Who are your Top 5 guitarists of all time

...wow this is tough...
1)Tony Iommi
2)Malcolm & Angus Young ...they come as a package. you cant have one wothout the other  :lol:
3)Rory Gallagher
4)Joe Satriani
5)Buckethead
 
in no order ...

Dave Mustaine
Eddie Van Halen
Slash
Adrian Smith
Not technically the greatest, but his 78 album is a fine piece of rock .. Ace Frehley

... honorable mention to

Dave Murray
Joe Satriani
KK Downing/Glenn Tipton
Tony Iommi
Richie Blackmore
 
The problem I find with guitarists like satriani and vai is that they are obviously  technically brilliant but for some reason they can't seem to write many amazing songs. Im not bashing the guys but can any of them right a riff as catchy as angus young or as melodic as steve harris or as awesome as iommi. I dont think they can. Theybth have a few songs which I really like though. My new top 5 is

Adrian Smith
Dave murray
Tony Iommi
David gilmour
Jimi hendrix
 
In no particular order:

Iommi - the master of the heavy metal riff
Gilmour
Knopfler - some of his stuff is just so fun to play!
Dave/H (consider them a unit)
Blackmore

Honorable mention: Tipton/Downing, Hetfield, Young/Young. Dave Mustaine.

When it comes to Dave and Adrian, it is clear that Adrian has evolved more than Dave since the 80s and is probably the most technically proficient of the two. In addition his solos are often more thoughtfully composed, which I appreciate. However, when it comes to how they sound, I value them equally. In most of their classic duels (like for example Rime), I can't really say I like one solo more than the other.
 
You prefer Downing over Tipton? Interesting. I bet you're not the only one.

E.g. his stuff in "Sinner", "Jawbreaker" and most other solos from Defenders of the Faith, plus his solo in "Between the Hammer and the Anvil" (which is for me a top-5 Priest solo of all times) is excellent.
I omit many other examples but these are the ones I thought of right now.

However, the deliveries of Tipton on "Painkiller", "Here Come The Tears" and "Beyond the Realms of Death" are at least as (if not more) famous.

Well, I love both guitarists, but I didn't want to mention two Priest guys when I want to cover the whole spectrum of metal, or music in general. :)

Eddies Wingman said:
Knopfler - some of his stuff is just so fun to play!
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It's great to watch Knopfler playing. I bought a 1979 TV-broadcast DVD and the ease he plays with is unrivaled. Amazing.

Eddies Wingman said:
When it comes to Dave and Adrian, it is clear that Adrian has evolved more than Dave since the 80s and is probably the most technically proficient of the two.
Click to expand...

Maybe you're right but Dave's feel is greater if you ask me. He might be more limited than Adrian, when it comes to techniques, but he is a more natural player (talented) and plays with more ease, and you can see that live especially. H has to work harder.

Eddies Wingman said:
In addition his solos are often more thoughtfully composed, which I appreciate.
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Agreed. Especially on the latest album he has shown how well he composed his solos. Not only more quantity than Janick and Dave, but also more quality. I wouldn't say that of the previous albums, but this time I really noticed it.

Eddies Wingman said:
However, when it comes to how they sound, I value them equally. In most of their classic duels (like for example Rime), I can't really say I like one solo more than the other.
Click to expand...

In Rime I'd choose for Adrian. One of my favourite H solos.
 
Forostar said:
Agreed. Especially on the latest album he has shown how well he composed his solos. Not only more quantity than Janick and Dave, but also more quality. I wouldn't say that of the previous albums, but this time I really noticed it.
Click to expand...

Dave was clearly the 'main' guitar player on brave new world. Adrian has started to write more songs and play more solos since DOD though. They may as well call the next album " a matter of adrian smith '
 
Forostar said:
You prefer Downing over Tipton? Interesting. I bet you're not the only one.

E.g. his stuff in "Sinner", "Jawbreaker" and most other solos from Defenders of the Faith, plus his solo in "Between the Hammer and the Anvil" (which is for me a top-5 Priest solo of all times) is excellent.
I omit many other examples but these are the ones I thought of right now.

However, the deliveries of Tipton on "Painkiller", "Here Come The Tears" and "Beyond the Realms of Death" are at least as (if not more) famous.

Well, I love both guitarists, but I didn't want to mention two Priest guys when I want to cover the whole spectrum of metal, or music in general. :)
Click to expand...

It was a slip-up.  I meant to write "Tipton/Downing", because I think that just like with the Young brothers or Dave/H, the total is more than the sum of the parts. I've fixed it in the previous post.
 
Well, are we going for technique, compositional skill on guitar, tone, etc? All of them? It's hard.

In no particular order:-

Adrian Smith
Dave Murray
Hendrix
Dave Gilmour
Jimmy Page
Eddie van Halen
Alex Lifeson

and here's a surprise one from an old prog fan: Steve Rothery - he may not be blisteringly fast, but he can evoke emotion so well - rather like Gilmour. I have also never heard him ever let an audience down live - he is so consistently on form.
 
No order

Adrian Smith
Dave Murray
Tony Iommi
Dave Mustaine
David Gilmour - Jimi Hendrix - Jimmy Page
 
It's hard to do this in top 5, so here's my top 10... in both rock & metal.

Rock:

Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Richie Blackmore
David Gilmour
Eddie Van Halen
Brian May
Mark Knopfler
Alex Lifeson
Neal Schon

Metal:

Dave Murray / Adrian Smith / Janick Gers
Tony Iommi
Glenn Tipton / K.K. Downing
Chris DeGarmo
Jon Schaffer
John Petrucci
Randy Rhoads.
 
Very tough to lit five, but here goes: Hendrix, Iommi, Blackmore, Page, and Clapton are my personal favorites!
 
mmm that's hard, mostly because there's a lot of great guitarrist and is hard to pick only five, but weel I will give it a try:

1-Brian May
2-Dave Murray
3-Randy Rhoads
4-Adrian Smith
5-Zakk Wylde

Brian May is a lot different of the others 4 guitarris that I wrote, but the things that he did, speaking about music and composition, is just amazing.
 
Top 5... Jeff Beck
          Jimmy Page
          Edward Van Halen
          Michael Schenker
          Randy Rhoads
 
There is a problem here, I must remedy it!


In no particular order:

Shawn Lane (Problem was a lack of his name here)
Steve Vai (Sorry guys)
John Petrucci
Tosin Abasi
Adrian Smith

To be facetious because 5 is never enough, I need to add 3:

Robert Fripp
Allan Holdsworth
Buckethead

There are infinitely many more, but I don't want to crash the webhost.
 
BUCKETHEAD!!! New top 10:

10: Chris DeGarmo (Thought I'd throw in a wrench)
9: David Gilmour
8: Dave Murray
7: Buckethead
6: Adrian Smith
5:Joe Satriani
4: Jimmy Page
3: John Petrucci
2: Eddie Van Halen
1: Nuno Bettencourt
 
Here are some players I could listen to forever. I've left out lots of the obvious good players that we all know and love:

Frank Zappa
Joe Pass
Freddie Green
Django Reinhardt
Ted Greene

If any of these seem obvious to you, then I salute you!
 
Except for Freddie Green and Ted Greene, which I never heard about, but, I'll check them out, the others should be in any serious, honouring greatest guitarrists list.
 
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