Favourite Guitar Players: NOT a "who's the best" thread.

1) Eddie Hazel
2) Neil Hagerty

Okay, I'll be serious for one minute, then.

Seriously, I am actually a versatile guitarist and have wowed the pants off my share of morons, but there is something about these guitarists that I can NOT seem to mimic properly (regardless of "talent" level):
- All the blues guitarists
- that guy from Black Flag
- most of the metal guitarists
- Thurston Moore and his little weird buddy
- Ry Cooder
- Sonic Boom
- Anyone else who has released an album

ROFLZ

- that guy from Black Flag = Gregg Ginn. I have never been able to crack his playing either, and I don't know if that's because he approached guitar from a completely unique place where the normal scales/modes do not apply or what. I've never been able to find any chord transcriptions or tunings for any of his stuff.

- Thurston Moore and his little weird buddy = you gotta know the tunings for this stuff. THankfully you can find a lot of SY tunings online, which clarifies things greatly. Even so, I still can't figure out how to play the riff from Teenage Riot.

- Sonic Boom = its all about the effects, specifically tremeloes and analog delays. Him and J. Spaceman have probably the most creative approach to pedals ever, they really integrate them into their playing in a strange and unique way.

Robbie Robertson - set the world on fire in his early days, then evolved into economic "song over solo" guitarist. I said "no particular order", but he may be my favourite.

Peter Green - Just getting into him now. Fantastic blues player, good voice and wrote some interesting songs too.

Mike Bloomfield - Another fan-fucking-tastic blues player.

Duane Allman - Slide player extraordinaire, but certainly not limited to that. Way too young to go.

Ry Cooder - Well I opened up the slide guitar floodgates with Duane :) Cooder's way more than just a great guitar player too.

Derek Trucks - Another great slide player and more.

Eric Clapton - Yes, I like Clapton. Sorry.

Ben Harper - Lap-slide with that hollow-neck Weissenborn!

David Lindley - another lap-slide great. Got into him because he was one of Ben Harper's influences (along with Ry Cooder and Brownie McGee). Someone else here on ILM recommended him to me as well.

George Thorogood - kinda forgot about him for awhile. Always lots of fun, especially live.

Muddy Waters - Didn't he invent electricity? Major influence on almost everyone.

Bo Diddley - "If you think Elvis started Rock 'n' Roll you don't know Diddley"

Hubert Sumlin - perfect mix with Howlin Wolf's voice.

Elmore James - King of the Slide Guitar.

Angus Young - ya gotta be impressed by a guy that can play like that but is only 5' 2" tall. At only 5'3" myself, I can definitely attest to the disadvantage of being a guitar player with small hands. :)

There are so many more...

Others that might be my #1 at any given moment: Django, Wes Montgomery, Neil Young, Richard Thompson, Leo Nocentelli*, Jimmy whatsisface from James Brown's early 70s band, Bill Frisell, John McLaughlin, J Mascis, blahblahblah.

* Seriously, people dickriding Page and Bonham's interaction need to check the Meters. Leo and Zig kill them. KIL UM DED.

I think I need to listen to "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothin' Open Up the Door I'll Get it Myself" right NOW.

xpost

yeah art-spazz funky for Quine and Boon and dude from Gang of Four...Andy Gill, that's him.

xx-post

(pauses, scans records)

I forgot Richard Bishop, the guitar team on Angry Samoans' "Back From Samoa (Gregg Turner and P.J. Galligan), and Andy from the Dog Faced Hermans. I think that covers an off-the-cuff top ten pretty well.

speaking of which, i'm a huge jeff cotton fan.

Elsewhere, Fripp and Ribot are reliably exciting when they play on other people's records.

I Always enjoy hearing the likes of good straight-ahead rockers such as Cub Coda & Joe Perry too.

But if I could play like anyone else, it would be Mark Knopfler. I'm not very adept at describing technical abilities, but his sense of touch, if you will, is what I'm trying to get at here. I just don't quite hear that sound anywhere else.

People who I'm sure are quite good but don't understand why or how: Marr, Coxon.

And sometimes you just want to hear people with their own very specific voice, like Knopfler and Gilmour.

