Truer words . . .

Best of Lists are pointless. They only mean something at that time, at that place, to that specific individual. I have found that Americans - in particular - love their lists . . . best of, worst of, fattest, skinniest, wealthiest, prettiest, ugliest . . . useless.

Ian

That may be, but how many of these guys are that obscure? Sometimes we forget some of the names because only one genre of guitar playing may come to mind immediately. Most of the guitarists named here I can recall hearing something they have played. Sometimes learning of others unknown to you might expand your own horizons.
The choices presented give some insight into the people making the choice as well. For instance, while speed is important to me, musicality and creativity are much more important. Hence, I wouldn't consider EVH, or a number of others in the running for "Best Guitarist".

Sorry to dredge the thread up if it offended some of you.

No offense taken. But how well do you know the VH catalog? Between EVH and Eric Johnson, who I consider to be two of the best around, their fastest, most famous guitar solos also tend to be their easiest to play and, IMHO, least creative. Listen to some of their obscure stuff, try to pick out some of the ghost/grace notes, odd time and phrasing and innovative effects. So many of their totally unknown songs are just about impossible to play and have so much packed into them. But they're far from shredding. BTW, I think EVH is a much better rhythm than solo player and I can play just about everything he's done. I know the catalog note for note.

I can play all his stuff too, it just doesn't sound like his stuff when I do it. Come to think of it, doesn't sound much like music. And it all sounds the same.

But hey, it's MY style ;)

Did anyone mention Brian May or Slash yet? Yes I'm joking, sort of.

I heard Brian May made his own guitar with his dad's help. Or was that slodave ?????

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Yes, Brian May is one of the greats. Love him. He's one of those guys, who, when you hear him, you immediately know it's him. Check out his Star Fleet album he did with EVH back in the day.

I didn't read all this but I would have to say Jimi Hendrix because he could control the distortion. I like EVH so he would be high on my list as well..

A few mos. ago someone with some real good connection or machines started posting Van Halen unaccompanied guitar masters on Youtube. They are the original recordings from the albums and it's just guitar. Give some of these a listen and you'll have a whole new appreciation for Ed's sick rhythm chops. The man is a genius. The sound makes the hair on my arms stand up. It's totally unpolished and he's often a few milliseconds late, but there's just a magic to it. And aside from the solo in Romeo Delight, none of these are what I'd consider shredding songs.

Unchained
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Little Guitars
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Loss of Control
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Romeo Delight
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Best I ever saw in person is my older brother, and I have been to a LOT of concerts.

He just got a new Gretsch, some sort of reissue, has real "F" holes insead of stickers, or painted on holes like the original, Country Gentleman or something. My wife had never heard him play before, and he was just sort of noodling around, doing his Chet Atkins impression, she was mesmerized, sounded like two guys playing.

He has a knack for imitating guitarists, he can do David Gilmour or Jimmy Page better than they can do themselves. Astounding skills, but he just does not have the temperment for the rock and roll star gig, especially since he had a kid. I would imagine there are a fair number of guys out there like him. You never heard of them, but can make your jaw drop when they play.

He can pretty much play any instrument he picks up, it is sort of freaky.

Not sure if May made his own guitar, but I know the guy from Boston (his name escapes me at the moment) did and his tone is SICK!

Hubert Sumlin is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. He's sitting next to me and I'm showing him the world of PPOT.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1297397691.jpg

Rick, I don't know the whole catalogue, but I tend to admire versatility with the instrument and favor more blues-type riffs - my point about different strokes for different folks. Hence, I remembered this guy Emmanuel from when the thread was young, and happened to see him. He really stretches the bounds of percussive effects on the instrument, is plenty fast, changes phrasing and tempo suddenly or smoothly and does some interesting things with tuning and mixed harmonics/notes + uses the guitar as a truly solo instrument - overall a very interesting player. I thought some of his stuff was a little repetitive in terms of progressions used, but who's complaining? I can't do what he does.

YouTube - Tommy Emmanuel Harmonics Lesson.<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6hb7DYgcwSo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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How about the best guitarist/composer?

Mark Jung mentioned him.

The only person in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Jazz Hall of Fame. Frank Zappa

Brian May and his dad built the "Red Special", his signature guitar.

Thanks for the nod, Sammy. :)

I did get to play one of the Brian May signature models by Guild many years ago.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tommy Emmanuel at a NAMM show, back in 2000 or so, what a great person and a heck of a guitarist!

I think I saw him at NAMM a few weeks ago too. BTW, that harmonic technique he demos in that clip is one that Eric Johnson does a lot too. Check out his songs Manhattan and Rain. Very tricky to pull that stuff off mid-song.

This guy!

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The fingernail polish really hurts to look at.

Yngwie is the king of shred kings. No one will ever touch him.

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black fingernail dude not only touched him, but in several places that should be reported to a teacher or other adult.

I would like to note that on any given day any "great" guitar player may play a song that touches your soul... and on a different day they may suck donkey balls.

I saw Alvin Lee on his "Ten Years Later" tour and he was at the top of his game... blew the roof off the Long beach arena. Saw him the next tour and he was obviously stoned and just OK.

Also if you hang with musicians enough you will bump into people who are very gifted... perhaps more talented than many famous musicians... but just didn't get the breaks.

YMMV