Favourite Guitar Players: NOT a "who's the best" thread.

Jimmy Page for all those riffs and cuz he could pretty much do rhythm and lead at once.

Nick McCabe. Fuck.

Johnny Thunders -- the only guitarist whose wake I've been to. He had short, stubby fingers. Maybe the most original rock guitarist I've ever heard.

Mick Ralphs / Mick Ronson. I wish I could add Mick Taylor, but he's not in their elite company.

Johnny Smith -- OMG, Johnny Smith.

I also like John Woo from the Magnetic Fields... understated, but very good.

Also gotta mention: Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, Dick Gaughan, D Boon, Mick Ronson, Michael Karoli, Michael Rother, J Mascis, Eddie Hazel, Steve Cropper, Ben Chasny, Lindsay Buckingham (the guitar sounds on Tusk are nuts - how does he get his axe to sound like phased out rubber bands?), Jack White, Kevin Shields, Carlos Alomar, Adrian Belew (on Talking Heads and Eno albums at least), Howe Gelb...

A guitar player buddy of mine put it best when he told me that after seeing Richard Thompson play live one time, he stopped playing for 5 years because in comparison, my friend felt like he was "playing with his feet."

Charlie Hunter
Ani DiFranco (monstrously underrated and fascinating rhythym player)
Wes Montgomery
Doc Watson
Dimebag
Junior Brown
SRV
Brad Paisely
Joe Pass
Brian May
Mark Knopfler
Tony Rice
Johnny Greenwood
Walter Becker
Richard Thompson (any one see that Grizzly Man Sessions thing on IFC?)
and an honorable mention for Chris Thile who is an absolute space alien on the mandolin.

Richard Thompson -- the best, period.
Frank Zappa -- a close second
Neil Young
Doug Martsch -- that guy is just nasty when he gets going
Tom Verlaine
Jeff Tweedy -- the playing on the last couple Wilco records has been stunning.
James Hetfield -- I mean, c'mon, whether you love or hate Metallica, you gotta admit he's an awesome rhythm player.
Brian May for sure
BB King
Tom Morello
Jimmy Page
David Gilmour
Jim James of My Morning Jacket
Vernon ReidLindsey Buckingham
Slash -- very underrated
Randy Rhoads
Angus Young

Yes! Werner Herzog directing Richard Thompson's guitar playing

OTFM! Man, how could anyone forget her?

Buckethead- amazing variety, technique and willingness to take chances

B.B. King- I have never not enjoyed a BB song. Still kicks ass live.

Lightnin' Hopkins

Jimi

Keith Richards

Slash- Nothing of note since '93, but before then, my favorite soloist.

Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo

Django

Prince

Hubert Sumlin

Andy Partridge is a phenomenal guitar player - good enough to genuinely merit kicking Dave Gregory out of the band, I think.

I love Tom verlaine and Richard Lloyd together - slightly less so apart.

Tom Herman was great in Ubu, but I also like Jim Jones a whole lot.

Prince.

I've heard some amazing guitar on modern Ethiopian music, but I couldn't name any names.

Great sidemen/soloists whose own work I'm less fond of: Robert Fripp, Johnny Marr, Manzanera, Belew.

Some odd choices:

David Hidalgo, especially on the Latin Playboys records.

The guy from Stump - Kevin Hopper - was amazing on A Fierce Pancake, but I haven't followed his solo work at all.

Ron Sexsmith plays a mean acoustic guitar.

John Flansburgh was appealingly scrappy in the earliest days of They Might Be Giants. I loved his stage presence back in the day. He is clearly, however, runnin' on Dunkin' now.

Juliana Hatfield
Roger McGuinn
Patrick Pentland
John McGeoch

Robert Fripp - My personal favorite musician of all time

David Tronzo - Really, really interesting slide guitar player

Toby Driver - Currently the most interesting musician leading two of the greatest music acts in the world (Kayo Dot, Tartar Lamb)

Jerry Douglas - #1 Dobro player in the world

Pierre Bensusan - Jazzy celtic folk in all its glory

Don Ross - Only two-time winner of the US National Fingerstyle Championship

Peter Finger - Master acoustic guitarist from Germany

Ralph Towner - 12-string acoustic jazz guitarist extraordinaire

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is one of my favorites. The fills and solos on My Old School ignite something in my head, and that's just one of many, many awesome tunes.

Richard Thompson, particularly for his solo on the live version* of "Can't Win" from the Watching the Dark set. It just seems like such a pure example of someone having extemporaenous fun with an axe.

There are many more, but these'll do for now.

McGuinn

Marr

Quine

Gavurin

The Edge!

Keiji Haino
Ron Ashton
Chet Atkins
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Blind Mamie Forehand (or is that A.C.?)
Blixa Bargeld
Rowland Howard
Wata
Verlaine and Lloyd
Munehiro Nirito
Gregg Ginn
Sioux City Pete

A million others, of course.

Blind Willie Johnson!

^^^^ This. Also Nels Cline, Leo Kottke and Lindsey Buckingham.

pretty crazy that eddie van halen hasn't received one mention on this thread. he's pretty awesome, dudes!

Yes, but
Steve Carlton

right now:

Matt Pike, because he gets a BIG fucking sound out of that thing.

D. BOON. He plays with such energy and inventiveness and uses that insanely treble-y, wiry tone. It's impossible for me not to love him.

Jandek, love him or hate him (I actually lean more towards the latter, really) is always unmistakable.

Jack Rose, because he does Fahey better than Fahey could sometimes.

Takashi Yamaguchi of Sambomaster, for reasons similar to the ones that I love D. Boon for, but mainly I am just itching for an excuse to rep how awesome Sambomaster are on this board.

Ricky Wilson, still.

Judah Bauer doing "Make It Rain" w/ Tom Waits on Letterman is pretty awesome

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rF3YQ5WajJk

That Tom Waits video is BADASS.

Sambomaster tearing shit up in '04:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJAjrSmLkb4

This band needs to come to the US already.

All those rhythm players in reggae.

Nile Rodgers isn't getting enough love, certainly the most fun if not the best.

Karl Precoda had a great sound. And David Kilgour!

No James Burton yet? J. Honeyman-Scott?

Second Derek Trucks from way upthread--that young man is a whale of a player with really wide-ranging interests. Songlines is a tremendous record. Someone asked him why with his southern rock bloodlines he played Roland Kirk and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan songs and he said "Well, it's all the blues."

Redd Volkaert is amazing.

You made him up

http://www.reddvolkaert.net/

No, not so much.

elisa ambrogio and robert fripp.

Great name! (xp)

Indeed. Plus he looks like some redneck greasemonkey who just wandered onstage at the honkytonk, only he's one of the baddest pickers I've ever heard.

http://www.reddvolkaert.net/photos/midsize/bill_kirchen.jpg

L-R, Redd, Bill Kirchen.