Who is your favorite guitarist?

[HighPitch]

2 hours ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Zappa was "a prick" for demanding his musicians arrive sober and prepared?   It doesn't sound like that much fun for a rock band but it's not an unreasonable request at all.  Fun side note: it pushed John Frusciante away from wanting to join Zappa.

Btw, no idea how you got your text to look like the below (though it looks normal when I "quote selection").

Just adding that he has very known for being a dick. Not a nice guy. Sure u should expect your bandmates to be sober and tight but it gets to a point where its no fun working for picky dickhead. I mean half the guys on this list mess with drugs and they all succeed.

i never heard john f being asked to join. I find it hard to believ actually since the dude is just so so. A dime a dozen to me. Them zappa arangements are easily the most complex of all mentioned. Like by a country mile. Not even close

[HighPitch]

1 hour ago, RutgersJetFan said:

Prince could ******* shred. His estate restored a concert film from the Purple Rain days last year and I can't recommend it enough. Play it on as loud a sound system as you have. I'm not sure there's a better piece of evidence out there that the amount of musicians that could hold a crowd from start to finish on his level is very small.

 

Prince was definitely a talented guy and if this list kept going, he’d make it in the late 20s to me. The funny thing is the best thing he ever did in my opinion was his first album that was never released which was just a fusion album it’s called the something sessions I don’t remember but it’s fantastic, if prince continued doing that kind of stuff, he may very well have made it into the top 15 or so for me but instead, he went very commercial and main stream, which really turns me off but again that’s me

[TuscanyTile2]

27 minutes ago, HighPitch said:

Just adding that he has very known for being a dick. Not a nice guy. Sure u should expect your bandmates to be sober and tight but it gets to a point where its no fun working for picky dickhead. I mean half the guys on this list mess with drugs and they all succeed.

i never heard john f being asked to join. I find it hard to believ actually since the dude is just so so. A dime a dozen to me. Them zappa arangements are easily the most complex of all mentioned. Like by a country mile. Not even close

John Frusciante (pink pants guy) at age 17, pre-RHCP.   The music part starts at 3:55

 

[chirorob]

Not the greatest, but I love Lindsey Buckingham.  Whenever he's leave Fleetwood, they'd hire 2 to fill his shoes.

 

[JustInFudge]

8 hours ago, 32EBoozer said:

Never realized how great of a guitarist he was until he did the tribute concert for George Harrison. Blew my mind.

But for me it will always be SRV

Prince is one of my favorite artist of all time.  His guitar chops are up there for sure.  Very underrated

[JustInFudge]

I mean, this dude just had it;

 

[section314]

5 minutes ago, JiF4Lamar said:

Prince is one of my favorite artist of all time.  His guitar chops are up there for sure.  Very underrated

I feel the same with John Mayer. Do you remember the Grammy's when they were honoring Melissa Etheridge ? it was years back. Mayer came out and jammed with her and absolutely tore it up. Up to then, all people knew of him was "your body is a wonderland" crap. That changed everything.

[JustInFudge]

2 minutes ago, section314 said:

I feel the same with John Mayer. Do you remember the Grammy's when they were honoring Melissa Etheridge ? it was years back. Mayer came out and jammed with her and absolutely tore it up. Up to then, all people knew of him was "your body is a wonderland" crap. That changed everything.

Dude, this is really funny.  One of my favorite local musicians does a cover by Mayer, and we were jamming the other day and he busted this out (see below) and I said something along the lines of, "I thought he was just another Jack Johnson until I saw him on some show and wow" and then he said, "Yep, me too, for me it was the Grammys'".  lol  anywho, this dude rips, play a 7 string...unreal

 

[HighPitch]

I like mayer. Hed probably low 30s on my list. And thats not a knock

[HighPitch]

19 hours ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

John Frusciante (pink pants guy) at age 17, pre-RHCP.   The music part starts at 3:55

 

Sorry man this hurts my ears. He can belt out a solo but thats where it ends. For me.

[TuscanyTile2]

28 minutes ago, HighPitch said:

Sorry man this hurts my ears. He can belt out a solo but thats where it ends. For me.

I'm not a huge fan of that style of playing either but I'm just saying he had enough chops that I think he would've had a chance to try out for  Zappa.   And, if not, I hear Linda Rondstadt needs a guitar player.

[20andOut]

An underrated guitarist l didn’t see mentioned, MarkKnopfler of Dire Straits. 

[freestater]

David Gilmour is the bees knees for mees.

[Dcat]

On 3/11/2023 at 4:14 PM, 20andOut said:

An underrated guitarist l didn’t see mentioned, MarkKnopfler of Dire Straits. 

