Best 80's guitar duos

[FatesFan]

Tipton / Downing
Murray / Smith

Gillis / Watson ? You bet your ass! Jeff Watson is way underrated and in my opinion, never got his props.

This duo put down some memorable licks for sure.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Gilbert/Boulliet(sp??) - Racer X
Jason Becker/Marty Friedman - Cacophony

 

[The_Q]

Hansen/ Weikath of Helloween?
Ian/ Spitz Of Anthrax?

 

[Ascension]

Yngwie Malmsteen/Yngwie Malmsteen

 

[Troy the nomad]

Tipton / Downing
Murray / Smith

Gillis / Wattson ? You bet your ass! Jeff Wattson is way underrated and in my opinion, never got his props.

This duo put down some memorable licks for sure.

There are ONLY 2 duo's to consider.
That aside, Watson was/is very under-rated, about as much as Gillis is/was over-rated.

 

[mel_progson]

Geoff Thorpe and Mark McGee tore it up in Vicious Rumors heyday.

Chris Degarmo and Michael Wilton.

Phil Collen and Steve Clark-ok so not so technical, but their styles meshed great.

Andy LaRocque and Pete Blakk.

 

[MysticX9]

I wrote a column on this a few moons back, here is the excerpt:

*** REALM OF SHRED ***
*
by Neal Woodall (MysticX10@...)

-I love bands with two guitarists, especially when they take trade-off
solos. Most everyone reading Detritus is no doubt familiar with some
of the great guitar teams in metal, such as Glenn Tipton/K.K. Downing,
Dave Murray/Adrian Smith, Rudolph Schenker/Matthias Jabs and Michael
Wilton/Chris DeGarmo. This week, however, I thought I would list some
of my other favorite tandem units along with a representative example
of their recorded work. So here goes, in no particular order of
importance:

Vicious Rumors - Mark McGee/Geoff Thorpe: DIGITAL DICTATOR
Leatherwolf - Carey Howe/Geoff Gayer: STREET READY
Thin Lizzy - John Sykes/Scott Gorham: THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
Racer X - Paul Gilbert/Bruce Bouillet: SECOND HEAT
Cacophony - Jason Becker/Marty Friedman: SPEED METAL SYMPHONY
Riot - Mark Reale/Rick Ventura: FIRE DOWN UNDER
Accept - Wolf Hoffmann/Jorg Fischer: RESTLESS AND WILD
Saxon - Paul Quinn/Graham Oliver: WHEELS OF STEEL
Helloween - Michael Weikath/Kai Hansen: KEEPER OF THE 7 KEYS PART 2
Obsession - Bruce Vitale/Art Maco: METHODS OF MADNESS
Exodus - Gary Holt/Rick Hunolt: PLEASURES OF THE FLESH
Labyrinth - Olaf Thorsen/Andrea Cantarelli: RETURN TO HEAVEN DENIED

Recently a new breed of dual guitar virtuosos have emeged. Here are my
current favorites:

Evergrey - Tom Englund/Henrik Danhage: IN SEARCH OF TRUTH
Sinergy - Alexi Laiho/Roope Latvala: SUICIDE BY MY SIDE
Mors Principium Est - Jori Haukio/Jarkko Kokko: INHUMANITY
Arch Enemy - Michael Arnott/Chris Arnott: ANTHEMS OF REBELLION

I know I've left a bunch of great teams off the list, and I pretty
much avoided the bands featuring a predominant rhythm guitarist with a
lead player (like Jag Panzer); I'll save those for another time. Now
go check out some of the above-mentioned albums!

 

[MysticX9]

Actually I found out subsequently that Wolf Hoffman did all of the guitarwork
on RESTLESS AND WILD...

 

[edgeofthorns]

Good thread! When I think of the 80's I tend to lean toward bands that have one gun slinger. With that said, two of my favorite bands come to mind, whom are very different from each other!

Ratt - Demartini/Crosby
Testament - Skolnick/Peterson

~Brian~

 

[VenomGA]

Yngwie Malmsteen and his Ego (and I am a HUGE Yngwie fanboy)

 

[The Invisible Guest]

Chris Degarmo and Michael Wilton.
Andy LaRocque and Pete Blakk.

Those are my two favorite pairings.


Britt

 

[General Zod]

Murray / Smith - the gold standard

Tipton / Downing - vastly over-rated as lead players

DeMartini / Crosby - I was never impressed with Crosby as a lead player

DeGarmo / Wilton - vastly underrated

Hannon / Skeoch - vastly under-rated

Most talented duo of all-time? Loomis / Broderick. What they do together is just flat out sick.

Zod

 

[mëtålspëd]

I dont think I could pass this thread, without posting up some 'snake:

John Sykes/Adrian Vandenberg (1987)
or
Vandenberg/Vai (Slip of the Tongue)

 

[mëtålspëd]

Oh, and another timely addition (due to the other thread)

Reb Beach/Paul Taylor (Winger)... not in the same league as the over the top shredders, but both very solid guitarists.

 

[VenomGA]

I dont think I could pass this thread, without posting up some 'snake:

John Sykes/Adrian Vandenberg (1987)
or
Vandenberg/Vai (Slip of the Tongue)

Adrian Vandenberg was not in the band at the same time as John Sykes. While Vandenberg recorded the solo for Here I Go Again, he was not a member of the band and did not play anything else on the album. John Sykes played all the other guitar work.

 

[Azrael LenGraden]

There are many great duos that have already been mentioned, I just wanted to agree/reiterate what Fatefan said about Gillis/Watson I have seen these guys live about 8 times and what they do is awesome and the ease at which they pull it of is amazing.

 

[mëtålspëd]

Adrian Vandenberg was not in the band at the same time as John Sykes. While Vandenberg recorded the solo for Here I Go Again, he was not a member of the band and did not play anything else on the album. John Sykes played all the other guitar work.

Learn something new every day

 

[J-Man]

My favorites and these guys were truely amazing live:

Bruce Brookshire/Ric Skelton - DOC HOLLIDAY

Hughie Thomassan/Billy Jones/Steve Grisham - THE OUTLAWS

From today's music i really like the dual guitars of :

Don Lafon/Eric Halpren - KRUCIBLE
And the Three guitar attack of AETHERIUS

 

[VenomGA]

Learn something new every day

After the album was recorded, lead singer David Coverdale fired the band members who had played on the recordings: John Sykes (guitar), who went on to found Blue Murder; Neil Murray (bass); and Aynsley Dunbar (drums). Adrian Vandenberg, who played on the solo to "Here I Go Again," joined the band on a full-time basis after the other members were gone.
The videos for "Still of the Night","Here I Go Again", "Is This Love" and "Give Me All Your Love", apart of David Coverdale himself, feature the touring line-up of Vivian Campbell, Adrian Vandenberg, Rudy Sarzo, and Tommy Aldridge, though they never took part on the recordings, except for Vandenberg, who played on the solo for "Here I Go Again", and Campbell who re-recorded the solo for the video and single version of "Give Me All Your Love".

 

[oldboy]

Nice thread. I agree with Watson/Gillis being overlooked and underrated. But to answer the question Downing/Tipton is the best and most influential guitar duo in the history of metal.