Your top twelve favourite guitarists.

Teyeplayer

Jonny Greenwood
Steve Craddock
Bernard Butler
James Dean Bradfield
Peter Buck
Kieth Richards
Richard Thompson
Robbie Robertson
Stephen Stills
Nels Cline

David Geraghty
Aaron & Bryce Dessner -these class as one really.  

CHRISB50

Peter Green
Tosin Abasi
Mike McCready
James Hetfield
Plini
Jimi Hendrix
Dimebag Darrell 
Billy Corgan
Jerry Cantrell
Elliott Randell
Erik Mongrain
James Dean Bradfield

Powderfinger

Aww!

So much more interesting thread if there was a why.

fretfinder

My favourites (rather than ‘the best’) in no particular order. I’m surprised the first two haven’t had a mention yet.

Mick Ronson
Mick Ralphs
Eric Clapton
Jimi Hendrix
Dave Gilmour
Neil Young
Jo Walsh
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Brian May
George Harrison
Peter Green
James Taylor 

FelineGuitars

My list varies depending on mood but certain players stay there

Michael Schenker

Gary Moore

Brian May

George Lynch

EVH
 Chris DeGarmo & Michael Wilton (Queensryche)

Jake E Lee

Mark Kendall (Great White) or Dave Meniketti (Y&T)

Jimmy Page

Ritchie Blackmore
 Ace Frehley

Wolf Hoffman (Accept)

jimification

In no particular order:

Scott Henderson (just one small section of the solo from "Manic Carpet" is enough to put him in the list)
EVH (forget the solos, I just love his rhythm and groove - incredible and absolutely unique)
Billy Gibbons (love his laid back feel!)
Jimmy Page (again, I absolutely love his loose feel)
Alex Lifeson (quite brilliant IMO)
Ed Wynne (as above!)
John Williams (been listening to him quite a bit recently - sublimely lovely player to listen to)
Paul Simon (can he be in there? I like the way the plays the guitar)

That's enough for today...

PS: Brian May (mentioned above quite a bit) not in my list atm but I do completely agree he's a wonderful player, Just wonderful.

thebreeze

I forgot (but PhillyQ reminded me) Duane Allman - there isn’t much he can’t do. 

andysc

In no particluar order-

Bill Frisell
Amadou Bagayoko
Vini Reilly
Jim Hall
Julian Lage
Wes Montgomery
Pat Metheney
Joe Pass
Emily Remler
Tommy Tedesco
Mary Halvorson
Steve Cropper

All there for a combination of their playing and the songs they create(d).

SRD81

Here we go:

George Harrison: (played to the song, wrote solos you can sing, amazing slide playing)

Paul Mccartney: (Very underrated as a guitarist in his own right. Played and wrote some of the coolest Beatles guitar parts)

Peter Green (Touch, tone, note selection)

Dave Davies (another underrated player. Awesome riffs, mega fills)

Noel Gallagher (The sound of my youth. Saw him first at Knebworth and last night live in Essex. Brilliant live)

Eric Clapton (Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and the Dominoes. Enough said)

John Frusciante (introduced me to Hendrix style playing, timing, funkiness)

Hendrix (not a lot to say that hasn’t been said, made noises like no one else has)

Duane Allman (Slide! Layla, Live at Fillmore East etc.)

Steve Marriott (raw aggression, sounded huge, occasionally used to drink with my Dad!)

Keef (riff monster, legend)

Paul Kossoff (Amazingly tasteful player, sublime touch, incredible tone. The solo on ‘All Right Now’ stills makes my balls tingle!)

dazzajl

Really lovely to see Dave Davies here. I know we all tend to think of Ray as the driving force and genius of the band but the breakthrough singles are all about Dave. Possibly fair to say no Dave = no Kinks. 

And Paul Simon. I think he deserves to be recognised as a top draw guitarist too. Amazing fluidity and a unique style. 

I’m probably not the only one who cited George Harrison for what he became after The Beatles rather than his part there. The point about never really knowing who played which parts on Beatles recordings is spot on. Once out of the shadow, he became an instantly recognisable player with such soul and grace. 

