I have said it many times, asshat.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Guess which one is Hawaii You.

The one getting her ass kicked.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

GuitarWorld? Or TotalGuitar or both? Make a run at a roughly top 100 (with also rans) break it up into
ROCK / BLUES / EARLY INNOVATORS / METAL AF METAL GUITARISTS / "SHRED" / ALT-INDIE / PRINCE / PUNK / JAZZ and FUSION / BEST IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW in a badly navigable multi-page list (might be more user friendly on mobile than desktop, you sort of have to notice the navigation drop down on desktop):


BEST ROCK GUITARISTS OF ALL TIME

1. Brian May
2. Hendrix
3. Page
4. EVH
5. GOD
6. Gilmour
7. Blackmore
8. Lifeson
9. Beck
10. Slash
11. Santana
12. Knopfler
13. AY/MY
14. Gary Moore
15. Gibbons
16. Duane
17. Joe Walsh
18. Keif
19. Zappa
20. Harrison
with about another 20 also rans listed

May #1 overall seems click-baity. Not sure how you don't have Hendrix/Page/Beck/EVH/Clapton as the top 5 by default.


BLUES (probably next to rock what people talk about when they talk about guitarists rankings)

SRV, BB KING, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Joe Bonamassa, Robert Johnson, Samanth Fish makes the also rans with Healey and several others



EARLY INNOVATORS

Chuck Berry, Les Paul, Hank Marvin
with Dick Dale, Maybelle Carter, Bo Diddley et al as also rans

METAL AF METAL GUITARISTS

Iommi, Dimebag, Rhoads -- tho I'd put Rhoads top 10 in any category...Cocaine and the opening lick of Crazy Train
are the first things 90% of people who picked up a guitar over the last 3+ decades learn to play.


"SHRED"

Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani, Buckethead + more + more also rans



ALT/INDIE

Marr (solid choice), tho then you have the guy from RHCP next and RHCP suck. Jack White, Morello makes more sense on this list than ahead of Vaugh/Rhoads on any list, guy from Dino Jr, Cobain, Radiohead guy, Billy Corgan and Thurston Moore, guy from MBV, Peter Buck shows up in the also rans here

TRAILBLAZERS

Prince ...just Prince

kinda cool and appropriate to have Prince in his own category

with Nile Rodgers/Dylan, Motown guy and other also rans

PUNK

Johnny Ramone, Steve and Mick Jones (not related, not ever in the same band, as far as I know), Fugazi guys, Green Day guy...then you get Tom Verlaine and David Byrne and Joan Jett as also rans here

JAZZ and FUSION Category

go look it up if you wanna know: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/th ... ll-time/11

Larry Carlton the only name here I recognize, oh, and Metheny in the also rans here.


BEST IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW:

Nita Strauss
Erja Lyytinen
Mateus Asato
Plini
Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram
Tim Henson & Scott LePage
Jason Richardson
Ichika Nito
Nick Johnston
Yvette Young
and again more also rans

They cite youtube as the source of a few of the current "best in the world rn" guitarists fame and notoriety


oh, they also have an ACOUSTIC category for Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon and Richard Thompson and similar

so you admit youre a trans? got it. nothing wrong with that. what pronoun should I use to address you next time? oh nevermind, you go by ASSHOLE

Does anyone honestly care what Rolling Stone has to say about anything? It's about as relevant to music as the Grammy Awards.

Nothing but click bait. For example, I love Sister Rosetta Tharpe but to say she is a "better" guitar player than David Gilmour is objectively ridiculous.

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What, you’re not waiting with baited breath on their Top 300 Harpsichordists?

the only important thing rolling stone has done in the last 25 years is publish e howard hunts deathbed confession.

Nobody cares but its funny because Rolling Stone thinks they killed it and are still relevant. Going by their thumbnail it seems they think the greatest guitarist is an Asian woman who likes red jumpsuits. I have no idea who that is but her image is 3x larger than anyone else so she must be amazing.

Its a silly list...Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell are in that same space yet Simon is the better player and writer and has sold 80 million more records but he's 237 spots lower on list.

Steve Vai is 127 and Ry Cooder is 66...didn't they see Crossroads?

If I saw that link, I might actually click on it!

I knew the list would be bad and I tried to ignore it...then it was posted here. It pissed me off more than I thought it would (should)

I love Brian May and I love Queen, but there is no universe where he's listed higher than Hendrix, Beck, Garcia, Zappa, or EVH. I personally love Angus Young and his playing has always resonated with me, but he doesn't belong in the top 20.

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Agree with all of that.

This list is awful.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

and on another note....
All the "great" british guitarists in the era of Clapton, Page....the answer is Jeff Beck. (slams gavel!)

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Beck was #5 and Brian May was #33. Clapton was #35. They had Beck one spot lower than Page. Someone once told me Beck was the better player but Page had the riffs.

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Don't take it personally.

Bought an Italian import boxed set of Hendrix back in the 90s. I still have it though haven't listened to it for a long time. Always one of my favorites by him that MANY have probably never heard. Brian Jones dueling with him a bit.

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

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

He belongs in the top 2 or top 3 of the All Time Great Gibson SG players

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Didnt realize how many great players were left off until I watched the Beato video . George Benson , Tom Scholz, Neal Schon , Peter Frampton, Joe Pass, Tommy Emmanuel, Yngwie .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I wouldn't expect them to know who Holdsworth was but I was surprised Brad Paisley wasn't on the list. There are a ton of great players they missed. Billy Corgan, Gary Richrath, Rick Nielsen, Dave Navarro...

Its a silly list...maybe Liz Phair (137) can give Eric Johnson (205) some tips...

Andy Summers at #250 is ridiculous. I would put him in with Morello and Edge who are much higher on the list. Like they did he developed a unique style and used effects very effectively. His stuff isn't easy to play either if you play it right. Some of those stretches are pretty difficult even with long fingers and his hands are pretty small. Stewart Copeland said he should of got more co-writing credits a lawsuit might be incoming...

Overshadowed by the commercial / pop success of Journey....Neal Schon is an absolute monster player.

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Agreed. And the answer to Stones vs Beatles (which I once got asked when "interviewing" to move into a room in a group house while working in DC one summer during college)...the Kinks. maybe they were all Beatles fans or something and didn't want any sleazy Stones fans moving in for the summer.

thought Schon was in Damn Yankees but google doesn't agree. Maybe it was a different super-group type band.

Pat Benatar's guitar player also over-looked. Never really noticed Billy Idol's guitar player until I saw them live at that Lollapalooza that one year

Schon was in Bad English. Damn Yankees was Tommy Shaw, no? I know Nugent was there too.

And yeah, Neil Giraldo is pretty decent too. Good producer. Played guitar on Jessie's Girl, too.

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Tom Morello doesn't belong in a top 1000 let alone a top 20. what the fuck is that ?

when you get to the point of including Kurt Vile, Lucy Daucus, Courtney Barnett....H.E.R. ? what is even the point ? Could anyone actually articulate what they like about the guitar playing of Lucy Daucus? Maybe they had a certain # of women they had to include as a quota

Was John Lennon a good guitar player? He seems more like Roger Waters. Good at lyrics and creating interesting concepts that turn into songs with help.

He was not nearly as good of a guitar player as Paul McCartney was/is a bass player.

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Seeing Paul Simon on the list had me asking a similar question...

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

There can be great songwriters who aren’t great musicians and Vice versa. I think Lennon was a great songwriter and McCartney is a better musician.