LIST: Best Guitar Players of All Time

7,446 Views | 73 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by nevadafoothill
Keyser Soze
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I pose the best guitar question to my 17 year old guitar / bass player. With great influence by me, he likes a great deal of classic rock and knows most of the big names.

His answer was youtubers you never heard of. He said there are dozens like the French girl above.
Mr Tulip
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Bearitto
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Eric Clapton just moved way up the list....


https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-constitution-whats-it-worth-eric-clapton-van-morrison-release-anti-lockdown-song

Eric Clapton, Van Morrison Release Anti-Lockdown Song: 'The Constitution, What's It Worth?'

"Do you wanna' be a free man or do you wanna be a slave?"
Mr. Bearitto was banned by the cowardly site owners because he stated that U.S. battleships should not be named after weak victims like Emmett Till, like Robby suggested. Apparently the site owners want a ship named in their honor some day. ;)
Bexar Pitts
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Elvis had his pick of the crop...His man after Scotty Moore was James Burton.(from 69-77) .For my money..between Hendrix and SRV..Clapton up there too..Don't forget Jeff Beck, Alvin Lee, or Johnny Winter ( when he was ripe)..Check out Hendrix playin' behind Little Richard in '65...
Pecos 45
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OsoCoreyell said:

I agree that Mark Knopfler is WAY underrated. What he does WITHOUT a pick is kind of just nuts.

But I don't know how you argue with SRV as being the most purely talented guitarist ever, certainly the most talented blues guitarist ever. This is with a 12 string...a 12 string...ever tried to bend and blow like this with a double-stringed instrument? It's crazy that he can do this at all:



My favorite thing was that, after this "unplugged" session, he was interviewed about the experience. He said that he picked the 12 string "just to f with those dorks" at MTV.
And he had the strongest hands you've ever seen, even for a skinny kid.
“If you have a job without aggravations, you don’t have a job.”
Malcolm Forbes
Pecos 45
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I'm only going to list guitar players I actually saw play in person.

Stevie Ray Vaughan
Jimmie Vaughan
Billy Gibbons
Eric Clapton
Marc Knoppfler (sic)
Jeff Beck
Jimmy Page
Eric Johnson
Robin Trower
Jim Suhler

It's one thing to play well on YouTube, but sooner or later you have to get out of your living room and do it live.
“If you have a job without aggravations, you don’t have a job.”
Malcolm Forbes
LIB,MR BEARS
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Jimmy Capps
Mr Tulip
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There's a tendency to confuse "fast" guitar playing with "good" guitar playing. I've got 40 years as a cellist. My fingers can, with enough drilling, keep up with any amount of notes. That's just dexterity - a trait learned through repetition barring physical limitation.

Clapton has the nickname "slowhand". He doesn't always play fast. The notes to "Sunshine of your Love" and "Wonderful Tonight" aren't tough. However, I don't "quite" sound like Clapton when I play. I sound like me trying to play Clapton. Our feeling of the music is different and personal.

My passion is drumming. I'm currently a drummer without a kit, but still in my heart a drummer. I can't not be. However, Ringo Starr is the perfect application of this trait. He never plays ostentatiously or boisterously. However, he feels the music and gives it what it needs. Learning to use silence as a sound is a trick that frankly more drummers need.
Bexar Pitts
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Mr Tulip said:

There's a tendency to confuse "fast" guitar playing with "good" guitar playing. I've got 40 years as a cellist. My fingers can, with enough drilling, keep up with any amount of notes. That's just dexterity - a trait learned through repetition barring physical limitation.

Clapton has the nickname "slowhand". He doesn't always play fast. The notes to "Sunshine of your Love" and "Wonderful Tonight" aren't tough. However, I don't "quite" sound like Clapton when I play. I sound like me trying to play Clapton. Our feeling of the music is different and personal.

My passion is drumming. I'm currently a drummer without a kit, but still in my heart a drummer. I can't not be. However, Ringo Starr is the perfect application of this trait. He never plays ostentatiously or boisterously. However, he feels the music and gives it what it needs. Learning to use silence as a sound is a trick that frankly more drummers need.
Roger that on "fast" vs "good"..However, I truly believe SRV, Hendrix, and Alvin Lee were every bit as "good" as they were lightnin' "fast." I remember Alvin Lee being proclaimed the "Fastest guitar in the West" in late 60's. He still put everything he had in every riff and it would vibrate your soul to listen to him when he went "on go." Listen to some old "Ten Years After." Derek Trucks is another good guitarist also. For that matter, you can go back to Robert Johnson and hear the birth of a style that still gives me goosebumps. I've played for about 60 years..started with an old Gibson flat top that I still have today..Bought a Rickenbacker ( 6 string) from Shep Barrier in 65 ..Wish I hadn't sold it in the 80's! Smoothest guitar I ever laid hands on. They bring top dollar today. Anyhow, your point regarding "fast" and "good" is well taken.
Mr Tulip
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Heh. "Fast" don't mean "bad" either! =)

One of the skills I should spend time on is tremolo picking. There's nothing that stops me from doing it, and it'd be a needed skill in my repertoire.

