Best Guitarist of All Time

matt bellamy has pretty good chops - or had, at least

ratm is just too awful to contemplate in any regard, plus dude's guitar-style was so cruddy

the only one who deserves to be in this list is prince and that is truth

I mean he's a decent enough songwriter and everything, but Peter Buck has like zero chops and nothing close to a signature sound wtf

Jack White is a pretty inventive guitar player, he definitely belongs in any list of this kind

really most of this list is okay/understandable but the exceptions are pretty glaring imho

remember its bbc 6 music listeners

Shakey do you agree with lj that tom morello is a crap guitarist with a cruddy style? (and that matt bellamy is better than he is)
No point in arguing that none of them deserve to be in the top 10 guitarists list as that goes without saying.

LJ why not give us a rundown on each guitarist in the top 10 of what you think of their guitar playing?

This should be so simple. Just count raving fanboys and tote up the winner.

John squire's better than peter buck!
Noel's a fucking strum by numbers who can't even play some of his own solo's!

I don't think I could identify a single Muse song/have never paid attention to them so have no opinion about them really.

I wouldn't say Morello's crap exactly - he has some mildly amusing tricks - but I don't really have any time for RATM. they're just a car-crash of bad aesthetic decisions.

agreed that Squire is way ahead of most of these jokers. Noel is also a pretty boring guitarist.

No point in arguing that none of them deserve to be in the top 10 guitarists list as that goes without saying.

dude, fucking Prince

yeah I rate Prince pretty highly even if his recent output is dire

also, where's bernard butler, great sound and style!

lol Peter Buck is a terrible guitarist

― Shamandy Warhol (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, April 9, 2010

wat?

come on lj give us your rundown!
(then give us your top 10 guitarists list)

Peter Buck's playing on the first few REM albums is fantastic: folk-rock jangle energised by post-punk. He's a great example of a guitarist who makes the most of his limitations. Some of the stuff on Reckoning is quite ingenious. He's not a 'great' guitar player though, and he's been fairly lazy in recent years.

It's a pretty boring list. People have just chosen their favourite bands. Only Prince really belongs on there. Maybe Jonny Greenwood. I quite enjoy Matt Bellamy's ridiculous playing on a comedy level, but nah. Squier is wanky as fuck and fairly derivative - the rhythm section are the Stone Roses' real.
heroes. Glad the Edge didn't make it on there. Most overrated guitarist of all time.
So who's been missed out? King Sunny Ade, Lee & Thurston, Neil Hagerty, Marnie Stern, Mark Ribot, Andy Gill, Eddie Van Halen, Niles Rogers, Keiji Haino...

1. John Frusciante - Red Hot Chili Peppers - not heard much RHCP (not a great fan) but dude's clearly pretty good - his work with The Mars Volta is genuinely impressive
2. Slash - Guns n' Roses - good flashy hard-rock guitarist, the occasional killer solo, quite perceptive
3. Matt Bellamy - Muse - has had some stellar moments, especially on Muse's 2nd and 3rd albums, but really isn't as good as his fans think. Better pianist than guitarist
4. Johnny Marr - The Smiths - obviously has a fine technique, and a very good grasp of subtlety and cadence. Tends to be a songwriter's dream rather than his own man, though - has never made me fall out of my seat (aside from on 'Good Morning Beautiful')
5. Tom Morello - Rage Against The Machine - baaaaaaaauuuuugh
6. Kirk Hammett - Metallica - sure Metallica are quite good - he can presumably play some mean guitar
7. Jonny Greenwood - Radiohead - good but not great - again, like Bellamy, best found behind a synth
8. Prince - godlike
9. Jack White - White Stripes - plays grunge and hard-rock equally well, and adds a neat personal stamp - not *amazing* though
10. Peter Buck - REM - cba

The White Stripes guitar work doesn't sound anything like grunge or 'hard rock' to me. I guess he gets a rap for aping Led Zeppelin, but it's not like he's playing AC/DC (which is the prototypical hard rock sound to me). He's much, uh, noisier than either of those much of the time.

squire was wanky later on, you can't call shoot you down and bye bye badman wanky, tis beautiful guitaring!
agree with the roses rhythm section, they were solid live, but half credit goes to squire for writing bass lines!

Cheers LJ, cant wait to see your top 10 best guitarists list!
xp

Can't believe Noel Gallagher missed out. And then there's Bonehead, and I think Liam plays guitar on one or two tracks too.

so i guess according to the BBC acoustic guitar doesnt count then.

i hate that list, but i hate most lists like this so

only 2 on there i agree with are Jack White and Prince (people totally sleep on JW by the way, hes one of the only recent guitar players to make me go completely O_O a good percentage of the time)

I should listen to The White Stripes more tbh - JW does some pretty odd things quite often (lol Icky Thump)

yeah watching JW play live is pretty remarkable - he jumps from simple pop hooks to noise to fleet-fingered blues riffing with amazing dexterity

I dont play guitar so have no idea how good guitarists are technically, so it's good sometimes to see who people rate highly that aren't the usual vai,satriani,van halen etc (metal guitarists just only ever seem to rate metal guitarists and ignore everything else "oh but he's a jazz guitarist/drummer etc")
Of course this list, is as someone said above, just people voting for the guitarist in their fave band.

