Greatest Guitar Player Tournament (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Satriani]

Who is the greatest guitar player?

 

[TheoGB]

Isn't this a poll?
It's Jonny Greenwood, incidentally.

 

[Tom Ryan]

Though he is "only" my third favorite (Clapton takes top honors there), I will name Jimi Hendrix because there's a difference between favorite and best .
-Tom

 

[Tom Ryan]

Hey Ryan I just read you're Satch's brother! That's so cool . You must be proud of how amazing he is. And I assume you play guitar too...ever get private lessons from your brother or anything?
I think Satch is an amazing guitarist, easily one of the best out there today, though I favor Johnson over him. Both Eric Johnson and Satch I like better than Steve Vai, though .
-Tom

 

[Rain]

Actually, we've already done this as a Tournament over in Polls. Don't remember what the final answer was.

I will have to say that the most unbelievable guitar playing I have ever seen was by Lenny Breau. Pretty frickin' amazing.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I like

Jimi Hendrix
Robert Fripp
SRV
Frank Zappa

and others...

but I would never pretend that a single greatest guitarist could ever even exist.

 

[MichaelAW]

Steve Howe.

Next question?

 

[Al B. C]

SRV..........

 

[John Besse]

Eric Johnson
Vinnie Moore
Yngwie Malmsteen

Most influential on me:

Kirk Hammett
John Petrucci

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Jimi Hendrix said the best guitarist he had ever seen was Phil Keaggy. And Keaggy is 30 years of experience better now than he was then. Of course, most people will never hear his name or his music because he's a Christian, but he's by far the best guitarist I've ever heard.

Honorable mentions: Steve Hackett, Steve Howe, Bruce Cockburn, John Petrucci.

 

[Henry Gale]

Of course, most people will never hear his name or his music because he's a Christian

Yes, once again, real talent overshadowed by the Wiccan and Buddist guitar slingers.
I like Django Reinhardt, Jimmie Rodgers, Robert Johnson, Hendrix, Jimmie Page and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Jim

 

[Jimmy Kilgour]

Les Paul.

 

[Rick Deschaine]

Some of my favorites who are or were pretty darn good

Jimi Hendrix
Leo Kottke
Michael Hedges
Jerry Douglas
Michael Schenker

 

[Jan H]

Ryan,
Your bro rocks, and while Steve Vai may be more technically gifted, Vai isn't half of the songwriter that Joe is. Petrucci is awfully good, too. What's up with all the Italian-American guitar aces? For classical guitar, Eliot Fisk is technicaly the most amazing player I've heard, and for jazz, Al DiMeola (yup, another Italian)

 

[Ricky Hustle]

Actually, we've already done this as a Tournament over in Polls. Don't remember what the final answer was.

I believe the last guitarist standing was Hendrix.

The best of all time is just so tough to call. Here's my personal top 10, all of whom are(were) brilliant both technically and artisticly. In no particular order...

Jimi Hendrix
SRV
Jerry Garcia
Steve Howe
Robben Ford
Robert Fripp
David Gilmour
Jimmy Page
Michael Glabicki
Greg Emerson

 

[george kaplan]

I ran that tourney, and technically it wasn't the greatest guitar player, but the greatest rock guitarist, leaving out a lot of great guitar players like B.B. King, Charlie Christian, Segovia, etc.

For the record, Hendrix defeated Page in the finals.

 

[george kaplan]

Oh, and my votes would be

greatest: Jimi Hendrix
greatest blues: Eric Clapton
most underrated: George Harrison
most unfairly unknown: Eddie Lang
most melodic speedster: Eddie Van Halen

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Yes, once again, real talent overshadowed by the Wiccan and Buddist guitar slingers.

It's the druid guitarists that really skew the numbers.

 

[george kaplan]

I resisted because I was worried about the thread getting shut down, but I'll go ahead and ask.
Since the vast majority of guitar players (and politicians, writers, actors, etc.) that people hear about (at least in the USA) are Christians, I can only suppose you mean because he plays music geared towards a particular conservative sect of Christianity (the Word label isn't exactly a mass market label and most of the cd buying public don't frequent the types of stores that tend to carry them, although you can find them if you look hard enough). Or am I missing something? BTW, his guitar playing with Glass Harp is top notch, but I certainly don't consider him better than Jimi.

 

[Heinz W]

Rick Gregorio has a nice list, many of whom I greatly admire. Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson are both awesome as well and were great on the G3 DVD (favorite was Johnson's "Manhatten").
Hendrix is still the best though. IMO, Eddie Van Halen is among the most technically proficient while Jimmy Page is just an amazing writing/producing wizard. And the fabulous Dave Gilmour is very underrated; love his soaring solos with Floyd. Steve Howe is incredible too, and I'll always love his work on the early Yes albums such as their debut, Fragile (ah, 'Mood for a Day'), and Relayer. I'm also partial to Alex Lifeson of Rush and love their material (if you can play La Villa Strangiato all the way through your doing well!) from debut up until about Grace Under Pressure.
I'll be doing my best to emulate the lot when I get my new Strat this week, an American Deluxe in a beautiful cherry burst finish. A stunning instrument worthy of the players listed in this thread. Can't wait!