Learning it is a matter of setting a metronome at, say, 90 beats per minute. That's an "allegro" speed that I should be able to pick a single note on beat consistently and evenly. Then, bump it to 100 bpm. Again, pick cleanly and evenly. Keep bumping until you can't keep up. Then, back it down and build your chops where you can do it cleanly and evenly.

Eventually, I'd get fast enough, over several months, to rip off Vai's runs in "Just Like Paradise". It would increase my range greatly. I just always have a reason why I don't get started.
Bexar Pitts
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Mr Tulip said:

Heh. "Fast" don't mean "bad" either! =)

One of the skills I should spend time on is tremolo picking. There's nothing that stops me from doing it, and it'd be a needed skill in my repertoire.

Learning it is a matter of setting a metronome at, say, 90 beats per minute. That's an "allegro" speed that I should be able to pick a single note on beat consistently ' and evenly. Then, bump it to 100 bpm. Again, pick cleanly and evenly. Keep bumping until you can't keep up. Then, back it down and build your chops where you can do it cleanly and evenly.

Eventually, I'd get fast enough, over several months, to rip off Vai's runs in "Just Like Paradise". It would increase my range greatly. I just always have a reason why I don't get started.
On a blues riff, I don't believe I've ever heard anyone use the "whammy" ( tremolo) bar any better than Hendrix or SRV. Masters both. My pickin' is mostly self taught from hours (days,months, years) listening to my favorite guitarists and getting a tip or two in my younger days. In the early 70's there was a little known (to most around Central Texas) guitar player named Johnny Campbell that played Louisiana and southeast Texas gigs. Met him outside a club in New Orleans where he was taking a break and practicing a bit outside. We talked a bit and he showed me more in 15 minutes than I ever knew was possible.He never really became a "name", but those who heard him in his prime won't forget his raw style. He's still got some stuff up on YouTube... Nicknamed "Slim." Like many of his fellow road musicians, his hard lifestyle took it's toll in later years. Sorry to ramble , but if you ever have a minute check, out Slim doin' 'When the Levee Breaks" It was done way past his prime, but still worth a listen.
Bearitto
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Mr Tulip said:

There's a tendency to confuse "fast" guitar playing with "good" guitar playing. I've got 40 years as a cellist. My fingers can, with enough drilling, keep up with any amount of notes. That's just dexterity - a trait learned through repetition barring physical limitation.

Clapton has the nickname "slowhand". He doesn't always play fast. The notes to "Sunshine of your Love" and "Wonderful Tonight" aren't tough. However, I don't "quite" sound like Clapton when I play. I sound like me trying to play Clapton. Our feeling of the music is different and personal.

My passion is drumming. I'm currently a drummer without a kit, but still in my heart a drummer. I can't not be. However, Ringo Starr is the perfect application of this trait. He never plays ostentatiously or boisterously. However, he feels the music and gives it what it needs. Learning to use silence as a sound is a trick that frankly more drummers need.


3 months into classical guitar, I'm hopeful that speed doesn't matter...at all.
Mr. Bearitto was banned by the cowardly site owners because he stated that U.S. battleships should not be named after weak victims like Emmett Till, like Robby suggested. Apparently the site owners want a ship named in their honor some day. ;)
william
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gotta add the steely dan dudes:

larry carlton, denny dias, and john herrington.

- BUmma

go bears!
Dale?
william
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austin's own:

Dale?
Stranger
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I bet 90% of you folks have never heard Roy Buchanan. Listen all the way through and he gets better and better on that Telecaster.

I'm a Bearbacker
william
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https://www.inthestudio.net/online-only-interviews/alex-lifeson-victor-25th-anniversary/

I enjoyed Victor.........

- KKM


Dale?
REvansBU71
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YouTubing a lot of Joe Bonamassa and Samantha Fish lately. Very good stuff.
Any Trump
2024

“And if you do-oo.....” - Lt. Hauk
REvansBU71
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Left handed, so learned on a friend's right handed Fender Jaguar. Didn't do myself any favors with the strings upside down, but got really good on bass. It's been a lifelong struggle playing lead on guitar, but I learned all of the chords upside down. On lead, bending notes by pulling down from the top is rough compared to pushing up from the bottom.

So, played bass for the rest of my "professional career".

Played in a Hammond B-3-led jazz/R&B group in England while stationed there in USAF '66-'68.
Started back at BU Fall '68, played in a Waco band Edison Expansion, and 1 Dallas gig w/PowerHouse when their bassist was sick. The group Texas was very popular during that time.

