Favorite Rock guitarist

[darkstar01]

i don't know if he counts, but my favorite has to be nels cline. from the stuff he's done with mike watt, to his trio (the nels cline singers) and his recent stuff with wilco.  i'm not a big fan of wilco, but sky blue sky (the first record nels made with them) has some of the best recent rock guitar work i've heard.  
another guy i really like, but probably doesn't count because he plays just about every type of music there is, is marc ribot.  i love all of his solo work, and the stuff he's done with john zorn, but his work with tom waits is some of my all time favorite guitar work.  check out the solo on tom's song hoist that rag. it's crazy simple, but one of my favorites.
oh, and when i say favorite, i mean besides duane allman.

[john_judge]

thats Cool bout Ginger son, and just for the record, when I say favorite, I mean who I like,
 as far as Best Unless you can put about dozen over the years of my favorites in a blender than that really doesn't exist for me, although it kind of reminds me of the time I visited the Rotosound factory in Kent England and when I met Entwhistle there, we walked around the side and he told me to look up and there was a Huge billboard of me about 75 feet tall of theSuperwound ad and blew my mind , then as we walked around the corner John looked at me and said I kind of like this one better...it was about 100 ft bilboard of Him and he laughed at my expression, Moral of the story  favorites are one thing but the Best is in the eye of the beholder and no one will ever tell them different ...bottom line I love so many who perfect there craft and technique and take it too the limit and beyond.

[briant]

Yes I was aware of that, it seems as if though the styles of path went different ways between them other than the speed, to me Steve is more a Melodic player and Joe plays like a can of Red bull wide open most of the time
 
For me Satriani gets boring after 5 minutes.  Vai does and always has done much more interesting stuff.  I've heard a number of people complain that Vai did his best work when he was with Zappa because Zappa was holding his reins and keeping him from showing off too much.  Idiots.  He did some fabulous stuff with Frank - The Black Page alone is just insanity especially considering it was never intended for anything but percussion.  And yes, I know, written for Terry Bozzio.  However Vai has come a long way since then and become a fabulous writer in his own right.  Even on Flexable he had some real shining moments of brilliance.  It only got better from there.
 
Coming up with one favorite anything with music is impossible for me.  There are too many styles of music and way too many variables to pick just one.
 
Someone who is a brilliant rock guitarist who I believe doesn't get nearly enough credit: Dean DeLeo.  His brother is a wonderful bass player as well.

[toma_hawk01]

Give me the old Men of blues... like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Les Paul, and The One who left us to soon, (The guy from Seattle Washington, who served in the US Army, jumped from Airplanes as a paratrooper...) Man, what was his name (and he loved Purple)? Anyway, That's the Rosetta Stone, and full Anthropology of a rock guitarist for me, hands down...  
 
Steve Vai, Greg Howe, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Jeff Beck, Eddie Hazel, Eric Clapton, and Micheal Hampton are just singers of the quire.
 
History was already made, and already done many years ago...
 
 
(Message edited by toma_hawk01 on August 22, 2009)

[afrobeat_fool]

I'm glad you mentioned Hampton, because it leads me in so well, Hal. I'm all about Eddie Hazel.Maggot Brain was my first introduction to Funk. I'd love to hear some Funkadelic stories.

[bsee]

I don't know, I thought Ralph Macchio kicked Vai's ass.
 
Vai is definitely one of the greats, though. He can do it all. There are too many to have a favorite, though. On any given day, my mood could have my favorite shifting around. I always prefer the guys who seem like they have something to say, though. As amazing as the stuff Eddie Van Halen was playing in the late 70s was, it feels a bit technical and clinical. That doesn't do it for me today. A lot of the blues greats are on my list for that reason. Clapton, Vaughn, Moore, BB, they all tell a story when they play. Vai is similar in a different genre. Page and May are great players in the rock genre, and who doesn't feel Barre's solo in Aqualung? When you talk purely about tone, you have to add guys like Gilmour and Gibbons, too.
 
Hendrix was special. The biggest knock on him is that we should have another 20 or 30 years of a catalog of his great performances. There is just way too little of it out there.

[toma_hawk01]

I mentioned them, hoping somebody just might, pickup on those cats.  
 
By the way, both Eddie and Mike in their Hey-Days exclusively played Alembics guitars.  
 
If it was not for those guys, Alembics would had been called: Olympic do to my ignorance of their cross-over appeal to The Funk.
 
However, Alembic instruments has very strong vintage roots with The Funk.  
 
Sadly, those guys were practically never introduced to the General Public. But that's cool too, because in the long run, those guys get to live a private life with out being mob by the press and alike...
 