Beyond that: Richard Thompson, Nile Rodgers, Bill Frisell, Wm. Berger (Uncle Wiggly), Mary Timony, Richard Thompson some more, Robt. Quine/Ivan Julian team, Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd team, Catfish Collins, Johnny Marr, Erin Smith, Pete Fucking Townshend.

Kim Thayil got great range of textures going in Soundgarden, editing out the predictable moves in metal, bringing it back to the riff. He's the anti-van halen, if you will.

Cheetah Chrome is the definative early punk guitarist for me. Glam, but mean instead of slinky.

Thomas Diethelm is a wonderful Swiss 'nylon' player - try his "Valleys In My Head" CD (with Santino Famulari).

Glen Phillips ("Lost At Sea" etc.) is also very hot.

Guitar players: POX

I think you should listen to Exposure again. Fripp brings the jamz on that album.

x-post

Ricky Gardiner (on Low, Lust for Life)
James Williamson (o so efficient yet creative on his songs with Iggy Pop)
Michael Rother
Michael Karoli

http://gordfynes.com/images/derek_bailey.jpg

wa-hurrrd re: Thompson and Fripp…

Rick Nielsen!

James Williamson!

Ernie Isley!

Neal Schon!

Phil Manzanera!

Junior Brown!

James Honeyman-Scott!

Big Al Anderson!

Dimebag!

Todd Rundgren!

Brian May!

Ricky Skaggs!

Johnny Mac!

Snakefinger!

Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith!

Alex Lifeson!

Ritchie Blackmore!

Billy Zoom!

Dean Ween!

Abby Shabby!

Giles Godounov!

Tam Dukakis!

Shug Brecht!

Other guitarists I really dig are Roger McGuinn, Randy California, Steve Howe, John Cippolina, John "Charlie" Whitney, Tony McPhee, Bill Nelson.

another? magic sam. mind-bendingly lyrical.

Aye, right

Robbie Robertson
James Burton
Ira Kaplan
Dave Davies
Zoot Horn Rollo
Thurston & Lee
John Fahey
Verlaine and Lloyd
Bob Stintson
Curtis Mayfield

1. T. Verlaine
2. R. Lloyd
3. Townshend
4. Michael Karoli
5. Nile Rodgers
6. Michael Rother
7. Vini Reilly
8. Jo Callis
9. early David Byrne - especially on the live stuff.
10. Eric Clapton - Cream era

Jimmy Page for all those riffs and cuz he could pretty much do rhythm and lead at once.

Nick McCabe. Fuck.

Johnny Thunders -- the only guitarist whose wake I've been to. He had short, stubby fingers. Maybe the most original rock guitarist I've ever heard.

Mick Ralphs / Mick Ronson. I wish I could add Mick Taylor, but he's not in their elite company.

Johnny Smith -- OMG, Johnny Smith.

I also like John Woo from the Magnetic Fields... understated, but very good.

Also gotta mention: Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, Dick Gaughan, D Boon, Mick Ronson, Michael Karoli, Michael Rother, J Mascis, Eddie Hazel, Steve Cropper, Ben Chasny, Lindsay Buckingham (the guitar sounds on Tusk are nuts - how does he get his axe to sound like phased out rubber bands?), Jack White, Kevin Shields, Carlos Alomar, Adrian Belew (on Talking Heads and Eno albums at least), Howe Gelb...

A guitar player buddy of mine put it best when he told me that after seeing Richard Thompson play live one time, he stopped playing for 5 years because in comparison, my friend felt like he was "playing with his feet."

Charlie Hunter
Ani DiFranco (monstrously underrated and fascinating rhythym player)
Wes Montgomery
Doc Watson
Dimebag
Junior Brown
SRV
Brad Paisely
Joe Pass
Brian May
Mark Knopfler
Tony Rice
Johnny Greenwood
Walter Becker
Richard Thompson (any one see that Grizzly Man Sessions thing on IFC?)
and an honorable mention for Chris Thile who is an absolute space alien on the mandolin.

