Best guitarist ever?

[200MPHBMW]

I can't help but wonder why everyone puts Jimmy Page up there as the best. I mean, he's a good guitarist, but nothing Led Zeppelin did is particularly hard to play. Most 3 or 4 year guitar students can play almost anything Page ever played. There's countless people out there who learned how to play Stairway To Heaven as their first real song. I don't mean to really put him down or anything, I am just honestly curious as to the reasons people put him at the top.

[Xenox]

To me, Page is a very similar guitarist to Santana. Neither of their works are extremely difficult to play, however they have been and will always be solid guitarists. Santana has been recycling the same riffs for decades. And Page is a pretty sloppy live performer who bases everything he plays on blues scales.

Page gets more credit than he deserves because the rest of his band is just as talented as he is. They make him look good. To me, the most impressive thing about Jimmy Page is how ahead of his time he was.

[Grimble]

First of all I'd like to agree with Eomer regarding Gilmore. I've seen a bunch of professional Floyd cover bands and even saw Roger Waters live a few times and none of their guitarists could match the sound of Gilmore. He may be easier to play note for note then many of the guitarists on this list, but he has a very distinctive style that is difficult, if not impossible, to emulate.
Also wanted to add Lyndsey Buckingham to the list. For a good example of his work download "Big me" which he did solo during the Fleetwood Mac reunion a few years back. Pretty amazing stuff.
...oh and have Slash or Tim Reynolds been mentioned yet? Might have missed it, but i think they are both excellent too.

[Geleon Isking]

Dimebag and Zakk wylde. ive said them already...but i love you for saying them anyway!

and notable drummer

Vinnie Paul!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

[Ceefo]

This is pretty random, and sort of in reply to a lot of the posts here..

Gilmore is special because of what he puts into his playing. Sure anyone with a couple years of playing can pull of his solos easily, but it's the fact that he wrote the stuff that's important.

Santana is in the same class as Gilmore. None of his playing is that hard to do, but he wrote it, he came up with it..

I have to agree on Paul Gilbert and Nuno Bettencourt as Best Talent Wasted.

Alan Holdsworth would probably go right up there with Tom Morello for most innovative in my book. Problem with him is he's so experimental as to be almost unlistenable at times.

Page and Slash bore the crap out of me and their playing is so sloppy. And Slash is the single worst live musician I've ever seen.

Hetfield is a rhythm monster, and actually a better lead player than Kirk Hammett, he just doesn't like to play leads hardly at all. And I find Kirk's lead playing to be pretty annoying actually. Worst vibrato of anyone other than CC Deville.

Underrated: Reb Beach, Jake E Lee, Warren DeMartini. Yeah yeah.. I know Reb played in Winger, but the guy is a VERY good guitarist. Sometimes the lure of $$ is just too much to overlook. Jake's stuff with Ozzy was ok, but the things he did with Badlands, and his more recent solo cd's is just incredible. Warren is still one of my favorites.. although he gets a lot of crap cause he was/is in Ratt.

Best Unknown: Shawn Lane. The guy's playing is just insane. At the 1994 NAMM show, Ibanez had a big party/jam session thing with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Reb Beach, Paul Gilbert, and a few others were all up on stage playing.. You just had to see the looks on these 'super' players when this guy took the lead.. I highly recommend his CD "Powers of Ten" if you can find it..

[Eomer]

Oh, two guys I neglected to toss in:

Travis Meeks, from Days Of The New. I guess that maybe as a guitarist he might not be anything special, but as on overall musician he is pretty spectacular. Consider the fact that when they recorded their first album, he was 17 and wrote the majority of it. He is now only 22 or 23, and their two later albums have progressed so much from the first that it is staggering. He does a lot of string arrangements and shit now too.

Ian Thornley, from Big Wreck. Again, he might not be incredible at guitar, but he can lay down wicked licks, and is just getting started. Big Wreck has only put out two albums so far, so a lot is yet to come. Live Thornley is unbelievable, he can sing as well as Plant and play guitar like Page, you have to see him cover Led Zeppelin, it's unreal. I had the pleasure of seeing them in an opera house in Edmonton the day after Sept. 11 (which was actually a nice distraction from the ugly events), where they played with Japanese tribal drummers, Eric Johnson, Colin James, and Tom Wilson. When he and Eric Johnson got going it was unreal. They did a 4 guitar Immigrant Song to polish the night off, and it was incredible. I would strongly suggest checking Big Wreck out if you like guitar oriented rock. Spectacular live band, although Thornley could be by himself and no one would notice.

[Worfless]

Ace Frehley with all the drugs, only a few mentioned here could play stoned off thier asses, drunk, hung over, haven't been to practice in days, wearing those shoes, thrashin the head, AND with a firework spinnin on your guitar.


and well forgot that =)


and ya you all got really good guitarists, but zakk wylde FUCKED UP crazy train at ozzfest when i went (shoreline Mountain View if you bastards are in CA) so i'll never forgive him

[Asurmen]

Richie Blackmore

but the 2 ones i more enjoy listening to are Rafael bittencourt (Angra) and Joe satriani

[Geleon Isking]

Zakk Wylde is best metal guitarist atm, ive heard him up close and personal style, i was simply blown away.

[Synd D`nys]

Underrated: Reb Beach, Jake E Lee, Warren DeMartini. Yeah yeah.. I know Reb played in Winger, but the guy is a VERY good guitarist. Sometimes the lure of $$ is just too much to overlook. Jake's stuff with Ozzy was ok, but the things he did with Badlands, and his more recent solo cd's is just incredible. Warren is still one of my favorites.. although he gets a lot of crap cause he was/is in Ratt.

Yeah Reb Beach has some serious skill. Saw Winger live twice (don't laugh. Once they opened for Kiss and the other time I was really there to see their opening act, Extreme) and his fret work was pretty impressive. Keep in mind that Winger was a label fabricated band made up of some of the most sought after session musicians at the time. They just got together during a crappy phase in rock music.

I always like Warren DeMartini too.

[somecleric]

Anyone can be a great technical guitarist with enough practice and dexterity, I'm not really impressed with how many bars you can play per second. I'm much more impressed by an ability to innovate, and to write compelling hooks. Keiji Haino is by far the best technical guitar player I've ever seen, but that doesn't compare to the following musicians:

Give me Peter Hook (who blows away everyone else in sheer volume of perfect hooks written, between Joy Division, New Order and Monaco), Kevin Shields (who changed music with his layered guitars and radically different approach to songwriting) or Kristian Craig Robinson (who can do more with three chords than anyone short of The Ramones).

[Henric Maelstrom]

Ihsahn
Al DiMeola
Jonny Greenwood

[Soreali]

Originally posted by Geleon Isking
Zakk Wylde is best metal guitarist atm, ive heard him up close and personal style, i was simply blown away.

Definatly.. I saw him at Ozzfest and was simply amazed. His solo's were simply mindblowing. I'm surprised that Hammet hasn't be mentioned as much as he should. His solo's are amazing. The solo in "One" is my personal favorite, eventhough there are others.

[Prodigious]

Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits sounds cool to me.

[Tarissa DR]

I'd put down a vote for Frank Zappa