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100 Greatest Guitarists

Porkuloss said:
Those guys you listed are all good, but the list was compiled by rock guys who tend to be more influenced by blues than jazz or country.
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No doubt. But they put Chet Atkins in the top 25 so it isn't as if the Nashville sound was completely ignored either. And certainly Harrison and Lennon were in Mason Williams' genre. Oh well.
 
Porkuloss said:
No, not really. It's other guitarists listing who influenced them. You can be technically great, but boring as hell, or the other way 'round.
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I think maybe they mis-titled the article then. Maybe they should have titled it the top most influential...not the 'greatest'.

Take Cobain for example...Nirvana was the face of the grunge movement but I dont see Cobain as being a great guitarist in even the genre. He wasnt the best musician in the band. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam was far more skilled.

I dont know..maybe its just me though. Looking at the people that made the list thats a whole bunch of talent and I couldnt carry their guitar case. So.......
 
VanceMack said:
I think maybe they mis-titled the article then. Maybe they should have titled it the top most influential...not the 'greatest'.

Take Cobain for example...Nirvana was the face of the grunge movement but I dont see Cobain as being a great guitarist in even the genre. He wasnt the best musician in the band. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam was far more skilled.

I dont know..maybe its just me though. Looking at the people that made the list thats a whole bunch of talent and I couldnt carry their guitar case. So.......
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I think you are correct in that.

And they really didn't do much with the grunge genre at all. Nirvana is the face of grunge, and certainly influential.
 
Well, Frank is at least in the top 25....
 
radcen said:
I think you are correct in that.

And they really didn't do much with the grunge genre at all. Nirvana is the face of grunge, and certainly influential.
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Sure...no doubt. Nirvana made Grunge commercial. You COULD kinda say they took grunge to rock and killed the movement.
 
TurtleDude said:
a guy I knew in law school-who ended up being a major player in the music industry as general counsel of one of the big record companies was a huge WHO freak and played in a Who "tribute" (rip off?) band in college and got to know Pete, Roger and John really pretty well and noted that the real lead in that band was "the Ox" Pete's glory was as a showman/

I found it interesting that the best guitarist for Metallica wasn't there. and its hard to believe Jorma K is missing. I admit I might have missed a couple, that article keeps locking up for me.

I've seen

Martin Barre
Garcia
Betts,
Young
James Honeyman Scott (what a waste)
Keith Richards
Page
Johnny Ramone
Bryce and Aaron Dessner
Townsend
Belew

live and Page was the one I'd say I was most impressed with with Bryce #2 tied with Barre and Belew
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Robert Trujillo, Metallic's bassist, is actually a pretty accomplished guitar player - he play at least flamenco and perhaps other styles. There's a story going that when he auditioned he played some guitar as well and Hammett allegedly said something like "hey you could probably have my job."
 
:2wave:

Jimmy herring
 
:2wave:



Randy Rhoads
 
spud_meister said:
Where's Tommy Emmanuel? Or Paco De Lucia? Chet Atkins? Rory ****ing Gallagher?
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Thankfully, I got to see him (granted, only once) before he passed. Simply brilliant.
 
radcen said:
Some of these rankings always intrigue me. For example: I am a huge Beatles fan, but I've never thought that George Harrison was anywhere in the Top 25. He was ok, but he wasn't great.
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Why was John Lennon on the list at all?? I know several guitarists who can play circles around him....

I'm also wondering at some pretty obvious misses. Joe Satriani and Roy Clark being two of the most notables ones. I'd put Roy Clark in the top 10 list of great guitarists any day of the week. Satch should be top 30 at worst.
 
Grand Mal said:
Agreed. No problem with the top ten if SRV replaces Jimi Hendrix, just because of Little Wing.
I was hoping for a more eclectic mix so Chet Atkins çould be in the top 5.
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Winston said:
Hard not to include Chet Atkins in any guitarist discussion. Mr. Guitar. I believe he was mentor to Jerry Reed.

EDIT: I may have been thinking of Merle Travis. Might have got them confused :shrug
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As great as Chet Atkins was, I'd put Roy Clark ahead of him any day (I'd put both in the top 10).
 
faithful_servant said:
As great as Chet Atkins was, I'd put Roy Clark ahead of him any day (I'd put both in the top 10).
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Amen to that. I would put Glen Campbell and Roy Clark in the top 10 if not No. 1 and 2. And neither made the list but Simon and Lennon did? Come on. And Mason Williams still gives me goosebumps all these many decades later.
 
