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Best Guitar players of all time.


bigchuck

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I would like to get opinion about who you think are the best Guitarist of Rock and Roll.<br />A friend and I were having this discussion. <br /><br />Heres my top 5: (not in any particular order)<br />Jimi Hendrix<br />Randy Rhodes<br />Eddie Van Halen<br />Jimmy Page<br />Carlos Santana<br /><br />Let me know what you think.

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The # 1 all time............Garcia<br /><br />You name it he played it. Guitar, Banjo, Steel peddal, Citar, Mandolin, Lute, and about 5 more that I just can't remember.<br />He covered every style, baring hard rock, did studio work for many other bands, and only had 4 fingers.<br />Fastest 4 fingers in the world <img border="0" alt="[joint]" title="" src="graemlins/joint.gif" />

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There's not a name here with which I would argue. And while I'm a Clapton/Hendrix/Vaughn fan, I would be remiss without mentioning the influence and impact that George Harrison had on Rock and Roll. No, he wasn'r flashy, nor was he anywhere near pyrotechnic. But, back in the day, while Beatle fans grabbed their new albums off the rack to hear the songs, guitarists bought the albums to see what George was up to. More often than not, he was up to creatring brilliant counte-melodies to Lennon and McCartney's songs. No small achievement. Also, he led the way in new sounds; be it the first recorded feedback (no, John!), the sitar, the earliest pedal machines, and the oh-so-beautiful and oh-so-underappreciated slide work. Maybe it's because he was more of a Calr Perkins guy, as apposed to a Chuck Berry Guy, and I'm not adding this because he recently died; Harrison's influence is remarkably understated and underappreciated. His subtlety carries the day.

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Nicd thread. Don't see a name on there I'd argue with. And I'm glad to see Clapton finally get some run. Took us a while. <img border="0" title="" alt="[smile]" src="smile.gif" /> <br /><br />And Stevie Ray. Still can't believe we lost him ...<br /><br />I'm just surprised to see the virtuosity of Bob Dylan and Neil Young overlooked. <br /><br />*<br /><br />Die Hard ... it works! It works! It works ... ! Sorry you had to dumb down the board for the Netscape crowd, but I/we appreciate it.

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My own faves, in no order...<br /><br />Electric:<br /></font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Jimi - 'nuff said</font></li>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Leslie West - most underrated guitar player in rock</font></li>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Roy Buchanan - one of Maryland's two legendary players, committed suicide in 1988</font></li>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Danny Gatton - the other one, committed suicide in 1994 - what is it about this state?<br /></font></li>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Acoustic:<br /></font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Leo Kottke - if you've never experienced "6 & 12 String Guitar" your life is incomplete - go to amazon.com and get it NOW</font></li>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Alex DeGrassi - simply sublime<br /></font></li>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Both:<br /></font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">John McLaughlin - He makes my list, Chief; I wore out two LPs of "Birds of Fire" before finally getting the CD</font></li>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Al DiMeola - Awesome, with or without Chick Corea<br /></font></li>

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I think that there's no such thing as 'the best'. Styles are too disparate, and in these polls virtuosity for it's own sake tends to dominate ensemble abilities, technical noodling tends to dominate imaginative thrashing, lead tends to dominate rhythm<br /><br />Anyway, here's my favorites in no particular order:<br /><br />'Poison' Ivy Rorshach <br />Steve Jones <br />Vernon Reid <br />Keith Levene<br />Jerry Harrison<br />Johnny Winter<br />John Fogerty<br />Frank Zappa<br /><br />My biggest issue is that I tend to like guitar pieces more than worshiping their creators. I rank riffs as highly as I do guitarists, and often find that some of my favorite riffs are being dome by otherwise average guitarists, such as: <br /><br />whoever laid down those guitar riffs for Tommy James and the Shondells in Crimson And Clover <br /><br />the guy who riffed Spirit In The Sky <br /><br />Syd Barret's stuff before they locked him away, especially his Astronomy Domine (Gilmour is a better technician but all his stuff sounds the same. Barrett was a primitive, yet there's more creativity in those few early PF recordings than Gilmour's entire career.)<br /><br />Joe Walsh in his James Gang days, but rarely since.

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I'm with you HQ...the Allman boys are fantastic. <br />Hendrix is the greatest of all time, but Clapton is God and the greatest alive in my opinion. I never understood the term singing with your guitar until I saw him live. It's almost religious at times. It's no mystery why the blues community consdieres him to be the "man" and nicknamed him slowhand(although that origin is debated).<br /><br />Jimmy Page although highly influenced by earlier blues and other guitarists( Led Zeppelin got a lot of their stuff from other people like Robert Johnson) has got rank as one of the most influential as well. How many guitarists playing today broke in strings trying to play Zeppelin Tunes?<br /><br />Eric Johnson is one of the most talented guys out there along with guys like Satriani. I also really like the tunes that Michael Houser and John Bell pump out for Widespread Panic. I could listen to those guys jam for days on end.<br /><br />Bela Fleck is pretty amazing too, although he plays a lot of banjo. His band is one of the most amazing collections of musicians I've ever come across in the Rock scene. If any of you guys get a chance...check em out.<br /><br />Oh the Dave Mathews Band has some pretty amazing stuff too, although more from their bass player IMO.<br /><br />Oh and for anyone in VA who catches the local bands...Gibb Droll is one hell of a guitarist.<br /> <br /> <small>[ March 03, 2002, 12:01 AM: Message edited by: CounterTre ]</small>

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Yeah, that's interesting.<br /><br />The Who were the first power trio and the first band that really did the power chord thing. Along with 2 other Brit bands, the Kinks and the Troggs, they first started power chord riffing with the Marshalls turned up to 11, and didn't consider feedback to be an annoyance.<br /><br />I came up during the age of Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Beck, and those guys. We really liked thier playing, and knew all about the 'Clapton is God' thing. <br /><br />But for me an my mates, Pete was the man. He was the one who we wanted to play like. He was the one who was cool, his was the sound we wanted. Back in '68, '69, and 70, for most of the guys I knew, for favorite guitarist it was either Pete, or Roger McGuinn (It's funny. At the same time that most Americans thought that the Beatles were so great, we thought that a Yank band - the Byrds - were the best band around).<br /><br />One of the happiest days of my life was when I worked out all the chord changes for Pictures Of Lily <img border="0" title="" alt="[smile]" src="smile.gif" /><br /> <br /> <small>[ March 04, 2002, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: Terry ]</small>

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Being a luthier (guitarbuilder) as well as a player, I can't limit this to just 5, so here's my top ten:<br /><br />Clapton (at least before he wimped out as a solo artist)<br />Hendrix<br />Jeff Beck<br />Stevie Ray Vaughan<br />Gary Moore<br />Gary Hoey<br />Eric Johnson<br />Duane Allman (best slide player ever)<br />Steve Morse<br />Paul Kossoff (if for no other reason than just his vibrato)<br /><br />Honorable mentions to:<br />Carlos Santana<br />Mark Knopfler<br />Dickey Betts<br />Scott Henderson<br />John McLaughlin<br />Albert King (yes, technically BB and Freddie were better, but Albert had the coolest bends!)<br />Robin Trower<br />The Gales Brothers<br />Warren Haynes<br />Steve Vai<br />Joe Satriani

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