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Best Guitarists Evah!!!

mpw said:
George Harrison should be on the list great guitar players with 2 of best rock/pop composers in Lennon/McCartney.
Clapton for sure. Jazz Jim Hall.
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George Harrison should not be on a list of best guitar players, or mediocre for that matter - that is insulting - LOL.
 
ahofer said:
Nobody said anything about ‘dog’. But you are *very* loyal.
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OK, so then WTF are you looking for ways to put me down over it, in the end I'm 100% entitled to my opinion and preferred styles?
I'm not much a fan of heavy metal or psychedelic rock either, I much preferred the blues, motown and country styles.

ahofer said:
I do think that’s a lousy characterization of Hendrix,
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Google Jimmy Hendrix and the first description of him is,

"James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who redefined the electric guitar and popular music. His innovative style combined distortion, feedback, and fuzz to create a new musical form. Hendrix was a charismatic performer who electrified audiences with his loud, distorted sound and electrifying stage presence."

Not too far from what I said, now we just have to decide if we personally enjoy his style or not. I don't. That's fair isn't it ???
Jimmy's on that "he died of a drug overdose at 27 during the 70's" alter and everyone must kneel down to him or risk getting stoned to death. LOL
I'm Done, The End
Ciao Bella
 
The Art of confidently, masterfully and creatively exploring the Atonal and dissonance - I love Hendrix and Free Jazz improvisation, arguably the purist musical art form.
 
Eric Clapton praised Tommy Emmanuel as best living acoustic guitar player. He is incredible but simply didn't write anything special like the big names
 
It’s easy to conflate best with favorite. Pete Townshend is my favorite, but I’d never argue he’s the best.

Best gets sticky. For example, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were both to have said there were things that the other could do that they were unable.
 
So for all of you folks making these judgement calls, what characteristics make a great guitarist worthy of "best"?
 
Wesseling Audio Lab said:
Eric Clapton praised Tommy Emmanuel as best living acoustic guitar player. He is incredible but simply didn't write anything special like the big names
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Emmanuel is the boss. Playing guitar is not at all the same activity as composing or being a band leader. There are a number of guitarists I love as contributors that made records as solo or band leader that I wish I never encountered because of what they did to my opinion of the musician.
 
Sal1950 said:
OK, so then WTF are you looking for ways to put me down over it, in the end I'm 100% entitled to my opinion and preferred styles?
I'm not much a fan of heavy metal or psychedelic rock either, I much preferred the blues, motown and country styles.


Google Jimmy Hendrix and the first description of him is,

"James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who redefined the electric guitar and popular music. His innovative style combined distortion, feedback, and fuzz to create a new musical form. Hendrix was a charismatic performer who electrified audiences with his loud, distorted sound and electrifying stage presence."

Not too far from what I said, now we just have to decide if we personally enjoy his style or not. I don't. That's fair isn't it ???
Jimmy's on that "he died of a drug overdose at 27 during the 70's" alter and everyone must kneel down to him or risk getting stoned to death. LOL
I'm Done, The End
Ciao Bella
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I don’t know, I wasn’t looking for ways to put you down at all, or deprive you of your opinion, I was ribbing you. I mean, the dude’s your avatar, we get it.

Well, David Gilmour, and I, and millions of others disagree with you about Hendrix. He could be quite lyrical, had a unique touch on the instrument, and innovated both clean and distorted sounds that are still imitated by almost all rock guitarists today…kinda like Gilmour.

 
Sal1950 said:
Nope, I've only spent a small fortune on it over the last 60 years to look at the purdy boxes..

Of the 4000+ albums in my library I've only got 1 Hendrix, the Electric Ladyland bluray simply to hear the Atmos mix.
One and done it was for me.
Are you so big a Hendrix fan you can't stand any negative opinions?
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Boxes aren't music.

Music is music.
 
jkasch said:
It’s easy to conflate best with favorite. Pete Townshend is my favorite, but I’d never argue he’s the best.

Best gets sticky. For example, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were both to have said there were things that the other could do that they were unable.
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If you're looking for the best in fretted, strung and plucked music from relatively small wooden boxes. the various forms of the lute exceed anything from a distorted electric guitar insofar as the possibilities for tonal color of these small, delicate boxes exceed that of some loud, booming, high-frequency hearing permanently damaging crap.
 
It was easy to anticipate (and entertaining to watch) where this thread wound up...next stop: "best" flavor of ice cream :cool:
 
rgpit said:
So for all of you folks making these judgement calls, what characteristics make a great guitarist worthy of "best"?
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I'll bite.

Technical abilities, originality, feel, appropriateness of composed (or played) part, consistency of style(s).

Must excel in at least a few of those.

Examples: In the 90's there were a lot of shredders (technical), but other than that, unremarkable. If you took one of those players and put them in a different band you would be hard pressed to be able to identify which of the 100 of them it was. Not saying they are not good players, just not in the "best" category.

To the contrary, when you listen to People Get Ready (Rod Stewart singing) or Beat It (MJ) there is no doubt to who's soloing.

Same goes for any instrument. You can learn parts and play the muted trumpet and still not sound like or inflect like Miles. Or Jaco. When a player is elevated, and becomes the reference in the "he sounds like/plays like" sentence, they get into that "best" category IMHO.
 
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