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

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D. Boon.
He had free rein to go wild investigating different styles, thanks to Watt.

The Jazz Guide to Penguins on Compact Disc (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Robert Quine, for keeping the art-spazz funky.
Agata, for sounding like an invasion from Mars. (And for liking Tarkovsky.
That has nothing to do with guitar, but it is something I judge people by.)

shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I've always been a fan of David Gilmour. Incredibly tasteful playing. BB King is another favorite.

Steve Goldberg (Steve Goldberg), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Now that I think about it, it's really two dudes in JBs band, and what I love more than either one of them alone is the both of 'em together.

I think I need to listen to "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothin' Open Up the Door I'll Get it Myself" right NOW.

xpost

yeah art-spazz funky for Quine and Boon and dude from Gang of Four...Andy Gill, that's him.

Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I used to love David Gilmour but he ruined the guitar for me. I spent all my teenage years trying to play like him and now I unwittingly fall back on Gilmour-style licks whenever I try to play lead parts, which is one of the reasons I rarely pick up the guitar anymore.

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:47 (seventeen years ago) link

David Gilmour has a weird special place in my life as "holy shit, magical" which is completely separate from real life musical appreciations. I guess that means he's my favorite (probably ever!). Sorry, non-Floydians: he's amazing.

Led Zep Rules, Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I was just about to mention Andy Gill. His ability to play against/off of the rhythm section always amazes me.

xx-post

Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:48 (seventeen years ago) link

DAVID FAIR

Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:49 (seventeen years ago) link

lindsey buckingham is #1. vini reilly not far behind. david roback. dean wareham's soloing in g500.

electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Thursday, 1 June 2006 23:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Fripp, Fahey, Peter Laughner, Craig Scanlon, Zoot Horn Rollo, Jeff Moris Tepper, Hendrix, um...

(pauses, scans records)

I forgot Richard Bishop, the guitar team on Angry Samoans' "Back From Samoa (Gregg Turner and P.J. Galligan), and Andy from the Dog Faced Hermans. I think that covers an off-the-cuff top ten pretty well.

sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:05 (seventeen years ago) link

i have lots of faves. i like jj cale and lonnie mack and t.s. mcphee and phil keaggy and dick wagner and steve hunter oh really there are too many. there are lots of great guitarists that i like! i'm a big greg sage fan! and i love jorma too. and john cippolina. and glenn campbell of the misunderstood. and glen campbell!

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Mick Taylor

douglas eklund (skolle), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:20 (seventeen years ago) link

"Zoot Horn Rollo"

speaking of which, i'm a huge jeff cotton fan.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:20 (seventeen years ago) link

i actually like just about everyone that everyone has mentioned so far. maybe i have no taste. i like everything. except for bb king. i was never a fan of his. and i don't really need to listen to george thorogood. unless he's on the radio. and i kinda hate j. mascis. other than that though, i like them all! i don't think i've ever knowingly heard ben harper though.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Malkmus. Just was digging his noisy business on "No Tan Lines." Lots of imagination, catchy as hell. And he can play some pretty stuff too.

Elsewhere, Fripp and Ribot are reliably exciting when they play on other people's records.

Taylor, Friday, 2 June 2006 00:29 (seventeen years ago) link

i love brian may too. and tal farlow. and pat martino. and kenny burrell. and ernie isley.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Doc Watson seconded. Merle should also get a mention.

I Always enjoy hearing the likes of good straight-ahead rockers such as Cub Coda & Joe Perry too.

But if I could play like anyone else, it would be Mark Knopfler. I'm not very adept at describing technical abilities, but his sense of touch, if you will, is what I'm trying to get at here. I just don't quite hear that sound anywhere else.

jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Ricky Wilson
Andy Gill, seconded

nerve pylon (flat_of_angles), Friday, 2 June 2006 00:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Verlaine. (Or was that Lloyd? No, I think it was Verlaine. Heck, both of them.)
Frippppp
Lindsey B
Those guys in the Church

People who I'm sure are quite good but don't understand why or how: Marr, Coxon.

And sometimes you just want to hear people with their own very specific voice, like Knopfler and Gilmour.

pleased to mitya (mitya), Friday, 2 June 2006 01:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Agata (Melt-Banana) thoroughly seconded--there is NOBODY who plays guitar like that guy.

Beyond that: Richard Thompson, Nile Rodgers, Bill Frisell, Wm. Berger (Uncle Wiggly), Mary Timony, Richard Thompson some more, Robt. Quine/Ivan Julian team, Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd team, Catfish Collins, Johnny Marr, Erin Smith, Pete Fucking Townshend.

Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 2 June 2006 01:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Mike Campbell
Elliot Easton
Billy Gibbons
Phil Manzanera
Chris Whitley

rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 2 June 2006 02:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Andy Gill
David Rodríguez (from the Spanish band Beef)
Roger Miller
Clapton (OK really just 'Layla' - NOT the acoustic version)
Cobain - because I love artists who know exactly what they want to do but lack the technical proficiency to exactly create it.

davelus (davelus), Friday, 2 June 2006 02:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Keith Levene, James Blood Ulmer, Vince Martin, Bert Jansch, Fred Neil, Ed Kuepper, Johnny Ramone, John Fahey, John Lennon, Grant Green, Ernest Ranglin, Barney Sumner, and Peter Hook. I know that Hooky's a bassist, but he often played lead in Joy Division and New Order. Which brings me back to the David Fair's thread, both Hook/Sumner were entirely self-taught. If they had been formally trained in proper technique Joy Division would have been a lot less interesting musically. Since I mentioned Hooky, I may as well toss Jah Wobble in their too.

Ice Cream Electric (Ice Cream Electric), Friday, 2 June 2006 02:47 (seventeen years ago) link

you know who get's no fuckin respect? Carlos fuckin' Alomar. What the fuck? He's seriously been my guitar hero since I was three.

tonyD (noiseyrock), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Loren Mazzacane Connors

Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:26 (seventeen years ago) link

In no way a token female mention, but Nancy Wilson is really quite amazing when she chooses to be.

Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Should that read "when she chooses to be Jimmy Page"?

rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:32 (seventeen years ago) link

When Dexter Romweber is hot, I swear he sounds like a whole orchestra. His covers of Sing Sing Sing and Brazil do this especially. He's so good at implying the presence of other instruments.

Kim Thayil got great range of textures going in Soundgarden, editing out the predictable moves in metal, bringing it back to the riff. He's the anti-van halen, if you will.

Cheetah Chrome is the definative early punk guitarist for me. Glam, but mean instead of slinky.

bendy (bendy), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Viiiiiiniiiii Reiiiiilly

ESTEBAN BUTTEZ is a GE Money Genie (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Franco Mussida of P.F.M. is amazing. The records don't necessarily reflect that, but I saw P.F.M. live - up close - towards the end of the 70's, and Mussida absolutely fried my brain.

Thomas Diethelm is a wonderful Swiss 'nylon' player - try his "Valleys In My Head" CD (with Santino Famulari).

Glen Phillips ("Lost At Sea" etc.) is also very hot.

So Ho La (So Ho La), Friday, 2 June 2006 04:11 (seventeen years ago) link

rowland s. howard & mick harvey
kevin shields & belinda butcher
lou reed
frank black & joey santiago
duane denison
jimmy page
johnny ramone
lee ranaldo
angus & malcolm young
neil young
dave payne
brian may
steve malkmus

6335, Friday, 2 June 2006 04:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Steve Cropper
David Byrne
Will Sergeant
Jimmy Nolen
Alfonzo Kellum
Graham Coxon
Pete Townshend
Malcolm Ross
Freddie Stone

David Bachyrycz (David Bachyrycz), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll second/third/fourthd Vini Reilly and Fripp.

Trayce (trayce), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:21 (seventeen years ago) link

my pixxxx:

Guitar players: POX

Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:23 (seventeen years ago) link

ooh yeah how did i forget rowly

electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Fripp and Ribot are reliably exciting when they play on other people's records.

I think you should listen to Exposure again. Fripp brings the jamz on that album.

sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Eric Clapton. Steve Howe.

Sean Robison (yaratnam), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice idea. I still have Exposure too.

x-post

Taylor, Friday, 2 June 2006 05:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I *just* watched an instructional vid with Brian Setzer. He's great fun! Love his attitude: "Just boppin' through it... Having a general disregard for music" :)

shorty (shorty), Friday, 2 June 2006 05:47 (seventeen years ago) link

John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
Herman Lee (Dragonforce)
Sam Totman (Dragonforce)
Jimmy Page
Robert Johnson
Jake Shimabukuro
Django Reinhardt
Stephen Malkmus
Itou Shinichi -- this guy is -great- (Sparta Locals)
Tabuchi Hisako (Number Girl, Toddle)
Mukai Shutoku (Number Girl, Zazen Boys)
Yoshikane Sou (Zazen Boys)
Doug Martsch (Built to Spill)
Joe Asher (Mock Orange)
Ryan Grisham (Mock Orange)
Spencer Seim (Hella)
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta)

Zedd, Friday, 2 June 2006 06:23 (seventeen years ago) link

just a few that haven't been mentioned yet but deserve to be:

Ricky Gardiner (on Low, Lust for Life)
James Williamson (o so efficient yet creative on his songs with Iggy Pop)
Michael Rother
Michael Karoli

willem -- (willem), Friday, 2 June 2006 07:14 (seventeen years ago) link

-richard thompson
-clarence white

Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen (arnart1802), Friday, 2 June 2006 07:39 (seventeen years ago) link

No-one's mentioned him yet, so Syd Barrett. And Keith Rowe of course.