Definitely.  He's amazing.

[Dcat]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:33 PM, JiF4Lamar said:

I mean, this dude just had it;

 

It breaks my heart how so many of these guys left us way too soon. Jimi, Stevie, Terry (kath) and of course Prince.  

Prince doesn't get enough mention in these things.

[Warfish]

1. David Gilmour

2. Jerry Garcia

3. James Hetfield

Also, the same trio are amongst my favorite singers as well.

[JustInFudge]

8 hours ago, Dcat said:

It breaks my heart how so many of these guys left us way too soon. Jimi, Stevie, Terry (kath) and of course Prince.  

Prince doesn't get enough mention in these things.

I have a montage of framed pictures of my favorite fallen artists in my music room; Jimi, Bowie, Zeppelin (Bonham), Marley, Jerry, Cobain my newest addition is Prince from the cover or Rolling Stone.

[SoFlaJets]

On 3/7/2023 at 8:20 AM, JiF4Lamar said:

Duane is definitely a top 5 for me.  

Mick is a great call.  I heard a great story about him the other day that I never knew.  Jack and Diane.  Apparently, JCM was really struggling w/ the final guitars parts of the song and couldnt figure it out.  Had Mick Ronson come over to the studio, they didnt have an acoustic, the guy runs out to a pawn shop, finds an acoustic, comes back and lays down one of the most famous riffs from the 80's and JCM's most famous song. 

 

Now I knew that he played and produced on the song and also told John to put a different part in there the "Gonna let it rock gonna let it roll let the Bible Belt" that part. But, I didn't know about the Pawn Shop. I'll tell you who else is an amazing guitarist that Dean DeLeo, the guy from Stone Temple Pilots, especially what he does on the acoustic guitar-amazing and I have been playing the acoustic for 50 years now and I still can't come CLOSE to making my guitar as clear and great as DeLeo can.

[SoFlaJets]

On 3/8/2023 at 1:19 PM, JetPotato said:

Can't believe I left off Garcia. My bad.

I thought of adding him to it but although he was spectacular all around musician I don't put him up there with the dynamos

[SoFlaJets]

On 3/9/2023 at 5:29 AM, CSNY said:

Stephen Stills Just a supremely gifted musician that is equally talented playing acoustic or electric guitar plus a fantastic bass player as well

Listen to his bass line on Clapton’s Let it Rain cut and you will know what I’m talking about 

 

Then in no particular order 

BB King, Clapton, Santana, Dave Mason, Duane Allman, Albert King 

 

another guy in fact Garcia and Stills were the two names I was going to add but didn't because they both lacked the dynamics of the greatest guitarists-good call though, I saw him live do Treetop Flyer wow!

One more Honorable Mention: As far as tasteful guitarists go Mike Campbell and the amazing work he did with Tom Petty for all those years was another one of the greatest sidemen in the history of the Rock n Roll Era

[CSNY]

11 hours ago, SoFlaJets said:

another guy in fact Garcia and Stills were the two names I was going to add but didn't because they both lacked the dynamics of the greatest guitarists-good call though, I saw him live do Treetop Flyer wow!

One more Honorable Mention: As far as tasteful guitarists go Mike Campbell and the amazing work he did with Tom Petty for all those years was another one of the greatest sidemen in the history of the Rock n Roll Era

SoFla. If you haven’t noticed my Jet Nation name Naturally my opinion is and will be extremely biased but I’m Just curious Can you please explain why you think Stills is not a dynamic performer? To bolster my opinion of his greatness please Check out the  Daylight Again concert on You Tube in support of the album by the same name in 1982. 
Great great renditions of Wooden Ships (interplay between Stills and Mike Finnegan who for some reason didn’t get the accolades he deserved being a great keyboard player and vastly underrated vocalist May he RIP is just fantastic) The “Suite” , Dark Star , Love the One Your With, Treetop Flyer  really good show even though Croz was at the height of his addiction and man does it show but amazingly that voice of his was strong and true 

 I am confident you’ll change your mind and even if you don’t change your mind about how dynamic a performer Stills is , it’s 2 hours of excellent music There are other examples of Stills greatness but this one is my favorite 

I would post the video but don’t know how 

[SoFlaJets]

2 hours ago, CSNY said:

