Best Guitar Players of All Time

[TalkingDonkey]

Yeah, how did we leave Page out of this? He's at least Richards' equal as far as bluesman riffing goes, and he's an excellent soloist. Top 5 in any list I come up with.

[sethypooh21]

Are we just ignoring the folksy types like Doc Watson (I have "Talking to Casey" stuck in my head on permanent repeat right now, and am ok with that) and Leo Kotke?

Also, I agree with those who put both Albert and Freddie King above BB as guitarists. As a musician though, BB was superior - he never used 5 notes when 2 would do.

JIMI and SRV are still obviously and clearly 1-2. After that, it's all a matter of taste between any of probably 60.

[Renixe]

[ QUOTE ]
I love a lot of the guys you mention, but lists like this are a little silly as they reflect much more on the tastes of the individual. my list fwiw:

1) bireli lagrene - no one is as fluid in any context as bireli. flawless technique, huge ears and he is incapable of sounding bad. he's the best living guitarist imo, and to top that off he also plays upright and electric bass as well as accordion, and can sing like frank sinatra.

2) kazuhito yamashita - really not a lot to say. the most impressive technician I've ever seen on the instrument.

3) bill frisell - a complete original. a lot of guitarists are easy to imitate, it's impossible to sound anything like frisell. another guy who's incapable of playing a wrong note.

4) jimi hendrix - I have heard some truly horrendous hendrix recordings, but when he was on he was transcendent.

5) sylvain luc - may very well be france's greatest accomplishment. astonishingly original.

edit: I can't believe I left out wes montgomery. [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

i like this post/list a lot. bireli is definitely my favorite guitarist to listen to, so he tops my #1, as well as many other gypsy jazz guitarists. fwiw, as a guitar player, i think gypsy jazz is probably the hardest genre to play on guitar (not to discount a lot of classical music, which can be very difficult). that being said, i think posting along the lines of best guitar player in certain genres would be a lot more fruitful for reasons already stated in several posts in this thread. my personal favorites list in no particular order:

wes montgomery, bireli lagrene, stochelo rosenberg, joe pass, andres segovia, marty friedman, stevie ray vaughn, ted greene.

[asofel]

derek trucks:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rqMz7NqKkXQ

[turnipmonster]

I felt sort of bad leaving a flamenco guy off my list, that style can be very demanding and sabicas, paco pena and paco delucia can hang with anyone in the world. definitely agree it's more useful to do by genre.

[Boris]

What is so great about Eric Clapton? Which great songs that he has recorded did he also write?

[mistermuni]

what number is eric johnson on that list?

also, any place for accoustic guitarists in that list? chet atkins and tommy emmanuel perhaps?

saw tommy in concert a couple nights ago, he continues to blow me away...we've probably all seen his youtube videos by now, but in case you havent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX0eT...ed&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR04kmcSXU

[corndog]

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What is so great about Eric Clapton?

[/ QUOTE ]

Everything.

[miajag]

[ QUOTE ]
What is so great about Eric Clapton? Which great songs that he has recorded did he also write?

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe you're looking for the Best Songwriters of All Time thread. This is the Best Guitar Players of All Time thread.

[PITTM]

[ QUOTE ]

also, any place for accoustic guitarists in that list? chet atkins and tommy emmanuel perhaps?


[/ QUOTE ]

chet is definitely up there. I feel like there is no reason for us to exclude anyone. Acoustic guitar is beyond fine.