Guitar World Magazine: Eddie Van Halen Named #1 Guitarist of All Time (Top 100 List)

Guitar World Magazine ^ | 10/11/12

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— The real “greatest” guitarists are no doubt studio musicians with names unfamiliar to the public -——

Now that you mention it, where’s Jeff “Skunk” Baxter? “Bodhisattva”?
What’s better than that? Seriesly.

[mountn man]

#11

[guitman]

My thoughts exactly - also begs the question: where’s Pat Metheny?

[dfwgator]

Saw Pat for the umpteenth time last Friday, great show.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Eric Clapton is not god, according to those who voted...

[a fool in paradise]

No Dick Dale or Link Wray or Davie Allen.

What the f*** is a Buckethead?

Dick Dale (King of the Surf Guitar):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOGVhNJiqL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73yBnSX6TdI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIVKbAWLttY

Link Wray (inventor of the power chord):
(Jimmy Page Listening to Rumble):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLEUSn8y9TI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVfmLFWDnYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQ9X-zG5Q8

Davie Allan (King of Fuzz):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjhno4sn2TA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epCOeLduweQ

Travis Wammack (like a teenaged Link, also Muscle Shoals session musician and band leader for Little Richard) - Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were fans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWqXCdJ_Q8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dxVex-iCyY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvq5vInxFys

Guitar Wolf (from Japan) would kick Buckethead’s ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI-pAXNwxcE

What’s with this list? I mean, there’s not even Freddy King.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdyvPg0c6bI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oCQUSjnOhs

[dmz]

The real “greatest” guitarists are no doubt studio musicians with names unfamiliar to the public.

<><><><

Larry Carlton (think Steely Dan) comes to mind.

Frankly, the greatest guitarists were likely playing well before this thing called rock and roll was over represented in the list of the top 100 guitar players.

No Jim Hall? No Kenny Burrell?

But I think most of us know what this list really represents - the top 100 most popular guitar players to readers of Guitar World, having next to nothing to do with the 100 best guitar players (given no objective criteria exists).

[Michael.SF.]

Glen Campbell is not “late”

Thanks for the update. I recalled the tributes to him posted here some time ago, must of been the announcement that he had Alzheimers.

[orlop9]

Any list without Brent Mason is not worth serious consideration

[nickcarraway]

Well, after everything Clapton stole from Harrison. (Songs. Women. Who knows what else?)

[TChris]

17. John Petrucci - WOOT!

[dfwgator]

No Ernie Isley? “Who’s That Lady” is in my Top Ten list of solos.

[BillM]

Yup, And Tommy must have learned a lot from Lenny Breau, one of the greatest who died in his early forties.

[safeasthebanks]

Malcolm made the list - #84. Pretty impressive for a rhythm guitarist.

[corkoman]

Eric Clapton at 28? one under Franz Zappa - thats all i need to know about this list.

Worthless.

[Mad Dawgg]

"What the f*** is a Buckethead?

[mountn man]

Scholz was more the sound he developed. As a player...meh.

Neal Schon often goes unnoticed. I think because Journey was so "pop". Heck at 17, he had Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton wanting him in their bands.

[Gargantua]

Jerry Garcia # 54 ??!!!!

Behind Dicky Betts and Warren Haynes?

Someone who knows absolutely nothing about guitar playing piled up this putrid heap of manure.

Good grief...

;-\

[TChris]

Clearly, like all vote-based rankings, it's a popularity contest. It's pretty obvious, as many have pointed out. Lots of bizarreness in the list, and glaring omissions.

Should be labelled: Top 100 Most Popular Pop & Rock Guitarists According to Guitar World Readers

[Gettin Betta]

Right on soupbonel...Pat Travers rocks!! (hence my screen name).I just today booked a flight to see him 11/8 in Las Vegas!!

[4yearlurker]

A lot of the guys on the list are just playing Hendrix. Jimi started it all. That being said where are Dave Mason,Roy Buchanan,Les Dudek,Al Dimeola,Rick Derringer,....

[tsomer]

Never heard of half these guys, not convinced about 35% of the remainder.
Too many greats were left out:

John Williams, Segovia (a little overrated in my opinion, but great), Julian Bream and the greatest, Francisco Tárrega

Likewise: Paco Pena, Paco Cepero, Diego del Gastor, Melchor de Marchena, Paco de Lucia, Nino Ricardo and Ramon Montoya, and Sabicas ...

There are probably half a dozen guitarists from S. America Barrios for example, Hawaii, and Portugal deserving mention.

Among the rockers, I like the guys who play through glass (tubes)— J. Winter, Albert King, Hendrix and Stevey Ray to name a few- it’s the biting edgy attack and sagging decay I like.

Then there are the electronics guys: Queens guitarists got some incredible tones and novel riffs .

Unsung hero: Niels Lofgrin.

Glaring omissions: Leo Kotke, John Renbourn and Richard Thompson.

They should have consulted me about this, or anything else; I can’t understand why nobody does. I’m sitting on an amazing stock of opinions and I’m letting them go for cheap. ;-)

Thanks for a pleasant diversion.

[TChris]

Not a lot of love for country players.

Don't forget Roy Clark and Wade Hayes. Both are downright amazing pickers.

