Archer Roan, was a former professional classical guitarist). But, the thread asked for the top Rock guitarists, so they're excluded.

Here's Neil in action if anyone is interested:

Alex Lifson has a new release coming out, an instrumental with former bandmate, Andy Curran, you can listen to two tracks here. It's pretty good stuff.

Alex Lifeson - Alex Lifeson

Songs written by Alex Lifeson Kabul Blues: Andy Curran-bass guitar Alex Lifeson-everything else Spy House: Andy Curran-bass David Quinton Steinberg-drums […]

alexlifeson.com

 

[cosmicfolklore]

But, the thread asked for the top Rock guitarists, so they're excluded.

Oh, Leave it to me to miss that part. So, I did find a bunch of latino rock bands that have flamenco guitarists. As I said, it’s not what I usually listen to, but now that I’ve seen that this is a thing I may have to check out more…

I hear a lot of Santana-esque here…

 

[Peter Peachfuzz]

I think Vince Gill could keep up with most of these guys.

 

[Elric]

Brad Paisley is another underrated guitarist.

 

[mawnansmiff]

All I will add is that all mentioned are good, but when you look outside of what’s popular, there’s a whole world of Flamenco guitarists and jazz guitarists that focus on the balance of technical and art beyond what I hear being mentioned as “the greatest” here.
I’m not a fan enough to know any of these guys, nor do I listen to them regularly, but I am pretty sure that even a mediocre flamenco player can out play most mentioned.

Michael, all that guy needs is a couple of Humbucker pickups and a decent Marshall amp and maybe a wah pedal/fuzz box and he'd be well on his way

Seriously though, I do love acoustic guitar too.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Here is Joe Bonamassa playing Black Winter/Django live in London.

Black Winter is actually the Jimmy Page number White Summer with Bonamassa's twist. The guitar I think is an ex Rory Gallagher guitar.

Joe Bonamassa Official - "Black Winter/Django" - British Blues Explosion Live - YouTube

Regards,

Jay.