UK Guitar lists "the best"

[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!