Richard Thompson -- the best, period.
Frank Zappa -- a close second
Neil Young
Doug Martsch -- that guy is just nasty when he gets going
Tom Verlaine
Jeff Tweedy -- the playing on the last couple Wilco records has been stunning.
James Hetfield -- I mean, c'mon, whether you love or hate Metallica, you gotta admit he's an awesome rhythm player.
Brian May for sure
BB King
Tom Morello
Jimmy Page
David Gilmour
Jim James of My Morning Jacket
Vernon ReidLindsey Buckingham
Slash -- very underrated
Randy Rhoads
Angus Young

Yes! Werner Herzog directing Richard Thompson's guitar playing

OTFM! Man, how could anyone forget her?

Buckethead- amazing variety, technique and willingness to take chances

B.B. King- I have never not enjoyed a BB song. Still kicks ass live.

Lightnin' Hopkins

Jimi

Keith Richards

Slash- Nothing of note since '93, but before then, my favorite soloist.

Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo

Django

Prince

Hubert Sumlin

Andy Partridge is a phenomenal guitar player - good enough to genuinely merit kicking Dave Gregory out of the band, I think.

I love Tom verlaine and Richard Lloyd together - slightly less so apart.

Tom Herman was great in Ubu, but I also like Jim Jones a whole lot.

Prince.

I've heard some amazing guitar on modern Ethiopian music, but I couldn't name any names.

Great sidemen/soloists whose own work I'm less fond of: Robert Fripp, Johnny Marr, Manzanera, Belew.

Some odd choices:

David Hidalgo, especially on the Latin Playboys records.

The guy from Stump - Kevin Hopper - was amazing on A Fierce Pancake, but I haven't followed his solo work at all.

Ron Sexsmith plays a mean acoustic guitar.

John Flansburgh was appealingly scrappy in the earliest days of They Might Be Giants. I loved his stage presence back in the day. He is clearly, however, runnin' on Dunkin' now.

Juliana Hatfield
Roger McGuinn
Patrick Pentland
John McGeoch

Robert Fripp - My personal favorite musician of all time

David Tronzo - Really, really interesting slide guitar player

Toby Driver - Currently the most interesting musician leading two of the greatest music acts in the world (Kayo Dot, Tartar Lamb)

Jerry Douglas - #1 Dobro player in the world

Pierre Bensusan - Jazzy celtic folk in all its glory

Don Ross - Only two-time winner of the US National Fingerstyle Championship

Peter Finger - Master acoustic guitarist from Germany

Ralph Towner - 12-string acoustic jazz guitarist extraordinaire

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is one of my favorites. The fills and solos on My Old School ignite something in my head, and that's just one of many, many awesome tunes.

Richard Thompson, particularly for his solo on the live version* of "Can't Win" from the Watching the Dark set. It just seems like such a pure example of someone having extemporaenous fun with an axe.

There are many more, but these'll do for now.

McGuinn

Marr

Quine

Gavurin

The Edge!

Keiji Haino
Ron Ashton
Chet Atkins
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Blind Mamie Forehand (or is that A.C.?)
Blixa Bargeld
Rowland Howard
Wata
Verlaine and Lloyd
Munehiro Nirito
Gregg Ginn
Sioux City Pete

A million others, of course.

Blind Willie Johnson!

^^^^ This. Also Nels Cline, Leo Kottke and Lindsey Buckingham.

pretty crazy that eddie van halen hasn't received one mention on this thread. he's pretty awesome, dudes!

Yes, but
Steve Carlton

right now:

Matt Pike, because he gets a BIG fucking sound out of that thing.

D. BOON. He plays with such energy and inventiveness and uses that insanely treble-y, wiry tone. It's impossible for me not to love him.

Jandek, love him or hate him (I actually lean more towards the latter, really) is always unmistakable.

Jack Rose, because he does Fahey better than Fahey could sometimes.

Takashi Yamaguchi of Sambomaster, for reasons similar to the ones that I love D. Boon for, but mainly I am just itching for an excuse to rep how awesome Sambomaster are on this board.

Ricky Wilson, still.

Judah Bauer doing "Make It Rain" w/ Tom Waits on Letterman is pretty awesome

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rF3YQ5WajJk

That Tom Waits video is BADASS.

