best guitar player ... if we dare go here

That was the last song and theme at my senior prom. It always makes me laugh because I had a broken leg and couldn't dance.

 

Noel Gallagher!

If not him, Kirk Hammett.

 

Nigel Tufnel

 

I'll give an amen for Johnny Winter.

Rory Gallagher.

 

I like Buckethead. His music is weird for the most part, but dude has some serious kills.

His tune "Jordan" is one my all-time favorites.

 

No one has mentioned Prince yet! At least I didn't see it. Sam with The Edge.

I'll throw George Harrison in there for good measure.

All the usual ones, also Johnny Ramone. Made simplicity beautiful.

What about Barry Zito? I hope no one mentions Steve Vai!

 

Hendrix of course.
Richard Thompson.

 

Mick Taylor in his prime.

 

If Clapton didn't spend most of the last 30 years putting out albums that were utter pop pablum after leaving the yardbirds because he didn't want to play pop music, he'd be higher on my list. Some of the stuff he did in the 1960s was phenomenal.

Though Wonderful Tonight, while an excellent song, amuses me because two of my brothers each had it as their first dance at their respective weddings. REAL creative choice on the second guy's part, since he got married six years after the other.

Hendrix is the greatest overall, for doing new and creative things with the guitar, and moving seamlessly between styles.

I'm sure someone has mentioned Pete Townshend . . . . . .

I guess I'll continue mentioning Rush in these threads (start a singer one and I won't), but Alex Lifeson is damn good. Maybe the most underrated guitarist in rock.

Jimmy Page is a personal favorite, but he was too much of a wizard in the studio, so Zeppelin's albums sounded TOO perfect. Live, he sounded good at times, strung out at others.

I am a pretty big fan of the thrash metal dudes' riff crunching, the rhythm guitar playing that requires skill and speed, but doesn't involve bending notes. Scott Ian and James Hetfield are both awesome in this way, providing the backbone of two great bands.

 

Stevie Ray
Hendrix
Satriani

 

How appropriate that a poster named "Everybody duck" started this thread.

Forgive him for pandering to the 7th-grade cool smokers' crowd, but Eddie Van Halen did some crazy shit with the guitar. Before him, Jimi Hendrix. After him, Tom Morello.

And again, from the jazz category, Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian.