Top Guitarist all time

Guitarist:

Eddie Van Halen, solely because so many other people have tried to replicate his work. Name another guitarist that’s been copied as much as him?

Steve Vai. YouTube “Steve Vai teeth of the hydra” where he plays a bass, guitar and sitar all at the same time. One could argue he is an Eddie Van Halen emulator although he trained under Frank Zappa. I mean he did a few albums with David Lee Roth too!

Drummer:

Steward Copeland is an excellent choice but I would put him at number 2 behind Neil Peart. You don’t even have to mention the band he was with because every rock music enthusiast knows.

Honorable mention - Mike Mangini, original drummer for Dream Theater. I used to like Dream Theater but they got way too long winded after Mike was kicked out. Watching videos of him play live are amazing.

I read somewhere that Michael Jackson invited EVH to his house to consider doing a solo for a new song he was working on. Eddie showed up with no idea what it would be. Listened to what MJ had recorded so far, and then recorded that solo in one take. He was really a genius.

Speaking of other guitarists, the rumor has always been that the Slash and Axl Rose beef was because Slash later did a guitar solo for Michael Jackson and Axl was mad because it was known MJ was abusing children and Axl was offended Slash agreed to work with MJ, knowing that Axl was abused as a child.

Guitarist for me has to be between Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Paige. Very different but both iconic in their respective styles. You know their sound when you hear it.

My favorite drummer is a dead tie between Mike Portnoy and Jimmy Sullivan (A7X). Other favorites are Shannon Larkin (Godsmack), Neil Peart and Chad Smith (RHCP)

For guitarists, there are many greats in different musical genres. Stevie Ray Vaughan was otherworldly as a blues artist, while Leo Kottke does things with a 12-string acoustic that nobody else does. SRV is my personal favorite, but the top 5 overall has to include Hendrix, Page, Clapton, and EVH.

You know what I totally forgot about Billy Gibbons, that number 2 for me.

Prince. Never was a big fan of his genre, but his guitar solos were unbelievable.

clapton is the most overrated guitarist of all time.

jimmy page-this guy influenced maybe about 85% of the world's famous guitarists in the last 50 years. then those guys practiced and got real good to the point of surpassing page's abilities by many miles. he never surpassed his teacher john mcglaughlin though.

sidetrack: anybody here believe in the beatles paul theory? or that davy jones from the monkees saying the beatles were the first manufactured band and not the monkees? it's a longshot but jimmy page might have played on some of those beatle songs in the mid 60's.

Terry Kath - Chicago Transit Authority. Drummer - Ginger Baker.

Azdd with Kottke and skibum609 with Kath. Two very underrated and in some cases unknown greats.

My favorite guitarist is Mark Knopfler, and my favorite drummer is Phil Collins.

My favorite guitar SOLO ever is the one in Steely Dan's "Do It Again", and I actually had to lookup who the guitarist was for that track. From a quick search, it appears that maybe Denny Dias was the guitarist for that incredible minute or so of guitar work in the middle of the song?

In terms of virtuosos reinventing the internment for the rest of us: EVH, Hendrix, Robert Johnson. Les Paul was a big deal as well. For my personal tastes nobody did it or does it like Bob Mould.

I'll cast my vote for Carlos Santana

For classical guitar, it's Andres Segrovia

Tiny Tim

I'm a big fan of Jazz Guitarist, George Benson.
Ginger Baker on drums

@ClubFan - That was Denny Dias in Do It Again, but it actually wasn't a guitar, it was an electric sitar.

My favorite guitarist - Alex Lifeson of Rush. His solos always fit in with the music and he is a master of tones and textures. His playing is always interesting.

There's too many greats that I can't make a choice. I'll add that I agree with some of the above choices and not with others. It's all just opinion on what happens to trip our triggers.

@crosscheck oh, interesting! My ears never considered that it wasn’t an electric guitar cranking out those sounds! I guess it can also be played with electric guitar, since one YouTuber duplicated the solo on his guitar, which was really cool to watch… :)

@25 👍 on George Benson…

Another candidate - Roy Clark, unbelievable on guitar or banjo or probably anything with strings. Check him out on YouTube. You won't be sorry!

^ Roy Clark…hell yeah! I absolutely loved Hee Haw. Always think of him when I think of banjo…

Even though I do play instruments, i'm not much of a musician. I don't really follow musicians either, but I have been fortunate to see both Eddie and Andy live. My vote goes for Andy.

Turns out that both Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen were both asked about who they thought was the G.O.A.T. They both said to go listen to Roy Clark.

wow. no one mentioned any of the below:

paul gilbert
nuno bettencourt
gary moore
randy rhoads

My two personal favorites are Eddie Van Halen, my first concert was VH in 1984. Went on to see VH another 30 times over the years. Stevie Ray Vaughan would be second, unfortunately I never got the chance to see him live in concert. His brother Jimmie isn't too bad either.

OK, thread bump time. Just had Blues at Sunrise, live from Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan come up on my music feed. If you don’t have SRV at least in your top five, you gotta give this a listen, all 15 minutes of it. There’s some fun banter from Albert King, but Stevie totally tears up the strings on his Strat, and it’s live. Oh, and sorry Wood, but Jimmie Vaughan has never really impressed me much as a guitarist.

David Gilmour and Jeff Beck for the old guys. Also my hometown boy Warren Haynes.

Gary Clark and Marcus King for some of the younger guys I'm aware of.

There is a YouTube video where Roy Clark plays the guitar, the fiddle and the banjo. A virtuoso on all 3.

Nobody will ever mention Harvey “the Snake” Mandel in this list, but I think his performance at Woodstock 3 weeks after replacing the band’s guitarist for Canned Heat, his riffs played in the song “ten years after” was amazing to hear how fast 💨 one can play. A great jam!

Bacon!