Jimi Hendrix
Pete Townsend
Synyster Gates
Jimmy Page
Dimebag
Dave murray
Matt Bellamy
Brian May
EDIT: Eric Clapton

Best ones I can think of.

Reporter: "Jimi, how does it feel to be the greatest guitarist in the world?"

Hendrix: "I don't know. Ask Rory Gallagher."


I agree with this.

Brian May

Because he rocked harder than anyone else who ever lived. He was the first true rock star, and he epitomised heavy metal.

He's been dead for 40 years. :whistling:
Seriously though, I do understand where you are coming from. by today's standards he may not be all that great, but if you take him by the standard of 40 years ago, then yes, he was probably the most talented. Back then, He managed to do things with a guitar that people hadn't even dreamed of doing.

My personal Favorite should be obvious, but then I am a little biased. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tggMlADKIWY, even with the mental instability he still manged to put together some unique music...until he quit entirely.

Others I lie as well. Not necessarily in order.
Jimmy Page
David Gilmour
Eric Clapton
Randy Rhoads
Chuck Berry

We live in 2011, and we go by the 2011 standards. The standards 40 years ago are obsolete.

DOOM had awesome 3d graphics when it was released but you don't see me arguing that it had the greatest graphics ever. :huh:


pff... american jazz/blues guitarists of that time did far more impressive things than he did <_<


no he didn't

No kidding, I never suggested that that we lived in any other time.

Babe Ruth was probably the greatest baseball player in his day, yet he still considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. Your opinion of Jimi Hendrix is just that, an opinion; just the same as my opinion of Syd Barrett is. It doesn't make either one of us right or wrong, it's a matter of what we like, and it's apparent that you don't like Jimi Hendrix...well there's no accounting for taste :shrug:

robert johnson. dig those revolutionary delta blues rock riffs :foodndrink:

Can't really compare those two, guitarists are constantly inventing new techniques and improving their instruments.

Baseball hasn't really changed since Babe Ruth.

Baseball has changed alot since he played the game. I think the comparison is more relevant than the one you gave regarding Doom.

it has changed. even football (american) has changed. Back then, it was all about running with minor throwing and now its pretty much throwing only...

Don Bradman would be a better anology, although I do think Hendrix was overrated, he more 'invented heavy metal (listen to Voodoo chile slight return) rather than epitomised it

Serious lack of John Petrucci here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSX86zPnUkY

http://omardigital.rodriguezlopezproductions.com/album/omar-rodriguez-lopez-john-frusciante

I'll be honest, I had to Google that one. While they are two different sports, I understand what you are saying about him, especially after doing a little reading online. I chose Babe Ruth as my example partly because he is a very well known athlete, also for his longtime run as the home run king, but also for what he accomplished as a pitcher before he became the home run king. Really one of the best in all of baseball, however there are people that would say if you wanted to really find out who was the best/ who had the best overall stats that you would have to look in the old http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_league_baseball as well, there was lots of great talent there that may have been forgotten by lots of people today. That's all getting off track, and a different thread altogether.

As for Jimi, maybe he was a little overrated, or better yet, overexposed. Too much exposure to anything and people will eventually get burned out on it. That doesn't change the fact that he was a very talented musician, and is still considered to be one of the greats in the history of rock and roll.

Actually Hendrix pretty much pioneered and is still regarded as the master of feedback and distortion. He made soundscapes without a rhythm guitarist and played the strat like no one had ever heard/seen before. Not to mention all of the tricks he used like playing with his teeth, sliding using the mic stand, etc. Sure, if he had been born twenty years later, he would of been a hair farmer guitarist, playing a Jackson, four finger tapping Flight of the Bumble Bee backwards. What people don't give him credit for is his blues shredding, all minor pentatonic stuff really, but its the same scale a lot of early metal solos were done on.

As for me, gotta love Les Paul, Steve Vai, Danny Gatton, Ry Cooder, Jerry Reed, most of the majors already listed etc. Too many to list really, since I play guitar and have many inspirations and Idols.

Does anyone else just find Hendrix, Malmsteen et al to be incredibly boring? Sure, their stuff is technically good, but it doesn't mean anything. It's all just pointless and self-congratulatory.

Hendrix is better live, and selfcongrulatory is synonomous with Yngwie

Malmsteen is such an asshat that I just can't like him, also his stuff sounds [censored]e.
I like Hendrix though.

I don't have a favourite guitarist, I don't really care about individual instruments as much as how a band plays together.

Yep




Super Yep



Yep



Yep

Knopfler kicks ass, and Clapton is one of the best.

Albert and Freddie King deserve mention, as does Mike Bloomfield.

Also, Nils Lofgren.

Yeah, Malm somehow lost his tone during the mid nineties. Then again all he really does is tap and shred exotic arpeggios.

I hate this guy so much. After watching videos about the history of rock and roll. In my Poetry of Rock 'n' Roll class, Townsend always said the most stuck up crap when asked questions.

Townsend=Punk/New Wave guitarist born 20 years too early. Dude was basically a mediocre rhythm guitarist. Is it any wonder he was Pearl Jams inspiration? Then again Ive been through the spectrum of technical guitarists ten fold. I actually like the simplistic playing of Punk and Alt guitarist.

I think Malmsteens first two albums are amazing (Except for the songs with vocals which are terrible) but he always plays the same style, with the same arpeggios, the same licks and the same Harmonic Minor scale.

And his blues playing is dreadful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uWUYNUPa90

:dead:

Oh, no doubt Rising Force was inspirational at its time, I compare it, influential wise, to Satriani's Surfin' With the Alien.