UK Guitar lists "the best"

[estranged4life]

Jaco Pastorius is one of the GREATEST bassist ever IMO, Way ahead of his time and definately with an original style...even Billy Sheehan could be added to this list

The "Robertson" of Thin Lizzy you mentioned is Brian Robertson...Even Eric Bell, The original guitarist of Thin Lizzy, Has a great playing style. Mr. Bell was hugely influenced by Peter Green, (As was Gary Moore...)

A couple more guitarist I would add to the MIA list:

Pat Metheny
Pat Travers
Robin Trower ("Bridge Of Sighs")
Frank Hannon (Tesla)
the late Steve Clark (Def Leppard)
Brad Gillis & Jeff Watson (Night Ranger...Watson has the great 10 finger tap style)
Steve Hackett (Ex-Genesis)
Ty Tabor (King's X)
Keith Urban (He may be country...But he can play the hell outta a guitar...Seen him live, IMPRESSED me!!!)
Michael Schenker (UFO & MSG)
Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest)

[chiliD]

Yes! Billy Sheehan!! I've seen him in concert twice...once with the original incarnation of the David Lee Roth Band and once with "Mr. Big" when they opened for Rush on the "Roll The Bones" tour.


Anyone heard his cover of "Oh Well"?? He's the only person I've heard even ATTEMPT to cover part 2, as well. His version is one of my favorite covers of the song. It's included on the "Rattlesnake Guitar: tribute to Peter Green" album.

[seteca]

And what a brilliant cover that is...!

I downloaded it ages ago by your recommendation...it's also my favourite cover!

I highly recommended it to any fellow "Oh Well" lovers..part 1 is a sort of "upbeat" and super-cool version, and part 2 has been covered really well, quite similar to the original but some parts are a bit more technically advanced than Peter's original version (that's not to say that Peter couldn't have played it like that if he'd wanted to!)

[chiliD]

Oooh, Steve Hackett...good call!


A few more that I thought of:

Lee Ritenour
Larry Carlton
Randy Bachman (Guess Who/BTO)
Nils Lofgren
Mike Campbell (TP & The Heartbreakers)
Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)
Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music)
Les Harvey (Stone The Crows)...sidenote: after Les died, Peter Green was supposed to be his replacement, but backed out at the last minute.
Steve Hillage (Gong...replaced Andy Summers)
Peter Banks (original guitarist in Yes...formed the group "Flash" after leaving Yes)
Jan Akkerman (Focus)

[estranged4life]

to add to the list:

Stuart Hamm (Maybe a bassist, But he plays like a guitarist...)

George Lynch (Ex-Dokken)

Steve Miller

the late Micheal Hedges (Awesome acoustic player)

Robben Ford

the late Tommy Bolin

and how the hell did I leave off Eric Johnson???

[chiliD]

Eric Johnson was on the original list of 100 (#71)...believe it or not! One of the few who DESERVED to be on the list.

[estranged4life]

I must've missed his name during all the laughter I had as I read this list...lol...Brian

[Rainman]

Just out of curiosity, how does everyone feel about the top three (Hendrix, Page and Clapton) being ranked as they are?

There's no question these are legendary talents, but are they there moreso because of their notoriety? Just wondering what those in tune with the music business (I'm not) think about this.

[seteca]

Originally posted by Rainman
Just out of curiosity, how does everyone feel about the top three (Hendrix, Page and Clapton) being ranked as they are?

There's no question these are legendary talents, but are they there moreso because of their notoriety? Just wondering what those in tune with the music business (I'm not) think about this.

Well it really depends on what is meant by "best guitarists"...firstly it should be remembered that everybody who's on this list is *famous*, (which is obviously how we know about them.) It doesn't mean that these are necessarily THE best guitarists in the world...there could always be some guy who plays in some unknown bar in some unknown town in some country somewhere in the world who'd make Clapton, Hendrix etc etc look like amateurs...but he's not famous and so we'll never know about him.
However, out of names on THIS list, I personally think (and I know I may be at the risk of being attacked by literally millions of people for saying this), the only name that I think deserves to be placed in the top 3 is Eric Clapton.

Jimmy Hendrix was an incredibly talented guitarist, but I feel that he achieved his world-famous status as "the best of all time" by things that he did that hadn't been done before and blew everyone's minds at the time. I think there are guitarists alive now (both on and off this list) who can do what he did, and possibly better. So if this list is totally about technical ability only, then I would not put him in my top 3. If it was about "originality" then yea, he would definitely be in my top 5, if not top 3.

Jimmy Page...once again, a very talented guitarist (not anywhere near as much as Hendrix though), who out of the famous guitarists definitely deserves to be in any "best" list, but not in the top 3. I think his presence in the top 3 is almost completely due to the massive fame and popularity of band he was in and the songs that he played, rather than a measure of his true technical ability. (The presence of people like "The Edge" or "Kelly Jones" in this list is the epitome of what I'm talking about.)

Eric Clapton plays with a "feel" that I have never seen/heard from any other guitarist. He has an absolute (completely subconcious) calm control over the instrument...he's so damn fluid, he's just an absolute pleasure to hear (and preferably see) him play every single time I have ever done so as far back as I can remember.

All just my very humble opinion....this question obviously has no (and will never have) any "absolute" answer(s). I'm not actually sure who'd I'd put in my top 3...but Clapton would definitely be one of them. I'm *really* interested to see what some other guitarists here have to say about this...good question Rainman!

[chiliD]

Hendrix deserves the #1 slot, just out of "innovation"...think of what rock guitar was BEFORE Jimi, and then after...nobody played "outside the box" before Jimi...nobody was playing at such volume to create feedback, and then corral the feedback...nobody used the whammy bar like Jimi. From a structured technical standpoint, no, Jimi wasn't that proficient, but from the standpoint of expanding the boundaries of "technical", Jimi was the pioneer.

Also, someone who's NOT on the list at all, who is the FATHER of multitrack recording AND who IS magnificently technically proficient on guitar is Les Paul...at 90+ years old still playing every Monday night at some restaurant bar in NYC. And, this is some 40 years after having his right arm shattered in a car accident and "set" in guitar playing position. The man is really a genius...and could've been a standup comedian, too, he's hilarious.

Jimmy Page is geared toward the studio (much like Lindsey)...Jimmy is a master of layering & overdubbing...well, I guess you could call it "orchestrating"...guitar parts...but, LIVE? He's one of the sloppiest guitar players I've ever heard. He would barely make my top 10, much less be #2.

Eric Clapton...they didn't and don't call him "god" for nothing...he'd far and away be my #1...let me qualify this as it would probably seem like a contradiction to what I said above about JMH...I said that Jimi would DESERVE the #1 slot for innovation alone...but Clapton is my favorite.

Ok, so here's my top 10:

1) Eric Clapton
2) Peter Green
3) Chet Atkins
4) Les Paul
5) Jimi Hendrix
6) Duane Allman
7) Ry Cooder
8) Stevie Ray Vaughan
9) Buddy Guy
10) Rick Vito

[seteca]

Originally posted by chiliD
...think of what rock guitar was BEFORE Jimi, and then after...nobody played "outside the box" before Jimi...nobody was playing at such volume to create feedback, and then corral the feedback...nobody used the whammy bar like Jimi. From a structured technical standpoint, no, Jimi wasn't that proficient, but from the standpoint of expanding the boundaries of "technical", Jimi was the pioneer....

That's pretty much what I meant, only better put!

Here's my top 10 (*favourite* guitarists, not necessarily who I think are "the best") :

1) Lindsey Buckingham

2) Slash
3) Eric Clapton
4) Mark Knopfler
5) Django Reinhardt
6) Dave Gilmour
7) Brian May
8) Peter Green
9) Prince
10) Jimi Hendrix

[seteca]

Speaking of which....

there's another member of the M.I.A. club.....

Prince, one of the most underrated *musicians* (not just guitarists) of all time...

[Barbara]

I went to the Total Guitar magazine site and found this:

Collector's special: Total Guitar's 100th issue!

We've reached 100! Yes, it was back in the mists of time (well, 1994 actually) when Total Guitar began, when Britpop and Oasis and Blur reigned supreme. Since then, we've seen the re-emergence of metal, punk-pop not to mention rock music in general. To celebrate, we asked you, the readers, to vote for the 100 greatest players, the full results of which you'll see in TG100. We also asked some of your favourite players (Vai, Satch, Sambora, Malmsteen, Brian May and the guitarists of Nickelback, Sum 41, System Of A Down, Puddle Of Mudd and more) to nominate theirs, also revealed this issue.

So this is a Total Guitar reader and guitarist survey which represents a pretty esoteric group. I'm assuming only the readers voted on the top 100 and there are "nominations" from the guitarists.

Anyway, it's just another popularity poll, but I'm still surprised and happy that Lindsey made it!

Barbara

I agree with Seteca - "favorite" would have been a more accurate description for this list.

[BellaDonnaGypsy]

Has anyone actually bought a copy of the magazine yet? I should have looked for it today when I was in London, but had other things on my mind...

Laura.

[estranged4life]

1.David Gilmour
2.Brian May
3.Steve Vai
4.Stevie Ray Vaughan
5.Steve Morse
6.Mark Knopfler
7.Gary Moore
8.John Sykes
9.John Petrucci
10.Edward Van Halen