Best Rock Guitarist
Best Rock Guitarist
Totally ignoring Rolling Stone's out of date bag of shite, and being totally subjective name your top 6 :
Knopfler
Buckingham
Gary Moore
Angus
Clapton
Hendrix
Go for it!
Knopfler
Buckingham
Gary Moore
Angus
Clapton
Hendrix
Go for it!
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Here’s six...
Hendrix
Duane Denison
Adrian Belew
Keiji Haino
Prince
Billy Gibbons
Hendrix
Duane Denison
Adrian Belew
Keiji Haino
Prince
Billy Gibbons
- RodneyRegis
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Oh good, another opportunity for people pto leave it Clapton and wait to be asked why.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
I don't even like his band but the fact we're even 4 posts into this thread and still no mention of Eddie Van Halen is criminal.
- Short Man Syndrome
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Me
Guthrie Govan
Me again
Chris Poland
Still Me
Steve Vai
Guthrie Govan
Me again
Chris Poland
Still Me
Steve Vai
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Brian May.
Pete Townshend.
Mike Campbell.
John Entwistle.
Dickey Betts
Entwistle is there because he described himself as a guitarist. And he made the bass guitar talk.
Also: Bonamassa. Eric, Page, Prince, Satriani, Randy Bachmann.
Pete Townshend.
Mike Campbell.
John Entwistle.
Dickey Betts
Entwistle is there because he described himself as a guitarist. And he made the bass guitar talk.
Also: Bonamassa. Eric, Page, Prince, Satriani, Randy Bachmann.
Last edited by obelixtim on Sat Jan 16, 2021 6:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Better with examples of their work, no?
IMHO, the best exponent of electric blues Stevie Ray Vaughn. Texas Flood.
The guy could sing too.
IMHO, the best exponent of electric blues Stevie Ray Vaughn. Texas Flood.
The guy could sing too.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
My subjective top 3:
Hendrix
Vernon Reid
Slash
Mine is based purely on the music I like, and I do like non black guitarists too - but can't think of any obvious ones at the moment.
Hendrix
Vernon Reid
Slash
Mine is based purely on the music I like, and I do like non black guitarists too - but can't think of any obvious ones at the moment.
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
I know he's a song thief and a wrong 'un regarding teenagers, but no one mentioning Jimmy Page yet is messed up.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
The best is Hendrix, all incredibly subjective of course.
My favourites to listen to in no particular order;
Neil Young
Adam Franklin
Larry Lalonde
George Harrison
Buzz Osborne
Duane Denison
Jonny Greenwood
Steve Gunn
John Frusciante (Mother’s Milk / BSSM)
Josh Homme
Mark Knopfler
Dean Ween
Slash (Appetite)
East Bay Ray
Billy Gibbons
Billy Corgan
Graham Coxon
Adam Jones
Jim Martin
Angus Young
Trey Spruance
MacKaye/Picciotto - Fugazi
Moore/Ranaldo - Sonic Youth
I’m sure there’s a shitload to add.
My favourites to listen to in no particular order;
Neil Young
Adam Franklin
Larry Lalonde
George Harrison
Buzz Osborne
Duane Denison
Jonny Greenwood
Steve Gunn
John Frusciante (Mother’s Milk / BSSM)
Josh Homme
Mark Knopfler
Dean Ween
Slash (Appetite)
East Bay Ray
Billy Gibbons
Billy Corgan
Graham Coxon
Adam Jones
Jim Martin
Angus Young
Trey Spruance
MacKaye/Picciotto - Fugazi
Moore/Ranaldo - Sonic Youth
I’m sure there’s a shitload to add.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
No Clapton? But, as a non-oficionado, why don't Richie Blackmore & Alvin Lee get any love on these lists? Carlos Santana too for that matter.mr bungle wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:04 am The best is Hendrix, all incredibly subjective of course.
My favourites to listen to in no particular order;
Neil Young
Adam Franklin
Larry Lalonde
George Harrison
Buzz Osborne
Duane Denison
Jonny Greenwood
Steve Gunn
John Frusciante (Mother’s Milk / BSSM)
Josh Homme
Mark Knopfler
Dean Ween
Slash (Appetite)
East Bay Ray
Billy Gibbons
Billy Corgan
Graham Coxon
Adam Jones
Jim Martin
Angus Young
Trey Spruance
MacKaye/Picciotto - Fugazi
Moore/Ranaldo - Sonic Youth
I’m sure there’s a shitload to add.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
I don't really listen to Clapton, but as a guitarist of no comparable talent, I can appreciate his playing.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
In my opinion ...
Hendrix and Van Halen easily the most original and influential. Each caused seismic shifts in what a guitar could actually do amd sound like. The innovators.
Hendrix was an Alien and EVH just the most naturally talented muso going. Pure joy. Always had a smile on his face whilst ripping out a big stretch. EVH the best rock rhythm guitarist by miles ... drop dead timing and power in his right hand....but a lot of time for the late Malcolm Young.
