Rock Guitarists - Who Are The Best?

Andy Gill
d. boon

Surely, you're not talking about his soloing on the late Yardbirds records or something like "Communication Breakdown."

Hurting, do you like the solo on "The Rover"? "Tangerine"

But I agree with most entries so far

but am disgusted and appalled at the absence of Duane Allman's name on this list

also roy montgomery, david kilgour, jason pierce, ritchie venus, ron asheton, peter laughner..

i say, motherfuckin ian crause!!!!!!!!!11

GEORDIE K. WALKER (Killing Joke)
Andy Gill (Gang of Four)
Brian May (Queen)
Hugh Cornwell (Stranglers)
Ace Frehley (Kiss)
Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd...what a boring answer, but the man does have style)
Dr.Know (Bad Brains)
Keith Levene (PiL)
Donald Ross Skinner (who used to play for Julian Cope)
Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd (Television)
Robert Quine & Ivan Julian (Voidoids)
Frank Zappa

Not that he was ever a virtuoso, but I always admired the sounds Daniel Ash was able to coax from his guitar circa Bauhaus.

*ducks*

Jimmy Page can't play anymore.

This is true, I must admit.

Others....

Dave Gedge (The Wedding Present) - Can you strum that fast? Thought not.
Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) - Just a great, chunky sound
"Brother" Wayne Kramer & Fred "Sonic" Smith (the MC fuckin' 5)
RON ASHETON (circa Funhouse, before he was relegated to bass duty)

I never noticed until recently how crazy the last solo on Heart's "Barracuda" (starting about 1:06 before the end of the track, so about 2:18 in) is. Seriously, the whole thing sounds like it's done in layered stereo-split distorted harmonics with this high-pitched phased feedback drone running in the background. It's way ahead of its time, not at all what you'd expect from its genre.

BTW, slightly OT, does anyone know if Sonic Youth's "Drunken Butterfly" was meant at all to reference/pay tribute to "Barracuda"? She even quotes the "smile like the sun" line and they kind of have that high-pitched buzzy drone going through the second verse.

OTM. Vh1 Classic occaissionally plays the video (well, it's them on a German television program). That last bit (which you're talking about) is actually two guitar players sort've answering each other, which I never would've guessed from just listening to it.

I mentioned Richard Lloyd too.

Bobby Womack
Nile Rodgers
Curtis Mayfield.

I like James Burton a lot. Marshall Crenshaw can play. Prince. Teenie Hodges is great. Snooks Eaglin too. Alex Chilton has wasted his talent for years but he's a really good guitarist, nice big fat sound.

All the obvious greats: Richards, Hendrix, Page.

Whether or not Hubert Sumlin is a "rock" guitarist is irrelevant to me. He played interesting stuff and that's enough for me; in my opinion Howlin' Wolf's records are rock if anything is. I love Elmore James.

In a similar vain, Lonnie Mack.

And I'm going to assume the playing field is now sufficiently wide open for a few more names.

A lot of musos put him down but I'd like to include George Harrison, both in the Beatles and his better solo stuff, particularly on All Things Must Pass

He was widely unheard for thirty years but I'd also nominate Gary Burger of the Monks.

Alex listed Steve Jones, so I'll name Mick Jones of the Clash.

Finally, a completely boring choice-Robert Johnson. The "Hellhound On My Trail" guy. Was it Keith Richards who said "the guy sounds like he's got three brains"?

Archer Prewitt is basically my favorite rhthym guitar player of all time, like on "Motorcycles." And Kevin Sheids too, of course. I saw him play with Primal Scream a couple years ago and the songs where he was on guitar were great.

Robert Johnson is somone people who've just bought the whole hellhound-on-my-trail mythos oughta just listen to with fresh ears. That guitar-playing is out there, he's doing stuff that requires a real, ah, *attack* and he's pulling it off. Just frightening.

I like Fripp too; it's mathematical but it's very good. There ain't a lot of *slang* in it, if you know what I mean. But yeah, that solo in "Baby's on Fire" and his work on "Another Green World" is pretty great, and I like some of his playing on "Starless and Bible Black," as long as no one is singing...

(The solo I was talking about comes 3:18 in, not 2:18, sorry.)

brian crook and mick elborado!

Totally.

Bob Mould
His rhythm guitar playing on "Zen Arcade" is some of may favorite playing. Mould just absolutely pounds the strings on that one.

Billy Zoom
All you have to do is listen to X's albums after he left to hear how much his playing meant to that band. Dave Alvin is a good guitarist of similar style, but he couldn't fill Zoom's shoes. I love Zoom's playing on "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" and "The Hungry Wolf".

John Fogarty
Fogarty is a really good guitarist. Beyond his song writing and rhythm guitar playing, I love how he took some of those 50s tube tremolo tones and merged with 60s psych on "Walk on the Water" and "Born on the Bayou".

Brian Robertson/Scott Gorman
Those dual leads in Thin Lizzy are great. I keep hoping that these indie rock dorks that name check Thin Lizzy will try to learn how to do this kind of guitar playing, but I doubt it will happen as it is just easier to play like a spaz. (Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with spazzy guitar playing, it just isn't Thin Lizzy.)

It's all about the tone.

oh yeah - couldn't agree more.

