Your Top Three Guitarists

[maggieo]

So, what are your top three?

I have to admit that when I started to think about this, I really needed several categories, because I think of different players in different ways. So.....

OK, my top three, in terms of influence on me overall:

Tom Verlaine
Lou Reed
Neil Young

Top three, in terms of players I aspire to emulate on the instrument:

Nels Cline
Robert Quine
Marc Ribot

Top three that are always kind of percolating in my brain, whether I know it or not:

Adrian Belew
Robert Fripp
Frank Zappa

And really, when I think about it- Pete Townshend is prolly at #4 on all three of those lists, so he should probably be just plain #1.

[MarkOla]

It was kind of difficult to pick some and leave out others, so I made a list and put down the first thing that came to mind that I felt influenced me most. I'm at loss for words to describe, hope it makes sense.


Mick Taylor - solo, sound
Keith Richards - riffs
Peter Green - sound, feel
Jimi Hendrix - expansion, blues
Johnny Winter - acoustic slide, blues
Pete Townshend - riffs, sound, acoustic
Neil Youg - sound, acoustic
Ry Cooder - slide
Eric Clapton - basics
Alvin Lee - speed
Ritchie Blackmore - solos, structure
Carlos Santana - high notes
David Gilmore - mood, sound
JJ Cale - softness
Mark Knopfler - reverb
Leslie West - inspiration
Zal Clemens - structure
Chuck Berry - riffs
Joan Armatrading - strumming
Robert Johnson - blues
Jeff Beck - expansion
BB King - simplicity


It's really difficult trying to break down what I felt I learned from whom and how much or if I got any of it right. While making the list I realised how much influence the character has on me along with the guitar playing. When trying to record just thinking about the guitar player makes things go in a different direction without any particular song, riff, solo in mind.

Love em all and wouldn't life be crappy without them.

[Boris]

...

Tony Iommi
Angus Young
David Gilmour

i'm a sucker for the classic rock.

[cStu]

Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincents Blue Caps)
Slim Gaillard
and
James Burton (Dale Hawkins, Bob Luman, Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Emmy Lou Harris - god he got around)

[Informal]

Even when you don't realise he has a hand in it, and even tho' I never liked Nashville pop because I had to listen to it constantly when I was a wee lad, I'd have to add
Chet Atkins.

George Harrison, just for the LP version of the "Let It Be" lead break.
Sir Paul, if only for the "Taxman" leadbreak.
Doug Ford, for later Masters Apprentices stuff.
Ross Hannaford, from Daddy Cool
Robert Johnson, for everything.
Also, Brian Jones, Hound-dog Taylor, and many others in the above lists.

My (reluctantly reduced to) three: Green, Gilmour, and Elmore James.

[added later: oops, I originally wrote Jim Keays, but he was the singer in the Masters Apprentices; I meant, of course, Ford.]

[SPIRESVORTEX]

My first 3 Influences

Steve Howe
John Renbourn
Robert Fripp

Mark Knopfler
Gilmour
Hendrix
Zappa
Phil Manzanera
Satriani
Keith Richard
Steve Ray Vaughn
Lou Reed
Neil Young
John Majall
Leo Kottke
The Edge
Robby Krieger (Doors)
Andy Summers (Police)

then ... too many others to remember now

Bye!

[toots]

currently inspired by:
Bill Frisell
Bo Ramsey
John Fahey


Inspired me to start playing guitar:
John Lennon
Jimmy Page
Bob Dylan

[kilroydegeek]

FCUK (tm) just three! In no particular order...

Hendrix...
Page...
good, fab, dependable old George from the Beatles...
both the young shits from the Arctic Monkeys (Hate them out of insane jealousy )...
Dave Gilmour (what can you say about a guitarist so talented he makes a grown man cry?)...
Kevin Borich...
Ritchie Blackmore...
BB, you all know who I mean...
Stevie Ray Vaughn...
Slava Gregorian...
Andres Segovia...

And Maggie's already mentioned the other nine.

[Informal]

Kevin Borich...

Yeah, forgot to mention him.
Remember too when Rick springfield played heavy rock in Zoot, before he sold his soul to Jehovah and went to America.

[kilroydegeek]

Oooh yeah! There are not too many covers that are better than the original, but Zoot's Eleanor Rigby is probably one of the very rare exceptions.

[Informal]

Les Paul.

[ifingers]

My list would have to start with Jimi Hendrix. When I first started playing the guitar, my dad would often say that Jimi was the man, and it took me a few years to realise just how good he was, and I do agree with my dad now.

I like Mark Knopfler's playing too, I think he is a guitarists guitarist.

Angus Young may not be as technically proficient as some of the other greats, but when he is playing, he goes to a place, bordering on madness, a bit like a shaman, he taps into and channels some mystical forces when he is on stage. His enthusiasm was very inspiring for this fledgling rocker.

Other greats in my list include:

Jimmy Page - nuff said
Tony Iommi - who needs fingers?
Brian Setzer - he can swing.
Dominic Miller - for his beautiful chords and approach to the guitar.
Alex Lifeson
John Lee Hooker - it's not what you play, it's how you play
Eric Clapton - for the best tone ever in his Beano era Bluesbreaker days
Carlos Santana - tone, tone, tone and tone
Pete Townsend - the master of the power chord
The Edge - fantastic ability to play just the right thing
Andy Summers - shimmering, nice chords too
Jeff Beck - another guitarists guitarist
Scotty Moore - the King's early axe monster
Chuck Berry - rock and roll
Bo Diddley - he kissed Stu's baby
Johnny Marr - groovy tunesmith
Gary Moore - another tone monster
Dave Gilmour - wow
Keith Richards - telecaster rocker
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jones_%28musician">Steve Jones</a> - underated Sex Pistol
Stevie Ray Vaughan - for playing the thickest guitar strings ever, and showing how to use super glue to repair his damaged finger tips.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Adamson">Stuart Adamson</a> - celtic guitar hero
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Cropper">Steve Cropper</a>
BB King
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_King">Freddy King</a> - a sens sa shun - finger picking extroadinaire
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Green_%28musician">Peter Green</a> - Albatross and Black Magic

The last two on my list include the first lady on my list, and are a breath of fresh air for me and very inspiring.
<a href="http://www.ifingers.co.uk/classical/2006/05/23/rodrigo-y-gabriela-tutorial-on-my-ipod/">Rodrigo y Gabriela</a> - acoustic, guitar slapping guitar gods

[maggieo]

Three guitarists who I don't sound like at all but whom I love:

Django Reinhart- Gypsy Jazz genius
Mickey Baker- Jazzcat who actualy played Jazz on his Jazzmaster
Don Rich- Master of the Telecaster, the fiddle and #1 foil to Buck Owens

[madduane]

3 greatest acoustic:

Doc Watson
Mississippi John Hurt
Bert Jansch

3 greatest banjo players:

Earl Scruggs
Wade Ward
Dock Boggs

3 greatest electric guitarists:

fffffripppppp
Jimmy Page
Ry Cooder

[kilroydegeek]

...Django Reinhart...

How could I have forgotten Django in my list?! I grew up in a house where every second LP played was Mum's only Django disk, "Put that one on again, Steve." she'd say, and it was for a long long time the only common ground Mum and I had musically.