Total Guitar magazine

A Total Guitar magazine poll has come up with a list of the top 100 guitarists in the world (as voted for by both readers and celebrities). The top 10 are as follows:

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Jimmy Page
3. Eric Clapton
4. Slash
5. Brian May
6. Joe Satriani
7. Eddie Van Halen
8. Dave Gilmour
9. Kirk Hammett
10. Steve Vai

It's a British magazine, which probably accounts for half the top 10 being English.

 

QUOTE]The top 10 are as follows: [/QUOTE]
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Jimmy Page
3. Eric Clapton
4. Slash
5. Brian May
6. Joe Satriani
7. Eddie Van Halen
8. Dave Gilmour
9. Kirk Hammett
10. Steve Vai

I'll give 'em Hendrix, Clapton and Vai. What about Pat Martino? Alan Holdsworth? Wayne Krantz? Tony MacAlpine? Steve Morse? Al DiMeola? John McLaughlin?

Slash? Give me a break. Gilmour? Hardly! Kirk Hammett? You've got to be kidding! Brian May gets the sentimental British nod...There's probably 20 other guitarists who are more worthy than some of those on the list.

 

Hendrix, no contest, and Page and Clapton both deserve to be right up there.
No real blues guitarists. These guys for all real purposes laid down the very element of guitar work, and most of the guys who looked about and studied various forms of music hold the blues sacred. While I do expect that they have to stay true to the average guitar player's favored forms of music, which explains the presence of Slash or Hammett at all and Van Halen's listing higher than 10, there's no better room for B.B. King? I mean B.B.'s lyrics are allright, and his singing soulful, but he's just a blues singer. Just like Jimi the lyrics were just part of the song, the guitar was the reason to have the song at all. The gold is in the solo, the fact that the song revolves around the melody set by the guitar in the earliest key phrases and then used in the lyrics...and then masterfully countermelodied back with the guitar.

There are other blues artists as well, and it kinda goes back to your background as to who you might put in there. Some might think Stevie Ray Vaughn deserves to be in this list. Some think Buddy Guy based on his early work. There are plenty worthy.
I'm not saying push four or five blues players in there, but the end result is that the entire genre comes from the complex early blues and the guitar work that came from it. Metal and hard rock has to be accounted for, and should probably dominate given the audience, but you can't leave out someone as good or better that actually influenced most everyone on the list.

I never found May to be absolute. He was good, and early for the genre, but he's probably not as good as the guys who are listed below him, and was neither a trendsetter nor amongst the best of his field. He was, to be honest, just someone who was really good at a time when guitar wasn't real hot in popular music.

I won't bother even suggesting Joe Pass, McLaughlin, Scofield, Metheny, or any other jazz guitarist. Why bother if they can't put a blues man in there?

 

I agree with both of you! Slash, May, Gilmour and Hammett shouldn't even be there. I'm not a big Satriani fan either, and good as he may be, Page at #2? Great call on McLaughlin - I'd almost forgotten about him! Strangely enough I'm only just getting into Buddy Guy thanks to a thread started by Water Boy on the Lair site. I can see how he influenced people, and IMO Page in particular.

 

yeah. I've seen Buddy in person twice now...he has been prime opener for B.B. King the past two times I went to see him. He's very good, but when you take him in a current context all you see is great guitar work, you don't really see the innovation. That's the thing about Hendrix' work when people discount him - it's very hard to realize that nothing sounded like that before him. It's hard to realize sometimes that, before Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, jazz didn't sound that way. That those progressions, those ideas, they didn't exist. All the things above were major, major causes for the way music has been since the original act happened. That can't be discounted at all. The only thing missing was the fact that Jimi was about to do a jazz side with Gil Evans as producer and musical overseer. I think, given the things that Jimi did with the blues that broke ground for the rock-blues idiom that he never gets credit for, he would have really revolutionalized jazz as well. Add that into the electric things Miles was starting to do and popular music would be nothing like what it currently is. Much of it would still have some level of art to it.

So yeah, WB was really, really telling in that thread. That stoked me. Things like that make me want to dig deeper.

 

I feel a life change coming on! A combination of a few ciders, the fact that I've got a Lynyrd Skynyrd CD playing in the background, and the sense of history in this thread, has made me realise that there's life beyond 'Black Rebel Motorcycle Club', who are very big in the UK at the moment (despite being from, I think, San Fran). The future is in the past.

 

Perhaps it's the cider, but Allen Collins is a contender for the #2 spot at the moment!

 

And don't forget, Jimi's music was one of the inspirations of for Miles' electric jazz/rock fusion sound. I could see Jimi doing the same thing in that context.

I don't think Gilmour would put himself in that list. He definately needs to be listed in the 100, but not that high. One could argue that the guitarist he replaced was more innovative and important to developing that sound.

 

jimmy page #2? no. not on my list. he is #1 still for me.

hendrix, then clapton...

pat metheny, srv will be on my list, among othes. am not quite familiar with the others listed, so i will reserve my comment.

dave matthews would be on my list. that's just me, tho. partial to him.

the brits love their own. that's cool. wonder if rolling stones magazine have that same list...

good thread, cath!

 

My top 75(in no particular order)-
Adrian Legg Finger-picker extraordinaire
Al DiMeola Fusion great
Alan Holdsworth Fusion great
Albert Collins Blues
Alex Lifeson Rush
Alex Skolnick Metal master
Bill Frisell Eclectic Jazz
Bireli Lagrene Acoustic master
Buckethead Shredder
Buddy Guy Blues
Carl Filipiak Jazz
Carl Verheyen Jazz
Carlos Santana Rock/Blues
Charlie Byrd Jazz
Charlie Christian Jazz original
Charlie Hunter 8-string jazz/funk master
Chet Atkins Country legend
Danny Gatton Country master
Dave Fiuczynski Jazz
Dick Dale Surf
Django Reinhardt Jazz original
Doc Watson Bluegrass original
Earl Klugh Jazz
Eddie Van Halen Rock
Eric Clapton Rock/Blues
Eric Johnson Rock/Blues
Frank Gambale Fusion great
Frank Zappa Rock original
George Benson Jazz great
Grant Green Jazz/Funk great
James Blood Ulmer Jazz
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Rock
Jeff Beck Rock/Blues
Jerry Garcia Dead
Jim Hall Jazz
Jimi Hendrix Rock/Blues
Jimmy Herring Rock/Blues
Joe Diorio Jazz/Rock
Joe Pass Jazz
Joe Satriani Rock
John Ambercrombie Jazz
John Goodsall Fusion great
John McLaughlin Fusion great
John Scofield Jazz/Funk great
Kazumi Watanabe Fusion great
Larry Carlton Jazz
Larry Coryell Fusion great
Lee Ritenour Jazz
Leo Kottke Finger-picker extraordinaire
Les Paul Electric guitar original
Lowell George Little Feat
Marc Ribot Jazz
Michael Landau Fusion great
Mike Keneally Rock/Jazz
Mike Stern Jazz
Pat Martino Jazz master
Pat Metheny Jazz
Paul Gilbert Rock
Richard Thompson Folk/Rock
Robben Ford Jazz/Blues
Scott Henderson Fusion great
Shawn Lane Rock
Sonny Sharrock Jazz
Steve Khan Jazz
Steve Kimock Rock/Jazz
Steve Lukather Rock
Steve Morse Fusion great
Steve Vai Rock
Stevie Ray Vaughan Blues
Tal Farlow Jazz
Tommy Bolin Rock
Tony MacAlpine Rock
Warren Cuccurullo Rock
Wayne Krantz Jazz
Wes Montgomery Jazz