Best Guitar Player Of All Time?

[razoredge]

I really don't get Jimi Hendrix...he wasn't very smart, he didn't sound very good, and he wasn't metal. So what's the big deal? I agree that he did a lot for rock guitar, but nothing he did still holds up.

There is no one "Best Guitarist EVAR!" because that's a matter of taste...that said, I love Stevie Ray Vaughan's solos,

First of all I hope you realize just these two statements tied together is contradictory. Then Hendrix may have argueably written the first metal song. Even if you dont view it as "metal" he was the root. Shouldnt think of him or any of the hardrock guitarists as "rock". "rock" was that sappy stuff, top 10 played all day on the radio stuff. Hendrix and Page did not fit the "rock" catagory. Then you better read some lyrics and listen to his double stop rythmn technique before you determine brain wave capability. Then you need to explain that if he "didnt hold up" why the greatest guitarists living today have all played tributes and covers to him. Explain it to them not me.

Then you mention the chipmunk twins of dragonfarce. Even as fast as they honestly are live they dont play anything that wasnt already done 20 years ago. Creativity is essential to qualify for "best of" and Hendrix had it, dragonfarce doesnt. That will always "hold up"

Now Ill agree with you, Kobain did the world a favor, you figure out which one. The other new 90's heavy pop bands (AIC, STP, Soundgarden) were a good thing though. Pop metal was getting and had been really bad. Kiss sucks. Motley Crue had like two decent songs. Dream Theater was another band that was turning heads during the grunge movement and set the bar for what has become current progressive metal and their early works still "hold up" today.

You give Iommi credit but want to take it from Hendrix. I'll agree that Iommi was very important but he was a primitive power cord player, comparitively Hendrix owned the fretboard and had many tecniques.

Side note: Zakk Wylde is great but he didnt invent "pinch harmonics" a simple Texas blues/boogie player, Billy Gibbons was all over that shit in the early 70's. The pop metal players consistently used them. Zakk has his way though.

Being amounst the greatest is as much about what you brought to the table as it is how "fast" or flawless you are.

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

I can't find any source for the specific inventor of pinch harmonics but Roy Buchanan was doing them in the early 70s too. Roy Buchanan is awesome... my brother listens to every blues guitarist under the sun and most of the "innovative" ones are just more of the same, but with Roy he actually was fucking innovative. He still plays plenty of the same old, but there are songs where as an intro he'll do a ridiculous metal solo with pinch harmonics and everything... dude's sweet. edit: oh and I checked, his first pinch harmonics on a record was in 1962! Wow.

 

[Bryant]

There's a thing called taste. But in pure "guitarsmanship", none of them are the best.

I am not here to make enemies, nor argue, but the fact of the matter is that "best" is an opinion in itself when one is talking about an art form. It is easy to measure the "tallest" building, but when you are talking about art it is ALL about taste.
I would be willing to bet there are very technical guitarists that would find it difficult to play David Gilmour solos. I would also be willing to bet, very few guitarists can imitate many of Wolf Hoffmann's (former Accept's guitarist) solos due to his phrasing skils while playing some relatively fast stuff.
Speed, right hand dexterity, string skipping and odd timing etc. do not make a guitarist "better" than one that knows note selection and phrasing to such a degree that he/she has become a master of their craft. Phrasing and note selection (and rythm) are the most important elements of writing anything, be it chord progressions, fills, or solos.
When you can take the RIGHT phrasing and note selection into a technically challenging speed or dextrous level, then you are certainly excellent at what you do, but the faster you play a note, the less you can do with it as far as phrasing it.
I am not some old fart who doesn't like modern guitarists. In fact, if you have ever heard Pagans Mind, then you have heard one of my top five guitarists of all-time. Jorn Viggo Lofstat destroys most guitarists I have heard. Stephan Lill of vanden Plas is a little bit dry at times, but also has come through with some GREAT solos that fit the song perfectly as well.


Bryant

 

[R'lyeh]

Kurt Cobain is obviously the most talented guitarist of all time. He shreds so fast that it's actually at a higher frequency than the human ear can detect. Playing at this speed, of course, creates massive feedback that sounds something like "and I'm yelling, and I'm sceamin', and I don't know, what I'm saying." But I assure you he is in fact the greatest guitarist known to man.


