Who is the Best Guitarist of All Time?

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The discussion revolves around the question of who is the best guitarist of all time, with participants sharing their opinions and favorite guitarists. Jimi Hendrix is frequently mentioned as a top choice due to his innovative techniques and impact on music, though some argue about his technical skills compared to modern players. Eric Clapton, Leo Kottke, and Paco de Lucia are also highlighted for their unique styles and contributions to guitar music. The conversation touches on the distinction between technical proficiency and emotional expression in guitar playing, with many asserting that true greatness involves both. Other notable mentions include Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani, and various metal guitarists like Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield, emphasizing the diversity of styles and personal preferences in defining the "best" guitarist. The debate reflects a blend of admiration for technical skill and the emotional connection that music can evoke.
  • #101
B.B. King in his prime...
 
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  • #102
alt said:
I was about to say that sounds like Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd .. until I saw that it was, SOYCD, but a solo by D Gilmour. I wonder if you've ever heard the original, in the Pink Floyd album ? The one that starts with an organ solo of about 5 minutes, then goes into the guitar piece - which as actually very different from this one.

THAT, IMO takes the cake, particularly the indescribable rift about 7 minutes in, where he does a sudden, shattering legato slur over a number of notes, that seems to send you (well, me anyway) into a separate space ..

I agree, but this was the best live version I could come up with. I would love to be able to find a decent quality live version when the band was whole (with Waters, that is), but alas, nothing.

Unfortunately I was never able to see them perform live, but I have seen The Australian Pink Floyd Show seven times in the last six years, and they are the next best thing. www.aussiefloyd.com
 
  • #103
Elliott Easton is not the best guitarist ever, but this song contains his best solo ever, IMO.

 
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  • #104
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5RI752K0C0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFh1w801Yvs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxWNmGGItXg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbeAbllBpGo
 
  • #106
Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac may be one of the most underestimated guitarists around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZp76M4NGc&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGrOqhQvDC4
 
  • #107
7 pages of this has convinced me of 3 things:

1.) There is no "best" guitarist.
2.) There are a bunch of ASTOUNDING guitarists.
3.) I'm going to iTunes to get some of these.
 
  • #108
MacLaddy said:
Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac may be one of the most underestimated guitarists around.
Django was a family friend and a frequent visitor. Buckingham was Fleetwood Mac's 2nd-best guitarist after Peter Green. When the Beatles recorded "Sun King" it was a tribute to Green, and they hoped to sign him to their Apple label after Green grew disaffected with FM. Green wanted FM to be a non-profit band, and after hitting the charts in England and here in the US, his band-mates thought that they might like to gain some income from their successes. Sad. Such a wonderful band broken up over such an ignorant argument. Green (and other band members, if they wished) could have donated all their earnings and future royalties to charities pretty easily.
 
  • #109
MacLaddy said:
I agree, but this was the best live version I could come up with. I would love to be able to find a decent quality live version when the band was whole (with Waters, that is), but alas, nothing.

Unfortunately I was never able to see them perform live, but I have seen The Australian Pink Floyd Show seven times in the last six years, and they are the next best thing. www.aussiefloyd.com

I did see PF live when they came out here - must have been 30 years ago now. Fantastic stuff! The flying pig across the audience was a novel touch. The Aus PF Show .. damn, now that you mention it, I've seen it advertised a few times here. Why haven't I gone to see it I ask myself ? Next time - for sure !
 
  • #110
alt said:
I did see PF live when they came out here - must have been 30 years ago now. Fantastic stuff! The flying pig across the audience was a novel touch. The Aus PF Show .. damn, now that you mention it, I've seen it advertised a few times here. Why haven't I gone to see it I ask myself ? Next time - for sure !

Too busy stuffing a jumbuck in your tucker-bag? :wink:
 
  • #111
nismaratwork said:
Too busy stuffing a jumbuck in your tucker-bag? :wink:

Nah ! Just waltzing my Matilda :-)

PS - you owe me an email ..
 
