Who's your top 5 favourite guitarists.

vanlooy1

And...
Neil young
j mascis
Chuck Berry
etc.....
in no particular order

Fortheloveofguitar

In no particular order

Slash
Joe Perry
Steve Vai
Mark Tremonti
Richie Sambora 

Roland

In the sequence that I encountered their playing:
Jan Ackerman 
Larry Carlton
Tommy Emmanuel 

Guthrie Govan

and after that it’s hard to make a choice.

danishbacon

Jerry Garcia
Joe Pass
Dean Ween
Charlie Allen
Jeff Beck

bodhi

Charlie Starr
Mark Knopfler
Billy Duffy
Warren Haynes
Billy Gibbons

pjf

Knopfler
Martyn
Gilmour
Cale
Becker

Cols

In no particular order:
Jimmy Page
Brian May
Paul Kossoff
Nuno Bettencourt 
Jimi Hendrix

5 definitely isn’t enough.  Where’s Clapton, Greeny, Iommi, Rory and Gilmour?

SRD81

Peter Green
George Harrison
Eric Clapton
Keith Richards
Paul McCartney (yes, on guitar)

captainbeeffart

Django reindhart

Wes montgomery.

Danny gatton.

Freddie king

Jeff beck.

mark_jwedge

In no particular order:

Paul Kossoff
John Mayer
Joey Landreth
Richie Kotzen
Slash

guitargeek62

Adam Jones
Prince
Kurt Cobain
John Frusciante
Ben McLeod

Hattigol

Prince
Jonny Greenwood
Jimi
John Mayer
Edge

slacker

vanlooy1 said:

Prince 

and he'll appear in threads on bass, drum, keyboard forums. I saw a program where Prince busted out a solo on an unlined fretless 5 string bass. 

the_jaffa

John Squire
Nick McCabe
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
Johnny Marr

Today at least. 

freakboy1610

J Mascis 
Johnny Marr 
Billy Duffy
Nick Saloman 
Richard Lloyd 

jeztone2

I had some ties. Also players I got into at similar times


1: Alex Lifeson/Andy Summers 
2: Nick McCabe
3: Randy Rhoads/Vivian Campbell
4: John Mc Geoch/Jamie West Oram
5: Django Rheinhardt

jhumber

Found this more difficult than I expected. Right this moment, I’d say:

Brian May
Carl Verheyen
Randy Rhoads
Richie Sambora
Tom Bukovac

Any other day, it could contain any of: Tommy Emmanuel, John Squire, Noel Gallagher, Adam Devlin, Hendrix, Tarrega, Eric Johnson, Brent Mason, Pierre Bensusan, Mike Campbell....

SteveRobinson

Phil X
James Oliver

TINMAN82

Nerine said:

I really don’t know. But in any top 5, which could be different depending on what week of the year it is, Joe Bonamassa would always make the list. 
I think he may be my favourite. Which I feel leaves me open for a panning. 

It always used to be Iommi, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Bettencourt Etc, but as I’ve grown a bit older, I find them less relevant to the instrument and regardless of how many of Slashes solos across all the GnR albums (and the Snakepit stuff) I absolutely adore and can sing them back as nauseum, he doesn’t do it for me quite as much any more. He’d probably always be in my top 5 with Joe too. Just simply for being so memorable (I’ve always cited Guns N Roses as my favourite band), even if I find the technique and licks not particularly to my current tastes. That could change next week, though. 

Ive just always been mesmerised by Bonamassa’s playing though, since I first heard him. 

Stylistically he really puts me in a weird place. I love to try to copy him, but ultimately I don’t really class myself as a blueser. I’m more into hard/heavy/classic rock etc.

What I do know though, is that Joe makes me want to try to copy him and it inspires me to play my guitar more and keep improving. Can’t really ask for more than that. 

Agree re Bonamassa (think I was the first to list him here). It’s a shame a 5 paragraph explanation is required to justify him but I understand that too! 

He seems very underrated on here, even just as a guitar player never mind his song writing which is often slated. I would suggest people listen to his newly released anniversary issue A New Day Now. He’s redone the vocals (for the better). On that 20 year old album he shows mastery of the traditional stuff merged with modernised jazzy runs and other influences. If Josh Smith released that album tomorrow he’d be on the front cover of every guitar mag!

HAL9000

1 Clapton
2 Knopfler
3 Jimmie Vaughan
4 Robert Cray
5 Dave Edmunds / Lord David of Gilmour / Mick Ronson / Francis Rossi / Peter Green / Chuck Berry / BB King / Freddie King / Keef / Keith Urban / etc