30 best guitarist ?
 

I see alot missing .. Popularity contest ? accurate ?

YouTube - Top 30 greatest and best guitar players of all time

I don't bother reading these types of lists....everyone has their own!

influential, maybe. Rock, blues, lots of styles and good ones left off. I hope that wasn't in order . Too personal a topic to have set in stone. Glad to see Frank in there though, I know Lawrence will sleep good now. Heck the guy I saw the other nite that i'd never heard about before could hang with most of them. So many good ones out there, but a lot on that list were very influential for sure. The best? who knows, not me.

Pete Townsend # 11 and Larry Carlton not mentioned, :smash:

I am a giant fan of PJ Joe, er sorry Pete Townsend , but better than a Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Lee Ritenour. Not in my book , but a whole different kind of music there.

ya a lot of names missing

and I can't argue with the top 3 but
Van Halen number 4?:confused:
you can swap that right out with Duane Allman and move him up from where they ranked him at 20:smash: Duane was killed way too young :( but I rank him as 4th not Eddie, sorry Eddie

agree

Sorry I never thought too much of Pete Townsends ability with a guitar! Power cords do not impress me! I can't think of one thoughtful, soul wrenching solo that he has ever done! Just my own personal opinion here so don't get your panties in a bunch...you know who!:rotf2:

I liken his ability to Ringo Starr as a drummer.......just in the right place at the right time but without the group around him......ehhhhhh!

When George Harrison is rated one place behind Les Paul, you can laugh that list right out the window.

No Trucks, no Pearson, no Herring, no Bonamassa, no credibility.

And that's just rock players. The 30th best jazz guitarist alive would be number one on that list.

Robert Fripp. Thinking about those old King Crimson records we listened to in college. Very good stuff for your head.

I just watched the list.....Eddie is not a top 30 let alone rubbing elbows with Clapton, Page and Hendrix! I will say this about Pete Townsend's ability and I think anyone on this list must have and that is soul and heart and feeling when they play and Pete does have that! As for the "Speed Metal Mess" that guys like the number 29 and 30 and Yngve (whatever) Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.....yeah boy they can play fast and loud.....but there is no soul in what they play.....just a bunch of noise!!! Frank??? Yeah Paul......Frank was very talented.....plays with soul and heart and conviction! The top 3 I have no argument with placement there......there are times when I hear Jimmy Page play and I can't believe he is human.......definitely top 3.....Hendrix at number 1 no argument there......Claptons body of work is hands down better than anyone else on the planet!!!! Duane, Jimmy and SRV gone too soon.........these guys are top 10 all day long!!!!

Also as big a fan of George Harrison as I am.....he is out of place that high on the list considering some of the notable omissions!

I heard a quote once and this applies to my comments about "Speed Metal Merchants" and players with soul and heart and feeling........."some players can play 1000 great notes.......and the best only need to strike 1 note and it will draw more emotion and feeling". Something to that affect!

Playing "FAST" is right up there with "Distance casting"......who cares!

If you look at the title on the video it is the"top 30 influential guitarists" not the top 30 best (there is no such thing as best in music)...
Influence what? to emulate their style of playing? Influenced someone to pick up a guitar in the first place? it is all subjective..... and this list here is made up by who?
Buddy Holly was pretty influential....how come he's not on the list. :rotf2:

or the Edge??....he influenced a whole new generation of guitar players and created an almost unique style of playing.....

[QUOTE=BigFish;813643]...."some players can play 1000 great notes.......and the best only need to strike 1 note and it will draw more emotion and feeling". Something to that affect!

QUOTE]

That's where Jeff Beck has always shined, and why he belongs on that list.

But the best can play fast, and play with soul. If you never heard of Jack Pearson, do a YouTube search for him. IMO, his lead solo on Blue Sky set the mark for that ABB classic--even more so than Duane ever did. Jack can play everything, from Segovia, to Hendrix and SRV, to Wes Montgomery.

alot is personal taste .. Where's Roy Clark ? no joke .. I like real country guitar pickin . Any country pickers on that list ? Pretty main stream list .. Not to mention jazz players or god forbid classical. Where's Dime Bag ?

Mark Knopfler???? He is a big-time picker with country influence Eddie!:uhuh:

They need to lose Slash, Angus Young, and Townsend....they really don't belong on that list.

Like all their Music....just don't think they belong on the list.

Townsend's Talent was in his songwriting.

No Bo Diddley??
And yep....where's Roy Clark?....or how about Ritchie Blackmore?

Chet Atkins, Danny Gatton, Martin Mull:) List could be a mile long

Hey I'll bet Townsend influenced most of the best guitar smashers that ever smashed an instrument. Nobody did it better in my book.

..

Martin Mull...:hihi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yzKmekm80A

More Jack.

How about this Guy....Stanley Jordan is just amazing....

YouTube - Autumn Leaves - Stanley Jordan

I hate these lists and wont watch it, but to respond to your comments. EVH changed the way rock guitar will be played forever. On Van Halen's first 4 albums, Eddie played something or introduced a new technique no one ever played, on almost every other song. Things that you cant even say "he stole from so and so".
Many of the greats have stong influences you can hear. I love Clapton and SRV but you hear Albert King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush in their playing, who do you hear in Eddie Van Halen's playing? The guy was a monster and one of the most creative players on the guitar, second only to Les Paul.

