Famous guitarists you are unfamiliar with

Reverend

Beat It? 
That is pretty iconic.

MagicPigDetective

The question was to name players you don't knowingly know a song they played on… if I’d have been asked this morning to name a song that Lukather played on, I’d have drawn a blank, no matter how popular or iconic they are. . I would have guessed Van Halen for Beat it! 

Boromedic

It's Eddie's solo, but Luke plays all the rhythm.

fretmeister

Frank Gambale.

He was on loads of adverts in the 80s and 90s and I have seen about 30 seconds of him sweep picking at amazing speed. I was later appalled to discover it wasn't an exercise, he thought it was a tune.

I'm aware that he is revered by some, but I couldn't name a single tune / album / artist he has worked with.

axisus

Back in the days of SOUNDS and Kerrang (first 100 issues) I was always seeing Ted Nugent. He was a hilariously opinionated twat to be honest, and to this day I have never knowingly heard his music.

I'm pretty sure I would like Frank Marino, once again he would turn up in old publications back in the day, but I still haven't heard him.

I've heard that CC Deville is the worst guitarist from the hair metal days, although Poison were a pretty big band. I'm intrigued to know if he's that bad but I have never heard him

Jerry Garcia, I think I'd have liked Grateful Dead in my college years but the thought of endless stoner rambling no longer excites me.

There are others but they aren't coming to mind right now

axisus

fretmeister said:

Frank Gambale.

He was on loads of adverts in the 80s and 90s and I have seen about 30 seconds of him sweep picking at amazing speed. I was later appalled to discover it wasn't an exercise, he thought it was a tune.

Spoken like someone who thinks that Picasso was a rubbish artist! Still, you are entitled to your opinion!

EricTheWeary

Does nobody else just look these people up? 

axisus said:

I'm pretty sure I would like Frank Marino, once again he would turn up in old publications back in the day, but I still haven't heard him.

I think you might like some of Frank’s work. I’m not overly familiar with his back catalogue but it’s very much guitar oriented music with long instrumental passages. 

Philly_Q

axisus said:

I've heard that CC Deville is the worst guitarist from the hair metal days, although Poison were a pretty big band. I'm intrigued to know if he's that bad but I have never heard him

He can't be the worst... the guitarists in Warrant, Erik Turner and Joey Allen, didn't play any of the solos on their first two albums, but CC played the solo on Cherry Pie, so apparently he was better than they were.

Gassage

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

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.

Allow me...

Philly_Q

axisus said:

Back in the days of SOUNDS and Kerrang (first 100 issues) I was always seeing Ted Nugent. He was a hilariously opinionated twat to be honest, and to this day I have never knowingly heard his music.

Nowadays he's a not-so-hilariously opinionated twat - in fact he's a contemptible piece of shit - but his first three or four albums are still worth a listen, if you can separate the man from the music.  Oh, and the first Damn Yankees album is fantastic.

axisus said:

I'm pretty sure I would like Frank Marino, once again he would turn up in old publications back in the day, but I still haven't heard him.

If you like Hendrixy lead guitar - and lots of it - then you might like him.  I've got most of his stuff, the songwriting is pretty pedestrian - with exceptions- but the guitar solos are amazing.

BillDL

Philly_Q said:

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".

I'm in exactly the same boat.  I find it quite hard to get my head around it when I hear young peoples' birth years and hear them asking about events, movies, actors, songs, musicians, etc that I just assumed everybody would have heard about, read about, listened to, or watched.  If I'm having dinner on the couch and watching a show like Pointless if there's nothing else worth starting to watch, I dismay when topics come up that will include modern celebrities or themes that will be common knowledge to young people or parents of young people, because I really don't listen to much new music or keep up to date with celebrity names or their shenanigans any more.  

CaseOfAce

fretmeister said:

Frank Gambale.

He was on loads of adverts in the 80s and 90s and I have seen about 30 seconds of him sweep picking at amazing speed. I was later appalled to discover it wasn't an exercise, he thought it was a tune.

I'm aware that he is revered by some, but I couldn't name a single tune / album / artist he has worked with.

I must be one of the few people on this board who's actually seen Frank Gambale live - saw him way back in the 90s with Chick Corea's band doing the House of Blues at Florida Disneyland.