Sambomaster tearing shit up in '04:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJAjrSmLkb4

This band needs to come to the US already.

All those rhythm players in reggae.

Nile Rodgers isn't getting enough love, certainly the most fun if not the best.

Karl Precoda had a great sound. And David Kilgour!

No James Burton yet? J. Honeyman-Scott?

Second Derek Trucks from way upthread--that young man is a whale of a player with really wide-ranging interests. Songlines is a tremendous record. Someone asked him why with his southern rock bloodlines he played Roland Kirk and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan songs and he said "Well, it's all the blues."

Redd Volkaert is amazing.

You made him up

http://www.reddvolkaert.net/

No, not so much.

elisa ambrogio and robert fripp.

Great name! (xp)

Indeed. Plus he looks like some redneck greasemonkey who just wandered onstage at the honkytonk, only he's one of the baddest pickers I've ever heard.

http://www.reddvolkaert.net/photos/midsize/bill_kirchen.jpg

L-R, Redd, Bill Kirchen.

Nile Rodgers - my favourite by a long way.

Dr. No from the bad brains

Guys I like listening to who never pop up on those stupid lists: Mick Ralphs, Mark Farner, Uli Roth, Jerry Garcia, Deniz Tek, Catfish Collins, Robertson/Gorham, Tommy Bolin, Buck Dharma

(x-post) Bill Kirchen is no slouch, either.

My personal fave is Carl Finch, from Brave Combo. He's got an awesome way of hitting those polka/ska backbeats. He doesn't play solos, as such; he's really all about rhythm guitar, in the same sense that Ricky Wilson from the B-52's was.

Guys I like listening to who never pop up on those stupid lists: Mick Ralphs, Mark Farner, Uli Roth, Jerry Garcia, Deniz Tek, Catfish Collins, Robertson/Gorham, Tommy Bolin, Buck Dharma

Wow, I forgot to mention Mick Ralphs!

Kind of astonished that Hendrix only has three mentions (not counting Geir's "he's not that good lol racist" mention) in this thread. Ditto Steve Cropper. I'm not massively into Hendrix, and Em used to hate the idea of him (+ Page and Gilmour and Clapton and all the typical boy-idol rock royalty guitarists), but when I actually played his stuff to her properly she had to admit that he's actually awesome and his music is cool. Hendrix is about the only "look at me, ma!" guitarist I've ever bothered to listen to.

I'm not really into guitarists, I guess. I don't play and can't remember the names of guitarists in most of the bands I like. I guess I adored John Squire and Nick McCabe when I was a teenager. Only impressed by McCabe now, really. Kevin Shields I like as a sound-maker but I've never really thought of him as a guitarist. Mark Hollis did some guitar parts I love. Totally untrendy and not a virtuoso by any means, but what Richard McNamara does has always been a big part of what I like about Embrace. He's kind of like a cross between Steve Cropper and Kevin Shields. That sounds so fanciful.

Dude from Lift To Experience. Dude from Kitchens of Distinction. Dude from Long Fin Killie. George Harrison in The Beatles - everything he played was a hook. That Clapton solo in While My Guitar Gently Wanks is fucking awful though. Josh Homme. Geoff Barrow. PJ FUCKING HARVEY. The Os Mutantes dude. Did Ian Crauss play guitar in Disco Inferno? Califone dudes. Michael Karoli. Graham Coxon before he went off and did crappy solo albums.

Not mentioned but all much more than mere self-accompanists :-

Elliott Smith. Kristin Hersh. Dylan. Joni.

That's the truth about Joni Mitchell.

Dylan f'real.

Been mentioned a few times already but Phil Manzanera - he just plays such memorable lines

Not too familiar with his work with Mellencamp but I saw David Grissom as part of Joe Ely's band and man, was he brill.

Tony Rice
Bryan Sutton
David Grier
Duane Allman
Jimi Hendrix
Mississippi John Hurt
Keef
Mabon “Teeny” Hodges
Curtis Mayfield
Eric Clapton (Bluesbreakers/Cream/Layla era)

Some folks whom I've recently been digging (even) more than usual:

Tony (T.S.) Mcphee
Bill Nelson
Leo Kottke
Joseph Spence
Steve Tibbetts
Ernie Isley
and Davie motherfucking Allen!