AlbqOwl said:
No doubt. But they put Chet Atkins in the top 25 so it isn't as if the Nashville sound was completely ignored either. And certainly Harrison and Lennon were in Mason Williams' genre. Oh well.
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Agreed. I will say that I know Chet Atkins was a scary good guitarist. He and Campbell were both named by Keith Richards in his bio as influences and Atkins style was covered by another phenomenal guitarist who wasn't in that list, Eric Johnson. Richards melded country influences into the Stones music, so he got it.
 
VanceMack said:
I think maybe they mis-titled the article then. Maybe they should have titled it the top most influential...not the 'greatest'.

Take Cobain for example...Nirvana was the face of the grunge movement but I dont see Cobain as being a great guitarist in even the genre. He wasnt the best musician in the band. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam was far more skilled.

I dont know..maybe its just me though. Looking at the people that made the list thats a whole bunch of talent and I couldnt carry their guitar case. So.......
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Agreed. I looked at the judges list and read what they wrote beneath the pics. It's "influences" and "who had the most impact on the instrument in your opinion", I think. Not "greatest players" per se.

Again, I have my arguments with the list, but most of my personal favs did well or at least got mentioned, so I'm not going to complain.
 
faithful_servant said:
As great as Chet Atkins was, I'd put Roy Clark ahead of him any day (I'd put both in the top 10).
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Wow, I didn't know Clark was THAT good. I need to do some digging. Saying someone is better than Chet is a lot.
 
Here is one of my favorites by Roy Clark even if you are a Ventures fan for this piece:



I would put him up against any contemporary, country, jazz, or blues guitarist anywhere.
 
And about 30 seconds this clip you get some of the amazing talent of Glen Campbell. How could he be omitted from the 100 greatest?

 
radcen said:
100 Greatest Guitarists

100 Greatest Guitarists | Rolling Stone
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I hate lists that start at 100.

Anyway, Jimi, Jimmy and Kieth in the top 5 is probably fair. I'm not a Clapton fan, so I would have put Page at #2, with David Gilmore at #4. And, Prince at 5. But, meh...taste is taste.

I wonder where Robin Trower falls. I would put him in the top ten.
 
Flattus Maximus, not on the list...





:mrgreen:
 
No Albert King, Joe Satriania, Joe Bonamassa, Steve Vai, etc....

....meanwhile some of those people shouldn't even be on there if the point is really "greatest guitarists". Influential, yes, but great?



Take Cobain for instance. I'm fairly certain he talked a number of times about not being particularly gifted with guitar, but then, the point of their music wasn't intricate dances along the frets. The lyrics generally don't even make sense because he'd deliberately swap similar sounding words with each other until the original draft was changed. For example, "Everything is grey" in All Apologies became "Everyone is gay" just because he thought it sounded better in some way, not because it was some cleverly cloaked meaning. It was just the sound and the general emotive tone. As he put it, people getting drunk and having a good time. That's it.

But he's on a list of "greatest guitarists"? Please. He'd laugh, if he could.
 
Grand Mal said:
Agreed. No problem with the top ten if SRV replaces Jimi Hendrix, just because of Little Wing.
I was hoping for a more eclectic mix so Chet Atkins çould be in the top 5.
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AlbqOwl said:
Here is one of my favorites by Roy Clark even if you are a Ventures fan for this piece:



I would put him up against any contemporary, country, jazz, or blues guitarist anywhere.
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You could throw a rubber band at Clark and he'd catch it playing and sound better than half the people on this list...
 
calamity said:
I hate lists that start at 100.

Anyway, Jimi, Jimmy and Kieth in the top 5 is probably fair. I'm not a Clapton fan, so I would have put Page at #2, with David Gilmore at #4. And, Prince at 5. But, meh...taste is taste.

I wonder where Robin Trower falls. I would put him in the top ten.
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Our daughter plays or has been a professional blues musician or weekends in addition to her professional career and dragged us kicking and screaming into being fans of that genre. And I definitely would have put Clapton on the list as one of the best blues guitarists out there.

 
Our son is a classical guitarist who teaches that, among other things, in his music studio he operates as a vocation in addition to his engineering job. He introduced us to the wonderful world of the Spanish/classical guitar. And while I can understand why these folks might not be known well enough, or the genre appreciated enough, to make the top 100 list, their skill is definitely right up there:

 
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