And in IMHO, Angus Young is an amazing rock guitar player and deserves to be high up there.

As I understand from your posts, this is about INFLUENCE. Walk into a Guitar Center and 90% of the guitars will be- Strats (thank Hendrix, Clapton, SRV and Beck), Gibson SGs (thank Angus), Les Pauls (thank Page and Randy Rhodes) and you'll numerous strat styles with humb#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g pickups (thank Eddie Van Halen). Turn on the radio today and 90% of the hard rock guitar playing refects these guys above. Listen to have the pop dance and modern country and you'll hear more EVH than you can imagine.
There are tons of fantastic players, but very few truly influential.

The interesting thing about that list was that they ignored any players with a country influence. To make any list of rock guitarists and not have James Burton would be a glaring omission.
I do not see why Slash along with a few of the sherders made the list though I agree with RIJimmy that you have to have EVH high on the list because he really revitalized rock guitar and may be, depending on your age, as influential as Clapton and Hendrix.

Mr. Van Halen credited Alan Holdsworth for much inspiration and developing some of his techniques that he used. He worshiped him really. Holdsworth is not commercial music so many have never heard of him. VH was commercial so he got the technique, with his own personal refinement, more visibility and getting it to the masses. I credit Eddie for having the taste to even want to listen to Holdsworth. Zappa called Holdsworth one of the most interesting players on the planet. Good enough for me. Pretty hard to come up with new techniques on something that has been around for 100's of years and played by millions, all playing the same notes. They aren't inventing any new notes last i heard so you only have what everyone else has, even playing field. Guess that is what makes someone influential. How they were able to do something different, good, when others didn't see it, but had the same ingredients as everyone else. E VH is a great talent and deserves accolades for mainstreaming a style he took from some influence he got and developing it into his own hybrid style which was then listened to by others and developed into even more refined style's. It is all good, the way it should be. It is what makes music so fun, good, and personal.
Today's players have so much inspiration with all the ways to be exposed to all kinds of music thru albums, remember them, cd's, thousands of radio stations, etc,, It is hard to have your own style without some kind of influence pulling you in one way or another. Just impossible to have a best guitarist but is very possible to be an outstanding influential guitarist. Top 50 ? who knows, not me.


P.

yeah these kinds of discussions could go on forever, but it is still fun to talk about them. I didn't watch the vid, but I agree about Van Halen, the guy really did revolutionize rock playing. As for Slash, he is one of my favorites, but I agree that he really can't be mentioned with the likes of Hendrix or Clapton in terms of influence, BUT groups like GNR and Bon Jovi were really influential to a lot of current rock bands out there that I bet most of you hate.

Check out this guy.---Professor Edgar Nogueira, poruguese guitar

Lists make my blood boil. If there is one thing I will ever say, "I am damn good at________" it would be music since it is a huge part of my life. I have gone to bed thinking about this type of thing and really what my conclusion is that there is no "most talented/influential" since everyone is completely different from each other.

Influential you can only see the extremely big picture. There are many guitarists who should be credited with huge impacts but they aren't such as Uli Jon Roth. Amazing talent, not really a household name unless you are a fan, but the man had a great but subtle impact. Yngwie Malmsteen came around the time Uli was attempting the neoclassical deal and for at least a decade you ran into people trying to be the clone of Malmsteen by trying to play 100 mph. Yngwie became mainstream, Uli could not stand mainstream and that's why he left Scorpions.

Everytime you see a list it is almost always a mainstream name. Sometimes we are blessed with a person who is that influential in that they should be honored like Zappa and Hendrix. But even if you look at those two men, you cannot compare skills. Hendrix had a huge mainstream influence effect, Zappa was always under the radar but had a giant silent following along with being one of the most prolific musicians of our time.

As always if you had the opportunity to ask the players who is the best and/or influential, they always refer to someone who preceded them. An example would be Eric Clapton and Rory Gallagher pointing to Robert Johnson in a heart beat. So as far as influences, you can have this conversation for an eternity but in all honesty there will never be a stamp. Arguing over skills? Pretty much pointless unless you have a moron in front of you saying how someone like EVH sucks.

If there ever was a true list, it would point to the evolution of music. Whoever started the next movement honestly didn't. Some no-name started that music 10 years before and did not get recognition due to the time.

Proof of that is the topic of the Tapping technique for guitar. EVH emphasized it and utilized it A TON, however, he was not the first to do it and learned it off another. He was just the first to be widely recognized for it.

The only list I can honestly say that there should be are the musicians who aren't burned out and can still kick ass such as Zakk Wylde and previously mentioned Uli Jon Roth. You listen to Michael Schenker when he was young and go "wow". You see him now and you want to cry.

Now I need a nap.

Well thought out post. My definition of influential is that if you went back in time and took a player out when he was a baby, would the guitar or music be different today.
If there was no Les Paul, guitar playing and music in general would be greatly different.
No Chuck Berry, rock and roll would be vastly different as would the on-stage persona of a guitarist
No Hendrix.....I can go on and on.

there are some amazing players but if you took them out, would music or guitar playing be different today? I'd argue that many of mine and your favorites wouldnt really matter. Doesnt mean they are not great. There is no mention above of Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath. Talk about influential! Take him out and I'd argue metal from the last 30 years would be vastly different , if exist at all. Never mind his influence on all the alternative music and the heavy riffs. Its always a slippery slope but an interesting discussion.