The best tone you've heard in person..

bloodandtears

Volbeat's Rob Caggiano.. it cut like a hot knife through butter.. sounded awesome.

keithf

young local guitar player called Richard Cop, Played for a band called fire breathing penguins,

Ibanez jem into a mesa rectifier, the guy had total control and two hands full of tone, He was at one with the gear he was using and it showed in spades.

Andyjr1515

John Renbourn playing Goodbye Porkpie Hat in Pentangle at Wolverhampton, c. 1970.  Playing a (I think) Gibson ES335.  There is a clip on youtube of the instrumental but doesn't come close to how that particular performance sounded at the time.

Bert Jansch's support was pretty cool, too

grungebob

no one famous ( or maybe he is i dont know), I went to buy a Epiphone So Cal 50 valve amp and 4x12 from some guy in newark and he plugged in a MIJ strat and the dude just played fantasticaly well and the tone was immense, I couldnt buy the amp fast enough. Got it home plugged it in and I sounded nowhere near majestic.

abw1989

I've seen Alter Bridge a couple of times now, and even from watching the live DVDs, Myles Kennedy's lead tone for me is fantastic. The tone he has for the outro lead right at the end of Blackbird live is beautiful.

Fairly sure he runs a Diezel amp of some sort with Seymour Duncan Custom Custom in the bridge of numerous PRS guitars.

bingefeller

Michael Schenker. 

Blueingreen

These stood out as guys getting a perfect tone for the music:

Andy Timmons with Simon Phillips at Ronnie Scotts.  Sounded exactly like Andy Timmons.

Kurt Rosenwinkel in Berlin.  Very processed tone, lots of effects, at times sounded more like a flute than a guitar, but the sound was integral to the concept of the music.  One of the best live gigs I've heard in my life.

Anthony Wilson with Diana Krall in Rotterdam. Old school jazz tone with none of the bassy mush.  You could hear every note on fast, complex chordal passages with crystal clarity.   No other player has given me so much of a sense of disbelief that anyone could be capable of such a high level of imagination and sophistication. 

clarkefan

Robbo at a cash grab "Lizzy" gig in Dublin yonks ago.  Marshall half stack, wah and Les Paul, he sounded like god, the sound was just stunning.

John Sykes in the Lizzy reboot again years ago, in Dallas, place was half empty, I stood right in front of him the whole gig, he was ridiculously amazing and sounded better.

JD Simo earlier this year in The Tunnels, Bristol, just fucking glorious. His wah playing in particular sounded how everyone ever dreams wah should sound.  I was really affected by the guy that gig, he's on a different level.

FelineGuitars

First time I saw Michael Schenker in 1982 - that tone!

Also Brian May - either 1980 The Game tour or 1984 Works tour (both at Wembley)

Gary Moore - always , every time I saw him
Mark Kendall (great White)1991 Town and Country club London

Wolf Hoffman (Accept ) Hammersmith Odeon 1986