Later played with a Sax-led group every night at the Tonight Club in Harker Heights. One night there, a guitarist and bassist came in and wanted to play a set, using our drummer.
Of course, we said "yes!" (More time at the bar).

They were fantastic, playing their own songs, and playing really tight.

In the following weeks, we saw their picture. It was Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill.

I graduated in Jan '71, and left behind a great Central Texas music scene late 60's, early 70's.

Great memories.

Edit: Got some great advice early on from that B-3 player, Pat Patterson. "Ron, you don't need to show everything you know about bass every measure".
Any Trump
2024

“And if you do-oo.....” - Lt. Hauk
REvansBU71
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Mr Tulip said:

Heh. "Fast" don't mean "bad".


Absolutely true.

But BB always called himself a "blues singer, because there are many, many better blues guitar players than me".

That's why he used fewer notes (4 or 5) in his phrases, and also felt the spaces between notes can be as powerful as the notes.
Any Trump
2024

“And if you do-oo.....” - Lt. Hauk
Bexar Pitts
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I think the list has to include Wichita....Lester Moran's "Right Hand Man"..and master of the world acclaimed "Take Off Lead Guitar"..Here his "Liza Jane" is.....stirring...
Guy Noir
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Tommy Emmanual is excellent.
Stranger
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Bexar Pitts said:

I think the list has to include Wichita....Lester Moran's "Right Hand Man"..and master of the world acclaimed "Take Off Lead Guitar"..Here his "Liza Jane" is.....stirring...

All right. Mighty fine.
I'm a Bearbacker
BellCountyBear
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John Mayer.
Scratchy Bear
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One that is often overlooked is the grandfather of punk and the power chord, Link Wray:

Mr Tulip
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Scratchy Bear said:

One that is often overlooked is the grandfather of punk and the power chord, Link Wray:


/music_babble_begins

If we consider sound to be waves, and without proof accept that any complex wave (and thus sound) can be built up through additions of a basic sinusoidal (up and down) wave, then in its simplest form, a "root" tone is just one wave at a particular frequency. An octave above that wave frequency is exactly twice that frequency.

Example: Middle "C" on a piano is essentially 262Hz (262 vibrations per second). The octave "C" above that is 524Hz (2 x 262).

Now the "fifth" of that scale is the note G. It has a frequency of 392Hz. This is the root "C" times the square root of 2. The mathematically astute of you will realize that this is a well defined period of a wave.

The reason for all this math blather is that, when we're playing an un-amplified, non-distorted instrument, each note we play is a nice, rolling wave with smoothly curved peaks and valleys. Combining the frequencies of the root, the fifth, and the octave fit together so perfectly (the fifth interval is usually called a "perfect fifth" because it fits so well) that musically nothing changes. We didn't express a major or minor chord or feeling. Because it's so bland, musicians usually throw in 3rds or 7ths (of major/minor flavors) or such to give the chord some style.

When we overdrive, or "distort", a sound, it's because we run into physical limitations. Either we've reached the limit of what the amplifier can push, or more frequently what the speaker (like a sound cone and magnet) can accurately reproduce.

At this point, our nice, rolling, smooth curved waves get flat spots at the top and bottom. The more we exceed the limits of the device, these flat spots get longer and longer. Eventually, the rolling curve of the wave looks like a squared, boxy "up-flat-down" wave. Musically, your ear hears this wave as more of a "grrrrrrr" of a chainsaw and less of the "ooooooh" of a pure sine wave.

When we've distorted our instrument to these extreme limits, the flavor that major and minor intervals brought to the chord becomes destructive. The extra frequencies become impossible to reconcile. However, our friend the "root-fifth-octave" chord becomes all-encompassing. Because all three notes fit together perfectly, they make the growl perfectly. They reinforce each other. Their "power" grows.

They become a "power chord" (I knew I was going somewhere with this).
LIB,MR BEARS
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william
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REvansBU71
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Go, Jerry!
Any Trump
2024

“And if you do-oo.....” - Lt. Hauk
REvansBU71
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Excellence, Tulip!
Any Trump
2024

“And if you do-oo.....” - Lt. Hauk
Keyser Soze
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I think Fred would be proud of his human
mtbmarc
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Glen Campbell should get a mention. Country pickers get no respect. Although I did see Roy and Chet on some lists and deservedly so.
william
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william
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no idea who the rest of these people are, but.....




- KKM

... and is that HellBoy on rhythm???

PA.

- UL

TIA.

BID.

... and there is NO flute in Steely Dan.

k-peesh?

D!

release the hounds!!!
Dale?
william
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densmore, manzarek and krieger - a helluva backup band to TLK.

- BUmma

Dale?
bearss
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David Gilmour's guitar solo in Comfortably Numb ... nothing like it.
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