Who's your top 5 favourite guitarists.

PonchoGreg

1979 said:

Steve Cropper

Came very very close to putting him on my list, and I don't think he's been mentioned much. "Playing to the song" made man (and impeccable taste in white teles too).

Devil#20

There's a few that have popped up in many people's top 5 that I've never listened to so the thread serves its purpose for me to go and check them out. As many have said 5 is not enough and I agree very much with that. I could have said best in each genre, which might have been an alternative poll, but many of them span genres easily. I've noted one or two omissions that I thought would have appeared in at least one persons list unless I missed them. It would be good if the mods could do one of those cumulative running polls with who voted for who as a sticky, which I've seen on other non-guitar forums. It would beat these internet "best 100 guitarists" polls because that is usually one or maybe a handful of persons opinion. We're all guitar players on here so it would have more creedence. 

hollywoodrox

Philly_Q said:

My minds gone a bit blank so I'm going to say, with a slight bias towards things I've listened to recently....

Robin Trower
Reb Beach
Isaiah Mitchell
Tony Iommi
Marty Friedman

Could be a completely different list tomorrow.  I might have Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth in there.  Or Leslie West and Rick Derringer.  Or Frank Marino.  Or Ronnie Montrose.  And I didn't want to use two votes for Andy Powell and Laurie Wisefield but I do want to mention them.

Reb and Marty are amazing

grayn

Django Reinhardt
Nick Drake
Andy Powell
Steve Morse
Gary Moore

Cols

PonchoGreg said:

Is there a poll function on the site (with multiple votes allowed)? Could be fun to see what the consensus is.

I for one am surprised to see Clapton popping up on a lot of lists (including mine). I always thought he wasn't too much in vogue these days

This would be interesting.  I’m surprised that Hendrix is appearing relatively infrequently, given that he’s the standard  #1 on any magazine list.

west

Alan Holdsworth

Wayne Krantz

Bill frisell

sid jacobs

larry carlton

honorable mention ... Drew zingg ...

TheBigDipper

Richard Thompson - acoustic or electric
Steve Howe - total mish-mash of different styles, often in the same song
Johnny Marr - his own voice
Steve Hackett - also his own voice
Tom Verlaine - and another one with his own voice (his playing, I don't like his singing voice much)

duotone

Slash
Randy Rhoads
John Frusciante
George Harrison
Steve Craddock

Nath_R89

Hetfield
Tremonti 
Rhoads 
Mustaine 
Iommi 

HandwrittenHero

Billy Gibbons
Angus Young
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Rebecca Lovell
Gary Clark Jr

2 from before, 3 from now

robmac5150

Michael Schenker
Brian Robertson
Adrian Smith
EVH
David Gilmour

welshboyo

Lukather
Neal Schon
Dan Huff
Michael Landau
EVH (for his rhythm playing)

chrishill901

Ooh well isn't this fun! I've wis'd everyone both people who said George Lynch as he's a beast of a player - often tarnished with the 80s brush his unique style and technique deserves credit. Here's mine:

1. Slash
2. SRV
3. Mark Tremonti
4. Paco De Lucia
5. George Lynch

Also a wis to @Nikc ;;for saying his mate John Walsh, as I'm presuming it's the same Irish flamenco genius who personally directed me onto Paco De Lucia who made my list. If it isn't then enjoy the free wis and tell your mate that he's no John Walsh.

DrJazzTap

It's tempting to put Holdsworth x5

For me, in terms of who impacted me the most.

1) Allan Holdsworth

2) Nile Rodgers

3) Eric Johnson

4) Pat Metheny

5) Joni Mitchell 

6) Tom Morello

7) Jimi Hendrix

8) Wayne Krantz

9) Jaco Pastorius (I mean the bass is a guitar right? :P)

10) Robert Fripp

I did go through an SRV phase, and i still admire him a lot but it's hard not to be a copycat.

Bennyboy-UK

Justin Derrico
Albert Lee
Steve Lukather
Steve Stevens
Brian May

LordOxygen

James Hetfield
Hendrix
Slash
Billy Duffy
Billy Gibbons

thumpingrug

Steve Rothery
Nils Lofgren
Billy Duffy
Chris Rea
Mike McCready/Stone Gossard

Habanero

Paul Gilbert

Eddie Van Halen

Joey Landreth

Vito Bratta

John Sykes

hollywoodrox

welshboyo said:

Lukather
Neal Schon
Dan Huff
Michael Landau
EVH (for his rhythm playing)

Man that’s a top list 

fretfinder

The Magnificent Eight:
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Dave Gilmour
SRV

Jeff Beck 

Mick Ronson 
Neil Young
Mick Ralphs