Another vote for Jack White being great. I love Lindsay Buckingham too, but I guess he must be too 70s for this list.

possible ignored peeps:

Leo Kottke
Rodrigo y Gabriela (really just pick one - my choice is Gabriella tho)

xpost Buckingham is a great choice as well

i'm sure i am alone in thinking this, and it's more for a vibe and feeling than technique per se, but i'll mention rodrigo y gabriela. he's amazingly quick and nimble, especially given how he attacks the notes, and her rhythm playing (with all that precussive knocking) is breathtaking.

ugh. . . wow, timing.

and yeah, i'd say buckingham, too.

re: Satriani/Vai/Van Halen. that's just genre prejudices in the way. I don't expect JW to whip out any jazz chords or black metal scales but that's beside point. no genre is "more difficult" than any other, they all have rules. it's what you do with those rules that's interesting. I don't rate Satriani or Vai really because their material sucks, it's as simple as that. Its not a question of how many notes per second you can play or whatever, it's not a race...

xp

(also "all time" /= the last 30 years, does it? unless I'm missing something)

jj do you still work in a guitar centre? if so, who are the biggest influences for your customers? I guess Clapton for the oldies but who for everyone else?

oh hahahaha no no no i dont work in a guitar center, i own my own guitar store

clapton is def slipping, let me think about who i hear a lot about and ill get back to you

re: Satriani/Vai/Van Halen. that's just genre prejudices in the way. I don't expect JW to whip out any jazz chords or black metal scales but that's beside point. no genre is "more difficult" than any other, they all have rules. it's what you do with those rules that's interesting.

of course it works both ways, many will look down on metal just as the metal dudes look down on everything else.

ahh ok, I didn't know that, it's just that one time you mentioned working in some guitar centre (think it was the monster cables thread)

Rick Bishop
Tom Verlaine (yes, even today)

Really drawing a blank on who else I could put in my list. Jeff Buckley would be there. Bernard Butler and Nick McCabe too probably. Otherwise the metal dudes can have the rest I guess.

my personal "all time" list would be fairly conventional, I think: Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, Eddie Hazel, Prince, definitely Hagerty (who's mentioned upthread somewhere - that guy is unbelievable and totally slept on), Joao Gilberto, Django Rinehart, Kevin Shields... I guess it would be a pretty long list actually haha

xp

i may have mentioned how guitar center dudes are by and large clueless and should not be trusted? ive been working in the same store since i was 14 (family business, y'all), so def not a guitar center survivor, thank god. xxxposts

Personal FAVOURITE (electric, Western-style) guitarists (because lol I'm not touching them acoustickers - many of whom are better than anyone I'll mention here) of the last 30 years:

1) Aaron With
2) Tim Smith
3) Grasshopper
4) Trey Spruance
5) Toby Driver
6) Mark Hollis
7) Kim Thayil
8) Chris Olley
9) Kavus Torabi
10) Brian Futter

Guitar Center is such a fucking joke. occasionally I have to buy something from there but god forbid I listen to any of the employees about anything. basically have had to figure things out for myself.

Fair enough. I didn't realise Squire wrote the basslines. That would explain why Mani isn't particularly impressive on Primal Scream records. Then again, he doesn't have a lot to work with!

I was being unfair to Johnny Marr. He certainly deserves to be on there. He's my favourite thing about the Smiths. It's a shame that the indie-pop guitarists who rip him off lack his range or ability to soak up diverse influences - the post-chorus run in Bigmouth Strikes Again shows an African influence, while the dramatic sighs of How Soon Is Now are incredible. And of course there's This Charming Man, which is just perfect.

Who else can we add? Jack Rose (RIP), Sir Richard Bishop, Howe Gelb, Mick Barr, Eugene Chadbourne, Trey Spruance...

no offense intended to guitar center employees, its just that no one with a modicum of knowledge/skill would work for the insanely low wages they pay, but this is all more suited for another thread, so i will shut up now.

xpost oh yuck lj, kim thayil, rlly? trey spruance is amazing tho

so is it like massively unfashionable to say that you still like Joe Satriani

jj, while you compile your customers influences, fancy moving this thread to ILM? I'm sure it would be of more interest over there? Im sure the original poster wont mind (if he's still here)

dan you like joe satriani?

PRESTO!

kim thayil, rlly?

Rlly. If I'd only heard 'Like Suicide' he'd be in.