I've never seen anything like it before or since. 
For most of the gig Gambale stood completely motionless on stage with arms across his guitar not playing.

Chick would occassionally give Gambale the nod and he would take a 2 or 3 minute sweep picking solo ...and then stop playing again.
It was like something out of an old-time 50s Duke Ellington jazz orchestra thing.
I guess that was the gig though... what Chick wants, he gets...?

axisus

CaseOfAce said:

I must be one of the few people on this board who's actually seen Frank Gambale live - saw him way back in the 90s with Chick Corea's band doing the House of Blues at Florida Disneyland.

I've seen him live and also at a clinic where I met him and he signed a CD for me. 90s I guess?

timmypix

I'm not going to name the guitarists I've vaguely heard of in styles of music I'm not interested in, as that's not going to be surprising - for example, if I don't listen to indie, I'm not going to know the guitarists from indie bands. So that's Johnny Marr out. I also see a lot about J Mascis due to his Fender/Squier sigs being popular but again, no idea.

In terms of stuff that should be in my sphere of influence but isn't - bear in mind my parents raised me on a steady diet of blues and blues rock, and I'm a massive metalhead.

BB King - I could recognise his playing in an instant, and know him from countless live videos and guest spots on other people's albums, but I don't actually know any BB King albums. Same goes for a lot of the classic blues guys - Albert King, Albert Collins, Johnny Winter... all players I know by name and would recognise, but I've never explored their stuff beyond liking what comes on my Dad's playlists or blues playlists on Spotify.

Rory Gallagher - as above

Derek Trucks - one of those players I love watching videos of his solos, but never explored his music properly.

Peter Frampton - seems to be the poster child for a generation, and has an incredibly cool guitar with a cool story about it, but I don't think I've ever even crossed paths with his music.

Eddie Van Halen - I never got into Van Halen, and what I've heard's impressive, but I could probably name 3 songs. Just never featured heavily on my radar other than someone who influenced the people I like.

Allan Holdsworth - a massive influence on a lot of the technical/proggy metal players, but I can't say I like what I've heard.

Brad Paisley - never been into country, but I've seen a couple of YouTube videos that frankly frightened me. Insane precision and speed, but not music I'd ever listen to.

PhilKing

Philly_Q said:

axisus said:

I'm pretty sure I would like Frank Marino, once again he would turn up in old publications back in the day, but I still haven't heard him.

If you like Hendrixy lead guitar - and lots of it - then you might like him.  I've got most of his stuff, the songwriting is pretty pedestrian - with exceptions- but the guitar solos are amazing.

I've seen Frank Marino live a few years ago and it is one of the few gigs that I have walked out of because I couldn't take the playing.  I was with 2 other friends (one is a guitarist too), and they felt the same way.  

Philly_Q

PhilKing said:

Philly_Q said:

axisus said:

I'm pretty sure I would like Frank Marino, once again he would turn up in old publications back in the day, but I still haven't heard him.

If you like Hendrixy lead guitar - and lots of it - then you might like him.  I've got most of his stuff, the songwriting is pretty pedestrian - with exceptions- but the guitar solos are amazing.

I've seen Frank Marino live a few years ago and it is one of the few gigs that I have walked out of because I couldn't take the playing.  I was with 2 other friends (one is a guitarist too), and they felt the same way.  

I've seen him live once - 30 April 1983, I found the ticket a few days ago! - and thought he was fantastic. 
But that's nearly 40 years ago (and weirdly he's only released 4 or 5 albums in all the years since then).

bertie

Steven Seagal 

fretmeister

DefaultM

fretmeister said:

Frank Gambale.

He was on loads of adverts in the 80s and 90s and I have seen about 30 seconds of him sweep picking at amazing speed. I was later appalled to discover it wasn't an exercise, he thought it was a tune.

I'm aware that he is revered by some, but I couldn't name a single tune / album / artist he has worked with.

Great instructional stuff, but I've never made it through an entire track of his solo material. He reckons to have got even better at economy picking these days, but I can't afford the instructional stuff to check haha.

DefaultM

Yesterday im saying I can't afford his new instructionals, today I get sent a 50% off code for all his stuff!

Meant. 2. B.