Famous guitarists you are unfamiliar with

CaseOfAce

You've see 'em mentioned in the mags, you recognise the name - but someone asks you to name a song, play in their style and ... nope..nada..

Steve Howe - I've heard Clap - but other than that I have no familiarity with him (see also Steve Hackett or any early 70s prog like Andy Latimer / Camel)

Richard Thompson - the guitarist's guitarist right? A complete blind spot in my knowledge

Otis Rush - blues right...after that...erm...

Clarence White - famous invention? ..but country right?

Mike Bloomfield - again blues... but .. 

Elmore James

Bod

Personally, I've never really gone for guitarist's guitarist types. For me it's always about the music first and not their ability.

Sporky

I honestly don't know if I've heard anything Steve Vai's done. 

idiotwind

Alan Holdsworth
Nuno Bettencourt
John Petrucci
Steve Luthaker
Joe Satriani

All get mentioned here a fair bit but I have no idea about any of them

thecolourbox

Pretty much all of the above, plus Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler, Paul Gilbert, J Macsis, Andy Fairweather-Lowe, and SRV

But then I am under 40

Philly_Q

I've heard at least something - in most cases a lot - by everyone mentioned here so far.

It's hard to think of famous names I'm totally clueless about, but I guess there would be quite a lot in the jazz, country, folk and classical fields.  But then it also depends how you define "famous".

YellowLedBetterMan

I know Knopfler and Lukather because they were in what I would call "dad bands". You know, the ones your dad had in the CD changer of his Rover 75. Just me?

The rest, no idea. I'll also add I don't know who Ainsley Lister, Joe Bonamassa, Robin Trower or Robin Ford are, yet I see their names everywhere. Maybe my dad didn't have their CDs in when he was taking me to football training.

mudslide73

YellowLedBetterMan said:

 Rover 75. 

You're much younger than me if your dad was driving you to footy training in one of those. 

hollywoodrox

Misha mansoor 
 Them lads polyphia or periphery in fact both of those bands guitarists 
 John petrucci 
 Tosin asibasi 
 Nick someone who plays a schecter
 Joe duplantier 
 John Mayer 
 
   

Boromedic

idiotwind said:

Alan Holdsworth
Nuno Bettencourt
John Petrucci
Steve Luthaker
Joe Satriani

All get mentioned here a fair bit but I have no idea about any of them

If you've listened to any music from the late 70s and 80s anywhere, chances are you've heard Luke and not known it's him, he's been on loads of things. The others are nowhere near as visible/obvious unless you listened to their bands or solo output.

DonnyMac

John Scofield and Bill Frisell 

Sesh

I only know of Guthrie Govan through mentions on this site. No idea what he does but the way he is spoken of gives me a strong feeling I wouldn't care for it. 

MagicPigDetective

I see Steve Lukather mentioned here so often.... from what I know he was in hair metal bands or maybe a session player on mainstream rock/pop bands in the 80's? No idea.

Boromedic

Massive session guy, played in Toto.

hollywoodrox

Luke ,Jay Graydon, Ray Parker junior , Landau rule the 80s 

fastonebaz

David Gilmour.

Seems to be talked about alot but I'm not familiar with his work. 

fretmeister

fastonebaz said:

David Gilmour.

Seems to be talked about alot but I'm not familiar with his work. 

You are very lucky.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Alex Lifeson - I've heard about him, and seen plenty of signature guitars of his, but couldn't name one Rush song, and definitely wouldn't recognise him in the street.

Ditto Robben Ford.

Philly_Q

Really surprised by some of the comments in this thread!

Reverend

MagicPigDetective said:

I see Steve Lukather mentioned here so often.... from what I know he was in hair metal bands or maybe a session player on mainstream rock/pop bands in the 80's? No idea.

its very unlikely you haven't heard 20-30 songs of his

thecolourbox

But presumably songs he played on, not really songs that he had anything to do with the writing of? I wouldn't know anything of him off hand other than people saying he was a session player