1. Jimmy Page, why? Maybe not the best player if you mind the technic, but he is the most elegant, rough and innovative players of them all!!! The best guitarwork/riff: maybe is "kashmir" but I also say "when the leeves break" or perhaps "battle of evermore" Blues/rock/folk has never and will never sound better 

2.  Jimi Hendrix, offcours, psykedelia, blues and rock n roll, he mastered them all, simply the most gifted man when he was alive, my idea is that he never fulfilled his potential and will be missed forever, thats why he is second.  Best Guitarwork/riff: "vodoo child" and "little wing"

3. Pete Townshend, the king of power and volume, easily the most intelligent of all rockgods and often a hilarious man, the who is the best live band ever, and its not all because of pete but he´s guitarwork measures up everything thats good about rock, volume, power and energy and maybe som resentfulness. Best work/riff: all of "live att leeds", "wont get fooled again" "substitute"

4. mick taylor of the stones, maybe a different choice, but he is man who sets the jagger/richards composition to its most attractive way of playing it off, a wonderful sound and the work never gets old. Best riff/work: all of "Get yer ya ya`s out" 

5. Stewe howe, probably the most gifted in guitartechnics of the five mentioned. innovative is the word. Best work/riff all of "close to the edge" and "yours is no disgrace" on "yessongs", that bit when he makes the guitar sound like everything but a guitar and inte the same note makes its sound like rock

Here is my top 5 of guitarists:

1. Jan Akkerman
2. Robert Fripp
3. Frank Zappa
4. Andrew Latimer
5. John McLaughlin

1. Robert Fripp
2. Frank Zappa
3. Steve Howe
4. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
5. Buckethead

Tom Morrello is good too.

Why not rate the best guitarplayer ever?

1. Jimmy Page, why. Maybe not the best player

Steve Wilson

My favs are Allan Holdsworth and TREY ANASTASIO! (Truly underrated)

Timsan wrote: Why not rate the best guitarplayers ever? Dont mind genres, I dont. 1. Jimmy Page, why? Maybe not the best player if you mind the technic, but he is the most elegant, rough and innovative players of them all!!! The best guitarwork/riff: maybe is "kashmir" but I also say "when the leeves break" or perhaps "battle of evermore" Blues/rock/folk has never and will never sound better  2.  Jimi Hendrix, offcours, psykedelia, blues and rock n roll, he mastered them all, simply the most gifted man when he was alive, my idea is that he never fulfilled his potential and will be missed forever, thats why he is second.  Best Guitarwork/riff: "vodoo child" and "little wing" 3. Pete Townshend, the king of power and volume, easily the most intelligent of all rockgods and often a hilarious man, the who is the best live band ever, and its not all because of pete but he´s guitarwork measures up everything thats good about rock, volume, power and energy and maybe som resentfulness. Best work/riff: all of "live att leeds", "wont get fooled again" "substitute" 4. mick taylor of the stones, maybe a different choice, but he is man who sets the jagger/richards composition to its most attractive way of playing it off, a wonderful sound and the work never gets old. Best riff/work: all of "Get yer ya ya`s out"  5. Stewe howe, probably the most gifted in guitartechnics of the five mentioned. innovative is the word. Best work/riff all of "close to the edge" and "yours is no disgrace" on "yessongs", that bit when he makes the guitar sound like everything but a guitar and inte the same note makes its sound like rock

It would be nice if you made this a "prog" guitarist thread. Howe is the only one. Anyway, it's been done.

Ooh and Larry Craylton, dont know if i spelled it correctly.

These get old..

It pointless too. JSUt listen to it man. Noone will ever agree.

John McGlaughlin-Mahavisnu Orchestra

Duane Allaman-Allman Bros

Andrew Latimer-Camel

Ritchie Blackmore-Deep Purple/Rainbow

           John M Laughlin, Steve Howe

Favorite Guitarists

1.       Steve Howe

2.       Steve Hackett

3.       Robert Fripp

4.       Andy Latimer

5.       Jimmy Page

Best Guitarists

1. Jimmy Page
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. David Gilmour
4. Robert Fripp
5. Steve Howe

ambriz wrote: John Petrucci

please tell me your joking

Why not rate the best guitarplayer ever?

1. Jimmy Page, why. Maybe not the best player

read it all, and do you know what mongo means in swedish huh? mongo is a retard in swedish, dont take this to personally, im just kidding

Timsan wrote: stan the man wrote: i love the who but pete townshened inst all that great. He usually plays rhythem while entwistle plays lead on bass.  i think robert fripp is amazing also

Sure fripp is amazing, especially on the live material. Dont put off pete, hes probably the only really rockstar of the guitar that would let the bassplayer play som solo!!! and let the drumplayer be the most visual figure of them all. The who is not a one-man show, its a unite, that is so damn good  

Runaway wrote: Ooh and Larry Craylton, dont know if i spelled it correctly.