SoFla. If you haven’t noticed my Jet Nation name Naturally my opinion is and will be extremely biased but I’m Just curious Can you please explain why you think Stills is not a dynamic performer? To bolster my opinion of his greatness please Check out the  Daylight Again concert on You Tube in support of the album by the same name in 1982. 
Great great renditions of Wooden Ships (interplay between Stills and Mike Finnegan who for some reason didn’t get the accolades he deserved being a great keyboard player and vastly underrated vocalist May he RIP is just fantastic) The “Suite” , Dark Star , Love the One Your With, Treetop Flyer  really good show even though Croz was at the height of his addiction and man does it show but amazingly that voice of his was strong and true 

 I am confident you’ll change your mind and even if you don’t change your mind about how dynamic a performer Stills is , it’s 2 hours of excellent music There are other examples of Stills greatness but this one is my favorite 

I would post the video but don’t know how 

Of course it's just my opinion. I mean by a Dynamic performer or performance something that you can immediately recognize as a memorable riff. Like say Jimmy Page's Heartbreaker solo, Clapton and Duane doing Layla together, Hendrix' solo on Watchtower. Ronson's tasteful space age solo on Moonage Daydream, I'd have to rate David Gilmour's Comfortably Numb as a dynamic solo.  I can't really place a Stills solo in that stratosphere-as great as he is and all.

Little side story. When Richard Nixon resigned from office and this famous photo was taken as he was boarding the Presidential helicopter and threw up the Double V it was August 8th 1974 and we were getting ready to head south on the NJ Turnpike for RFK Stadium to see CSNY. So we're driving I had a cute little blonde that I was forever trying to screw (but never did) and by the time the NYC rock stations started to fade in and out and the Philly ones came in a commercial came on announcing "Don't forget, tomorrow night for one night only Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young will be doing their show at RFK..." Unfortunately for us, we were just getting off on the Turnpike exit to go see a show that we either could A: wait the 24 hours until showtime or B: use the exit to turn around  and head back to Garwood and smoke all the weed that we had rolled for the concert  or a final choice was: I could say ah screw it, does anybody want 2 free tickets to the CSNY show for tomorrow at RFK? That's what I did. I never did get a chance to see CSNY, Saw Neil with Crazy Horse...

[HighPitch]

Dang that blows

Stills is a great songwriter for sure

[CSNY]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:22 AM, SoFlaJets said:

Of course it's just my opinion. I mean by a Dynamic performer or performance something that you can immediately recognize as a memorable riff. Like say Jimmy Page's Heartbreaker solo, Clapton and Duane doing Layla together, Hendrix' solo on Watchtower. Ronson's tasteful space age solo on Moonage Daydream, I'd have to rate David Gilmour's Comfortably Numb as a dynamic solo.  I can't really place a Stills solo in that stratosphere-as great as he is and all.

Little side story. When Richard Nixon resigned from office and this famous photo was taken as he was boarding the Presidential helicopter and threw up the Double V it was August 8th 1974 and we were getting ready to head south on the NJ Turnpike for RFK Stadium to see CSNY. So we're driving I had a cute little blonde that I was forever trying to screw (but never did) and by the time the NYC rock stations started to fade in and out and the Philly ones came in a commercial came on announcing "Don't forget, tomorrow night for one night only Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young will be doing their show at RFK..." Unfortunately for us, we were just getting off on the Turnpike exit to go see a show that we either could A: wait the 24 hours until showtime or B: use the exit to turn around  and head back to Garwood and smoke all the weed that we had rolled for the concert  or a final choice was: I could say ah screw it, does anybody want 2 free tickets to the CSNY show for tomorrow at RFK? That's what I did. I never did get a chance to see CSNY, Saw Neil with Crazy Horse...

I was at that show when they announced Nixon had resigned. Then saw them again a day or two later at Nassau Coliseum. Both of them were Great shows and tickets if I recall were $7.50 

[CSNY]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:04 PM, HighPitch said:

Dang that blows

Stills is a great songwriter for sure

Stills is my favorite musician of all time. There’s just nothing musically he can’t do be it songwriting or performing Recently found out he played percussion on the BeeGees track You Should Be Dancing 

[HighPitch]

1 minute ago, CSNY said:

Stills is my favorite musician of all time. There’s just nothing musically he can’t do. Recently found out he played percussion on the BeeGees track You Should Be Dancing 

Thats funny cus i just watched a bee gees doc and they mentioned that on that song they used a loop of a drummer.

hey i love stills, but that drumming is nothing special

[HighPitch]

Btw im going to expand my list to 30. Near the end there are going to be guys that were/are phenomenal songwriters with huge catalogs that dont even solo and I can see guys like stills and paul simon in there

[bicketybam]

Not sure how Joe Satriani hasn't been mentioned. He's probably the best technical guitarist of all time. I saw him back in November at a small theater in Ridgefield, CT. Paid $500 and sat front row. Also did a Q&A with him and about 10 other people. One of the questions I asked him is if he ever played with SRV (one of my top 3 favorite guitarists.) He have a long answer about being scheduled to play with him for some MTV special but it ended up getting cancelled. He did end up playing with him at a later date.