  • #112
alt said:
Nah ! Just waltzing my Matilda :-)

PS - you owe me an email ..

I know, I'm tardy and ashamed, but I need to read a bit more poetry! :-p
 
  • #113
alt said:
I did see PF live when they came out here - must have been 30 years ago now. Fantastic stuff! The flying pig across the audience was a novel touch. The Aus PF Show .. damn, now that you mention it, I've seen it advertised a few times here. Why haven't I gone to see it I ask myself ? Next time - for sure !

I'm very jealous. I would have loved to see them perform live. Gilmour is rumored to be performing a show with Waters later this year on Waters Wall tour, but we'll see.

The Aussie Floyd actually has one of the original Pigs that they will occasionally pull out for the song, Pigs. This is a video of their smiling kangaroo, while performing an early number, One of these days.
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=UwKAno5hhPg

(that's a mobile link from my phone, so not sure how it will work)
 
  • #114
I have to say Buckethead is definitely one of my favorites.
My personal favorites by him:

and:
 
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  • #115
here's another one by holdsworth. too catchy to be representative of the rest of his stuff, but I like it anyway

 
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  • #116
Eric is a monster. No, not that Eric!

 
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  • #117
turbo-1 said:
Eric is a monster. No, not that Eric!

But also that eric.

 
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  • #118
How about the second best guitarist, Emmet Ray? (and has anyone heard of Doc Watson?)
 
  • #119
I already named my favorite guitarist (Davild Gilmour from Pink Floyd) but I've been picking bluegrass lately on the mandol and I ran across this guitar version of "cattle in the cane"

 
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  • #120
Jimmy Page! :approve:
 
  • #122
and for geoff achison fans:

 
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  • #123
Adrian Legg is OK... :bugeye:

 
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  • #125
Tony Rice, flat-picker extraordinaire, Jerry Douglas, dobro giant, and another killer guitarist - Mark O'Connor who happens to be playing fiddle on this tune.

 
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  • #126
The afore-mentioned O'Connor with Steve Wariner, Ricky Scaggs, and Vince Gill - some of the best country electric licks around - hope you like Telecasters.

 
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  • #127
I think some of these guitarists are fabulous and I had never heaRD OF THEM, LIKE ERIK MONGRAIN, and Paco de Lucia, but growing up in Nashville where Chet Atkins was the daily standard, and almost everyone could play guitar acceptably, most of the others here do not impress me as much.

I am leaving aside Segovia, who is hands down the best, but everyone knows that. Indeed we need to almost leave aside all Spanish guitarists as they are so much better than everyone else it is not fair.

I like Cocaine and Crossroads and Yes, you look wonderful tonight, and I like Eric Clapton, but he does not impress as much if you have grown up on BB King. I recall a BB King concert where he thanked the young Clapton and Jeff Beck fans for reviving his career. That is one of the great deeds by Clapton and the other imitators: that they gave credit to those then obscure black artists from whom they had learned, and gave them new careers.

Anyway thanks for these links. The "Emmet Ray" licks of course, for those of you who have not seen the excellent Woody Allen movie Sweet and Lowdown, staring Sean Penn, are played by Django Reinhardt.

As for stringed virtuosity, I like the work of ali akbar khan on sarod; e.g. "pre dawn to sunrise ragas" (which actually do sound best at 4am).

It is interesting that we seem to agree there is a difference between someone who plays amazingly well, and someone who we like to listen to playing one or more particular songs. I probably listen to Clapton more than Segovia, but Segovia is infinitely better.
 
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  • #128
 
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  • #129


VJ_v9HCQ-RE[/youtube] [MEDIA=youtube]A3Iq0Qs0GAI[/MEDIA]
 
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  • #130
thank you so much Fourier jr for those links. until this moment i had forgotten that artist who my brother played for me in the 50's. my brother charlie smith, was one of bill monroe's fiddlers, and a natural musician who played not just violin but trumpet and guitar. in addition to sabicas, we enjoyed "manitas de plata". i'll look for a link to him.
 
