Name your top 3 guitarists

ESchap

3 is tough, but today it's mostly

Steve Howe

Dave Gilmour

Kenny Burrell

lamf68

1. Francis Dunnery - It Bites:Once around the World, is still one of my favourite albums of all time, exceptionally talented fella fucked up by the drugs and booze

2. Andy Taylor - Duran Duran: The Self Titled Debut,Rio and Seven & The Ragged Tiger, Guitar work that went hugely overlooked due to John Taylors Quiff and their penchant for shagging women

3. East Bay Ray - Dead Kennedys:Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - still some of the finest riffing and  single string playing off anyone.

Rigid_Digits

lamf68 said:

3. East Bay Ray - Dead Kennedys:Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - still some of the finest riffing and  single string playing off anyone.

Great choice. Nearly put him in my three too.

AuldReekie

Bill Nelson heads my list by a long shot. No one has covered the vast musical territory that this man has done and he is not frightened to go where no one else has gone before. Can add Bill Frissell as second on the list. After that, there are many guitarists I admire but not one that is an obvious third

Gassage

Lord David Gilmour for pure musicality. Unmatched.
Gary Moore for technical brilliance
Lindsey Buckingham for how he crafts a song around a guitar.

Big raps to Craig Ross too.

randomhandclaps

Really surprised no-one has mentioned Gilmour. 

tbm

1. King Buzzo
2. John Reis/Speedo
3. David Gedge

These are the players I reckon have had the most influence on how I play. Honourable mentions to The Edge, Nels Cline, Neil Young and Mark Kozelek.

Rigsby

In no particular order ......

Nuno Bettencourt

Leslie West

Gary Moore

Kebabkid

Nile Rodgers, and he's my favourite musician of all time

Dann Huff (although this could be Steve Lukather, Neal Schon or Michael Thompson)

Andy Summers

This was hard with Larry Carlton, Robben Ford and basically, any of the Steely Dan players bubbling underneath along with Paul Jackson Jr and Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson too. Oh, Dave Gilmour, Iain Bairnson..ok, I'll stop!

Lukeage

Joe Perry

Jimmy Page

Stevie Ray Vaughan

redwedge

1.   Richard Thompson

2.   Stuart Adamson

3.  Neil Young

axisus

lamf68 said:

1. Francis Dunnery - It Bites:Once around the World, is still one of my favourite albums of all time, exceptionally talented fella fucked up by the drugs and booze

I love his playing, and that's one of my favourite albums. In all fairness, he turned his life around many years ago and has been an exceptional solo artist for a long time now, following a different style of music. 

Phil_aka_Pip

Kenny Burrell, Bill Nelson - good calls!

davedave

Marc Ribot.
Keef.
R.L.Burnside.

knuckleberryfinn

I hope I am allowed two lists. These three have been the most important to me: Ry Cooder, Nick Drake and Slash. My current favourites are Danny Gatton, Charlie Christian and...I have no idea. Albert Lee maybe? I'm surprised no one has mentioned J Mascis, but then again I didn't.

guitarfishbay

I don't often think about ranking things like this.  I'm listing pairs based on what I've been listening to lately.

Colin Frangicetto and Brendan Ekstrom - Circa Survive

Andrew Goddard and Mark Hosking - Karnivool

Graham Pinney and Dan Weller - Sikth

albanov

Any list of mine would probably consist of one rock guitarist, one punk/noise type, and someone different to round it out.

So maybe:

Mick Ronson

Ron Asheton

Leo Nocentelli

Or:

Malcolm and Angus Young (very small so they only count as one)

Rowland S Howard

Clarence White

etc

xSkarloey

I don't normally have the first clue about how to whittle all my tastes down to a small list of favourites, but if I think of people who continually give me inspiration to play but whose music I love just for the music it'd have to be Django Reinhardt and Paco de Lucia. I'm hard pressed to think of a number three because I like so many, but I suppose Jerry Donahue has been a consistent source of inspiration. 

ICBM

I'm not really a listener to "guitarists", so I would have to go on whose music I like the most coupled with how much their playing is fundamental to it - ie if you take the guitar away or replace them with another player, the music would be unrecognisably different.

Jimi Hendrix

Neil Young

The Edge

(Not in order of preference - Hendrix would be at the bottom out of those three for me, but he's still the most important electric guitarist ever.)

camf

Neil Young

J Mascis

Jonny Greenwood

That's applying the same sort of criteria as @ICBM... I like their music best and they are irreplaceably part of it.