There are maybe half a billion guitarists in this world so there would be five hundred one-in-a-million practitioners. I'll confine myself to non-world-famous players who could use more recognition.
Gabriella Quevedo
She plays remarkably cleanly. The guitar is a "dirty" instrument, it tends to squeaks, and whistles and buzzes. "Even Segovia has finger scratch" -- Tony Tedesco. That whistling comes from moving fretting hand fingers sideways while still in contact with the string. You have to lift them straight out, not easy because you are in a hurry to get to the next position. Even she can't eliminate this but gets it to a tolerable level. Electric guitars cover all this up, maybe that's cheating.
In general I say that non-musicians don't understand tone. One of the hardest things about most musical instruments is getting a great tone. Amateurs think this is the result of having the best equipment, but actually that doesn't make that much difference. How do the greats do it? It's a mystery.
Recently electronics have developed enough that electric guitarists can buy tone. I'm OK with that, but think the achievements of those who can do things the natural way should be recognized. Maybe to make a beautiful sound on your own you have to be a beautiful person.
Kent Nishimura
Note that that guitar has a pickup. That eliminates finger scratch.
Mary N
On the other hand, if you can get a great sound by using a ton of electronics then more power to you. Andy Summers comes to mind. The Queen of this though is Mary N. I think though she would still sound great without all that stuff. How much talent can you cram into one person?
As far as rock guitarists go the ones who impress me the most are the ones who play the best backing guitar, playing behind a singer usually. That's what you spend most of your time doing so shouldn't it be most important? In this vein I'd go with Eddie Van Halen. There are bootlegs of his isolated guitar parts, without the rest of the band cluttering things up. You can hear all sorts of detail and inflection. Dang that sounds beautiful. I hear that and I think, what a genius. Wait, didn't I say non-famous players? Yes, but he's famed for his uberflashy solos, not for this.
And what a waste. He could not resist booze. That can happen with very sensitive men, they have to anaesthetize themselves to deal with this world, Jerry Garcia being a prime example. It makes me cry.
As far as guitar genius goes you can't beat Joni Mitchell. Jimmy Page was in awe of her. At a party he was offered to be introduced to Joni but was too ashamed of himself to show his face. How sad.
There are all sorts of highly skilled guitarists in country music. "They can pick more notes than the number of ants on a Tennessee anthill." Then there's slide guitar [Johnny Winter] and fusion [Greg Howe] and dobro [Jerry Douglas]. We gotta draw the line somewhere, eh? This could go on forever.
Finally here's a personal favorite that most of y'all won't like. To me this epitomizes rock and roll guitar. I like the way in the middle of his solo he just stops. He'd said what he'd wanted to say, why go on further?
Shortly after this James Williamson abruptly disappeared from the scene. I thought he was dead from a heroin overdose, found out later he'd become an electrical engineer.