Vintage-T

In no order, and nothing to do with level of skill, just my faves who play guitar.

Josh Homme
James Dean Bradfield
Sean Watkins
John Mayer
Slash
Jerry Cantrell
Noel Gallagher
Kurt Cobain
Jason Isbell
Simon Neil
Mike Einziger
Larry Hibbert

Could have gone on, but I think these stand above all others over the course of my life, honourable mention also to Jack White....just missed the cut.

timmypix

Plini
Sam Vallen 
Jeff Loomis
David Maxim Micic
SRV
Per Nillson
Slash
Angus Young
Gary Moore
Chris Amott
Mike Amott
Bernie Marsden

DartmoorHedgehog

elstoof said:

Bernard Butler

Yes! I wondered if anybody would say him - for me he's one of the guitarists I'd most like to be able to play like, and although I'm nowhere near as good (by a LONG way!) I hope there's definitely something of his influence in my own playing.  If I could "do the deal with the Devil" I'd ask for Bernard Butler's musical skills.

Not sure I could think of twelve off the top of my head, but definitely:
Bernard Butler
Brian Setzer
Johnny Thunders (I know, not really that great a technical player but I just love his "controlled looseness", for want of a better description)
The Barat/Docherty pairing in the Libertines - there's something about way they play off each other that just works, and there's more of that "controlled chaos" feeling that everything could fall apart at any moment but manages to stay just on the right side of the cliff.
Francis Rossi - fantastically melodic player, really underestimated IMO (and while we're on Quo, the late Rick Parfitt was one of the best rhythm players around).
Obviously Brian May - too many iconic solos to list, and comfortable in all the varying styles Queen tackled.
And I like to play a bit of slide so I'm going to say Bonnie Raitt - she's as good at it as anybody I can think of and I'm aware my list was all blokes up to this point.

I'm sure I could think of lots more given time, but those are some of the people I admire most. There are also some people in the local amateur band scene that I have huge respect for, but I won't embarrass them by naming them here - I'll just stick with the famous ones.

Alun

No particular order and absolutely not based on skill. Just those that play guitar and happen to make music/noises/riffs/solos that make me want to make music.

Jeff Buckley

Tom Misch

Chris Buck

Ren

Mateus Asato

Myles Kennedy

James Hetfield

John Frusciante

Slash

Tim Henson / Scottie LePage (more Polyphia's music in general rather than either one of them specifically - just think their sound as a band is innovative and interesting)

Yvette Young

Tom DeLonge

Will also add that guitar music is only a part of the music I enjoy, so musical influences go much wider but from purely a guitar perspective these are the people that catch my attention.

thumpingrug

Steve Rothery
Nils Lofgren
Pete Townsend
Steve Vai
Johnny Marr
Chris Rea
The Edge
Billy Gibbons
Robert Smith
Adam Granduciel
Jeff Beck
Bob Mould

littlegreenman

Loads of others come and go in/out of favour, but pretty much this lot

Frank Zappa

Al DiMeola

Joe Satriani

Steve Vai

Guthrie Govan

Allan Holdsworth

EVH

John McLaughlin

Devin Townsend

Tim Henson

Eric Johnson

Jimi

Philly_Q

It's interesting how in every list it's like yeah, yeah, usual suspects... then there's always one name which is a bit more left-field.

SteveRobinson

Mick Ronson
Steve Hunter
Dick Wagner

axisus

Personally I think that a top 12 is too many, I started looking through the thread but it's just too much info to take in. It's much better to distill it down to current top 3, or all time top 3. That has more meaning

Kebabkid

EVH
Steve Lukather
Dann Huff
Neal Schon
Michael Thompson
Andy Summers
Brian Robertson
Scott Gorham
Robben Ford 
Larry Carlton
Jon Brion
Ian Bairnson

A Lucky 13 choice would be Brian May whose true genius I only got a few years ago, even though I'd always liked his playing