Actually, Kurt Cobain is A) one of the shittiest gutiarists I've ever heard, up there with Ace Frehley and Mick Mars, and B) the asshole who killed metal in the 90's.

Rolling Stones' list is bullshit. Besides which, this is a metal forum and Rolling Stone is the magazine that dismissed Slayer as "genuinely offensive Satanic drivel," so why are we even mentioning it?

I really don't get Jimi Hendrix...he wasn't very smart, he didn't sound very good, and he wasn't metal. So what's the big deal? I agree that he did a lot for rock guitar, but nothing he did still holds up.

Jesper Stromblad's melodic genius,

I couldn't have said it better if I tried

 

[razoredge]

I am not here to make enemies, nor argue, but the fact of the matter is that "best" is an opinion in itself when one is talking about an art form. It is easy to measure the "tallest" building, but when you are talking about art it is ALL about taste.
I would be willing to bet there are very technical guitarists that would find it difficult to play David Gilmour solos. I would also be willing to bet, very few guitarists can imitate many of Wolf Hoffmann's (former Accept's guitarist) solos due to his phrasing skils while playing some relatively fast stuff.
Speed, right hand dexterity, string skipping and odd timing etc. do not make a guitarist "better" than one that knows note selection and phrasing to such a degree that he/she has become a master of their craft. Phrasing and note selection (and rythm) are the most important elements of writing anything, be it chord progressions, fills, or solos.
When you can take the RIGHT phrasing and note selection into a technically challenging speed or dextrous level, then you are certainly excellent at what you do, but the faster you play a note, the less you can do with it as far as phrasing it.
I am not some old fart who doesn't like modern guitarists. In fact, if you have ever heard Pagans Mind, then you have heard one of my top five guitarists of all-time. Jorn Viggo Lofstat destroys most guitarists I have heard. Stephan Lill of vanden Plas is a little bit dry at times, but also has come through with some GREAT solos that fit the song perfectly as well.


Bryant

I think you just applied perfect phrasing

 

[inhe]

I am not here to make enemies, nor argue, but the fact of the matter is that "best" is an opinion in itself when one is talking about an art form. It is easy to measure the "tallest" building, but when you are talking about art it is ALL about taste.
I would be willing to bet there are very technical guitarists that would find it difficult to play David Gilmour solos. I would also be willing to bet, very few guitarists can imitate many of Wolf Hoffmann's (former Accept's guitarist) solos due to his phrasing skils while playing some relatively fast stuff.
Speed, right hand dexterity, string skipping and odd timing etc. do not make a guitarist "better" than one that knows note selection and phrasing to such a degree that he/she has become a master of their craft. Phrasing and note selection (and rythm) are the most important elements of writing anything, be it chord progressions, fills, or solos.
When you can take the RIGHT phrasing and note selection into a technically challenging speed or dextrous level, then you are certainly excellent at what you do, but the faster you play a note, the less you can do with it as far as phrasing it.
I am not some old fart who doesn't like modern guitarists. In fact, if you have ever heard Pagans Mind, then you have heard one of my top five guitarists of all-time. Jorn Viggo Lofstat destroys most guitarists I have heard. Stephan Lill of vanden Plas is a little bit dry at times, but also has come through with some GREAT solos that fit the song perfectly as well.


Bryant

You just clarified my point, without actually understanding what it was from the beginning. I used the word "guitarsmanship" for an overall term of what classifies a great guitarplayer technically (meaning good technique, vibrato, phrasing and just overall playing.), but then there are ofcourse other factors to consider, like composing. Even though making music is an art form, playing the guitar, or any instrument for that matter, requires technical skill. There is a reason why some are considered virtuosos, and other's aren't, even though you might not agree.

To make my point even more clear: I can play one note and hold it forever, and call it the best art ever made, and that point is valid, but that still wouldn't make me a better player than Paul Gilbert, Michael Romeo, MAB or any other "virtuoso".

 

[Vimana]

I really don't get Jimi Hendrix...he wasn't very smart, he didn't sound very good, and he wasn't metal. So what's the big deal? I agree that he did a lot for rock guitar, but nothing he did still holds up.

