30 best guitarist ?

[RIJIMMY]

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.

[Zeal]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

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.

Django Reinhart from the posted video was the inspiration for Tony to keep playing the guitar which led to him forming Black Sabbath due to listening to Django being able to play despite having a heavily deformed pinky. I just love the fact that people think Tony down tuned his guitar to make it sound meaner when he really just did it to loosen the tension to make his permanently injured fingers not kill him while playing.

Gotta love it!

[Mike P]

Most of these "best" arguments really boil down to personal taste. At my age, metal grates on my eardrums, and I'm more in tune with jazz, fusion, and blues players, but that doesn't take away from the skills of Van Halens of the world.

Here's two versions of the same song, by two top-notch players--one a legend, one virtually unknown in the mainstream of pop. Which one is better? That's where taste comes in. I like them both, personally.

[Tagger]

Beck killed that !!! ,, get's my vote ..