Best Guitarists Evah!!!

[Kagemusha]

I was a about to say Paco de Lucia....

 

[Kagemusha]

 

[cyruz]

Chuck Schuldiner, his contribute to metal is second to none. The rest has already been mentioned.

 

[Georgrig]

Yngwie J. Malmsteen, you guitar noobs! His early works were masterpieces.

Also, Shawn Lane (Power of Ten), Greg Howe, Brett Garsed, Frank Gambale, Marty Friedman, Van Halen.. Too many!

 

[Musty]

I'm a bit ambivalent about Tommy Emmanuel. He obviously has prodigious chops. I've watched, slack jawed, many YouTube clips of his fretboard wizardry, yet I have found very little of his recorded output I actually want to listen to. Chops isn't everything.

Tend to agree, flash but not listenable.

 

[Musty]

Anna Calvi is worthy of some attention.
https://annacalvi.bandcamp.com/

In classical guitar music, esp Spanish, Franz Halász is worth seeking out.
https://www.eclassical.com/performers/halasz-franz/spain.html

 

[bloodshoteyed]

let me throw two more names in the mix

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Manitas de Plata was pretty handy on guitar

 

[AlexHRider]

he was like 14 years old xD

among others already been mentioned here i think i didn't see Paul Gilbert..

 

[Carnatux]

Chet Atkins, one of the best fingerstyle players there was.

 

[eddantes]

Am I losing my mind? 8 pages in and no one mentioned Derek Trucks... You know... this dude

and

I dunno ... but... he ought to be a little more noticable in this discussion. "About as good as I've ever heard it...."

 

[Randy Bessinger]

Sonny Landreth deserves mention when slide guitarist greats are brought up. I talked to Davey Knowles at an airport after a Bonamassa blues cruise. He said he and Joe Santriani were at a gig and Joe said to Davey after Sonny’s set…how do we f***ing follow that.

 

[AlexHRider]

Am I losing my mind? 8 pages in and no one mentioned Derek Trucks... You know... this dude

Spoiler

I dunno ... but... he ought to be a little more noticable in this discussion. "About as good as I've ever heard it...."

i reply with this

xD

 

[Fregly]

Another vote for for Trucks. I just discovered Buckethead. Usually I don't care for shedders; Bucket is way beyond that. I think he may have some kind of disorder the crazy amount of varied high quality material he has produced, a musical mania or something. Cuckoo Clocks from Hell is really something else.....

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Andrés Segovia

 

[Sonny1]

Great thread! I’ve enjoyed listening to the clips and am no closer to picking a favorite. Thankfully we don’t have to and can enjoy these amazing virtuoso players. Can’t wait to start seeing them play live and in person again, at least the ones who are still with us. Live music is magical and although I spend a great deal of time listening to my system, there is something about a great live performance that recorded music can’t replicate.

My teenage son is a guitar player, and singer and until Covid, he had some great opportunities to play live. He will never be on this best guitar player list but it amazes me to see him play his songs live. Definitely a better musician than his dad ever was. I might be a little biased of course.

 

[Anthony101]

 

[Aventador_SVJ]

James Hetfield and Angus Young are my immediate thoughts.

Both reference guitarists in their respective music types.

 

[Phorize]

Just in terms of those I am aware of who pushed boundaries:

Django
Hendrix
Julian Bream
Robert Fripp
Eddie Van Halen
Dr Know of Bad Brains.

There’s a bloke who plays baroque lute outside Gaudi’s house in Barcelona. He sells his own home made cds and could probably smoke most of the suggestions we’ll get here. Highlights the sillyness of the question really, it’s fun to throw names into the hat though.

I’m sure I could thing of more.

Probably betraying my age and demographic too.

 

[Offler]

Tosin Abasi.

Jeff Hanneman of Slayer

Rest was already mentioned.