Daylight.
Jimmy Page and Gilmour my favourite Brits. Great acoustic players.
Claptons stuff with Cream brilliant. Then when he started to sober up he delivered bland tosh from the mid 70s onwards. Great vocalist though.
Big fan of Knopfler also in the 80s. George Harrison hugely underrated.
Hendrix and Van Halen easily the most original and influential. Each caused seismic shifts in what a guitar could actually do amd sound like. The innovators.
Hendrix was an Alien and EVH just the most naturally talented muso going. Pure joy. Always had a smile on his face whilst ripping out a big stretch. EVH the best rock rhythm guitarist by miles ... drop dead timing and power in his right hand....but a lot of time for the late Malcolm Young.
Daylight.
Jimmy Page and Gilmour my favourite Brits. Great acoustic players.
Claptons stuff with Cream brilliant. Then when he started to sober up he delivered bland tosh from the mid 70s onwards. Great vocalist though.
Big fan of Knopfler also in the 80s. George Harrison hugely underrated.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
EVH is as you say, supremely talented and hugely infuential from the 80s onwards. He's also probably the hands down winner in talent vs poor song discography, Van Halen as a collective song producing team are incredibly weak. Maybe Vai edges him as his stuff is completly unlistenable.
- CrazyIslander
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Hendrix
Hammett
Knopfler
Page
May
Sambora
Santana
Hammett
Knopfler
Page
May
Sambora
Santana
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Gilmour
Hendrix
Randy Rhoads
Mark Knopfler
Buddy Guy
Van Halen
Hendrix
Randy Rhoads
Mark Knopfler
Buddy Guy
Van Halen
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
EVH was a brilliant song writer in my opinion. And the mega success of his band suggests plenty of people got it. So melodic and his combo with Ted Templeman was a winner. He sometimes is unfairly tainted with by having prize clown David Lee Roth fronting the band. But EVH was prolific, an American National Treasure and one of rocks most important muso’s ...ever.mr bungle wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:22 am EVH is as you say, supremely talented and hugely infuential from the 80s onwards. He's also probably the hands down winner in talent vs poor song discography, Van Halen as a collective song producing team are incredibly weak. Maybe Vai edges him as his stuff is completly unlistenable.
Vai is a fabulous player ... a real guitarists guitarist.
I thought Frampton was bloody good as well.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
My out and out favourites both rhythm guitarists:
Bruce Welch
Malcolm Young
Of the lead variety:
Angus
Gilmour
May
However my guilty secret is someone who was one of the original rock guitarists, who had/has a unique sound, albeit a simple, but precise, sound
Duane Eddy
Bruce Welch
Malcolm Young
Of the lead variety:
Angus
Gilmour
May
However my guilty secret is someone who was one of the original rock guitarists, who had/has a unique sound, albeit a simple, but precise, sound
Duane Eddy
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Good call.puku wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 6:41 am Better with examples of their work, no?
IMHO, the best exponent of electric blues Stevie Ray Vaughn. Texas Flood.
The guy could sing too.
Not so well-known, but Pat Travers deserves a mention IMO.
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
No mention of Alex Lifeson?
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Not much love for B.B King in this thread?


Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Quite a few talents whose bands just never produced much great stuff. Steve Lukather is a beast player and arranger, but aside from a few 80s anthems, Toto weren’t that good. Great session players mind you. Paul Gilbert could play the pants off most players but he was a founding member of Mr fucking Big.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
I think we’re all thinking rock in the modern sense rather than blues. He’s incredible along with so many other blues greats.
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Tbh a lot of threads lile these tend to vongregate around the guitarists people are familiar with ergo famous.
I am sure that there a re lots of others not particularly famous that more knowledgable people than myself will have heard about.
Probably session musicians that those in the industry know about.
I am sure that there a re lots of others not particularly famous that more knowledgable people than myself will have heard about.
Probably session musicians that those in the industry know about.
- ScarfaceClaw
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Gilmour
May
Knofler
Manzanera
Angus Young
There is a whole sub set below these guys
May
Knofler
Manzanera
Angus Young
There is a whole sub set below these guys
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 70s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 60s and 70s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 70s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 80s
Token black guy who was popular in the 60s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 80s
It is almost as if the forum is populated by a bunch of middle aged men who think music stopped when they turned 40.
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 60s and 70s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 70s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 80s
Token black guy who was popular in the 60s
Arbitrary white guy who was popular in the 80s
It is almost as if the forum is populated by a bunch of middle aged men who think music stopped when they turned 40.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
These lists always divide people over what the best means in terms of guitar playing.
Technical ability, riff composition, guitar part arrangers, ambient playing, ability to compose/play guitar parts that the song needs, taking the instrument in a never been done before direction, pioneering use of effects/discoverer of new sounds/textures/tones.
