Greatest Guitarist of all time...

[Pratt2112]

I have been reading a lot of forums lately on who's the "Greatest Guitarist of all Time?" . I am not sure exactly why this bugged me. And I understand people are entitled to they're opinions. But I noticed that people like Kurt Kobain, Jack White, and Johnny Ramone are consistently in the top 20. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? While all of them have done they're part for Rock n' Roll, players like Jason Becker and Alex Lifeson were barely mentioned. Is Rock n' Roll officially dead or what?

 

[slukather]

The "greatest guitarist of all time" thread are really subjective, and l try to stay out of them, but hell l'm here, it's just peoples options. All round great guitarist, i'd say Luke, then you have Alex Lifeson, l dig Ty Tabor, Michael Landau (a pure genius who has never got his due) then there's freaks like Albert Lee, he's music isn't really to my liking, have a listen to the cat, he blows my mind. This list can go on.

Scott.

 

[Volt]

There is no such thing as "the greatest" guitarist, IMO.

 

[TNT]

Yeah, I know what you mean!!! We "players" look at it a little differently.

It's NOT about technical playing ability, i.e., dexterity and skill, it's more about playing "style".

Big difference!!

 

[EBMM7181]

I dont think there's one person who is '' the greatest ''

With all the different styles of music, playing styles, techniques, ect, there's no way to say who is hands down the best of all time

But I really dig Stevie Ray Vaughan

 

[colinboy]

its all about personal preference at the end of the day.theres is no such thing as the greatest guitar player ever.theres is fantastic players in all the different styles out there.

with reference to the likes of kurt cobain,jack white etc then they were great musicians and contributed alot to the music industry but you must understand that people arent educated about the real guitar players out there like we are so they give mis-informed opinions.

 

[GoKart_MoZart]

its all about personal preference...

Yeah, man. How to compare Robert Johnson with Andres Segovia with Jimi Hendrix? Different eras, different equipment, different styles...

"Favorite guitarist" would be better...

 

[John Denner]

Ace

How about Ace Frehley... ?


You know as far as Rock Stars go.

 

[guitar_guy12]

From me my personal best guitar player and I said FOR ME!!!!
It's

- Kirk Hammett
- Jason Backer
- Steve Vai
- Joe Satirani
- S.R.V
- Hendrix
- DImebag
- Jimmy Padge
- James Hetfield
- Alexi Laiho
- Yngwie Malsteen
- John Petrucci

Note: the ordre doesn not mean anything.

 

[Pratt2112]

I know that personal taste is a key factor, but even someone who isn't a fan of rock n roll can tell that Kurt Cobain and Joe Satriani don't belong in the same sentence.

 

[Petersonic]

I'm by no means a Kurt Cobain fan, but I'm gonna have to defend him on this one. What constitutes being a good guitarist? I think it has a lot more to do with knowing how to play what you play than with anything else. And if you look at it this way, maybe Cobain wasn't that bad after all.

But as you said, personal taste is a key factor: neither Kurt Cobain nor, say, Jason Becker would be anywhere near my top 100.

 

[muggsy]

It's not just taste, though obviously that has much to do with it. There are plenty of shredders who do nothing for me musically. Are they technically better than Kurt Cobain or Johnny Ramone? Of course. But it can be difficult to isolate that one aspect when comparing musicians who play guitar against other musicians who play guitar but also sing and write songs. I'd rate Cobain's musical accomplishments as a whole above those of many people who could play rings around him, including Joe Satriani, but that's just my humble opinion. I'd guess, though, that may be how a lot of people who vote in these polls probably look at it.

 

[ScoobySteve]

Those lists are always so subjective.

There's no concrete criteria in which to list them, and the criteria, if any at all are subjective as well.

I mean, for me its:

Robert Johnson
Hendrix
Satriani
SRV
Petrucci
EJ
Morse

 

[Volt]

Okay ok, it's Clapton. There, I said it!

 

[MrMusashi]

cobain was a musical rulebreaker, and for that he deserves appreciation... even though i find the whole grunge era a sidetrack in music history

we want the funk! give us the funk! awwwweeeee...
repeat for 8 minutes

MrM

 

[ScoobySteve]

cobain was a musical rulebreaker, and for that he deserves appreciation... even though i find the whole grunge era a sidetrack in music history

we want the funk! give us the funk! awwwweeeee...
repeat for 8 minutes

MrM

Oh, I'll take me some Earth, Wind and Fire any day of the week.

Love me some of that good ol' Funk!

 

[mgs316]

There are great players, but greatest embodies more then just skill, it's influence, innovation, etc.

I fricken love John Petrucci and his skill is hardly matched, but can he be mentioned in the greatest guitarist conversation? No.

I'd think it's a short list: EVH, Vai, Page, Claptop, Hendrix, SRV, and some of the other blues legends plus others that I'm obviously missing.
Then you have your secondary studs like: Satch, Lifeson, Gilmour, Malmsteen, etc.
Then my third column would be the Petrucci's, Gilberts, Lynchs, Bettencourts of the world.

The tough part is where do you stick a Jerry Cantrell? He was the most influencial guitar player to come out of the "Grunge" era, all the bands today are spawns of AIC's sound. Where does he fit?

There is not right or wrong, but Jack White isn't a guitarist, he just happens to play guitar and should not be in the discussion.

 

[Eilif]

Obviously, this is subjective. But another problem--perhaps the biggest problem--with asking or stating who the greatest is, is that there is usually no definition or criteria for "greatest", and that's where the whole thing usually falls apart.

Examples of what "greatest" could mean:
1) most influential (and if so, in which genre?)
2) most technical skill (and even this needs further definition: are we talking picking speed? the ability to shred? what exactly?)
3) most musical? (and what, exactly, would "musical" mean?)
4) most recorded?
5) all of the above?
etc. etc. etc.

And then another issue is that the lists usually start with the 1960s, but there were plenty of great guitarists before then. What about Chet Atkins? What about Wes Montgomery? What about Les Paul? And what about guitarists in genres other than rock, such as Glen Campbell?

Anyhow, these I think are why asking or talking about the "greatest" is difficult to do with a decent degree of objectivity. It all goes to a lack of definition of the term and a set of objective criteria with which to judge, so it ends up just being a popularity contest of sorts.

 

[GGK]

Favorite sounds much better, and it's all relevant to musical taste as well as style.

Duane Allman
Steve Howe
Keith Richards

I Love them all for their musical contributions; they could be tops in their individual genre, overall, well you folks decide

Bring on the "BASS"

 

[Volt]

Sit all the "greatest" contenders down somewhere together and see who can outdo all the others in every style of music.
Not really a very good way to decide who's best..........but I'd love to be listening to that jam session.