Maggot Brain is the position, and the condition of you're ass. Free your mind, and your ass will follow...  
 
-George Clinton

[lysosome]

As far as rock is concerned, I really like Paul Gilbert, Frank Zappa, John Petrucci, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, David Gilmour, Warren Hayes, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Alvin Lee, and Duane Allman..those guys.
 
Also like Andy McKee and Bill Connors a lot, but they don't really play rock.
 
Ah well..
 
(Message edited by lysosome on August 23, 2009)

[dnburgess]

For a real goose bumps momement - Robin Trower on Bridge of Sighs - such tension.
 
I saw Jeff Beck recently (with Tal on bass) and I think he is at the top of his game - which is amazing for someone who's been around so long. And he is one of the few players with a unique voice.
 
+1 for Frank Zappa, David Gilmour.
 
You gotta give props to Keith Richards too.

[57basstra]

George Harrison

[cozmik_cowboy]

I don't know that it makes him my favorite (there's a lot of players I really like), but if the guitar genie came out of my soundhole & said You can have the chops of any one picker in the world, I wouldn't hesitate: Bob Weir.
 
Peter

[richbass939]

Very interesting thread we have here.
The video of Steve Vai is great.  What tasty stuff with some lightning fast licks thrown in when they need to be there.  Add in the volume pedal and whammy bar and tone and ... wow, outstanding.  
Once again Billy Sheehan, who can hold his own with anyone on the speedlick scale, lies back when serving the song calls for it.  He stands at or near the top of the rock bassist list, IMHO (not meaning to hijack the thread over to bassists).
I noticed, at about 7:30 of the Vai video, the upper frets have the fretboard scalloped out.  This is like the guitar Gibson made for John McLaughlin so that he could bend notes with the same downward motion as fretting them.  I'm sure there's much more to the story than that.  Feel free to correct my recollection of it.
Danno, the Chris Poland video is great too.  I love people who can stay that tight in the odd time signatures.  What great backup, too.
A few years ago Gil Layton (Laytonco on the club) and I did the opening act for Kofi Baker's band.  They played Cream and Blind Faith tunes.  What a fantastic band.  Armando Cepeda (LA session cat) and a guitarist named Cameron Morgan were great.  Cameron played some unbelievable things.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Kofi was going through a rough time right then so the hang was kindof wierd but once they got onstage, wow.  I hope things are going better for Kofi, now.
Rich

[crobbins]

Kofi Baker usually plays once or twice a month at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles. Although I have yet to go check him out..

[jerryme]

Jerry Garcia
Michael Houser
Duane Allman
Jimmy Herring
Derek Trucks
Bobby Weir

[john_judge]

THe Gem guitars come scalloped out in the upper and Richie blackmore use to scallop out his whole neck on a strat, every fret, and get some great effects from it, I should specify more here, I have many favorite guitar players that all shine from time to time, some play great while standing there like a tree deeply rooted while others run all over the stage. But when I saw this video a while back,  I gave it as one of my all time favorite guitarist simple because of all around performance, expressiveness, emotion, tone, playing skill along with out of the box with the whammy bar and volume pedal.
 
 I feel as far as all those elements,  Steve Vai has put his guitar on a table,  looked it completely over at every place and said, I am going to find out what I can do with every part of you!  
To me the video shows just how deep some one can get into their music and there instrument,  after all, our instruments are  an expression of ourselves.
 
So I feel comfortable to say this is one of my favorite guitarist because of what this video gives to me musically and the video vision of inspiration that it projects of some one going the extra mile and taking the time to develop (not just play) his art so much, that a signature sound is created, and that makes music so inspiring to venture out and do more with it.
 
* So at the risk of giving a favorite's great example FOR ME it kind of goes like this..
In the guitar world, Hendrix paved the road, Jerry poured the foundation, Harrison built the walls, Clapton did the landscaping, Demiola painted the house and Vai framed the roof, but the roof has yet to be completed or closed in, every guitar player in the world is still trying to decide what material to use for the roof, and pedal's, devices and techniques are just the hammer and nails they use...
 and so it continues....... and Bass players live next door, must be a duplex! but theses are houses that will probably never have a mailbox on them simply because it would have to say the best lives Here and in reality we all may build on the same foundations of music but our finished product is to each his or her own liking, don't just mow the lawn or do maintenance, build an addition!... Shine On You Crazy Diamonds! and play hard! ...peace John.
 
P.s and as far as all the other great guitarist whether blues or jazz or whatever, they are just up the street working on a different house.