Blog O’ Matty

Greatest guitarists of all time

I got sick last Friday, and have been stuck at home all weekend recovering. While I was resting in bed yesterday, I set iTunes to play random music from my CD collection. iTunes was playing musical artists who I haven’t listened to in several years (I can’t recall the last time I actually listened to Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf), and it got me thinking about who the best guitar players of all time were. There are TONS of awesome guitarists, and after pondering this I came up with my ten favorite guitarists:

1. Jimmy Hendrix

2. Jimmy Page from Led Zepplin

3. Eric Clapton

4. Slash from Guns N’ Roses

5. John Frusciante from The Red Hot Chili Peppers

6. Mick Mars from Motley Crue

7. Dave Matthews from the Dave Matthews band

8. James Hetfiel, Kirk Hammett and Dave Mustaine (when he was with the band) from Metallica

9. Bill Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins

10. Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains

My list is definitely oriented towards the music I listen to regularly, and also takes into account that the artists typically wrote music. If I am missing someone important, feeel free to post a comment. I digs me some music!

matty on September 10, 2006 | Filed Under Music

8 Comments

Vinay on September 11th, 2006

Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits & Pete Willis from Def leppard are my favorites.

dean ross-smith on September 11th, 2006

and now for something completely different…
Bruce Cockburn, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson (I don’t listen to them but all are supposed to be good.)
Dave Alvin.

z0mbix on September 11th, 2006

How about Eric Johnson? He’s incredible http://www.ericjohnson.com

Cheers z0mbix

matty on September 11th, 2006

I completely forget about Joe Satriani and Mark Knopfler (both awesome guitarists!). In addition to the guitarists listed above, I should probably add B.B. King, Joe Perry and Steve Ray Vaugh. Thanks for the link to Eric’s website. I will have to check him out!

scotty on September 12th, 2006

Doug Martsch from Built to Spill, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth more later.

Ciccio on September 12th, 2006

… and what about Eddie Van Halen, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Vai, Jeff Healey?
Also from another planet, Rodrigo y Gabriela (impressive technique! – http://www.rodgab.com , or listen to their version of “Orion” or “Stairway to Heaven” on http://www.myspace.com/rodrigoygabriela).

David Comay on October 13th, 2006

Personally, I really like George Harrison’s guitar work as well as that of The Edge from U2. They’re a bit more understated than most of guitarists that end up on such lists but their roles are huge for their respective bands.

IAN TAYLOR on December 27th, 2007

I actually think that Hendrix was over rated, but still a great player. Clapton is the best. And no one ever gives David gilmour of Pink Floyd any credit, in my opinion he is the best solo player of all time.