Billy Dolan

Two not mentioned that are absolutely great: Pete Cosey (with Miles, mostly) and Franco.

I forgot to mention two other of my favorites: Jim McCarty (Detroit Wheels, Cactus) and Leslie West.

Cosey's great. Electric Mud mutherfucker

I don't really know shit about guitar on any technical level, but I like finger picking types lately, like Seu Jorge and James Blackshaw. I also like standard rock types like Eddie Van Halen, Billy Gibbons, Leslie West, Frank Zappa, and Kirk Hammet. Oh and <3 Robert Fripp too.

People who I'm sure are quite good but don't understand why or how: Marr, Coxon.

try playing a few of Marr's songs, his fingers are seriously ALL OVER the place, i don't know how he gets the fingerings on some of those chords. plus he uses his pinky finger very, very well.

John Lennon was a bad-ass rhythm player. The way he locked in with Paul and Ringo made songs like "I Feel Fine" really "howl and move."

I've always loved the funky twang of Clarence White. Any excuse to post old Byrds clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m37-2eB-wj8

Really? Last time I spoke to Mr Rowe, he seemed to be under the exact opposite impression, i.e. he influenced Townshend, viz. came to AMM gigs, then ripped them off adopted some of their strategies for the Who.

So...Pete Townshend ripped off AMM before they existed? He was working with drones and feedback in 1963-1964; AMM didn't start until 1965.

Always, mighty Brit bloozman Robin Trower. George Harrison. Ted Nugent. Buck Dharma. Billy Gibbons. Johnny Winter. Michael Schenker, UFO catalog. Mike Campbell.

And Kim Simmonds, at least once a week for the last fifteen years.

Piggy from Voivod.

Although I finally saw Candlemass last night after all these years and would definitely rate their Swedish lefty lead player Lars Johanssonn very high on my list.

I can't fault a lot of the standard greats just to answer back on a few faves (before my ride comes):

Peter Green - unless you'll never forgive him for birthing Carlos Santana

Pete Cosey - there's some ridiculous stuff on those Miles boot videos

Hubert Sumlin - completely unmistakable

John Fahey - an encyclopedia of vintage moves who played with exquisite soul

Tommy Bolin - a mutant

Karl Precoda - ha! I loved him at the time (1982?). he had matching Silvertones w/one pickup removed running through some shitty graphic EQ w/all the sliders all the way up as a distortion box.

Judah Bauer - was remarkably talented w/JS and that Honeymoon Killers tour.
glad to know he's still at it.

A few others:

Paul from Toiling Midgets, Gary Lee Conner from Screaming Trees, McLaughlin (more so on the Miles than Mahavishnu tho' I was a BIG Mahavishnu fan and saw them a few times and though he was the BEST at the time), Adrian Bellew (another mutant). OK gotta run

Geir's "he's not that good lol racist" mention

didn't come across that way to me...

Mine are incredibly predicatable and all old and from spent (like me, I guess) labels like SST. I need some new guitar heroes

Greg Sage
Bob Mould (of old)
Greg Ginn (so brutally messy)
Robin Guthrie
Westerberg
That guy from MBV
Dr Know - but he was jazz trained right?
Ted Falconi - absolutely unique
Nick Drake
Townsend
Curt Kirkwood
D Boon
Jay Adams (from El Paso's Rhythm Pigs - loved his distortion/chorus approach. It was kind of unique to 'Hardcore' in those days)
Brian Egeness from Die Kreuzen
Ira Kaplan, when he lets rip

I'm sure I've missed some of my favourite more modern pop pickers. Although more likely, I'm old and have been treading water for the last 15 years

Not the 'best' but my recent favourite has really been Mark Kozelek.

lindsey buckingham and david sylvian (check some of the solos on tin drum)

oh someone who i doubt has been mentioned but is also amazing and under-rated: alan rankine from the associates

didn't come across that way to me...

yeah what Geir actually said was "I prefer the way Steve Hackett plays"

David Sylvian playing a lead guitar, really?

pretty crazy that eddie van halen hasn't received one mention on this thread. he's pretty awesome, dudes!