My favorites are:
Tom Verlaine
Richard Thompson
Richard Lloyd
Dave Schramm
John Cipollina
Jerry Garcia
Nels Cline
Jimi Hendrix
Curtis Mayfield
John Reis and Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes)
Jeff Tweedy
Stephen Malkmus
Kevin Shields
Ira Kaplan
Lou Reed

Oodles more.

carrie brownstein
cate le bon
annie clark
pj harvey
courtney barnett
soccer mommy
waxahatchee
snail mail
tracy chapman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hYPo2py77A

no

Corgan and Morello are the worst Chicago suburb alt-rock poseur shredders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_axGolp9aMc

You have to admire the technique there

Corgan and Morello are the worst Chicago suburb alt-rock poseur shredders.

Morello with Springsteen was an affront to everything. Nils probably watched him every night and made sure to stay mum.

Morello really is gimmicky guitarist, it's weird how he became such a certified Guitar Player Magazine(tm) Idol

I like some Corgan stuff but come on now, he isn't anywhere close to his heroes

I've always rated Corgan as a guitarist, tbh.

like, Iommi-level?

Phil Manzanera
Jerry Garcia
Jorma Kaukonen
Darby Slick
JIm Duckworth
Alvin Lee
Ron Asheton
JOhn Martyn
Curtis Mayfield
Pete townshend
Roowland S Howard
Will Sargeant
Erkin Koray
Omar Khorshid
Oscar Moore
Davy Graham
John Renbourn
Bert Jansch
Richard thompson
Wayne Kramer
Fred Smith
Ted Falconi
Blixa Bargeld
Fred frith
Steve marriott
Jeff Beck
Guy Kyser/Roger Kunkel
John McLaughlin
Syd Barrett
Bruce Licher

oh yeah forgot Piece Thompson

like, Iommi-level?

Whoops:

https://youtu.be/VzBVvD1vUvM

yes well, it's fairly well established that you are insane iirc (at least when it comes to Corgan & co.)

Morello really is gimmicky guitarist, it's weird how he became such a certified Guitar Player Magazine(tm) Idol

lol wasn't one of his initial gimmicks "NO PEDALS"

Pete Cosey
Ax Genrich
Matt Pike
Barry Clarke
Paul Ngozi
Carlos Santana
Wendell Richardson

Was it? I thought the Whammy pedal was like 70% of his schtick from the beginning.

xp

Robert Fripp
Marc Ribot
Nels Cline
Phil Manzanera
dude from Melt Banana
neil young
angel olsen
dude on pretenders record that has the song "precious"
bill frisell
david byrne
captain beefheart
chelsea wolfe
fennesz
george harrison
julie byrne
Tim Gane
hope sandoval
micachu
phil elverum
trey spruance

I want to say I heard that when I saw them open for Porno for Pyros debut gig at Castaic Lake in ... 1992?

I could be wrong, he obviously has used a whole slew of things since

xp

You might be thinking of "no synthesizers were used..."

possibly, altho that's a phrase I associate with Queen

Yeah, iirc there is a boast in the liners of the first album that "all sounds made by guitars" or some shit. I think there's a Zappa quote about guitar synths that goes along the lines of "why would a first rate guitarist want to sound like a third rate saxophone player?" Morello is all "I made these scratchy sounds with my guitar!" and I'm all "But please stop!"

captain beefheart

Uh, excuse me?

Kristin Hersh

yes well, it's fairly well established that you are insane iirc (at least when it comes to Corgan & co.)

Like the band itself, I find I only rate him as a guitarist beginning and ending with Cherub Rock.

Ha, I can think of many great bits of Corgan playing just on Siamese Dream alone. 'Soma' springs to mind immediately.

flappy my opinion is largely unchanged from 2011

TS: Pavement / Smashing Pumpkins

hope sandoval

― Garden variety uncouth (Ross), Monday, July 2, 2018 4:12 PM (two hours ago)

tbh I can't generally figure out who's playing what on Hope's solo albums (blatant "can you believe we hired Bert Fucking Jansch to play on our record?" moments aside), so if she has a distinctive playing style then I haven't really picked up on it. it always seems to be her and Colm on guitar plus two or three guest/session guitarists.

Dave Roback was great in Rain Parade and Opal and Mazzy Star, though his classic rock guitar god leanings are a little over-the-top at times. same goes for Steve Wynn

Johnny Echols
Peter laughner
Caspar Brotzmann
Keith Richards
MIck Taylor
Peter green
Chris Karrer
John Weinzerl
MIchele Zarillo

I somehow don't think Bert Jansch would have appreciated being called a rock guitarist tbh.

sorry Tom, made an error there

Kristin Hersh

― thomasintrouble, Monday, July 2, 2018 4:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes.

Funny that I was thinking great guitarists and not thinking ROCK guitarists so was thinking oh shouodn't have had Oscar Moore in there if it was rock after posting. Odd that Tom would think oh no Bert Jansch doesn't fit, but John Renbourn does. Though Renbourn was the Pentangle electric guitarist.
Do think Jansch was pretty influential on people who came after him and were more specifically thought of as Rock guitarists though.

Yes, as you say, he never played electric, plus I always remember him dismissing the Beatles as something that held no interest for him, you know, that stuff.

I didn't say he never played electric. I think I have him on electric guitar somewhere, can't think where specifically but do think he plugged in on occasion.