Name your top 3 guitarists

wayneirie

Steve cropper Hendrix Nick McCabe

Bucket

@lamf68 - great call on East Bay Ray. "Holiday in Cambodia" has an absolutely fantastic guitar part.

Blueingreen

I don't spend a lot of time listening to music that features virtuoso guitar playing, but of the guys I'm happy to sit down and listen to seriously nowadays:

George Benson: unfortunately there's a lot of shlock in what George does but his talent is off the scale.  Been blown away recently by a youtube clip of him playing Stevie Wonder's Lately, a masterclass in playing a melody-with-variations with impeccable phrasing, tone and imagination. 

Kurt Rosenwinkel: I started off loving blues rock and ended up a big modern jazz fan so In theory it should be easy for a guitarist with the talent and chops to mix in rock tones and techniques with jazz harmonic sophistication to produce music I love.  In practice even the guys who are lionised for this - Scofield, Metheny, Frisell et al - mostly leave me cold.  I'm in awe of their talent, but for jazz I'd rather hear horn players or pianists and for guitar playing that hits me emotionally I still prefer Hendrix or Steely Dan or Peter Green. It may be heretical to say it, but Rosenwinkel comes closer to squaring this circle for me than any of the bigger names.

Wes Montgomery: the Hendrix of jazz guitar.

randomhandclaps

wayneirie said:

Steve cropper Hendrix Nick McCabe

Isn't that just one really posh guitarist?

Phil_aka_Pip

Blueingreen said:

George Benson: unfortunately there's a lot of shlock in what George does but his talent is off the scale. 

Good call, Sir!

dilbert

1. Mark Knopfler

2. Eric Clapton

3. Gary Moore

Loads swimming round just under those, mainly from the 60's & 70's.

wayneirie

randomhandclaps said:

wayneirie said:

Steve cropper Hendrix Nick McCabe

Isn't that just one really posh guitarist?

I'm on the I pad it didn't look like that when I typed it.

knuckleberryfinn

wayneirie said:

Steve cropper Hendrix Nick McCabe

Good call on Nick McCabe - the guitar on A Northern Soul is brilliant. 

metalhead64

1) Randy Rhoads - Had it all, sensational.

2) Michael Schenker - Proper solos, immense tone.

3) David Gilmour - of course.

Honourable mention for some favourites who rarely seem to get a mention in these lists - Steve Rothery, Mick Box and Mike Oldfield.

ICBM

metalhead64 said:

Mike Oldfield.

I very nearly mentioned Mike Oldfield instead of Hendrix - I prefer listening to him. But although I do love both his music and his guitar playing, you could play his guitar parts on another instrument, even - and the music would still stand up. (Maybe that's an even greater test of a great guitarist, I don't know!)

downbytheriver

I really, really, really wasn't going to do this because I hate the idea of singling out just three and I also knew I would really struggle to name just three but then I thought I'd give it a go but guess what - I can't.

I'll tell you one thing for certain though, Clapton, Green, Moore, Buckingham and Stuart Adamson are all definitely in my top three.

digitalscream

While Knopfler, Gilmour, Clapton et al all have moments of absolute magic for me, I'm gonna have to go with...

Nuno Bettencourt

Frank Dunnery (from the old It Bites days)

Joe Satriani

I know it's not exactly fashionable to like any of those these days, but pah...what do I care?

Vibetronic

hard choice !! Have to go with…

1) Nuno. Brilliant at rhythm and lead.

2) Paul Gilbert; plays for the song, and I love his solo (non-instrumental) stuff

3) Steve Vai…not really that into the instrumental thing that much anymore, but he rules.

Runners-up would be Adrian Smith, Mick Mars and Mattias Eklundh. I do really like/appreciate phenomenal players like Guthrie etc., but I just can't listen to instrumental stuff for ages now. 

monkey42

Robben Ford

Gary Moore

Larry Carlton

hywelg

SRV
Green
Gallagher (more for his live playing)

Surprised no one mentioned EVH.

Lixarto

hywelg said: Gallagher (more for his live playing)

Good call.

On balance I prefer the more recent High Flying Birds stuff

scarry67

Peter Green - would like to listen to him just rehearsing/noodling, something a bit other worldly about his sound. Once saw him in sadder days being led around Andy's in Denmark St. Clarence White - oh yes. Peter Buck - the sound of my 16th year and those 1st 4 albums still haunt me. (Thrilled to see someone mention the mighty David Gedge, too!)

ewal

Can't really separate the guitarist from the band, but three that come to mind:

1) Alan Sparhawk
2) Bob Mould
3) Lee Ranaldo/ Thurston Moore

oddball

version 2.0

Jerry Cantrell

Devin Townsend

Joe Walsh

...its all about the songs, not the scales.

stonevibe

J Mascis

Dave Navarro

John McGeoch