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Guitar Players - Who's the best?


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Guitar Players - Who's the best?  

19 members have voted

  1. 1. Who's the best?

    • Mark Knopfler
    • Jerry Garcia
      0
    • Dave Matthews
      0
    • Eric Clapton
    • Other


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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

When I'm considering who the best guitar players are, Dave Matthews always comes to mind.  Him and Monte Montgomery.

As I said, I'm fascinated to hear how this list was constructed

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1 minute ago, G650 said:

As I said, I'm fascinated to hear how this list was constructed

The best part of it is it's not even limited to "players who are still alive".  Forget the fact that Jerry Garcia doesn't belong, he's dead, just like Jimi and Eddie and Duane and Stevie Ray and and and . . .

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Interesting list but not terrible. I will say this, a lot awesome guitar players make terrible music. There's all sorts of torture I would endure before being forced to listen to Dream Theater. Even EJ's music I have to be in a certain mood for. I think Dime is one of the few shredders whose music I like.

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9 hours ago, Handcruser said:

None of those guys are in the top 10. So is this list “who is the best 10-100 guitarist”?

Man that list just sucks. 

10-100 still doesn't explain Dave Matthew's though.

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15 hours ago, Handcruser said:

Who is the best drummer of all time:

handcruser

travis barker 

Sammy davis

jimmyjazz’s daughter 

other

Can you make this a poll?

4 hours ago, Rudiger said:

The most likely answer is some studio guitarist few people have ever heard of. 

So, Steve Lukather?

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Of that list, the only one that has any argument for best of all time is Garcia.  He has his own definitive style and is not just copying others (like Clapton).  And millions of people across multiple generations (most of which are not guitar players) love to listen to extended Dead jams.  It would be hard to think of another guitar player that has inspired so many non-guitar players to listen to lengthy guitar-driven instrumental music.  A similar argument could probably be made for Page or Gilmore given how iconic a lot of their guitar riffs/solos are and that LZ and PF have retained relevance to a broad audience over the decades.  

I suspect most guitar players would say Hendrix or whoever their favorite jazz player is.  

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Who the best guitar player is mostly personal taste, a lot like what the best color is or best flavor.  Everyone's different. 

That said the poll is so bad it makes my head hurt.  

My always-evolving personal top guitar players:

  1. David Gilmour
    • Echoes
    • Comfortably Numb
  2. Neil Young
    • Cortex the Killer
    • Powderfinger
    • Walk like a Giant
    • Ramada Inn
    • Dead Man Theme
  3. Mark Knopfler
    • Once upon a time in the West
    • Telegraph Road
    • Brothers in Arms
  4. Stevie Ray Vaughan
    • Couldn't Stand the Weather
    • Collins Shuffle
    • Rude Mood
  5. Kirk Hammett / James Hetfield 
    • Orion
    • Fade to Black
    • For Whom the Bell Tolls
  6. Jimi Hendrix
    • Stone Free
    • All along the watchtower
  7. Duane Allman
    • Statesboro Blues
    • Whipping Post
  8. Billy Gibbons
    • La Grange
    • Cheap Sunglasses
  9. Slash
    • Bent to fly
    • Welcome to the Jungle
    • Paradise City
  10. Joe Bonamassa
    • Drive
    • Sloe Gin
  11. Matthew Bellamy
    • Thought of a Dying Atheist
    • Supremacy
  12. J.J. Cale
    • Cocaine
    • Call me the Breeze
  13. Santana
    • Smooth
    • Black Magic Woman
  14. Robin Trower
    • Day of the eagle
    • Too Rolling Stoned
  15. Tim Henson
    • Playing God
    • Neurotica
  16. Snowy White
    • Another Blue Night
    • Ongoing

 

 

There are so many great guitarists from Buckingham to Lifeson to Summers to Nelson to Page. The list goes on and on.   If you were going to pick 4 names for a Poll, Dave Matthews just isn't making my cut.

 

 

 

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Coach Beard had his own poll: 

The original poll is woefully flawed.  Too many styles of guitar playing to pick just one.  Do you factor in what they wrote for the guitar or just how their two hands move?  I will say Knopfler is criminally underrated, Clapton is criminally overrated.  Dave Matthews shouldn't be on that list at all.  And as stated above, say what you will about Jerry Garcia, there was nobody that sounded like him before and almost nobody does what he does since then (though a couple of jam band guys try to some modicum of success).  I love the Dead, but to this day i'm not one to indulge in most of their long-winded instrumental jams/space.  But when he was on, truly on, at melding blues, folk, bluegrass, country, and rock-------------there really was nothing like him.  He could have been the lead guitarist in 100 famous bands in particular genres.  But instead, he was Jerry.  I give a lot of credit for originality and longevity.  For 30 years, nobody could do what he did. 

Alive or Dead, you've gotta expand a poll for folks like Chet Atkins, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Prince, Steve Vai, Les Paul, Alex Lifeson, Muddy Waters, David Gilmour, George Harrison, and Pete Townshend.  Final note-every few years, I give them an hour listen and every few years it's so obvious how fucking awful their music holds up........but Robby Krieger was also an original and remains underrated.  Maybe there's a reason nobody has gone back to meld Venice Beach music with Chicago Blues.......but the guitar parts were pretty fucking original, I'll give him that.  

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