Best Guitar Players of All Time

[PITTM]

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

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Boris,

"Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time"

does not mention songwriting.

[Austiger]

Dickie Betts is a great guitarist no doubt, and on a song like Blue Sky it's sometimes difficult to tell who's playing which solo. But Duane had that something that only people like Jimi and Stevie Ray and BB King have. You can hear his soul bleeding through the guitar. I doesn't happen on every song, but when you listen to Soul Serenade, Jesus that is some heartbreaking [censored], and you know it's Duane playing and not Dickie. (Plus Duane died young riding a motorcycle and Dickie is a woman-beater.)

FWIW, I'd go 1. Jimi 2. Duane 3. Clapton 4. SRV 5 BBK, with Clapton getting the edge over SRV despite SRV being more brilliant, just because of his versatility and accomplishments. I also love Jimmy Paige but he's just too sloppy to be mentioned in the same breath as these guys.

[firstyearclay]

Pittm,

With this being an open-forum I am sure we are going to get alot of opinions from people that THINK they know guitarists from what they hear and then the people that ARE actually guitarists. I have played for a long time and in the days of Guitar magazine it was all hair metal, tablature was beaming, and such. Only after a couple of years of play did I go back to the days of Zeppelin, SRV, etc. etc. etc.

I became a very good technical player to start, and then started to get more creative as I learned more from the older more seasoned (ie. original) guitarists.

just a point. I think we need to be open to the many talented guitarists out there; including guitarists that have surfaced in the last 10-15 years.

fyc

[miajag]

Two guys I like a lot (oddly, perhaps, given that their styles are so different - though both very blues-based) are David Gilmour and Jack White. I don't think many consider either of them to be incredibly technically proficient, and I'm not a musician myself so I can't really judge well. What I do know is I really love each of their sounds.

Gilmour (guitarist for Pink Floyd, in case anyone was unaware) is so good at phrasing solos and doing things with timing that make him seem to probably be a more technically proficient guitarist than he actually is. The solo in Another Brick In the Wall, Part II, for example, is all about the pauses rather than the notes themselves. He is also really good at inserting dissonant notes at times that aren't what you'd expect but end up sounding really good. Live recordings of Comfortably Numb are a good example of this. He's also a good slide player, as evidenced in One Of These Days and Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Gilmour in action

Jack White was somewhat controversially given a really high ranking in the aforementioned Rolling Stone list (something like #17, I believe), and again, I'm not a guitarist myself, but I can't disagree. The guy just straight-up rocks. Like Gilmour, his style is very blues-based, but there's a much heavier, more frenetic tone to it. I find it kind of hard to explain well why I like him so much, but some good examples of his playing are Ball and Biscuit and There's No Home For You Here (on Elephant), and also the Blackpool Lights DVD, which might as well be titled, "How to Rock 101."

White in action

Again, it's kind of difficult as a non-musician to really put into words what exactly I like about these guys, but anyway, yeah, they're pretty much my two favorite guitarists.

[firstyearclay]

[ QUOTE ]
Two guys I like a lot (oddly, perhaps, given that their styles are so different - though both very blues-based) are David Gilmour and Jack White. I don't think many consider either of them to be incredibly technically proficient, and I'm not a musician myself so I can't really judge well. What I do know is I really love each of their sounds.

Gilmour (guitarist for Pink Floyd, in case anyone was unaware) is so good at phrasing solos and doing things with timing that make him seem to probably be a more technically proficient guitarist than he actually is. The solo in Another Brick In the Wall, Part II, for example, is all about the pauses rather than the notes themselves. He is also really good at inserting dissonant notes at times that aren't what you'd expect but end up sounding really good. Live recordings of Comfortably Numb are a good example of this. He's also a good slide player, as evidenced in One Of These Days and Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Gilmour in action

Jack White was somewhat controversially given a really high ranking in the aforementioned Rolling Stone list (something like #17, I believe), and again, I'm not a guitarist myself, but I can't disagree. The guy just straight-up rocks. Like Gilmour, his style is very blues-based, but there's a much heavier, more frenetic tone to it. I find it kind of hard to explain well why I like him so much, but some good examples of his playing are Ball and Biscuit and There's No Home For You Here (on Elephant), and also the Blackpool Lights DVD, which might as well be titled, "How to Rock 101."

White in action

Again, it's kind of difficult as a non-musician to really put into words what exactly I like about these guys, but anyway, yeah, they're pretty much my two favorite guitarists.

[/ QUOTE ]

great post miajag.

I remember feverishly learning the solo to "Comfortably Numb". I think I sat in my room and pulled some 12-14 hour sessions until I got it just right. I haven't owned an electric guitar in years, but everytime I pick up my acoustics, I think I play a lick from that.

Again great post...brings up great great memories.

fyc

[KotOD]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I'd go 1. Jimi 2. Duane 3. Clapton 4. SRV 5 BBK, with Clapton getting the edge over SRV despite SRV being more brilliant, just because of his versatility and accomplishments.

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Your 1, 3, 4 and 5 all disagree with you [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[sethypooh21]

I was going to mention White, but was afraid I'd get laughed at. NH.

[Los Feliz Slim]

It is my pleasure to volunteer Trey Anastasio and his work on Divided Sky, Run Like an Antelope, and Fluffhead. Live, in Phish's heyday, Trey was absolutely insane.

[Boris]

Willie Nelson is a great guitar player. Seriously.

[steamraise]

Albert King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaEcsQVFS20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n80oYmbdHws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV3rI57hoaQ

Peter Green

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivS5wjwGbn8

Johnny Winter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f50BtRnpV8A