Best Guitarist of All Time

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.

d boon

I like Kim Thayil.

cheers jj

I used to think Satriani was more than technique, but not anymore. I wouldn't put Van Halen in with the rest of the weedle-weedle crew, because he's too self taught and idiosyncratic. Same as Buckingham, come to think of it, and not coincidentally both of them tend to stump (relatively speaking) my pretty hot shit guitar teacher (who can otherwise figure out everything from Fripp to Carlton to Thompson). He thinks Slash is slop-city, btw, and as much as he loves Prince points out the flashiest stuff he does is a lot of smoke and mirrors. He loves Prince's rhythm playing, though, on stuff like "Lady Cab Driver" and "Controversy."

Esp. for a UK list, Greenwood being MIA is nuts. That dude is so good he doesn't even need to play guitar anymore. Bellamy wishes his sci-fi Meatloaf rock was at that level.

Oh, and those who know would say Robert Quine.

god i hate soundgarden. coloring my reaction prob but srsly god i hate hate hate that fucking band

One of my fave guitarists hasn't been mentioned yet (since thread revival, he may have been mentioned upthread) Michael Karoli.

xps

hehe jj i love soundgarden

oh and dave navarro on the janes albums is godlike

have never heard of like half the guys on lj's list btw

given how much our tastes converge, it is probably the band we disagree on most! altho they're certainly not in my top-rank. or in the ranks immediately below.

SMC, some of them are British and a few of them are pretty obscure indie types who nonetheless wield a finer axe than most

Navarro's pre-reunion Jane's stuff is next level, but he's sorta buried that with the avalanche of shit that is the rest of his career so I can't place him on any "best of" of anything.

didn't even know Mark Hollis played guitar tbh haha

what the hell, I had a post on this thread that vanished

it basically said "I liked Joe Satriani in high school, which was the last time I really paid attention to guitar players"

30 years does not quite extend back to the heyday of Danny Fichelscher, sadly, but dude was awesome.

my list would probably be robert quine and... that's about it. robert quine.

don't mind john frusciante being on the list tho, he's a really great guitar player, very inventive and creative, always a lot going on with relatively simple elements, cool passing chords and a little extra harmonic flavor. not that i like his band very much, mind.

lol xp to SMC...The guitar is so central to the vision on those last 3 TT albums...cdnt rly have been anyone else, although dude was equally adept at keys obv

neither google nor wikipedia are helping me out on Aaron With. who he?

Not sure if this is his best performance (haven't seen it yet!) but this is a great song and it does require some fairly groovy guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFKsTn5ul88&feature=related

M Hollis gtr work on those records is awesome and literally inimitable.

Also, ppl, Andy Summers, not kidding. One of my all time faves.

And Kimberly Rew as far as freakout psych-blues in a pop frame.

David Byrne and/or Jerry Harrison - not sure who did what, where

john fahey

Noones talking about the actual list now as the 1st post of the revive is off the page now. So I'll repost it for those who didn't see it while the thread was on ILE.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8611997.stm

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante has been voted the best guitarist of the past 30 years.

Frusciante, who left the group in 2008, beat Guns n' Roses star Slash, Muse's Matt Bellamy and Johnny Marr of The Smiths to the top spot.

Prince, Jack White, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and REM's Peter Buck were also in the top 10. But Noel Gallagher, The Edge and Kurt Cobain missed out.

Some 30,000 people took part in BBC 6 Music's Axe Factor online poll.
...

1. John Frusciante - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. Slash - Guns n' Roses
3. Matt Bellamy - Muse
4. Johnny Marr - The Smiths
5. Tom Morello - Rage Against The Machine
6. Kirk Hammett - Metallica
7. Jonny Greenwood - Radiohead
8. Prince
9. Jack White - White Stripes
10. Peter Buck - REM

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 9 April 2010 19:09

Kevin Shields.

Andy from Dog Faced Hermans. Would seriously go see any band if he's in it.