[HighPitch]

7 minutes ago, bicketybam said:

Not sure how Joe Satriani hasn't been mentioned. He's probably the best technical guitarist of all time. I saw him back in November at a small theater in Ridgefield, CT. Paid $500 and sat front row. Also did a Q&A with him and about 10 other people. One of the questions I asked him is if he ever played with SRV (one of my top 3 favorite guitarists.) He have a long answer about being scheduled to play with him for some MTV special but it ended up getting cancelled. He did end up playing with him at a later date.

Joe satriani can make your list, but not mine. Why? He cant write a good song. Not even a decent song. In the songwriting dept, which i value way more that shredding, he is awful. Nobody in the world can name or hum one satriani song. Thats why he is not on my list. 
Shredders are a dime a dozen

[JustInFudge]

32 minutes ago, bicketybam said:

Not sure how Joe Satriani hasn't been mentioned. He's probably the best technical guitarist of all time. I saw him back in November at a small theater in Ridgefield, CT. Paid $500 and sat front row. Also did a Q&A with him and about 10 other people. One of the questions I asked him is if he ever played with SRV (one of my top 3 favorite guitarists.) He have a long answer about being scheduled to play with him for some MTV special but it ended up getting cancelled. He did end up playing with him at a later date.

Great player, insanely good and extremely technical.  I feel like guys like Satriani who didnt come up in a band or had a hit band or dont write music that made them famous always battle a little bit in the all time great conversations.   The great hired guns, so to speak.   Tommy Tedesco, Glenn Campbell, Niles Rodgers  come to mind.  How many tracks have they recorded on over the years and riffs they created?   They rarely are on the "lists" but ridiculous levels of talent.

 

[bicketybam]

Joe satriani can make your list, but not mine. Why? He cant write a good song. Not even a decent song. In the songwriting dept, which i value way more that shredding, he is awful. Nobody in the world can name or hum one satriani song. Thats why he is not on my list. 
Shredders are a dime a dozen

Let's agree to disagree on that one. And I bet there are people who have no idea who he is but would know Surfing with the Alien or Summer Song if they heard it Also, give Always with Me, Always with You which has been used as a wedding song plenty of times.

[HighPitch]

4 minutes ago, bicketybam said:

Let's agree to disagree on that one. And I bet there are people who have no idea who he is but would know Surfing with the Alien or Summer Song if they heard it Also, give Always with Me, Always with You which has been used as a wedding song plenty of times.
 

Lol Ive never heard that tune and I really dont think its a popular wedding song so we can definitely agree to disagree. 
I maintain my position that he is a nothing songwriter, and that video proves it. Its a simple progression that repeats with decent soloing over it. Ehhh. 
Not trying to bash, its just personal opinion

[bicketybam]

Lol Ive never heard that tune and I really dont think its a popular wedding song so we can definitely agree to disagree. 
I maintain my position that he is a nothing songwriter, and that video proves it. Its a simple progression that repeats with decent soloing over it. Ehhh. 
Not trying to bash, its just personal opinion

No worries. I just read the title of the thread (favorite guitarist) and thought I'd offer a guy that hasn't been mentioned before. I guess guys like Steve Morse, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and Eric Johnson are also out

I'm not a huge fan of Jazz but I can appreciate a guy like Pat Metheny. Same goes for a guy like Brad Paisley who is a phenomenal guitarist but happens to play country.

Anywho, almost sorry I replied to this thread.

[CSNY]

2 hours ago, HighPitch said:

Thats funny cus i just watched a bee gees doc and they mentioned that on that song they used a loop of a drummer.

hey i love stills, but that drumming is nothing special

He actually wasn’t the drummer Stills added additional percussion in the form of timbales which you can hear him playing when you hear the cowbell in the background. He had a song You Can’t Dance Alone (not a song he should brag about ) on the Thoroughfare Gap album which he played the timbales and the riff he played on for the BeeGees is quite similar 

He also started off as a drummer and the reason he switched to guitar was as he stated Guitarists got the girls 

[SoFlaJets]

3 hours ago, CSNY said:

I was at that show when they announced Nixon had resigned. Then saw them again a day or two later at Nassau Coliseum. Both of them were Great shows and tickets if I recall were $7.50 

You're frickin' OLD man-I'll bet you even still have a deer-skin fringe jacket in your closet you old hippie you