By any chance are you down syndrome? Jimi had influenced a shitload of techniques in music, without him Metal would've been born much much later. Jimi was the first guy to play guitar really loud and thats what influenced Metal.

What do you mean "he wasn't Metal" how does playing a fucking genre determine your skill.

Go shoot yourself in the head, maybe that bullet will add some fucking brain matter.

 

[staunchally]

You forgot Clapton, and BB King and Robert Johnson, and Chuck Berry. But yeah Hendrix is the greatest. And by the way its Jimmy Page not Jimi Page.

You are,of course, entitled to your opinion but I'm curious as to why you think Clapton, King, Johnson and Berry are some of the best?

 

[staunchally]

Frank Zappa.

I used to be a big FZ fan. What do you think makes him a good guitarist? Everything he plays is blues based and he is quite sloppy.

 

[Tallerthanatree]

Samantha Escarbe-Virgin Black

Yes. Absolutely amazing. Not as much as Billy Joe Armstrong of course. But for metal, I'd say Mick Thompson.























j/k

 

[staunchally]

Dave Gilmour - the king of feel...

Aside from that cos it hasnt been mentioned, i dont think i could list them all, since i dont know them all yet.

What is "feel"?

 

[Vimana]

David Gilmour hahahahaha. No way.

 

[Vimana]

You are,of course, entitled to your opinion but I'm curious as to why you think Clapton, King, Johnson and Berry are some of the best?

Mostly because of their influence on music. Johnson could play a lead and rhythm guitar at the same time and I don't know anyone who could do that. I really don't think talent is determined by the complication of riffs and solos and speed, I think it is determined by the quality of your riffs and solos. Jimmy Page stuff is easy, but it sounds great. I don't know if Hendrix would be the best because it is arguable but I think he made his stuff more complicated than it should've been on purpose so people would think he was great.

 

[Vimana]

I also think Hendrix made his stuff more technical because he was worried a lot and was self conscious. He hated his voice, he didn't want people to watch him sing in the studio, he was afraid to buy drugs from anyone he didn't know. I think he was just afraid of being called a bad guitarist. But you can't deny he's amazing, just look at this improvisation.



That actually does sound pretty Heavy Metal at some parts.

The definition of Heavy Metal is pretty distorted these days. Heavy Metal is a loud style of Rock also known as Hard Rock. What Metalheads consider to be "Metal" is just a different sounding type of Metal that isn't classified into the tons of Metal subgenres.

Then Hendrix may have argueably written the first metal song.

What song?

 

[razoredge]

Originally Posted by razoredge
Then Hendrix may have argueably written the first metal song.

Feathers and Flames
What song?

I dont consider them metal, but the roots of metal due to the hard (heavy) sound.

Many songs from Are You Experienced but Purple Haze was the killer, Manic Depression, Fire, Foxy Lady

 

[colour_of_darkness]

A lot of the guitarists I've seen listed are great and everything, dont get me wrong, but they are the last generation! I am truly disgusted to see that Rolling Stones omitted Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge! I think he is definately the best of the world's new guitarists; not only does he possess stunning prowess with the ol' six stringer, but he has the ability to hold back and think about the music as opposed to blindly showing off!!!...



...thats my view anyway

 

[Vimana]

I wonder if Hendrix would've been called Heavy Metal if he lived a bit longer, I dunno but his music seemed to get heavier and heavier.

I am pissed Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta is not in the Rolling Stone top 100, and also along with Slash.

 

[razoredge]

You have to ignore Rolling Stone in the first place, the magazine always sucked, I view it like I do the National Enquirer = bullshit. In the second place its a readers poll so alot of know nothings that are fans of so and so throw their name in. Just look at the list, its 75 percent laughable.

I love my Alter Bridge CD but I played it out a few years ago. I still dont have any Creed, no particular reason, just dont. Bought Alter Bridge because I liked the singer... alot and I was impressed with the whole CD.

 

[billcraftmetal15]

John Petrucci/Steve Vai/Yngwie/Greg Howe/Guthrie Govan/Jason Becker/Marty Friedman/Frank Gambale/Tony MacAlpine/EVH to name a few i can think of right now.

 

[Vimana]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Mark Knopfler.

Clapton is a God of Blues.