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Apr 14, 2020 · HIs body of work inspired a generation of jazz guitar giants, including Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow and Jim Hall. In the style of Charlie Christian: (Image credit: Future) B.B. KING Every guitarist who bends or vibratoes a string to make it sing owes a debt to B.B. King.
- About Me
- How I Put This List Together
- Tosin Abasi
- Derek Trucks
- Misha Mansoor
- Adrian Smith
- Joe Satriani
- Matteo Mancuso
- Jared James Nichols
- John Mayer
As someone who has been playing guitar since the age of 6, and for 26 years at the time of writing, doing an article such as this is one hell of a daunting task. Having been through many phases of discovering the works of an almost infinite number of axemen of all eras – trying to make a list of only 15 is a bit heartbreaking. Therefore, I had to d...
What I’ve tried to do with this updated list is incorporate currently most relevant guitarists of various genres and different age groups. Also, I have paid close attention to your comments since the time of the initial post. Since I mostly agree with your suggestions, I have expanded the list to 15 guitar players, making it more current and well-r...
Main superpower:Sublime technical abilities with a surprising amount of uniqueness. The Animals as Leaders axeman Tosin Abasi has definitely cemented his place among the guitar-playing giants of today. He set out on a mission to reinvent the technique of playing guitar, and my God did he do it! His addition of tapping, sweeping, thumping, and finge...
Main superpower:Out-of-this-world slide playing abilities. For me, the most inspiring fact concerning Trucks is the mere circumstance that defined his style. Namely, since he was a child guitar prodigy who became a professional at age 11, he quickly noticed he needed to do something about the discrepancy between his small hand size and the guitar s...
Main superpower:Unique style of shred that helped define a whole new music genre. Misha Mansoor has become such a towering figure in the world of current shred guitar that it’s hard to believe that he has only been on the scene for about a decade! One of the most impressive feats of this shred overlord is the number of other musicians that he has i...
Main superpower:An incredible melodic sense combined with tasteful phrasing and immaculate sonic textures. The Iron Maiden axeman is somewhat underrated in the larger-scale guitar world. I can safely say that it comes as a consequence of the fact that he plays in an extremely album and song-focused band. However, for about 40+ years now, he has bee...
Main superpower:A spectacular blend of tasteful phrasing and picturesque sounds. What’s to say about Joe Satriani that hasn’t been said already? His impressive career saw him shaping the guitar-playing language of the 80s. As the years passed, he continued to release great albums. The best thing is, he didn’t rest on his laurels! All his output, as...
Main superpower:Incredible mixture of eclectic technical abilities, sonic textures, and harmonic diversity. Matteo is one of the most impressive guitarists of today. What I like most about him is the fact that I can see him using the superabundance of information given by our ever-developing technologies to craft a unique blend of musical vocabular...
Main superpower:Taking an old bluesy formula and elevating it to super-expressive and intensive heights. Although not as innovative as some of the other participants on this list, Nichols is just as impressive! The fact that the guy managed to take classic blues and rock and do something refreshing with that – it’s just beyond comprehension! The be...
Main superpower:Godlike melodic sense in tandem with angelic guitar sounds. Mayer always had impressive chops. However, over the last decade, he slowly started getting away from this pop-tinged radio-friendly output and moved towards the guitar-nerd heaven-type stuff. Both things he did masterfully, I might add. The taste, technique, and compositio...
- Brian May. Arise, Sir Brian Harold May, the greatest guitarist of all time, the player most regal, and the one whose pathway to the summit began in the most unorthodox fashion, with a father-and-son woodcraft project converting a fireplace into one of the most inventive electric guitars ever made, the Red Special.
- Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix was the supernova of creativity that the electric guitar had been waiting for. It’s tempting to say that Hendrix was ahead of his time, and yes, it’s true, he was.
- Jimmy Page. Years honing his chops as an on-call session musician had prepared Jimmy Page for what was to come, namely being guitarist and producer of the biggest rock band on the planet, a band whose creative ambition matched the scale of their success.
- Eddie Van Halen. We can argue over who is the greatest guitarist of all time but surely none have been more entertaining than Eddie Van Halen, whose hot-wiring of hard rock norms was like a power-up for electric guitar culture, making a spectacle of the instrument that could rival the Super Bowl, Hollywood, the aurora borealis… great herds of wildebeest migrating across the Serengeti.
- Mark Tremonti. Mark Tremonti’s Track record as a songwriter is close to unmatched in modern heavy music - the Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist, who we’ll call Captain Riff, has sold more than 50 million records over his career.
- Tosin Abasi. “There’s so much beauty in what I would call ‘foundational’ playing, like becoming a better blues guitarist,” Tosin Abasi tells Guitar World.
- Gary Clark Jr. emerged on the scene with a breakout performance at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival, and ever since he’s been hailed as the new face of the blues.
- Nita Strauss. Far be it to say that anyone can upstage Alice Cooper on his own stage, but the shock-rock legend may have met his match in current guitar foil Nita Strauss, whose ability to tear it up on the fretboard is matched only by her consummate showmanship and unabashed love of performing - she’s the Flash, in every stylistic sense of the word.
- Nita Strauss. Nita Strauss is the very definition of a guitar hero in the modern age. In 2018, she joined the likes of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani in having her own signature Ibanez model – an achievement that made her the first female musician ever in its history to have done so.
- Erja Lyytinen. A top tip from the Finnish blues maestro who spoke to TG in our April edition. “I’ve always loved Albert King’s overbends and experimenting with those sorts of sounds – like bending a whole step up, then come down slightly a microtone, go back up to the first note and repeat that a few times!
- Mateus Asato. Electric guitar has always been an ensemble instrument, and there are few classic recordings where it appears unaccompanied. Brazilian YouTube sensation Asato exploits the electric guitar’s potential as a true solo instrument.
- Plini. He’s received accolades from iconic shredders, but the Aussie prog wizard had chords on his mind when he spoke to TG... “One chord I use way too much is the major 9th.
Aug 26, 2023 · Features. Classic Rock. 30 guitarists on the guitar heroes who changed their life. By Classic Rock. published 26 August 2023. Slash, Angus Young, Paul Stanley, Billy Gibbons reveal the guitarists who made them want to play in the first place. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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Feb 13, 2024 · 69: Joe Walsh (The Eagles, The James Gang) He currently provides the big-guitar moments in the Eagles but Joe Walsh really wrote the book in the James Gang, one of America’s first great power ...
