👕 Get New Ernie Ball Merch Now!
  • Ernie Ball
  • Music Man
  • Sterling by Music Man
  • Security notice: Ernie Ball staff will never send you a direct message about a prize or giveaway, and will never ask you to click a link to "claim" anything.
    If you receive a message like that - even from an account whose name looks official - do not click the link. Please report it using the Report link on the message so the moderators can act. A scam campaign impersonating admin accounts was blocked on 29 July 2026; those accounts are banned and their messages have been deleted.
Axis 30th Anniversary

Who is the most imitated or cloned guitarist?

Lucidology

Lucidology

Well-known member
Joined
May 8, 2006
Messages
277
Location
Monterey, CA
IN your opinion, which guitarist is cloned or imitated just way, way too much...?

To the point where you find your self saying... "enough already"...

Or "get a life dude"...

Or "give me a break"...

Or "whoops, there goes another guitar player copying the same guy as the last"...

Or " gag me, he's trying to sound just just like ____ (feel in blank)!"
 
Last edited:
I'd say that every guitarist AFTER Eddie Van Halen tapped into his style. He definitely took the guitar to places it had never been before, and i think every rock guitarist after him copied him (in some way or another) even if they didn't know it.
 
Kontalonis said:
I'd say that every guitarist AFTER Eddie Van Halen tapped into his style. He definitely took the guitar to places it had never been before, and i think every rock guitarist after him copied him (in some way or another) even if they didn't know it.
Click to expand...

YUP!!!
 
Like the song says
All of Chuck's children are out there playin his licks
Can't play rock 'n roll without out throwing a Chuck Berry lick in there somewhere
 
I'm sorry but I would have to say me!

Every time I walk into a guitar store I hear someone who sounds just like me - out of tune, too many buzzing strings, unimaginative licks, poor tone, poor technique, with no idea what they're doing.

So ladies and gentleman bow down to the most immitated guitarist around.:D

Simon
 
How about Ritchie Blackmore? Who has NOT played the "Smoke on the Water" riff? That has to be the one copied the most.....:cool:
 
Koogie beat me to it. But I didn't mean to mention the Smoke riff. I think a lot of people, 99% of them, who try to copy Blackmore, just don't understand it. I've seen numerous guitarists playing in Deep Purple cover bands, trying to be like Ritchie Blackmore, having the Blackmore signature Strat, Marshall MkII etc., copying all of his solos (record versions). That's just crap! Who ever is it that wants to copy Ritchie Blackmore, has to know that he never played the same solo twice. (Highway Star is the only exception) If you want to be like him, you have to find the right pentatonic scale and improvise. Blackmore himself says that he always had a very bad habit of doing 8 to 16 bars of just a chord progression, and he didn't know what he was doing. That's it!

PS Don't understand this one as a Blackmore praising post. It's not. I abhor him.
 
mcvinyl said:
I'm sorry but I would have to say me!

Every time I walk into a guitar store I hear someone who sounds just like me - out of tune, too many buzzing strings, unimaginative licks, poor tone, poor technique, with no idea what they're doing.

So ladies and gentleman bow down to the most immitated guitarist around.:D

Simon
Click to expand...


Brilliant.
Possiby the funniest post ever. That 2nd paragraph is hysterical.
Well done, Simon!
 
EVH kick started the whole modern seen since the early 80s.......there has been nothing new since then in terms of technique. Yes there will always be someone faster and faster and faster but can anyone honestly say anyone else has reinvented the electric guitar since Eddie? I assume we can discuss this safely without it being closed? If not then I'm off.....

Vai comes close and I like what he's done throughout his entire career....he seems to be evolvong again which should be interesting.

Other than that everyone else sounds the same. I'm into Lukather, Timmons, Satriani, Petrucci, Holdsworth, Gilbert.......et al and whilst they all have their own unique style/tone/technique call it what you will, none have moved rock guitar/instrumental guitar/guitar in general on.
 
Last edited:
Frank Gambale has changed the intrinsic nature of guitar playing with his introduction of sweep picking as an improvement upon normal right hand picking technique...

John Mclaughlin, arguably the greatest alternate picker of all time, said that Gambale has single handily changed the approach of guitar playing ... As of lately,Mclaughlin has incorporated sweep picking into his style... Mclaughlin stated that Gambale's technique was the greatest improvement upon guitar playing technique of the last century...

Pat Metheny, who lives a nomad type of lifestyle gigging all over the world over 300 nights a year, was asked if he took three months off from gigging what would he do with the time... Metheny said he would use the time to take serious lessons from Frank Gambale...

(you can find these articles in two of last year's Guitar Player Magazines...)
 
Last edited:
The guy who SHOULD be imitated by most is of course the one and only

Steve Morse

the fact he isnt means the way he plays is too difficult for mere mortals.

When Steve leaves this world there will be a huge void (that even JP cant fill)

Dave
 
beej said:
I dunno Dave ... even Morse copies Blackmore's Smoke on the Water riff :p
Click to expand...

Now that's funny!!!

Have you ever been to one of his clinics where he talks about being interviewed on radio and them asking him how he came up with that riff? Not only a great guitarist but also a wonderful sense of humour.

Simon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Classic Rock N Roll Slinky
Back
Top