Best Guitarists

Well, I'm old school, but a few names are missing.

Jimi Hendrix

Eric Clapton

Jimmy Page

Gary Rossington

George Harrison is underrated...listen to While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner...Into to Sweet Jane may be the best guitar ever done.

Edit:  Intro to Sweet Jane IS the best guitar ever done.

Carlos Santana, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Gary Burton, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Stanley Jordan, John McLaughlin, Steve Cropper, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Brian Setzer, Derek Trucks, Doyle Bramhall II, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter, David Gilmour, Robben Ford, Steve Howe, Al DiMeola, Coco Montoya.

Maybe a few more later.

Lot of good names on this one. I'm gonig to add Mark Knopfler. Long live Dire Straits!

saul hudson(slash)

angus young

jimmy page

jimi hendrix

Gary Rossington

and for lolz Dave Grohl

steve howe

Alex Lifeson

--Both tend to be overshadowed by even more accomplished muscians within their own band... But quite excellent

You've all named my personal favs.  For fun, and just to be different, I'm going to name a few names from ancient history that some of those names named above would cite as inspirations:

Django Reinhardt

Mario Maccaferri

Andrés Segovia

And a few session guitarists that, between them, probably accounted for half of all the 50s and 60s Rock, Motown and R&B hit singles you've probably never heard unless you:

1) are older than me, or

2) saw The Blues Brothers

Steve Cropper, Joe Messina, and Rob White.

And three more.. that perhaps fits in a bit better with the original topic's list - I offer "surf guitar" legends such as

Dick Dale (Del-Tones), and

Wilson and Bogle (from The Ventures)

You've caught them or their impact if you've heard the Hawaii 5-0 theme, the Batman TV series theme from the 60's, watched Pulp Fiction, or wondered how on earth The Beach Boys came up with their Pet Sounds sound.

But if cornered, and forced to pick just one name, it would be David Gilmour.  Or maybe Mark Knopfler.  Or perhaps Eric Clapton.  Or Steve Vai.  Or Eddie Van Halen.  Or... yeah. You get it.

"Or maybe Mark Knopfler."

phew!

i was getting seriously concerned that he wasn't going to get a mention, get out more peeps.

i'd also like to add Flea. k, so it's bass but he's still awesome.

vvv

Oh! and brian may, thanks Xsive_Death

vvv

Brian May hands down, lets see those other so called guitarists make a guitar out of a fireplace and washing mashine!

Michael Romeo, from Symphony X, ftw. Omg his sweeping and if you don't know what sweep picking is you probably shouldn't be posting in this thread.

You all forgot about Buckethead or are you all being ignorant?

OH, just because we are all predominantly electrics, one for the accousties, Andy Mckee. One of the finest fingerers in the business, for those who don't know, just Youtube the guy.

Robert Johnson

Duane Allman

Prince

Ah yes buckethead, well, then we have to add Les Claypool now don't we?

Jimi Hendrix.

Just because of Purple Haze.

(PS; embedding the above YouTube link hasn't worked for this either, anyone knows why?)

Beyond classic, above harmonics, integral magic, defined Psychedelic.

I'll add Steve Stevens (played mostly with Billy Idol) and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme).  Nuno played flight of the drunken bumblebee on an Extreme CD.  Crazy speed and clean.

kirk hammet? synyster gates(Brian Elwin Haner, Jr) ?

I'm surprised nobody said anything about John Petrucci.

Jeff Healy

Of course...how could I forget? Especially on "Under a Glass Moon"

My girlfriend actually mentiond him but I have never been a big fan of Dream Theater so I wasn't sure how good he was.

I'm a fiend? You should really listen to me more Any song off Awake makes me drool. Sad about DT's latest album though.