It's Larry Carlton.

video vertigo wrote: ambriz wrote: John Petrucci  please tell me your joking

I think he is joking - it should be 1. Joe Morris 2. Wayne Krantz 3. John Petrucci

Lead - Pat Metheny

Rhythm - Bob Weir (and Pete Townsend)

Lead and Rhythm Combined - Alex Lifeson

Speed - Al DiMeola (old school) and Petrucci

Melody - David Gilmour (with an honorable mention to the guitarist in Riverside ! )

Phil wrote: Lord Qwerty wrote: Timsan wrote: Why not rate the best guitarplayers ever? Dont mind genres, I dont. 1. Jimmy Page, why? Maybe not the best player if you mind the technic, but he is the most elegant, rough and innovative players of them all!!! The best guitarwork/riff: maybe is "kashmir" but I also say "when the leeves break" or perhaps "battle of evermore" Blues/rock/folk has never and will never sound better  Lord Qwerty informs Timsan that Jimmy Page has admited several times to stealing riffs from more talented yet far more obscure blues guitarists. Rock fans would not admire him as much if they spent more time listening to other, more inventive musicians. And yes, even Stairway to Heaven was borrowed. 2.  Jimi Hendrix, offcours, psykedelia, blues and rock n roll, he mastered them all, simply the most gifted man when he was alive, my idea is that he never fulfilled his potential and will be missed forever, thats why he is second.  Best Guitarwork/riff: "vodoo child" and "little wing" He came closer to realizing the prog vision than any other 60s rock musician, save Robert Fripp, of course. 3. Pete Townshend, the king of power and volume, easily the most intelligent of all rockgods and often a hilarious man, the who is the best live band ever, and its not all because of pete but he´s guitarwork measures up everything thats good about rock, volume, power and energy and maybe som resentfulness. Best work/riff: all of "live att leeds", "wont get fooled again" "substitute"" "Amen" 4. mick taylor of the stones, maybe a different choice, but he is man who sets the jagger/richards composition to its most attractive way of playing it off, a wonderful sound and the work never gets old. Best riff/work: all of "Get yer ya ya`s out"  Lord Qwerty declares his preference for Keith Richards. 5. Stewe Howe, probably the most gifted in guitartechnics of the five mentioned. innovative is the word. Best work/riff all of "close to the edge" and "yours is no disgrace" on "yessongs", that bit when he makes the guitar sound like everything but a guitar and inte the same note makes its sound like rock He's passable. I like your style Lord Qwerty! For all his deference to unknown bluesmen Page is still the bees knees (and it's false modesty - he knows/thinks it!)

I know that page borrowed some stuff form the old blues and something more, do you know, i dont care, cause old blues can be so fantastic boring sometimes, when jimmy or jimi playes the blues i dont get bored. Stairway is borrowed from the band spirit, but the segment its about 15-20 seconds that is borrowed, the rest is hes own, ok!!!

moog wrote: Single Coil wrote: Speed - Al DiMeola (old school) and Petrucci Al DiMeola is quick but, if you slow his playing down and listen to it, you can here a lot of sloppy notes and string noises. Petrucci is very quick and extremely accurate. However, in terms of speed, there is only one who is worth mentioning. Having slowed down some of Petruccis playing, I found he was doing 17 notes per second, which is quite impressive. Michaelangelo (now know as Mike Batio) does 17.5 notes per second, and they both do them extremely accurately (no string slurring, accidental notes etc) BUT the fastest guitarist was, and I have to say was as he is no longer with us, a guy called Shawn Lane who, when I slowed some of his playing down, was getting 22.5 - 23 notes per second! He wasn't a Prog rock player, but then he couldn't be pigeon-holed into any one particular style, which can only be a good thing and, while his last stuff was heavily eastern/Indian influenced, his first album is truly sublime in terms of scope, depth, musicianship and influences. It's called 'Powers Of Ten', and I'd highly recommend it to anyone. Having said that though, my favourite player of all time is Joe Satriani, closely followed by Steve Vai, Shawn Lane, John Petrucci and Nuno Bettencourt. Hendrix, Page, Clapton et al from that era are/were all good as well.

Thanks for the suggestion, always looking for new guitar gurus!

It's still fun to play "Friday Night in San Fransisco" for people just learning to play guitar ! 

Snafje wrote: Martin Barre (most underrated: always in the shadow of excentric Ian Anderson, but he truly is amazing in the live-shows!)

I absolutely agree... Martin Barre is amazing! One of my favorites is Minstrel In The Gallery, the guitar solo right after the slow 2min intro that brings you into the hard rockin section... awesome!

To be brief:

FAVE PROG GUITARIST(S): Alex Lifeson.  Everything about his playing...his phrasing, emotion, the taste, the subtlety, tone and texture, bring me to my knees.  He goes wild during his solo spots, but it seems to always be in the context of the song itself.

Petrucci, too...a great guitarist who gets sh*t on for the amount of notes he plays.  I'm, frankly, impressed and intrigued by his playing.  There's a lot of nuances that I've discovered by listening to OCTAVARIUM that I don't see in many other players.  Parts of his work on the record also strike me as deeply emotional.

NON-PROG: Eddie Van Halen.  Dude!  He used ONE GUITAR TRACK, panned to one side of the stereo spectrum, and made it sound HUGE!Argue all you want, but then pop ERUPTION into your CD player; then argue with me.  His use of effects, tapping, harmonics and scales rewrote rock guitar in the 80's...which led guitarists like CC DeVille and others to do it AD NAUSEUM. 

Tony Iommi is my other face non-prog player.  It's not so much the speed with which he played (though his lead on PARANOID is pretty quick, IMO)...it's the note choices and the unpredictable nature of his playing.  Not only that, but how many other players can you think of (aside from Django) that can burn the fretboard with missing fingers?

Lord Qwerty nominates George Harrison.

Yes, THAT George Harrison.

lol

sbrushfan wrote: lol

Lord Qwerty accepts the applause, bowing with a scarlet rose between his teeth.

Afterwards, he directs the forum's attention towards the legendary skills of Mr. Frank Zappa.