I love different guitarists for very different reasons and comparing what they do is often futile.
Top of my head and forgetting loads..,
EVH,
The Edge
Mark Knophler
Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Slash
Gilmour
In terms of talent, technique and taste (with varying degrees depending on the player I’d say I’d I listen to MK and The Edge the most. Good songwriting, well written guitar parts and giving the songs what they need.
But neither would be considered pyro guitarists though mostly well respected.
Technical ability, riff composition, guitar part arrangers, ambient playing, ability to compose/play guitar parts that the song needs, taking the instrument in a never been done before direction, pioneering use of effects/discoverer of new sounds/textures/tones.
I love different guitarists for very different reasons and comparing what they do is often futile.
Top of my head and forgetting loads..,
EVH,
The Edge
Mark Knophler
Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Slash
Gilmour
In terms of talent, technique and taste (with varying degrees depending on the player I’d say I’d I listen to MK and The Edge the most. Good songwriting, well written guitar parts and giving the songs what they need.
But neither would be considered pyro guitarists though mostly well respected.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
6? OK, I will give it an improvised try:
Hendrix
Buckethead (Don't know him? Shame on you - GoT style)
Gilmore
Adrian Smith (Maiden and Dickinson solo)
Blackmore (in Purple, not his solo stuff about fairies)
Frusciante (RHCP and solo)
(Cheating
) Honorable Mentions:
- Dave Murray (the other great of Maiden)
- EVH: was a great innovator, but I can barely listen to the pop music of VH.
- Iommi: for turning a personal tragedy into the development of a completely different sound.
- May: unique sound, and incredible human being.
- Steve Morse, or how to actually replace the irreplaceable Blackmore.
- Satriani / Vai / Gilbert: great technical players, with some amazing songs.
- Angus and Malcom Young: the gods of traditional RNR.
- Slash and Izzy Stradlin: for giving the world AFD and UYI I and II.
- Morello: the guitarist that wanted to become a DJ.
Dishonorable Mentions:
- Malmsteen: great technical player, boring and pretentious music, but that lead a musical trend.
Hendrix
Buckethead (Don't know him? Shame on you - GoT style)

Gilmore
Adrian Smith (Maiden and Dickinson solo)
Blackmore (in Purple, not his solo stuff about fairies)
Frusciante (RHCP and solo)
(Cheating

- Dave Murray (the other great of Maiden)
- EVH: was a great innovator, but I can barely listen to the pop music of VH.
- Iommi: for turning a personal tragedy into the development of a completely different sound.
- May: unique sound, and incredible human being.
- Steve Morse, or how to actually replace the irreplaceable Blackmore.
- Satriani / Vai / Gilbert: great technical players, with some amazing songs.
- Angus and Malcom Young: the gods of traditional RNR.
- Slash and Izzy Stradlin: for giving the world AFD and UYI I and II.
- Morello: the guitarist that wanted to become a DJ.
Dishonorable Mentions:
- Malmsteen: great technical player, boring and pretentious music, but that lead a musical trend.
- Short Man Syndrome
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Steve Lukather - although that kind of nudges us towards fusion... but Luke could be the most naturally gifted musician to pick up a guitar.
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
No mention of Carlos Santana ?
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Re: Best Rock Guitarist
I remember in the late 90's it was announced he was going to do a tour of NZ and a girl I know legitimately thought it was going to be a musical duo of Carlos Spencer & Tana Umaga - "Carlos and Tana".
But then the same girl watched the Sixth Sense and didn't realise Bruce Willis was a ghost.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
How could I forget Robbie Kreiger, I love that quirkiest of players. What a band. Blues guitar meets classical keys meets jazz drummer then add Morrison.mr bungle wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:04 am The best is Hendrix, all incredibly subjective of course.
My favourites to listen to in no particular order;
Neil Young
Adam Franklin
Larry Lalonde
George Harrison
Buzz Osborne
Duane Denison
Jonny Greenwood
Steve Gunn
John Frusciante (Mother’s Milk / BSSM)
Josh Homme
Mark Knopfler
Dean Ween
Slash (Appetite)
East Bay Ray
Billy Gibbons
Billy Corgan
Graham Coxon
Adam Jones
Jim Martin
Angus Young
Trey Spruance
MacKaye/Picciotto - Fugazi
Moore/Ranaldo - Sonic Youth
I’m sure there’s a shitload to add.
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
SRV
Rory Gallagher
Jimy Hendrix
Prince
Paul Personne
Rory Gallagher
Jimy Hendrix
Prince
Paul Personne
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Tash Sultana
Kaki King
Gina Gleeson
Kaki King
Gina Gleeson
Re: Best Rock Guitarist
Many years ago I attended an Eric Clapton concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where he brought out Robert Cray, then Buddy Guy and finally BB King.
They could all play a bit. Having all of them out there together, totally unexpected, was fantastic.