[Fiji Hill]

Eddie Lang should be near the top of the list. Andy Iona, George Barnes and "King" Benny Nawahi should also be here.

[a fool in paradise]

Without Dex Romweber or Billy Childish, there is no Jack White.

Dex Romweber (formerly 1/2 of Flat Duo Jets, since the 1980s)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksNJwbencVs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BvKB-eOR9M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E20aFyn-zo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmaTTbBwaTE

Billy Childish (over 100 albums out since 1977)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSJ5hG7ms_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOo7DepCd9w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3icIpuUZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4STKPdMht8

[Dead Corpse]

Obvious popularity contest is obvious...

Plenty of skilled musicians in that list, but the order leaves a lot to be desired.

[dmz]

Stevie Ray Vaughn was tons better than Hendrix. This list stinks.

<><><><

Stevie Ray is standing on Hendrix’s shoulders. No Jimi and Stevie Ray is deriving his sound from some other blues inflected player.

[Fiji Hill]

Johnny "Guitar" Watson also belongs on this list.

[353FMG]

When one says “guitar”, one thinks Johnny Smith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HwQxdrmwY8

[Slump Tester]

Hey - Speaking of Zappa, have you ever heard this? (It doesn't get good until about a minute or so in, where it becomes apparent who's playing guitar!)

FZ not only at #27, but behind a bunch of posers who can't hold a candle - go figure!

[a fool in paradise]

That look isn’t going to age well. How will the public know it’s still him when he’s playing gigs at age 72?

[dmz]

Eric Clapton at 28? one under Franz Zappa - thats all i need to know about this list.
Worthless.

<><><><

Exactly, no way does Clapton get within 40 spots of Zappa.

Clapton is a really good guitar player. Zappa was an incredible musician who happened to play the guitar (even thought his band was his best instrument).

[Inwoodian]

No, but I will.

[TChris]

The one guy who never seems to make the lists is Ian Bairnson of the Alan Parsons Project, hugely underrated.

Ditto! Glad to see another APP fan. :)

Bairnson is my all-time favorite melodic soloist. Just... smoooooooooth.

Silence and I

Dreamscape

Cloudbreak

... ear candy

[Scoutmaster]

They should have consulted me about this, or anything else; I can’t understand why nobody does. I’m sitting on an amazing stock of opinions and I’m letting them go for cheap.

I'll keep that in mind.

[AdamBomb]

George Lynch should have made the top 30 easy -

Also, Country and Western got jobbed......
Ray Flacke is better than 1/2 of these guys

[AdamBomb]

"68. George Lynch - Dokken/Lynch Mob Way too low. "

my thoughts exactly...he should have been in top 25

[BuckeyeTexan]

Psshhaaww! And then Heath wakes up. I’ll give Heath his dues because he’s a Texan, but he ain’t Eddie Van Halen.

[jimt]

What about Alvin Lee ‘10 Years After’.

Damn good question. Anybody who ever heard Alvin Lee play "Goin' Home" would have him #1 or #2, behind Hendrix.

The list clearly was made by pinheads, as Alvin Lee isn't even in the top 100.

Ridiculous !!

[TennTuxedo]

Hard to give credence to a list that excludes Gary Moore and Steve Gaines.

[dfwgator]

Junior Brown also deserves a mention.

[AdamBomb]

"Any list without Brent Mason is not worth serious consideration"

The only problem with Brent is he tries to be too many different things.....I don't think he has enough of his own style. Great player, but hard to pick him out.

[Slump Tester]

No Steffen Schackinger?

I call foul!

[Banjoguy]

Was this a poll about people who could actually PLAY the guitar? Or about people who treated it like a whack toy?

Eddie Van Halen? Give me a break.

To vote intelligenty, one would need to actually know what a guitar is supposed to sound like.

Among contemporary persons I have heard play decent guitar are, Jimmy Bruno, George Van Eps, Howard Alden, any of the prominent Brazilians (e.g. Charlie Bird, Lorendo Almeida).

But the guitar bench marks for the rest of us came from (In chronological order) 1. Eddie Lang, 2.Django Reinhardt, 3. Johnny Smith. 4. Les Paul. If you have not heard Johnny Smith's early 50's recording of S'Wonderful you have really missed a tour de force improv.

[AdamBomb]

ah...yes.....they did forget Junior Brown

[Hammerhead]

there’s no way Eddie can finger pick like Heath - very few can. Only players that come close are classical players.

[Banjoguy]

"The real "greatest" guitarists are no doubt studio musicians with names unfamiliar to the public."

You are correct my friend. You could start that list with Johnny Smith.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“Sorry, But Randy Rhoads was the greatest guitarist i ever seen or heard. At times, it sounded like there were 3 guitarists playing.”

Well, most of Randy’s parts on Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman were double- or triple-tracked. And he did it the hard way.

I’ve always thought that if he’d lived past 1982, most of us would be saying, “Yngwie WHO???”

[dfwgator]

While Steve Lukather is best known for Toto, it’s amazing how many hits he played on throughout the 80s.

[Theo]

It seems that Christian musicians may have been excluded from this list. Lincoln Brewster is also an amazing guitarist.