Top 10 guitarists

ThomasGtar

I agree about Steve Vai. I've never seen another guy in such total command of electric soundwaves coming out of his instrument. Never been a fan of his cds personally but watching him live is euphoria.

pinkgary

Well... I watched Whispering a prayer on youtube (live at the Astoria) and stopped after about 3 minutes form total boredom. Now, if he'd been up there with diamond dave doing yankee rose (or shyboy, or going crazy or... i could go on), that would be a different matter. But his idea of subtlety seems to be to not do anything!!! Now, don't get me wrong, i still have to teach Eugenes trick bag at least 5 times a year, 'cos the kids just love it, and it's a great example of good guitar playing, lots of ideas well articulated, but that Whispering a prayer, i found a bit like a flat tyre.

ThomasGtar

matty, i watched whispering a prayer and really enjoyed it. He has many other great live clips as well.

blindjimmy

Has anyone listened to " For the love of God " , that is my favorite tune, it has a real melody , and some of those impossible guitar parts as well.

w_lavene

I had to put my list up, although im sure if you asked me top 10 every six months i would keep changing my mind or foget someone but my top 5 of 10 are always in there

1-Django
2-Stochelo Rosenberg
3- Eric Clapton (only between 1965-1970)
4-Joe Pass
5-Robert Johnson
6-Jimmy Page
7-Freddie King
8-BB King
9-Bereli Lagrene
10-TchanTcou Vidal

Graham_Fellows

I thought up my ten favourite players, but it would have taken so long to rank them in order because it's really like comparing apples and oranges. So here they are in no particular order beyond the first 3

Romane – Really melodic style, makes every notecount and isn't just a one trick speed freak juggler.

Django – Really melodic and tasty, but could play fast when needed, literally blazed a trail for guitar as a serious jazz instrument.

Ry Cooder – Like him more as an arranger / songwriter, but he's done some fine guitar work though, e.g 'FDR in Trinidad', 'Vigilante Man',

Stochelo Rosenberg – Awesome technique, plays some nice stuff at pretty much any tempo. For me it's like going to see a juggler or something, it's impressive because it's hard almost, but he does play nice rhythmic and melodic stuff as well, especially when he plays with a stimer.

Jimmy Page – Thinking tracks like 'since I've been loving you' and 'I can't quit you babe'

Jim Hall – Awesome, really interesting to listen to – Check out his solo at the start of 'I've got you under my skin' with Bill Evans

Joe Pass – Well he's just Joe Pass isn't he?

Emily Remler – serious guitarist guitarist, she would probably be massive now if she hadn't died early http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUxdhwjKps

Merle Travis – Seriously innovative fingerpicking guitarist, really melodic lines, solving technique problems not everyone had even thought of. Spawned people like Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel.


Irving Ashby – played a lot of guitar with Charlie Parker, and later Nat King Cole. Especially like him on 'I got rhythm' from Jazz at the philharmonic 1946


Marc Ribot – Played a lot with Tom Waits and the Prosthetic Cubans, not a really technical player, but has great tone and picks all the pretty notes at the right moment. More a fan of his electric stuff than the more recent acoustic stuff which isn't my cup of tea, but is still not bad.

Graham_Fellows

Ah Barney Kessel as well, and possibly Freddie Green, although he's hard to pick out specifically as he doesn't really play lead, more someone you'd miss if he wasn't there.

Jeffrey van Gils

My opinion isn't stable on this, if you ask me tomorrow you'll most likely get the same names but in an entirely different order. And there's mostly non-gypsy styles here, I can't stick to one religion:

1. Attila Zoller
2. Django
3. Clarence Gatemouth Brown
4. Charlie Byrd
5. Lonnie Johnson
6. Bob Brozman
7. Rory Gallagher
8. Charlie Christian
9. Gábor Szábo
10. Pierre Bensusan or Martin Taylor

(Top 10 religions would include all sorts of string theory by the way, incl. SelmerStyle, FSM, Resonators, jazz and I'm working on Rest Stroke)

swing_gitan

1. Django
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Pat Metheny
4. Stochelo Rosenberg
5. Pat Martino
6. Baden Powell
7. George Benson
8. Roy Buchanan
9. Wes Montgomery
10. Larry Carlton

Lango-Django

The ones I like to listen to best-

Acoustic guitarists

1. Django, the greatest of all time
2. Eddie Lang
3. Oscar Aleman
4. Modern-day GJ players Bergara/Moignard/Romane/Debarre/Rosenberg/Wrembel/Vignola
5. Django's contemporaries Baro, Sarane and Matelo Ferret
6. Swing-era American players Lonnie Johnson/Dick McDonough/Carl Kress/Teddy Bunn/Freddy Greene
7. Country/bluegrassers Doc Watson/ Clarence White/ Tony Rice

Electric guitarists

8, George Barnes
9. George Harrison
10. Clapton/Hendrix/BB King/Buddy Guy