He is. Maybe he'd be "the best" guitarist. I'm only really familiar with Van Halen's singles and well-known tracks, but my favorite of his guitar work -- again, maybe not "the best" of his work, but my favorite -- is his almost funky-ish playing on Finish What You Started. Maybe some his other work has that kind of "swing" to it (Jump kind of does, too, I guess, but in a very different way), but that's the Van Halen song I immediately think of as having groove/swing.

Bob Mould (of old)
Robin Guthrie
Westerberg
That guy from MBV
Ira Kaplan, when he lets rip

seconded all ^^

Also, Ronnie Montrose

I was thinking of posting Bo Diddley here just yesterday...(I know he's been mentioned before)...

also: David Gedge, James Honeyman-Scott and Richard Hawley (who I just heard explaining the great man on BBC).

here's an article on my friend and bandmate Ava Mendoza: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/ava-mendoza

she's awesome

Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski!!

lately: Nels Cline, Jenn Wasner (of Wye Oak), Lewis Pesacov (of Fool's Gold and Foreign Born)

Not the 'best' but my recent favourite has really been Mark Kozelek.

worrrrrrrrrrrd

kozelek can do cool classical guitar/complex acoustic fingerpicking stuff really well but also has, imo, a really unique way of playing electric guitar. maybe it's as much about the guitar tone as any actual technique, but the guitars on the more sprawling RHP/SKM songs (Make Like Paper, Between Days, Salvador Sanchez, Lily & Parrots, The Light, Tonight the Sky) is pure fucking heaven. sounds like little else out there aside from Neil Young/Crazy Horse

Steven R. Smith, Roy Montgomery, Carl Hultgren, Dylan Carlson, Dave Pierce (or is it Pearce?), Fripp as played for Eno, etc.

though if there's some band that has the same satisfying guitar crunch as "Make Like Paper" and i don't know about them please let me know

my all-time fave guitar playing might be Bill Frisell on the first disc of "East/West". his backing is also phenomenal, but I could listen to him set the heavens ablaze on "Shenandoah" with no backing for all eternity

lately Peter Lang

Folks should go check out some Ava Mendoza, she really is a phenomenal player (I hadn't heard much to be honest, but checked out a bunch of stuff recently and was really into it).

Second Ash and Dave of Polvo, love them to death.

Another recent discovery for me is Chris Forsyth, whose album "Paranoid Cat" kinda blew me away.

Not mentioned yet: Tom Carter. His playing on the recent Charalambides record "Exile" is stunning.

(love lots of the other stuff everyone else in this thread has mentioned of course)

Guys I like listening to who never pop up on those stupid lists: Mick Ralphs, Mark Farner, Uli Roth, Jerry Garcia, Deniz Tek, Catfish Collins, Robertson/Gorham, Tommy Bolin, Buck Dharma

― Bill Magill, Friday, May 30, 2008 10:21 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM

Roy Montgomery seconded. I've gotten into that dude lately in a major way.

Adrian Belew's broken-fax solos on that live Talking Heads in Rome film.

Eric Clapton Unplugged taught me about phrasing and touch when I was 15 and learning to play on a borrowed classical guitar.

Alex Lifeson's evil fuzz tone on early Rush, though I find most of his solos plotless.

David Sylvian playing a lead guitar, really?
― iago g., Sunday, 1 June 2008 02:40 (3 years ago)

i think david sylvian played some nice stuff on Propaganda's A secret wish

Earnest Beauvine from Jon Wayne
bernerm-bernerm-bernerm-bernerm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWsIXsMjfu0&feature=related

Victor Jara.

Colin Newman + Bruce Gilbert.

Johnny Marr. No one else comes close.

right now Buck Dharma (and he may BE the best too)

Johnny Marr. No one else comes close.

Marr had aspirations to be a professional football player, and was approached by Nottingham Forest and had trials with Manchester City (which he supports). In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, Marr said "I was good enough for City, but they didn't follow up because I was probably the only player out there wearing eyeliner."[citation needed]

was listening to this show yesterday and um YES www.wolfgangsvault.com/link-wray/concerts/record-plant-september-25-1974.html