Monday, March 31, 2008

Rock Revival's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time

Who are the best guitarists of all time ? What if you don't look only at rock but make a little room for other genres like Jazz, Blues (even India which has a massive tradition of guitar) ?


1 Jimi Hendrix
2 Django Reinhardt (Gypsy Jazz)
3 Buddy Guy (Jimi and Eric's Idol)
4 Jerry Garcia
5 Wes Montgomery (Jazz)
6 Duane Allman
7 Pat Metheny (Jazz fusion, soundscape sound)
8 Eddie Van Halen
9 Freddie King
10 Johnny Winter
11 Rory Gallagher
12 Eric Clapton (not 'God' in my opinion, but not so boring as to be out of the top 20)
13 John Petrucci (Dream Theatre, Liquid Tension Experiment)
14 John McLaughlin
15 Neil Young
16 Ralph Towner (jazz on the ECM label)
17 Jeff Beck
18 Carlos Santana
19 George Benson (master of timing)
20 Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society)
21 Sonny Landreth (praised by Eric, brilliant slide)
22 Derek Trucks
23 Ry Cooder
24 Steve Tibbets (avant-jazz)
25 Bill Frissel (as above)
26 Joe Bonamassa
27 Peter Frampton
28 Warren Haynes (Govt Mule)
29 Joe Walsh
30 Pat Travers
31 Ali Farka Toure (there must be more from Africa but it's not my forte)
32 John Scofield
33 Michael Hedges (windham Hill might suck but he is the master of acoustic)
34 Terje Rypdal (jazz on ECM, no one else can make a guitar sound like this, atmospheric, spooky)
35 John Fahey
36 Debashish Bhattacharya (Indian, incredible)
37 Baden Powell (Brazil)
38 Brian May
39 Johnny Guitar Watson (funkmaster of the blues)
40 Albert Collins
41 Bob Brozman (blues, hawaiian, folk)
42 Big Bill Broonzy
43 John Abercrombie (Fusion)
44 Fred Frith (Avante garde)
45 Jan Akkerman
46 Tommy Emmanuel (aussie)
47 Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Indian)
48 Robin Trower (too much like Jimi to be at the top, but even imitating Jimi is pretty good)
49 Ron Wood
50 Otis Rush (blues)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great list!! What about Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, BB King and Al DiMeola?

Anonymous said...

What, Frank Zappa doesn't even rate in the top 50?!

My suitcase is waiting beside the door.

Paul Rhodes said...

oh dear buddy guy omitted ? thats major, saw him last year, incredible, and frank zappa (my guitar wants to kill your mama) another major ommision

Anonymous said...

what is the make/model of that guitar pictured above? i'm in the market for a hollow/semi-hollow body, and that sparked my interest.

good list by the way, though missing some personal favorites :).

Anonymous said...

buddy guy was on there you guys..number 3, in fact and totally worthy of it.

Also, that guitar was a First Act Delia...piece of junk...looks can be deceiving. Best cheap hollowbody is a n Eastwood Classic 6, otherwise, spend the money on a real 335 or something.

Davi Trombela said...

Nice list!!!

You just forgot some names (yes, another guy here saying that you should put this or that guy in the list) whose are really important and good ones:

Jimi Page, Robert Johnson and Sérgio Dias, the "mutantes"'s guitarrist that maybe you don't know:

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=2r2miRw1XKI&feature=related
(unfortunately it wasn't very well recorded)

Remembering that playing an instrument is not about technic, but about feeling, about expression. if you check out at youtube, you'll find KIDS playing faster and with more technic than Django Reinhardt, but no one can play like that, with that emotion. THAT's the art after all

Anonymous said...

neil young a better guitarist than jeff beck or brian may? what gives?!

Anonymous said...

BULLSHIT Pete Townsend should be at least in the top 20

Busy Being Fabulous said...

I've just been looking through your blogs - great site! I love it!

However, you left out of your top 50 great guitarists DAVID GILMOUR of Pink Floyd.
His guitar work with Pink Floyd and as a solo act are incredibly moving.

And the huge solo on "Comfortably Numb"?! He should be in the top 10 (although he would be in my top 5)!!

Anonymous said...

Dude wheres George Harrison he should be in the top 5 hes one of the greatest of all time.