  • #132
Great stuff, mathwonk.

Here's Rodrigo y Gabriela -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk
 
  • #133
thanks so much! here are two more stars i grew up listening to : les paul and mary ford:

 
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  • #134
feel free to delete this as off topic, but you got me reminiscing about nashville in the 60's and I thought of charlie mccoy:

this is not a saxophone or alto vocalist, but a harmonica:

http://www.charliemccoy.com/audio/cryme.mp3
 
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  • #135
mathwonk said:
in addition to sabicas, we enjoyed "manitas de plata". i'll look for a link to him.

mathwonk said:
here are some:



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000023FQ/?tag=pfamazon01-20

its kind of hard to find the ones i heard 50 years ago but here are some links.


that was a good find! both those guys make it look easy.

lisab said:
Great stuff, mathwonk.

Here's Rodrigo y Gabriela -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk

they're pretty good too
 
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  • #137
Shawn Lane is without a doubt the best technical player...

But for me Allan Holdsworth when he played in groups such as Gong, UK, Soft Machine and with Bill Bruford and Jeff Berlin is simply put the best there is.
 
  • #138
 
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  • #139


 
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  • #140
how about kirk hammet? my fave. or dime bag darrel from pantera best harmonics. kk downing. i read in rolling stone that bb king was the best and for some people he is. i guess it depends on your taste in music. check out kirk or darrel though. impressive. also watch the video for "througfire and the flames" by dragon force on youtube.
 
  • #141
Glen Campbell...seriously.

OK, I don't think it's fair to call anyone guitar player "the best". But Glen Campbell is right up there. He was a big part of the Wrecking Crew, back in the 1960's. They were an incredibly talented group of musicians, who literally recorded thousands of records, with everyone from Frank Sinatra, to the Beach Boys. They could play anything. Everyone wanted a Glen Campbell solo on their record. I'm sure there are others who can play faster, but I don't think anyone plays better.

Here he is with Leon Russell (another member of the Wrecking Crew).

http://youtu.be/Vm3NoFsaKQ0Jerry Reed is another raw talent. He is one of four guitar players who Chet Atkins once called a "C.G.P."... A Certified Guitar Player.
Here he is playing Lightning Rod.

http://youtu.be/qOGiW-y-Vhs

And when you put Glen and Jerry together, it was just plain ol' fun.

http://youtu.be/7yYa1NJ7BuA
 
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  • #143
Darken-Sol said:
how about kirk hammet?
I just saw Metallica in Saturday...My respect for Kirk has gone up quite a bit
 
  • #144




 
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  • #145
BEr-lTU5DzU[/youtube] [url]JbC-ObuHU74[/youtube]
 
  • #146
fillipeano said:
I just saw Metallica in Saturday...My respect for Kirk has gone up quite a bit

Kirk has improved a lot in recent times. He got very sloppy and relied on his Wah, but he's definitely got himself back up to scratch.

I'm going to have to go with Joe Satriani. I've seen him live a few times and his control and mastery of the guitar is unreal. It may as well be extra limb on him.
 
  • #147
lisab said:
Great stuff, mathwonk.

Here's Rodrigo y Gabriela -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk
This has to be their best piece.


BTW what do you exactly do to embed videos?
 
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  • #148
mishrashubham said:
This has to be their best piece.



BTW what do you exactly do to embed videos?


type this
[noparse][/noparse]
 
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  • #149
fourier jr said:
type this
[noparse][/noparse]


I actually tried that but it did not work. Seems to be happening now. Thanks
 
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  • #150
there may not be anyone on this forum who really has the knowledge to give an opinion.

all these "bests" of such and such have more to do with how one likes the music.

to be any sort of judge of a musician, i think one would need to be a professional musician, or at least have that sort of capability.

i have no way of knowing how good some guitarist is, since not only do i not play at a high level, i play at no level at all.
 

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