Oh No, It's Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 2 June 2006 08:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Stacy Sutherland

willem -- (willem), Friday, 2 June 2006 08:39 (seventeen years ago) link

... seconded

Oh No, It's Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 2 June 2006 09:00 (seventeen years ago) link

The only possible answer:

http://gordfynes.com/images/derek_bailey.jpg

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 2 June 2006 09:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Mr Baileys was better when playing melodic musics with the Wise & Morecambes

Oh No, It's Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 2 June 2006 09:09 (seventeen years ago) link

How could I forget this guy, Michio Kurihara, the guitarist from White Heaven and Ghost. Great scorched earth feedback and squall. I also really love Sterling Morrison's playing on the thirs Velvets album.

Ice Cream Electric (Ice Cream Electric), Friday, 2 June 2006 09:12 (seventeen years ago) link

What bits does Sterling Morrison play on the first album? Lou does all the lead work.

Oh No, It's Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 2 June 2006 09:14 (seventeen years ago) link

My favourite is Steve Hackett, and he's not technically "best" (just I like his way of playing better than, for instance, Jimi Hendrix' or Alvin Lee's)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 2 June 2006 09:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't fault a lot of the standard greats just to answer back on a few faves (before my ride comes):

Peter Green - unless you'll never forgive him for birthing Carlos Santana

Pete Cosey - there's some ridiculous stuff on those Miles boot videos

Hubert Sumlin - completely unmistakable

John Fahey - an encyclopedia of vintage moves who played with exquisite soul

Tommy Bolin - a mutant

Karl Precoda - ha! I loved him at the time (1982?). he had matching Silvertones w/one pickup removed running through some shitty graphic EQ w/all the sliders all the way up as a distortion box.

Judah Bauer - was remarkably talented w/JS and that Honeymoon Killers tour.
glad to know he's still at it.

A few others:

Paul from Toiling Midgets, Gary Lee Conner from Screaming Trees, McLaughlin (more so on the Miles than Mahavishnu tho' I was a BIG Mahavishnu fan and saw them a few times and though he was the BEST at the time), Adrian Bellew (another mutant). OK gotta run

factcheckr, Saturday, 31 May 2008 00:45 (fifteen years ago) link

Geir's "he's not that good lol racist" mention

didn't come across that way to me...

stephen, Saturday, 31 May 2008 04:38 (fifteen years ago) link

Mine are incredibly predicatable and all old and from spent (like me, I guess) labels like SST. I need some new guitar heroes

Greg Sage
Bob Mould (of old)
Greg Ginn (so brutally messy)
Robin Guthrie
Westerberg
That guy from MBV
Dr Know - but he was jazz trained right?
Ted Falconi - absolutely unique
Nick Drake
Townsend
Curt Kirkwood
D Boon
Jay Adams (from El Paso's Rhythm Pigs - loved his distortion/chorus approach. It was kind of unique to 'Hardcore' in those days)
Brian Egeness from Die Kreuzen
Ira Kaplan, when he lets rip

I'm sure I've missed some of my favourite more modern pop pickers. Although more likely, I'm old and have been treading water for the last 15 years

Fer Ark, Saturday, 31 May 2008 15:43 (fifteen years ago) link

Not the 'best' but my recent favourite has really been Mark Kozelek.

derrrick, Saturday, 31 May 2008 20:14 (fifteen years ago) link

lindsey buckingham and david sylvian (check some of the solos on tin drum)

r1o natsume, Saturday, 31 May 2008 20:23 (fifteen years ago) link

oh someone who i doubt has been mentioned but is also amazing and under-rated: alan rankine from the associates

r1o natsume, Saturday, 31 May 2008 20:24 (fifteen years ago) link

didn't come across that way to me...

yeah what Geir actually said was "I prefer the way Steve Hackett plays"

J0hn D., Saturday, 31 May 2008 21:01 (fifteen years ago) link

David Sylvian playing a lead guitar, really?

iago g., Sunday, 1 June 2008 01:40 (fifteen years ago) link

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

He is. Maybe he'd be "the best" guitarist. I'm only really familiar with Van Halen's singles and well-known tracks, but my favorite of his guitar work -- again, maybe not "the best" of his work, but my favorite -- is his almost funky-ish playing on Finish What You Started. Maybe some his other work has that kind of "swing" to it (Jump kind of does, too, I guess, but in a very different way), but that's the Van Halen song I immediately think of as having groove/swing.

Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 1 June 2008 01:57 (fifteen years ago) link

Bob Mould (of old)
Robin Guthrie
Westerberg
That guy from MBV
Ira Kaplan, when he lets rip

seconded all ^^

stephen, Sunday, 1 June 2008 17:28 (fifteen years ago) link

Also, Ronnie Montrose

Bill Magill, Monday, 2 June 2008 20:33 (fifteen years ago) link

I was thinking of posting Bo Diddley here just yesterday...(I know he's been mentioned before)...

also: David Gedge, James Honeyman-Scott and Richard Hawley (who I just heard explaining the great man on BBC).

2for25, Monday, 2 June 2008 21:35 (fifteen years ago) link

three years pass...

here's an article on my friend and bandmate Ava Mendoza: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/ava-mendoza

she's awesome

Dominique, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 22:09 (eleven years ago) link

Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski!!

Evan, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 05:04 (eleven years ago) link

lately: Nels Cline, Jenn Wasner (of Wye Oak), Lewis Pesacov (of Fool's Gold and Foreign Born)

caulk the wagon and float it, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:22 (eleven years ago) link

Not the 'best' but my recent favourite has really been Mark Kozelek.

worrrrrrrrrrrd

caulk the wagon and float it, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:23 (eleven years ago) link

kozelek can do cool classical guitar/complex acoustic fingerpicking stuff really well but also has, imo, a really unique way of playing electric guitar. maybe it's as much about the guitar tone as any actual technique, but the guitars on the more sprawling RHP/SKM songs (Make Like Paper, Between Days, Salvador Sanchez, Lily & Parrots, The Light, Tonight the Sky) is pure fucking heaven. sounds like little else out there aside from Neil Young/Crazy Horse

caulk the wagon and float it, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:26 (eleven years ago) link

Steven R. Smith, Roy Montgomery, Carl Hultgren, Dylan Carlson, Dave Pierce (or is it Pearce?), Fripp as played for Eno, etc.

Matt M., Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:26 (eleven years ago) link

though if there's some band that has the same satisfying guitar crunch as "Make Like Paper" and i don't know about them please let me know

caulk the wagon and float it, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:27 (eleven years ago) link

my all-time fave guitar playing might be Bill Frisell on the first disc of "East/West". his backing is also phenomenal, but I could listen to him set the heavens ablaze on "Shenandoah" with no backing for all eternity

caulk the wagon and float it, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 15:32 (eleven years ago) link

lately Peter Lang

l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:13 (eleven years ago) link

Folks should go check out some Ava Mendoza, she really is a phenomenal player (I hadn't heard much to be honest, but checked out a bunch of stuff recently and was really into it).

Second Ash and Dave of Polvo, love them to death.

Another recent discovery for me is Chris Forsyth, whose album "Paranoid Cat" kinda blew me away.

Not mentioned yet: Tom Carter. His playing on the recent Charalambides record "Exile" is stunning.

(love lots of the other stuff everyone else in this thread has mentioned of course)

grandavis, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:22 (eleven years ago) link

Guys I like listening to who never pop up on those stupid lists: Mick Ralphs, Mark Farner, Uli Roth, Jerry Garcia, Deniz Tek, Catfish Collins, Robertson/Gorham, Tommy Bolin, Buck Dharma

― Bill Magill, Friday, May 30, 2008 10:21 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM

One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:57 (eleven years ago) link

Roy Montgomery seconded. I've gotten into that dude lately in a major way.

Adrian Belew's broken-fax solos on that live Talking Heads in Rome film.

Eric Clapton Unplugged taught me about phrasing and touch when I was 15 and learning to play on a borrowed classical guitar.

Alex Lifeson's evil fuzz tone on early Rush, though I find most of his solos plotless.

SongOfSam, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link

David Sylvian playing a lead guitar, really?
― iago g., Sunday, 1 June 2008 02:40 (3 years ago)

i think david sylvian played some nice stuff on Propaganda's A secret wish

Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 18:34 (eleven years ago) link

Earnest Beauvine from Jon Wayne
bernerm-bernerm-bernerm-bernerm

Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Thursday, 3 May 2012 02:49 (eleven years ago) link

Victor Jara.

Colin Newman + Bruce Gilbert.

collardio gelatinous, Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:20 (eleven years ago) link

Johnny Marr. No one else comes close.

Bryan, Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:50 (eleven years ago) link

right now Buck Dharma (and he may BE the best too)

l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 3 May 2012 17:49 (eleven years ago) link

Johnny Marr. No one else comes close.

Marr had aspirations to be a professional football player, and was approached by Nottingham Forest and had trials with Manchester City (which he supports). In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, Marr said "I was good enough for City, but they didn't follow up because I was probably the only player out there wearing eyeliner."[citation needed]

L'ennui, cette maladie de tous les (Michael White), Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:00 (eleven years ago) link

was listening to this show yesterday and um YES www.wolfgangsvault.com/link-wray/concerts/record-plant-september-25-1974.html

tylerw, Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:33 (eleven years ago) link


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