Distinctive guitar players whose playing/tone you easily recognise?

blobb

Funkfingers said:

Francis Vincent Zappa

Frank :-)

I'll add Steve Hillage to the list.

...and Lemmy! You can always tell it's Lemmy.

victorludorum

Flanging_Fred said:

Surely what this thread illustrates is that ALL famous, recognised and respected guitarists, in whatever field or genre, have their own unique “voice” on the instrument. It’s what makes them stand out in the crowds of millions of players worldwide.

What famous players DON’T have a recognisable “voice” on the instrument?

The name of this thread should be changed to 'which players don't you recognise' and the list would be much shorter, if indeed there were actually to be a list.

LastMantra

Brian may and the edge because of the delay effects. 
Some of the people mentioned here I wouldn't know who they were never mind recognise their playing style. 

ICBM

Mike Oldfield
Brian May
Ritchie Blackmore
Paul Kossoff
Eric Clapton
Jeff Beck
Dave Gilmour
Mark Knopfler
Robbie Krieger
Lindsey Buckingham
Neil Young
Joe Walsh
Stuart Adamson
Steve Vai
Carlos Santana
Eddie Van Halen
Tony Iommi
The Edge
John Frusciante
Bernard Butler

Alex2678

Not the first in the thread to say them but for me, I could pick out Richard Thompson’s playing anywhere, and old Peter Green is nearly instantly distinguishable. I think Thompson is the only one I don’t think anyone could fool me on, whereas I might be tricked by a good Green impression.

Funkfingers

John McGeoch

nick79

Tony Iommi for me.

octatonic

Marr.
Ribot.
Frisell.
Torn.
Fripp.
Belew.

guitarfishbay

Marty Friedman
Chris Poland
George Lynch

Mark1960

Albert Lee
Wilko Johnson

Redlester

Django Reinhardt. The only person he could ever remotely be confused with is someone trying to emulate Django Reinhardt. 

sgosden

Aaron Marshall of intervals, tosin abasi of AAL, plini. 

In amongst a playlist where admittedly alot sounds the same... Those three stand out. Usually for the phrasing I think. 

Sassafras

Despite about a million impersonators, no-one quite sounds like Jimi Hendrix.

ThePrettyDamned

Zakk Wylde 

ESBlonde

Not a virtuoso, but James Taylor is very distinctive. Those with unique sounds the likes of Santana, Thompson, Duane Eddy, Knoppfler, Niel Rogers, BB etc. who give the guitar a voice as well as playing superbly.

strat84

Redlester said:

strat84 said:

Danny Kirwan's vibrato

Jigsaw Puzzle Blues!!! 

Absolutely! 

Like it This Way, Oh Well, Coming Your Way to name another few

robdynamite

Eddie Van Halen. Stevie Ray Vaughan.

EricTheWeary

Redlester said:

Django Reinhardt. The only person he could ever remotely be confused with is someone trying to emulate Django Reinhardt. 

There have been a lot of those! I suspect many of us would recognise something as Django like but have little idea if it’s him or not. 

Edit: which is to say I wonder how many of us know the genre well enough to pick him out. 

TheMarlin

EVH
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani 
Carlos Santana
Toni Iommi
Brian May
Captain Sensible
Mark Knopfler
Django Reinhardt 
David Gilmour
Dick Dale
Johnny Marr
Jimi Hendrix
Yngwie Malmsteen
Johnny Ramone
Pete Townsend 
The Edge
Billy Zoom
Graham Coxon

i don’t like several of these, but they are definitely distinctive 

Marlin

Edit. How could I miss Frank Zappa!!!

EricTheWeary

Cols said:

Flanging_Fred said:

Surely what this thread illustrates is that ALL famous, recognised and respected guitarists, in whatever field or genre, have their own unique “voice” on the instrument. It’s what makes them stand out in the crowds of millions of players worldwide.

What famous players DON’T have a recognisable “voice” on the instrument?

Prince.  Absolutely phenomenal guitarist, jaw-droppingly good, but I don’t think you could play me one of his guitar parts blindfold and I’d go “Aha!  That’s Prince!”

Having your unique voice is, I guess, a result of one or two things:
- finding a way to overcome your limitations and developing something unique in the process. Albert King for example.
- having a unique vision and developing the technique to carry it out. Steve Vai maybe. 

There are a lot of very competent pro guitarists who don’t have a unique vision and who are too competent to have to be in the first category. I was thinking that the obvious answer was going to be Joe Bonamassa - pretty successful, very skilled but not much of a unique voice. For Prince he certainly did have a unique vision but guitar was only one piece of that puzzle. The one bit of guitar playing that many people associate with him wasn’t him anyway ( the jangly stuff on Purple Rain).